So how and why did we switch from being “Teardrop Campers” to being “Barefoot Campers”? 

Well, we always loved the shape of teardrop campers. They were sleek and minimal and just enough camper without being too much. They were small and aerodynamic to pull behind a car and not have to have a huge SUV or truck. We adored our Silver Shadow. You could leave it packed and be on the road in no time for a quick getaway. 

When it came time in 2020 to buy a little bigger camper that had an indoor kitchen and more importantly an indoor bath, we looked at a lot of small trailer options. We looked at larger teardrops—the Little Guy Mini Max, the T@B 320, the RPod. We looked at A-Liners. We also looked at small fiberglass campers like the Scamp and the Happy Camper and the Trillium. We really loved the idea of the Barefoot Caravan, which was a British fiberglass camper that was just starting to partner with nuCamp in the US to make them here. It had such a lovely egg-ish shape and pale teal blue color. And in a lot of ways, it wasn’t unlike the teqrdrops, it just had a slightly different shape, but the same stylish simplicity. 

The spring of 2020 was just before camping took off as a safer way to vacation and we couldn’t get a Barefoot in the US just yet. So we went for the next best thing, the T@B 320S. We liked the T@B. We loved having the indoor kitchen and bath. We liked having that spare room in our driveway. We trusted that it was made by the fine folks at nuCamp. But we knew that eventually, we might want to move to having a Barefoot Caravan. 

And in 2025, we decided to make the switch and traded in our 2021 T@B 320S for a 2024 Barefoot Caravan. 

We are really in love with the Barefoot. It is just an amazing little camper. 

They are made in Ohio at the same nuCamp factory as the T@B campers, and have the same quality Amish workmanship. But the design of the Barefoot and the layout make it a superior camper in a lot of ways. At least for us and the way we like to camp. 

We love the layout 

The Barefoot is approximately the same footprint as the T@B 320S and very slightly heavier. But the layout is just so much better.  The door is near the back and when you walk in, the kitchen is in front of you on the driver’s side of the camper. To your left, there is a tall closet and then the wetbath across the back of the camper. To your right, there is the u-shaped dinette/bed with the giant picture window across the front. Next to the door and across from the kitchen, there is storage, with a bit more counter space. It has cabinets all along the top on either side. It doesn’t sound a lot different than the T@B, but it just works better. There are five windows and the ceiling fan, so you can get plenty of breeze through the camper and so much light. The biggest difference is that there is just a bit more floorspace, so you can have two people in the camper doing different things and not feel like you are right on top of one another. It also just feels so much bigger inside. And I haven’t hit my head on anything yet! 

We love the storage

You think at first, well, it has the same kind of storage as the T@B—the drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, overhead storage, one bench that you can put things under, a few other pockets of space. But the Barefoot has a deceptive LOT of clever and easy to get to storage space that is right where you need it. As you come in the door, there is a tall closet, where you store the table and the table leg when you have the bed made up. There is also a small pocket of storage in the top of that closet and another small cabinet under it. We’ve found that top pocket is great for the hammock, the dog leash, the bocce balls and cards and the dog tie-out. The big closet is a perfect place to store our chairs and tables and dog bed and broom and tiny sweeper when we are traveling. We also have a fire blanket and a little trash can tucked in there. When we get to camp and pull all of that out, it becomes a good place to store the bags all that gear tucks into and then put our jackets in there. The little cabinet at the bottom is great for storing the wheelchocks and stakes so they are handy when you arrive and shoes also fit in there nicely. 

In the bathroom are two cupboards. The top one is perfect for storing spare TP, toilet treatment and a bin of showering supplies. The lower one is where the glycol is, but also makes a great spot for rolling and storing all of our tech towels. In the kitchen there are pockets on the side that are good for keeping spices, salt and pepper, a light for the kitchen and snacks. In the cupboard with slidy doors above the kitchen, we like to keep our coffee kit, all of our glasses and cups, mixing bowls and kitchen towels. In the drawer under the sink, we store silverware and the two shelf cupboard under the stove is great for all of our dishes and pans and cleaning gear. In the cupboards by the door, we store all the gear we need when we get to camp. In the upper cupboards, we store our lights and other small bits. The overhead pockets are great for our clothes and overnight gear. The storage under the bench is perfect for the air mattress that helps us keep the bed more comfy and a few other odds and ends. And there is even storage in the pocket behind the front cushion, where we keep our bedding when the table is made up. Not to mention that there is more space under the bed when it is made up.

