Full review

The Adria Action is one of the smallest caravans packs in impressive storage and a lovely lounge area.

In the last couple of years several manufacturers have launched into the caravans-for-activities market.

These include Swift, with the superb little Basecamp last year, a two-berth specifically designed to be your base for outdoor pursuits; and Knaus's blue-and-green graphic Sport & Fun, and new, boxy Travelino.

But these weren't the original little models with head-turning looks, made for couples who see caravans as a springboard for sport and adventures in the great outdoors. Adria had the market all to itself a decade ago, with a pretty little caravan characterised by a curvy back body line.

That was the first Action. Ahead of its time, you might say, it faded into obscurity, overwhelmed by standard (some would say ordinary) two-berths with end kitchens. Now, the Action is back to fight its corner in a market with a new rising trend for sporty caravans.

The Adria acquits itself well, too, with a surprising amount of storage space in its minuscule body length, and a lovely wrap-around lounge that converts into a big double bed.

It has a Bluetooth sound system that pairs with a smartphone, and a TV bracket (although you have to get an aerial fitted as an extra, as with all Adrias).

The kitchen has a combined oven-grill, two gas burners and a fridge.

It's the amazing body shape that defines the Action. It's even more dramatic than the original model, which used pale blue to catch eyes. This new one has dark blue, metallic-look, lower front and rear panels and skirts, plus side panels that are slightly reminiscent of the cool Citröen Cactus. A caravan to stand out, then…

The kitchen window curves outwards (following the bulging rear panel), the front window is high and slim, and there's a roof light that's nearly as big as those in Adria's eight-metre long, 2.45m wide flagship Alpina range.

Interior styling mirrors the extravagance of the exterior style, with stark, dark grey upholstery and white cabinets. No other caravan looks anything like an Action.

Showering B

Everything you need is in a compartment that's just over a metre long and 72cm wide. Above the bench-style toilet at the rear, a washbasin hinges down from within a mirrored cabinet.

It's the same generous size (48cm x 36cm) and substantial construction as those in Adria Alpinas. The shower rose is on the forward wall, and a curtain protects the toilet and mirror from shower water.

Sleeping A

To make the double bed, you pull out webbing-linked slats from under the centre-front seating area, and use the backrests to complete a mighty mattress of 2m x 1.95m. The hinged coffee table at the front-front can be kept in position with the bed made, giving you somewhere to put your mugs for your breakfast brew.

Storage A

This is where the Action excels for its size, hence its A-rating. Under the fridge, on the offside, a 53cm-wide cabinet gives you three shelves, each 34cm deep. The gas bottle compartment, with space for one 6kg propane or 7kg butane cylinder, is behind this cabinet.

Two drawers, 45cm wide (one fitted for cutlery) are above the heater unit forward of the door.

A console above this unit hides six small shelves (and two USB ports). There are also two 40cm-wide cabinets are above the lounge.

Beneath the seating area is a locker 53cm deep and 73cm wide at the front, with a drop-down door making access easy. The nearside under- settee space is vast, even though the spare wheel stays at the fore end of it.

The offside box is inevitably partly occupied by the Truma water heater, plumbing and electrical installations and by the battery box. But there's still significant usable space here.

Both of the lids to these storage areas rise to a vertical position, on big spring hinges.

Dining D

We swing from an A-rating for storage to something much less impressive when we analyse the topic of dining.

That's because the table is stored at the base of the nearside under-settee locker. That means you would have to get everything stored here out, to free the table from its clips and then lift it out – and we discovered that lifting a table as substantial as this from floor level, inside a locker, is far from easy. Give me a vertically stored table any day!

Would this deter us from buying an Action, if we liked everything else? Probably not. We'd buy a lightweight folding camping table and keep it in the car's luggage area!

The underlying message is the Action is so good at its job in so many other ways, that you'd want to find a way around its table's inconvenient storage position.

Lounging A

Sprawl out on the 2m-long settees, connect your smartphone to the sound system (via Bluetooth), or switch on your television attached to the bracket on the front of the console above the heater … Lounging, Action-style, is lovely.

Or you can invite some friends, because the settee area is large enough to seat seven. In such a little caravan, the lounging element is superb, hence the A-rating.

Kitchen A

When you cover the 33cm-square sink with its chopping board you have a surface that's 1.31m wide and 55cm at its deepest point, tapering to 34cm. You've also got a 56cm x 31cm surface forward of the door. In one of the smallest caravans you can buy, that amount of surface is fine.

And so is the cooking equipment – a Thetford Duplex combined oven and grill plus two burners.

Kitchen storage is awesome, considering the size of the caravan. There are three drawers, each 76cm wide and 24 cm deep, that stretch to the back wall of the caravan, so they graduate from 43cm to 27cm; they're slanted to create doorway space.

A 62cm-wide, gloss-white cabinet above the sink creates enough space for tableware, and there are two neat recessed shelves for mugs and other necessities. Pans will fit in the 49cm-wide cabinet under the oven-grill. In addition, two drawers, 55cm wide, one fitted for cutlery, are above the heater unit forward of the door.

All in all, this little kitchen earns an A-rating for its amazing amount of storage space and its efficiency, bearing in mind the compact size of the caravan.

Towing B

One size must fit all; we have a SsangYong Rexton simply because it's capable of towing all the caravans we test. But when we hitch this huge beast to a titchy little caravan it looks, well, wrong.

It's also unfair, in a sense, because the baby Action is a caravan to consider if you are going to tow with a lighter car. So, for us to say it tows like a dream behind the Rexton, might be construed as a sweeping statement. Well, it did, of course.

But then we handed the Action over to Caravan's digital editor, Will Hawkins, who took it out for a tow along the lanes of Lincolnshire, with a car more suitable for the Action's size.

He says: "I towed it with a 2017 Peugeot 308 SW, which has a 1315 kg kerbweight. It was a smooth experience, and I hardly noticed the Action behind the 308. This little gem is a joy to tow for beginners and experienced caravanners alike."

Verdict

The Action won Caravan's award for Best Caravan for Activities because it's brilliant at its job – ideal for two people who are looking for a caravan with bags of storage space in a small, ultra-lightweight caravan with head-turning exterior styling.

It's comfortable, too. The interior design is super-modern, and all the showering and cooking equipment you need is here. Welcome back, Action; maybe it was ahead of its time 10 years ago. But now, it's perfect for the rising demand for caravans designed for action-packed holidays and short breaks.