THE BEST VINTAGE AIRSTREAMS IN THE UK

There’s one parked inside the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Ry Cooder put one on an album cover, they have their own dedicated magazine (airstreamlife.com) and Neil Armstrong and his fellow moon-landers were quarantined in one when they returned to earth in 1969.

The Airstream trailer, it’s fair to say, is an American design classic every bit as redolent of the USA as an Andy Warhol lithograph, a Raymond Chandler novel or an episode of Dallas.

Though the Airstream was first designed in 1929, it wasn’t until 2002 that it began to officially be sold on British shores. But the silver bullet feels more relevant than ever this year for anyone pining for the land of sliders, shakes and soda yet unable to get further west than Anglesey; Google searches for Airstream have gone up by 70 per cent in the UK in the past three months.

Here’s our pick of the best places in the UK where these slabs of gleaming chrome are pitched up and ready for you to climb aboard.

 
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    Where: Near Ryde, Isle of Wight
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    WHERE: NEAR RYDE, ISLE OF WIGHT

    This little family of Airstreams has grown over the past 18 years since owners Helen and Frazer Cunningham bought their first one for £2,500 on Ebay after, as they admit, ‘too many glasses of red wine’. With views out over the Brading Down, each trailer comes with a log burner, a picnic table and absolutely no Wi-Fi. For an analogue-era design classic, it all feels rather apt.

    Various Airstreams on site sleep up to two, four and six from £95 per night, two-night minimum stay.
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    Where: Mundham, Norfolk
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    WHERE: MUNDHAM, NORFOLK

    Close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, this small cluster of Airstreams sits amid seven acres of farmland with a resident barn owl who calls this bucolic little site home. One of the Airstreams here, The Sovereign, was once owned by Ninja Tune founder Matt Black, who lived in it while touring around the Balkans. Now happily retired from a life on the road, it sits alongside three other trailers for hire. Guests get a £10 voucher to spend at the local farm shop on arrival.

    Various Airstreams on site sleeping 2 to 4 people, from £270 for a minimum three-night stay.
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    Where: Ceredigion, mid-Wales
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    WHERE: CEREDIGION, MID-WALES

    Grazing ponies, sheep and the odd passing frog will be your only company near this solitary Airstream, parked in a conservation area six miles from the wild west Welsh coastline. Owners Hugh and Jude Crawford have created space for possibly the most secluded Airstream outside of Montana in a meadow that is currently being rewilded. The trailer was refurbed inside in 2016 and comes with a log burner, double bed and pull-out sofa bed.

    Sleeps up to three, from £222 for a three-night minimum stay.
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    Where: Chillington, South Devon
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    WHERE: CHILLINGTON, SOUTH DEVON

    This 1958 Overlander Airstream lives in the stone courtyard of an 1860s farmhouse close to the Slapton Ley nature reserve. If the trailer gets too snug guests can also use The Nest, an adjacent barn with dining table, sofa and swing seat. Owners Lucia and Dan Bly also run the local Salcombe Dairy and have an honesty freezer on site full of their own ice cream, which you can help yourself to.

    Sleeps up to two adults and four children, from £459 for a three-night minimum stay.
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    Where: Dull, Perthshire, Scotland
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    WHERE: DULL, PERTHSHIRE, SCOTLAND

    You won’t find an Airstream that’s been given a more glamorous makeover than this grande dame, named Stella, located 10 minutes’ drive from Loch Tay and next to an 1840s church (now also converted into accommodation). Stella has a super-king-size bed with White Company bedding and is set in an organic garden with a hot tub. Not only that, but there’s underfloor heating inside the trailer and a full-height shower on board too.

    Sleeps up to two adults, from £385 for a two-night minimum stay.
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    Where: Saxmundham, Suffolk
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    WHERE: SAXMUNDHAM, SUFFOLK

    Gorgeous as a vintage Airstream is, space can be rather tight. This site, secluded in the valley of the River Fromus, has solved this issue with its Red Shed cinema on site, showing films twice a week, plus a fairy garden and two Nissan Huts that have been converted into Escape Rooms for real-life adventure games. Two of the Airstreams here (named Betsy and Nettie) are, very unusually, also dog friendly.

    Various Airstreams on site sleep between two and five, from £280 for a two-night minimum stay.
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    AIRSTREAM HIRE AND PURCHASE

    If none of these locations appeal and you want to take an Airstream wherever you please, then they can be hired at iconicrental.com, where owner Sarah-Jane Magee will take one of her fleet of three Airstreams to the site of your choice and set it up ready for arrival. Any of the three vintage Airstreams costs £225 per night with a two-night minimum, though she also charges £1.50 per mile delivery and collection costs, so to keep prices down it’s probably better to book somewhere near her base in Hampshire.

    If you’ve fallen truly, madly, deeply in love then you can buy an Airstream all of your own at the company’s official UK distributor Lowdhams. The starting price for a brand new trailer is around £80,000.

    Source: cntraveller.com