At the opposite specter of the eco-friendly digital nomad who is making the transition to a tiny mobile home is whoever buys a mobile home that’s actually fancier than a brick-and-mortar mansion. CMC Caravan, an Italian manufacturer of luxury caravans, caters only to this very small niche of (wealthy) travelers.
CMC Caravan (also known as CMC Italy) is not a name that we regular (read, average-salaried) folk are used to, and the reason for that is found in the products they make. CMC calls them luxury motorhomes, but in reality, they’re super-custom trailers that pop up to incredible size once at camp. Drawing for inspiration from racing trailers, they’re mobile living units meant to offer unparalleled comfort and levels of luxury – and perhaps for the first time, these terms are not used lightly.
To put it simply, CMC trailers are mobile mansions designed for those lucky one-percenters who want to spend months in a row on the road with zero compromises in terms of comfort. One of the most recent models from the family-owned Italian business is the CMC Athena trailer, dubbed “the Goddess of CMC Caravan” and “the ultimate gem of the CMC collection.” It’s with good reason that they call it that: Athena is fancier than an actual house, larger and more luxurious.
As we noted in previous coverage of this Italian outlet, their units are custom-made. CMC Caravan does offer a few layouts for their smaller units, but they’re mere guidelines that the customer works off on, adding his personal touch throughout the entire building process. Athena is even more special, as it’s fully custom. The downside to this being a custom unit is that all info available on it is included in the videos below.
Photo: CMC Caravan
In travel mode, Athena is 49.2 feet (15 meters) long, 4.9 feet (2.5 meters) wide, 13.1 feet (4 meters) tall, and needs to be hauled by a semi. In camp mode, it pops up like a genuine transformer by means of two lateral slide-outs that extend the length of the trailer and two more extensions in the front and rear, respectively. In less than an hour, which is the estimated time for setting up in camp mode, you get a vast apartment offering a layout of 1,076 square feet (100 square meters) and at least a couple of private decks, shielded or not.
By the time the Athena is set up, it’s 20.8 feet (6.35 meters) wide and can easily host a large party. CMC Caravan shows the sumptuous living with formal dining for six, which can double as a conference room if needed, a real fireplace, a fully-kitted chef’s kitchen, and a relaxing lounge, all using ample amounts of genuine leather and real natural stone. The promotional video below shows glimpses of the master bedroom and what looks like a very minimalist kids’ room, and the massive bathroom, all decked in real stone and so vast that you could probably host another smaller party in there. If that’s your thing.
Finishes and appliances are top of the line because CMC Caravan says it’s built a reputation out of obsessing over and perfecting every detail on a project. This is the main reason why their annual production is capped at a handful of units: so they can guarantee maximum quality to their paying customers. Systems like electrics and water are finalized in accordance to the owner's experience of the caravan and their needs. CMC Caravan tells us that their team of skilled craftsmen includes a real ebonist, a woodsworth who specialises in carving ebony or other decorative wood.
“It all starts with a dream,” CMC Italy says, promising they can build whatever the customer dreams of. The only condition is, of course, that the customer has to be loaded: CMC units are priced according to their one-off mobile mansion status and represent multi-million investments. That said, CMC Caravan notes that an EU-size Living Trailer (13.6 x 2.55 m / 44.6 x 8.3 feet with double expansion) averages €1.2 million ($1.2 million at the current exchange rate), but that would not be a custom unit like the Athena.
Photo: CMC Caravan
CMC Caravan was founded in 1961 and started off by selling furniture before moving to conversions of decommissioned 1930 school buses and eventually becoming the first company in the world to build a trailer with five full slide-outs. Today, working with a recently-set-up team of mechanical engineers and designers, they boast of being able to create “exceptional solutions from a technical and architectural point of view” for fully-customizable luxury mobile units.
Words can only say so much, especially when details are so scarce. We’ve reached out to the company in the hope of getting more specs on the Athena and will update the story if we hear back. In the meantime, as the saying goes, a photo is worth a thousand words – and a video about a gazillion of them. Here’s the gorgeous CMC Athena in motion.
*Update, November 12: The story has been updated to include additional details on the Athena, courtesy of CMC Caravan.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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