The Dutch are the tallest people in the world and camping has long been a favourite pastime of many Dutch people. Yet for many tall people it is difficult to find an ideal camping vehicle. With its spacious comfortable bed of 2.05m x 1.60m, the TakeOff is a perfect recreational vehicle for tall people. Ex-basketball player Bert Kragtwijk agrees. He himself is 2.07m and sleeps great in his TakeOff!
Bert and his wife Gea are keen campers, but because of Bert’s length, it took some time to find the ideal camping equipment in which he can also sleep well. Bert says: “When the children were small, we had a folding trailer. When that was ‘finished’, we switched to a caravan, but I couldn’t move around easily in it with my long body. I tried to live outside the caravan as much as possible and at night, when we had to go inside to sleep, I sometimes found it annoying. We did have a bed of almost 2m long, but behind the bed there were these little cabinets so I couldn’t get my legs out properly.’
At one point, Bert and Gea sold the caravan and spent their holidays in hotels and resorts, but they soon found out that this didn’t really suit them. Then they read an article about the Holtkamper Nano and then looked at it in the showroom and were immediately sold! ‘A spacious bed where you are not bothered by cupboards or boarding where your feet touch, this was really perfect for us! However, as my wife Gea is 1.64m, she had trouble with the height of the bed and needed a set of stairs for this. She also had trouble pushing the bed up to reach our luggage.’ But Bert and Gea took this for granted, as they really loved the Nano otherwise! Until they came to the Dutch Camping and Caravan Exhibition last year and saw the TakeOff next to Holkamper’s stand.
‘I often drive along the A2 motorway and had already seen the TakeOff in Tent Trailer Center Utrecht’s showroom. I was very curious and said to my wife at the trade fair: let’s see what kind of ‘weird’ thing it is. Well we were both enormously surprised and very enthusiastic about the TakeOff,’ says Bert. Due to a planned renovation, the Kragtwijk family postponed the purchase of the TakeOff for a while. Last spring, they went to Utrecht and bought a TakeOff Sport with various options. ‘Our daughter inaugurated the TakeOff in Zeeland and was very enthusiastic. Then we took it out ourselves for a fortnight, 1 week in Gramsbergen and 1 week in Leerdam. Well really: it was fantastic!’ The TakeOff is up within 30 seconds and Bert agrees that this is actually the case in practice and that they have had a lot of curious visitors at the campsite. ‘It is quite a unique thing after all,’ says Bert.
Bert and Gea drive a Skoda Enyaq and find that the extra energy consumption of around 25% (see also: https://www.easycaravanning.com/en/nieuws-en/anwb-road-test-proves-sublime-driving-characteristics-takeoff/ ) is not too bad for them. ‘Under normal circumstances I can drive about 300 km with a TakeOff behind the car’.
The TakeOff is frequently used by the Kragtwijk family. Bert and Gea will first take it to France this summer, followed by their daughter and son-in-law.
If you are also tall and looking for an ideal camping concept, visit one of our dealers and try out the TakeOff’s spacious king-size bed! Find your nearest dealer here: https://www.easycaravanning.com/en/dealermap/
About Bert Kragtwijk
Bert Kragtwijk played 99 official A-interlands for the Dutch national team. He made his debut on 29 April 1977 under Jan Janbroers against France. He made his premier league debut in the 1974-1975 season with Amstelveen-based Smirnoff Students ASVU. He received an important part of his basketball education in America at Old Dominion University. For five seasons, Kragtwijk played in Amsterdam for president Bram Brakel’s Delta Lloyd. In 1981, he transferred to Leiden. There, he experienced the club’s premier league end in 1986, after which Bert Kragtwijk completed his active career in two seasons (1987-1989) at Miniware BS Weert. Board wise, Bert is actively involved in Basketball in the Netherlands.
