[Review] Citroën Holidays: Long Live Adventure!

The introduction of the Citroën Holidays in 2024 marks the brand's first foray into the booming campervan market, where it was the second-largest player in Europe in recent years, mainly due to the popularity of converted Spacetourer and Jumper models. This changes everything, as Citroën is now the only Stellantis brand to offer a campervan directly to customers. So, what does the Holidays offer? Find out in this review.

This is a rather elegant van.

In terms of exterior styling, the Citroën Holidays doesn't differ much from the base model of the Citroën Spacetourer and has a solid yet elegant look. This is particularly evident in the new front end, which gives the vehicle more personality and a more modern appearance. It features colour clips that clearly indicate its place in the Citroën range, which are shown here as stickers. Its generous dimensions — it's nearly 5 metres long and just under 2 metres high — make it look massive, but it has one huge advantage: it's classified as a car for motorway tolls, unlike its competitors. The only drawback is that the 'Holidays' badges are merely stickers affixed to the bodywork of a vehicle whose retail price easily exceeds €50,000.

The most significant changes are inside, where the rear space has been completely transformed to accommodate furniture incorporating a mini fridge, a dishwashing sink and a hob on the left, leaving a comfortable sliding bench seat for two on the right that easily converts into a double bed.

The huge boot in the rear accommodates a storage unit as well as shower essentials, ensuring a comfortable start to any adventure for the four occupants of the Holidays. The Holidays also comes with a table that allows the four occupants to play or eat, especially since the two front seats flip over. This transforms the interior of the Holidays into a veritable rolling living room and even allows for outdoor seating, since the table can be installed outside.

The Holidays is both practical and clever. It has plenty of space for passengers, who can enjoy a vast living area that can be made even larger by raising the roof, allowing you to stand up inside. The raised roof also enables you to open the windows, which provide maximum light in the cabin and transform the Holidays into an additional room in your home. Please note that opening the pop-up roof may seem cumbersome at first, as it involves several steps. However, once you understand the process, it becomes completely logical and very easy. A little time is needed for adaptation. Apart from this, all stages of transforming the Holidays into a road vehicle or leisure vehicle are simple, practical and logical. It is quick and easy to switch between the two.

On the road, the Holidays is a van that isn't one.

You might think that the generous dimensions of the Holidays would impact your driving experience, but this isn't the case. The Holidays is particularly manoeuvrable, with smooth and precise steering, a good driving position and excellent visibility, making it easy to navigate surrounding traffic — a reassuring feature, especially in the city. This version is equipped with the Max Pack and a high-definition reversing camera, which allows for easy parking in any car park, even underground — another advantage of the Holidays compared to some of its competitors.

Equipped with a 2.0 HDI engine with 180 horsepower, the Holidays delivers decent performance and integrates well into city traffic. It also performs well on long motorway journeys, with average fuel consumption of 8 litres per 100 km. For such a heavy and high vehicle, this is a good performance. However, fuel consumption in town will be significantly higher, with peaks exceeding 15 litres. Similarly, the engine is associated with the EAT8 gearbox, which unfortunately causes the engine to scream in the first three gears. As always with this gearbox, this can make the Holidays noisy, but this is not the case. Once the third gear is engaged, the other gears follow without the engine screaming, and trips on national roads or motorways reveal a quiet, pleasant and very comfortable Holidays. My only real regret is the front seats, which I find too hard. I would have liked the softness of the Advanced Comfort seats found across the entire range, which are absent here. This affects seating comfort, as the seats are quite hard. However, the overall comfort is very satisfactory thanks to the soft suspension.

On the other hand, the technology is a very good point, since the Citroën Holidays is completely up to date. It has a 10-inch instrument cluster with excellent visibility in all circumstances, complemented by a 10-inch multimedia screen of remarkable quality. It is equipped with the latest Stellantis multimedia system and can therefore receive the ChatGPT voice assistant, which is a real plus for a van of this type. Thanks to natural conversation, you can ask the car about your next destination and find out more about places to visit or the local gastronomy before you arrive. While this functionality may seem futile in certain other vehicles, it is perfectly suited to a converted van intended for family adventures. While the Holidays is well equipped technologically, the brand could have made more effort to differentiate it from the Spacetourer, as the plastics on the dashboard and door panels are all very hard. It is not necessary for the plastics to be foamed; the assembly is excellent and the finish is impeccable, but for a family vehicle, The Holidays would benefit from a warmer interior, either with light colours for the driver's area or fabric, which is always warmer than plastic. It's a shame, because the Holidays is an excellent family vehicle, and the brand has made efforts, especially on the rear seats, which feature two small "Holidays" and "Everyday" labels in red, identical to those found in the C3 or C3 Aircross.

In conclusion, the Citroën Holiday is a resounding success, offering a practical and comfortable vehicle that can be easily and intuitively transformed into a living space. Its generous dimensions do not hinder its manoeuvrability, even in urban centres, thanks to its excellent visibility and manoeuvrability, complemented by a very useful reversing camera. In addition, it is very comfortable on the road, although I would have preferred softer seats for a more authentic Citroën experience. However, the flexible suspension compensates for this to an extent, making the Holidays a pleasant vehicle for travelling, with a generous, bright, practical and clever interior. Its controlled fuel consumption makes it an economical family vehicle, and its dimensions allow access to all car parks, including underground ones. This is beneficial for strengthening the holiday budget, especially since it is more affordable than its competitors with a sale price starting at €53,000. Finally, I admit that I was a little apprehensive about taking the holiday during this test. I am not used to driving large vehicles like this, but I must admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to handle. Five minutes in town were enough for me to get used to the dimensions, and the rest of the test was just like driving any other car. After 15 days behind the wheel, during which I went on a night-time excursion under the stars, I am convinced that the Holidays perfectly meets the needs of a family on the road and during stops, as it can be transformed into a living space in no time. Of course, not everything is perfect: I find the front seats too hard, and I'm disappointed with the interior ambience, especially the dashboard, which is rather ordinary. However, its competitors are no better, and they're more expensive without offering all these advantages. I'd happily take another holiday more often!