Hobby Prestige 540 UL
Key Features
Full Review
Hobby Prestige 540 UL, 2009
Price new: £13,200
This caravan is a: four berth with fixed beds
This layout has you sleeping in the fixed beds up in the nose; your lounge/living area is at the back. I’m in the minority, but that’s just where I prefer it.
The kitchen sits centrally; a thick bulkhead separates kitchen from bedroom. Within it is a swiveling partition that takes a television (viewable from both sides), with a drinks cabinet on the reverse. Opposite is the outer wall of the washroom which, together with the bulkhead, creates an almost entirely separate bedroom feel to the layout.
Some caravans rely on kit alone to create any impression of whether a caravan is special or not. Fact is in the Hobby you could strip it bare of electrical goodies and you’d still have an interior that feels instantly expensive. The furniture looks like wood – because it is. Sadly – and incredibly – some caravan manufacturers manage to make the real thing look like plastic.
The big U-shape lounge is dominated by the two huge corner back rests and even larger table. If I were to use the Hobby as a two-berth I’d feed this monster table to my wood burner and buy a cheaper lighter occasional table. Result? Even more space here and a half-tonne less on the MRO.
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| How you assess value depends what’s important to you. If money is everything and you can live with second-rate fittings and build you’ll think the Hobby an expensive buy. Point is, it’s not. Before our bankers got their maths a bit skew-whiff and a pound sterling could still buy you a Twix in Calais, these caravans were way ahead of UK offerings in terms of value to build ratio. As with Adrias, all that’s happened now is that it’s more of a level playing field. In terms of what you get, the Hobby is certainly not an expensive purchase. |
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