Camping with a three-year-old, a dog, and the unpredictable reality of Welsh weather is usually the sort of thing that tests relationships. And patience. And your tolerance for damp trainers. So when I took the Mercedes Marco Polo to Wales for a long September weekend, I fully expected at least one moment where I’d mutter, “We should’ve just booked an Airbnb.”
It never happened.
We packed it like a game of real-world Tetris. Clothes. Toys. Dog bed. Food. And, slightly ambitiously, a Gozney Tread pizza oven. The Marco Polo swallowed the lot without complaint. No roof boxes. No awkward, filled footwells. Just smart cabin space, with cupboards and wardrobes that have been properly thought through.
Mercedes really understands what this kind of vehicle needs to be. This doesn’t feel like a van you’re camping in. It feels like a luxury car that happens to turn into a compact hotel room.
The drive into Wales was the first surprise. Big campers often feel like you’re piloting a fridge. The Marco Polo doesn’t. It’s relaxed, quiet and confidence-inspiring, even on narrow, hedge-lined roads where you’re constantly bracing for an oncoming tractor. It drives like a refined MPV, not a converted workhorse.
Once parked up, the transformation is quick and painless. Roof up. Seats swivelled. Table out. Air suspension levelled. Suddenly, we had a home in the woods. My three-year-old immediately claimed the pop-up roof bed like it was a treehouse. The dog approved too, which made life easier.
September turned out to be the perfect time for it. Warm days. Cooler evenings. When the temperature dropped at night, the Marco Polo stayed warm and comfortable without ever feeling stuffy.
Comfort is where the Marco Polo quietly embarrasses most campers. The beds are genuinely good. Not “fine for a night” good. Actually good. Everyone slept properly, which, with a toddler involved, feels like a minor miracle. Ambient lighting helped it feel more like a boutique hideaway than a campsite van, especially once the clouds rolled in and the pizza oven came out.
It also feels properly luxurious. Soft materials. A modern widescreen infotainment screen which controls all of the camping features. And solid build quality, where nothing creaks and everything feels well designed. Even making pizza in a damp woodland felt oddly civilised.
What really struck me was how normal it all felt. There was no stress. No compromise. No sense of “making do”. We ate well, slept well and woke up with misty hills outside the sliding door instead of checkout times and cleaning rules.
In terms of size, I think the Marco Polo sits in a sweet spot. It’s compact enough to drive every day, low enough for standard car parks, but clever enough to turn a random patch of Wales into a genuinely great weekend away. It’s not cheap, with prices starting at £89,330, but it earns its keep by replacing hotels, holiday cottages and Airbnbs.
By the time we packed up to leave, I realised something important. This didn’t feel like a novelty trip. And that’s why I never once wanted to swap it for an Airbnb.
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