Icon: enlarge
With the mobile home in the area.
Here is a model from the Hymer brand that can also be ordered with all-wheel drive and off-road reduction.
Photo: Hymer
The "EX 368" bimobile arouses wanderlust.
And it looks like you can get anywhere with it: with all-wheel drive, coarse tires, solar panels and, in an emergency, a winch.
The similarly upgraded "Cargo Camper Mountain" by the Austrian builder Cargoclips immediately catches the eye at trade fairs, even the interior is furnished in a rustic style and offers outdoor solutions such as mountain bike suspensions and load securing for rumble stretches.
The "Terock" model from the off-road company Terracamper has an intake snorkel for the engine - so you can drive the camper through small rivers.
At the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf, the paint was even decorated with splashes of mud.
This made it clear to the last visitor to the fair: the road ends, but the journey continues.
This trend has a name: CUV.
The abbreviation stands for Caravaning Utility Vehicle, analogous to SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) in passenger cars. Expedition vehicles have been around almost since the invention of the car.
Meanwhile, however, the off-road vehicles are particularly in demand - not least because more younger, more adventurous people are out and about with mobile homes.
Large motorhome manufacturers are therefore also relying more on off-road features and an adventure look.
Hymer, one of the largest motorhome manufacturers in Europe, offers assistance systems for off-road or gear reduction for numerous models.
With the "Van TI Plus", competitor Knaus brought a vehicle onto the market for the first time last year that can be ordered from the factory with all-wheel drive.
Out and about in the CUV
When asked by the manufacturers, it is almost identical that, parallel to the camping boom, the demand for off-road vehicles has also risen sharply.
It is assumed that this trend will persist in the years to come, says Hymer.
The manufacturers have also expanded their portfolio to include adventurer components because additional equipment always means additional price.
The terrain trend for camping vehicles can also be observed at the "Abenteuer & Allrad" in the Franconian town of Bad Kissingen, which it claims to be the largest off-road trade fair in the world.
Around 10,000 visitors came to the first meeting twenty years ago.
Most recently there were more than 50,000.
The boom within the boom
Safari jeeps or upgraded Unimogs have always been exhibited there.
But that box vans and campervans from almost all manufacturers are also equipped for off-road trips is new.
These smaller vehicles make up 40 percent of the 70,000 new motorhome registrations and are predestined for conversion.
In contrast, a few decades ago, camping mainly meant caravans.
In addition, today: More people are trying out winter camping, as the automobile club ADAC has observed.
In the past year, this type of vacation grew by 26 percent in this country.
Four-wheel drive can be very helpful on snow-covered parking spaces.
The times of the all-round carefree package are over
But where does this escapist longing come from?
"People want to get away from the finished product," says Horst Opaschowski.
The futurologist has been researching leisure and tourism since the 1960s.
"Perfection down to the last detail, as in an all-inclusive club vacation, is no longer in demand. Today the 'I' travels, you are master of your time, you don't follow a schedule."
The off-road vacation is the last niche experience for adventurers who see vacation as a contrast to everyday life.
"And most likely also a lot of illusion and staging," says Opaschowski.
The illusion of untouched nature, the staging as an adventurer with the matching, rustic vehicle design.
"The longing is in people and cannot be gotten out of them"
Horst Opaschowski, futurologist
In addition, Opaschowski observed a rethinking that he interpreted as a sign of post-materialism.
"People ask: how do I want to live?"
And then they would realize that they don't need that much.
The off-road trend fits in with it.
However, such a rethinking also means that vehicles with all-wheel drive - which generally consume a little more fuel - sometimes drive through the most remote areas - and thus also pollute these refuges.
This may be less damaging to the environment than a flight, but it contradicts the often emphasized closeness to nature of campers.
"Such contradicting behavior has been cultivated for decades, in all possible areas," says Opaschowski.
"This is a tension that will remain. The longing is in people and cannot be gotten out of them."
Where do all the off-road campers want to go?
"Experiencing and discovering nature off the beaten track is a strong motivation for many campers," says Daniel Onggowinarso, Managing Director of the Caravaning Industry Association (CIVD).
In Europe, however, it's not that easy to live out.
However: "The supply of pitches away from campsites has been increasing for years," says Onggowinarso.
"More and more farmers, winegrowers and similar businesses are offering plots that deliberately accommodate only a few vehicles and have little infrastructure."
Then there are the Scandinavian countries, in which the "everyone's right" applies.
There, under certain conditions, it is allowed to stand for at least one night away from campsites.
And of course there are also roads in the middle of Europe that you normally turn around with a normal motorhome.
Onggowinarso also knows that only a small number of campers actually choose the really adventurous passages.
So it is not just the driving characteristics that are fueling the off-road trend.
"The look also matches the zeitgeist."
Similar to SUVs, the family cars with an off-road vehicle look, the CUVs are more about the visual appeal and less about the technical capabilities.
Corrugated metal sheets on the underbody, petrol cans on the rear, massive stepladders on the roof - such features indicate from a distance that there is apparently a hard-core globetrotter on the move.
"Campers don't necessarily want to do everything - they want to be able to do everything," says Onggowinarso.
And even if the off-road qualities of the camping bus are rarely used - maybe at some point a tempting gravel road branches off from the planned route.
Icon: The mirror