It’s not you, Rex, it’s us…

Whoooo! What’s going on here?!?

Big change coming to Flip-flops and Woolly Hats! We have changed our motorhome!

It wasn’t exactly planned… We didn’t mean for it to happen, honestly. It’s not you, Rex, it’s us…

But there it is nonetheless. We’ve changed our motorhome and we’ve picked the new one up today. We’re saying a fond farewell to our trusty Rex and a happy hello to our ‘new to us’ Rapido.

Last year when we visited a Narbonne Accesoires in France to find a new toilet cassette cap, our eye fell on a rather nice Rapido A-class motorhome. We saw it, we liked it but we did nothing else. We weren’t in the market for changing Rex. However, the thought of her, of this Rapido, lingered in our minds ever since.

Recently, on our tour of Wales, we decided to have a little look to see if there are any Rapido dealers in the UK. Nothing serious, just a little browse with no intention to buy. That’s what we told ourselves… We found one not far off our route in Somerset and they happened to have the model we’d seen in stock. So we decided to pay a visit.

They had several beautiful, brand new models in stock and we were very impressed with several but the one we had seen before still stood out. But, as all you motorhomers now, these things are not cheap… And we are not rich… So any thoughts of a shiny brand new model were quickly abandoned. And that’s OK, as we were only browsing anyway, we told ourselves… we weren’t buying…

However, it turns out they had an almost brand new van, in the desired model, at their other location. Only about 6 months old and barely used. Did we want to go and have a look? They’d put it on hold for us while we travel there… Well, going to have a look doesn’t hurt, we thought… Rex won’t mind…

The rest, as they say, is history. We saw the nearly new van, which turned out to be a premium edition so it was even more tempting. We crunched some numbers, slept on it, and went back to do the deal..!

So why did we end up changing Rex? He was perfect for us? Well, yes, he still is. So what does this Rapido have that Rex doesn’t? Nothing really, they’re simply different. We liked the overcab bed in Rex but many A-class vans have an overcab bed without the great big luton bulge. So the new Rapido is much lower in height which will be slightly less stressful on French country lanes with low bridges.

We absolutely loved the rear-lounge in Rex, it felt so spacious and airy. Rapido do a version of this van with a rear lounge with was dreamy and beautiful, but lacked storage. The model we’ve chosen has a large, spacious front lounge with sofas, so we can still lounge comfortably.

The one thing we sometimes missed a teeny, tiny bit in Rex, is the ability to create two rooms. For example if one of us goes to bed early, and the other is still watching TV, you can’t create a separation. This new van gives us that ability. It has a large Island bed in the rear with a bedroom door.

Finally, the garage space on this Rapido is much bigger. This can be very tempting but can also be a bit of a red herring, so always check the payload on a van. Some vans have a large garage but so little payload that it means you can’t fill it… Although the Rapido had reasonable payload, the first thing we’ve done is increase it some more.

So there we are… Ready for our Continental Winter Tour with our new Rapido. Crossing the channel in only a few days… We hope you come along on the journey!