My wife and I changed our previous camper which was a Renault Master HiTop for something smaller and boy is this smaller !!!!! Very little of our previous accessories fitted this van and it has become virtually an obsession to get the most compact and lightest kit available.

However there are several definite advantages as far as we are concerned, i.e. 1/ Economy. With the cost of fuel rising (and not likely to be any more stable in the longterm) the Maestro is very economical. We can actually afford to go away in it! 2/ Very easy to drive. 3/ Far,far easier to park in towns. We can go under the majority of the height barriers that we have come across (although it does pay to approach them slowly just in case) and are able to use most multi-storey car parks. 4/ We hope to go to France in it and ferry prices for this size vehicle are going to be far more realistic.

The design brief appears to be to keep it as basic as possible with no attempt made, in my opinion, to make the best use of what is very limited space.

Considering that the conditions are cramped far more thought could have been put into the layout of the interior which would not have added too much to the building costs but would have greatly increased aspects like the accessibility to the cupboards and lockers and to the overall comfort of the van. The original layout, on my van at least, was a bench seat down both sides with lift up lids which I have converted to drop-down fronts or drawers. The height of these seats is determined by the wheel arches. The cooker unit (2 burners and a grill ) is part of the stainless steel sink assembly and is towards the back door, on the opposite wall is the cupboard unit so when we are laying down our feet are under these two units. I had thought that it was going to be impossible to turn over let alone go to sleep but I had no problems at all. The other change I made was to fit pull-out panels fitted to what was the locker lids that increased the bed width during the night but were then just slid out of the central aisle during the day. When we go away we do take a toilet tent for the Porta-potti and as somewhere to store the folding chairs. I also converted a tent so that it joins onto the open back doors but have not used that yet. As much as possible I store in the lift-up roof lid when travelling to keep as much of the interior aisle clear. The toilet tent is about twice the width of the usual ones. I bought it at a boot sale where the woman selling it described it as a double toilet tent, my comments about how unusual having his'n'hers toilet facilities fell on deaf ears.

The biggest problem we have had is because there is nowhere we can fit a fridge so keeping food cool is difficult. Using a cool-box is an option but they use far too much from the battery for constant use. Also these devices produce heat that must be effectively dissipated for them to run efficiently so they must be sited somewhere where there is adequate airflow around them. Experiments with having the cool-box running only for a limited time and then off and then on again were unsatisfactory due to heat transfer from the non-energised peltier effect unit. [further explanation]

So far our trips away have been only short in distance and duration but has shown that the van meets our needs.

The first part of the week we had booked as part of our holiday was spent at home with the flu and we were determined to go somewhere for the latter half so we just went relatively local to us down to Weymouth on a CCL site. It did stop raining twice. After 2 days of being soaking wet and cold we decided to go home. By this time our flu was refreshed more than we were.

Our second "trip" was intended to meet up with the other members of the Maestro and Montego Club at their annual get-together at Carne in Wiltshire. Unfortunately we didn't get there either due to unexpected family commitments!

Not disheartened we then planned to go to the Netley Marsh (near Southampton ) Steam Rally for a long weekend. We didn't get there either! My wife was called into work.

The second week we had booked as part of our annual holidays was in late August and suprise, suprise we did manage to get away. Our first stop was at Salisbury for 3 days and then we went to Bath by the canal. The weather that week was one of the hottest of the Summer and did show that the van needed some form of ventilation especially at night. The small solar panel on the roof ensured that our electrical needs (albeit modest) were met. The lack of a fridge was a problem but it just meant that we had to pop into the local supermarkets on the way back to the van each day.

The van attracted a lot of interest, when parked alongside some of the bigger vans it did look tiny !!!!!!! In several cases our camper was smaller than the car they towed. A Dutch couple in particular were fascinated by it, their English was not good and my Dutch is non-existant so it was a very hilarious attempt at conversation. A woman from Wolverhampton came over saying that in her Romahome she is accustomed to being the smallest van on a site and had never seen anything smaller. Being on her own and travelling all over the country every weekend she was asking if they were still available and I put her in touch with the Maestro club so if you are reading this please send us an email ( and add a photo to the site)

When it is parked up it does get a lot of attention and sometimes when driving you can see people look twice. On occasions the attention can be a bit off-putting. I went back to the van on one occasion and 2 men were peering in, as I approached one of them started with his stupid comments like "Oh I expected a midget" and " [snigger] a real s**g wagon" and " I suppose it's really handy as you can have a cuppa tea afterwards!". Presumably he had expected a 2 foot high sex maniac. When we were parked up at a Steam Rally we could hear a group of men saying how ideal it would be for their fishing trips where they could sit in it by the river. When they came over to have a closer look they were shocked to see us sat the otherside but we soon got into a conversation with them and gave them a conducted tour of the van.

Whether there would be demand for such a small van in today's world if one was to be made commercially I don't know. Probably not as today's campers have far higher demands on comfort and all-mod-cons than could be fitted into such a confined space but there may well be a market to those who travel on their own and don't want the hassle of a tent or having to tow a caravan. The convenience and ease of driving makes this van very practical. The Romahome seems to be about the best compromise but for a vehicle of 15 years old I love my little Tandy.