We love the minimalism 

The Barefoot has what you need, and not a lot of what you don’t. We rarely camp anywhere we have electric hookups, so having a microwave and a TV and cable hookup were all things that were overkill to us. We don’t have those things in the Barefoot and we don’t miss them. We literally never used the microwave in the T@B for anything but storage for pans and towels. We used the TV to stream content from our iPads, but we can just as easily watch the content directly on the iPad. And with the Bose speaker that comes with the Barefoot, we don’t miss the radio/speakers that the T@B had. We can stream music or the sound from whatever shows we are watching and not worry about the battery drain as much. Plus, we always fought with the lights for those things in the T@B and there are not so many phantom nighttime lights on things in the Barefoot (there is a light under the bed that isn’t bad for when you get up and the red light on the smoke detector flashes.  It also has very Euro styling with the light switches and the cushions and the front window and the cabinet closures. We want camp to be comfortable, but we don’t need it to be home and the Barefoot has what makes it comfy and fun. 

We love the kitchen

The sink in the Barefoot is lovely and so is the glass cover that makes it easy to use that spot as extra counter space while you cook. Having the counter space across from the sink/stove is also nice It lets one person sit in the bed and do prep while the other cooks. It also makes a great coffee station for our pour-over coffee in the morning. The amount of storage makes it easy to have spots for everything and makes it easy to get what you want. The fridge is good for storage even when you aren’t using it to keep things cool. With a simple washbasin, you can use the sink for washing, the basin for rinsing and two people can work together to get the dishes done in no time. This was always too tight of an operation in the T@B, but is comfortable and easy in the Barefoot. The stove and the fridge are the same ones we had in the T@B and they work great. 

We love the bathroom

Shower, sink, cassette toilet—the bathroom is just the same, right? Not even close. The bathroom is short, but really efficient.  Having those two storage cupboards is great. Having the sink be in front of you when you are sitting on the toilet and not built into a sloped wall behind you is fantastic. The cassette toilet is even easier as it is a little higher and gives you more of a choice of whether and how much water you want to add in. Three things make this bath outstanding: 1- there is heat in the bathroom; 2- you can sit on the toilet, use the basin with washwater and a washcloth and then rinse with the shower; 3- the sliding door makes it easy to leave the bathroom open or closed off. Which is handy to be able to just lean in to wash your hands. And that isn’t even mentioning the frosted window that opens or the ledge that keeps the water in. 

We love the systems

The Barefoot has the same Alde heating and hot water system that the T@B had, which is super efficient and works on gas or electric. The Barefoot also has the same Elwell AC unit that will keep you cool if you have electric. And the Nautilus water system is the same as the T@B and super easy to use for a variety of situations. The Barefoot also has lots of plugs throughout to charge USB devices. And it has headliner lights in the cabinets, two overhead lights and really nice reading lights in the bed/dinette that have a nightlight blue mode that is perfect for when you get up in the night. There are bright lights in the bathroom, and over the outside door. The fan is right over the kitchen, which makes it easy to pull the hot air from cooking out of the camper. The Lithium battery this camper has is amazingly efficient and much better at giving us days off the grid.  And the Victron SmartShunt is really useful for helping us monitor how much battery we are using. Admittedly we miss the rooftop solar panels on the T@B, but there is solar input for the Barefoot and we just have to work out how to connect and use our big solar panels. 

So where are the cons? 

This camper is much easier to stand in for someone tall than the T@B was. But the bath and the bed can be a bit tricky if you are much over 6ft. You are going to have to sit to shower and you are going to have to fold or have your feet hang off to sleep. The bed is wider than a queen size bed, but shorter than a short queen. We like sleeping with our heads under the big window, so we’ve had to adjust to sleeping a bit diagonally to make it work. There is no screen on the door or for the bathroom window. So you need to shut the door to keep out the bugs or jerryrig a screen situation. The light over the door is way too bright to want to use much. We wish it was more dim or kept the bugs away. If things aren’t totally secure in the slidy door cabinet or the kitchen pockets, they will go flying when you are on the road. But we haven’t found more than that not to love!

The extras

There are lots of little “extras” that make loving the Barefoot easy. The bathroom has a towel hanger and a little wall-mounted cup that is great for toothbrushes. There is a little “wine cabinet” inside the door that will hold three bottles of wine (or some paper towels!). There is a light in the closet inside the door to make it easy to find things. There is a step to get in and with an additional small stool, it makes a really easy two steps down to get out of the camper. There are pockets on the cabinet door inside the camper that are perfect for keys or wallets. There are lights in the front of the camper to give a little bit of light to getting into the front box or seeing to get to the car at camp. Because it is narrow, it is easier to see around when driving. 

The Barefoot definitely isn’t the right camper for everyone. But we are finding it is pretty perfect for us.