Bailey Senator California

In creating the 2009 Bailey Senator California, Bailey has taken one of its most popular caravans and built a single-axle version with an amazing lounge. Could this be the best Bailey yet? We think it could.

Time for lunch aboard the new-launch2009 Bailey Senator 6 California. We’re at the southern shore of Lake Windermere with friends ?15-year-old Vikki and her sister Nicole, six. We’re going to the World of Beatrix Potter and the Aquarium of the Lakes. Two great reasons to borrow Bailey’s exciting new Senator and put it through its paces.

The California is yet another take on the nearside fixed bed, rear washroom caravan, with one very big difference: it has a ?U-shaped lounge. The result is much more seating space, much more space in which to put your feet up and relax – and a much more open-plan, airy aspect to the living area compared with the traditional parallel settees arrangement.

Lunch is our first chance to see just how spacious that U-shaped dining area is – and it passes that test with flying colours.
And cleverly, the table in this model – as in some other Bailey models this year – has a hinged flap on each side. It means you get a large table that can be stored in a small space; in this instance, it’s in the central kitchen cupboard.

The other benefit of a U-shaped lounge is that, in night-time mode, it makes a much larger double bed than layouts with a central chest of drawers.

Even though half of the length is taken up with that beautiful bedroom and en suite shower room (of which more later), the California still has a spacious living area – and, importantly, plenty of kitchen surface space, too.
Instant appeal is almost everything when you step inside a caravan for the first time. Our first impression was that this U-shaped lounge teamed with tried-and-trusted bedroom-washroom arrangement, is a combination set to win many fans. After a few days aboard, we were sure we were right.

This was not altogether surprising. We’d taken Bailey’s 2009 Pageant Limousin, a twin-axle with a similar layout, to the South of France and had loved it. But that model has the conventional lounge. The California gives you almost the same spaciousness we had liked about the Limousin (the Wyoming is the corresponding layout in the higher specification Senator range) but in a shorter caravan and on a single axle.

On our first evening we settle down around the California’s large dining table, a Beatrix Potter jigsaw book first on the agenda for Vikki and Nicole.

And the best bits of the day? “Peter Rabbit being chased by Mr McGregor’s boot out of the potting shed window,” offers Nicole. For Vikki: “Mrs Tiggy-Winkle in her cosy kitchen with the washing hanging up to dry all around her.” The California, too, was by this time etching itself a place in our hearts. Returning to its cosy ambiance after each days’ Lakeland venture was a joy. In particular, its kitchen configuration works really well: four-burner hob offset to the oven/grill, giving surface space around it, microwave – and an ingenious removable drainer wall-clip that also gives you a place to hang a dish-cloth. LED strip-lights illuminate the whole area in a warm green hue, stretching over both sink and hob – a million miles more refined than any illumination the standard white tungsten strip-lights can offer.

Lighting is an impressive feature of the shower room, too. You have four spotlights. Two are above the large mirror (you can check your attire from top to toe here) and the second pair illuminates the washbasin area from a ceiling plinth. In addition there’s a central ceiling light.

But there’s another feature of this shower room that distinguishes the new California: a Truma heated towel rail that’s part of the blown-air central heating system. A duct at floor level directs warm air up into the towel rail and a series of small outlets on each of the two rails allows warm air to dry your towels. Don’t expect speedy drying, but it’s a million miles better than the usual towel loops.

Suitably showered and groomed in this luxurious little room, scoffing breakfast around the ample-sized table we reflect on four days of California-style living and come to the conclusion that this is high up among the easiest caravans to live in we have yet to encounter. Reason? Simply, there is plenty of space everywhere.

Time for a quick walk out from the hardstanding caravan pitch area over the slate outcrop of the camping field and on, to glimpse a view of Lake Windermere before the long tow back home.

The California, behind my Kia Sorento, seemed balanced to perfection. Despite its seven-metre overall length on just one axle, it was exceptionally stable and secure at all normal speeds. No strong winds to test it on this trip  – but we did encounter ice on unsalted Lake District roads; with the Sorento’s drive selected to Four High, it remained well in control at all times.

It wasn’t only the towcar that was keeping us accurately on the straight and narrow; it was good to have the assurance, too, of the AL-KO ATC Traction Control system (standard on Senators). Just one part of an excellent value package that, for little over £15,000, gives you a built-in flatscreen television, inboard water tank and heated towel rail.

The 2009 Bailey Senator California’s level of equipment puts it high up among the best in terms of practicality: AL-KO ATC Traction Control system, an inboard water tank, a heated towel rail and the nicety of a built-in television. The layout is brilliant, especially the U-shaped lounge with so much seating space.