Bailey Pegasus Ancona

Ideal for a young family seeking a mid-sized caravan

Exterior

At 7.25m long, the Ancona makes family living practical, without the need for an awning. At 1499kg MTPLM, it can also be towed by many everyday family cars. It’s on the outside that you notice one of the Ancona’s best storage features.

The triple front-end locker arrangement enables you to organise all your essential caravanning paraphernalia. There’s some space around the gas cylinders in the centre compartment – and a lot of space in two lockers that open on the sides of the van. This separation means that when you tow, all your accessories don’t get jumbled up together. Anconas are striking caravans, with eye-catching graphics.

Interior

Beds for six and plenty of usable living space in a caravan that’s relatively compact and easy to tow? No, it’s not witchcraft, it’s Bailey’s accomplished Ancona. Once inside, you begin to realise just how good and adaptable to needs the living space is.

The nearside dining table is wide enough for four young children to sit, eat or play. The lounge, while it’s not long enough to create adult single beds as an option to the double, is a cosy place where six can sit to eat at a push and four can relax in comfort. So everyone can eat together here or the kids can make the side table their own – these great family options, show the Ancona’s versatility.

Three bunks are in a stack in the offside corner, the floor level one is ideal for young kids that might roll out of bed and the top one has decent head room. A pleated partition tracks across from the the end of the bunks to the shower room wall, at an angle, creating a small amount of floor space alongside the bunks when the partition is closed. The side dining area also makes into a wide single bed.

The Ancona’s showering arrangements are brilliantly designed; this is the next best thing to a full-width shower room. The compartment is slightly wedge-shaped and so is the separate shower inside it. Both the ample size of the shower and the floor space in front of it make it possible for a parent to shower, towel dry and dress one or more children here. The washbasin is large, deep and rectangular, Belfast-style. On live-in tests we’ve found these sinks big enough to wash small quantities of clothing – that’s important on holidays with kids when chocolate might make contact with t-shirts and a quick wash solves the problem before staining gets a chance.

The kitchen is practical, too, with a central work space, plus small areas to the right of the (four burner) hob and to the left of the sink. When the sink cover is in place there’s a continuous surface that’s about a metre wide – that’s because the cover is flush with the surface.

Kitchen storage matches surface practicality. There’s a central cabinet containing a cutlery drawer, two pull-out shelves and the dining table. A second cabinet, opposite, dividing the lounge from the dining area, provides two generous shelf spaces. This cabinet is the natural place for your television – so there’s a power point and aerial socket positioned here.

However, the Ancona would be much improved, in terms of family needs, by the inclusion of another socket in the dining area, so that mains-powered equipment could be use (and charged) at the side table. This is the natural place for the kids to watch DVDs on laptops. And the mirror alongside the door is the best place for mum to use a hairdryer – but it’s a long way from the nearest socket, next to the nearside cabinet.

Storage is very good for the normal needs of six family occupants for a week or two. There are nine head lockers (plus those over the kitchen), a good-sized wardrobe (with the Truma convector and blown air heater unit below it) – and enough under-seat storage to swallow the duvets and pillows that don’t stay on the bunks. Standard equipment from Bailey includes AL-KO’s essential ATC electronic anti-snaking device and an AL-KO Secure wheel lock system.

Well above budget status, the Ancona has ATC and a Secure lock. It looks and feels a quality caravan