Yeh the Xtrail is an alright soft-roader. Plenty of storage space and they are pretty rugged as well, with decent enough ground-clearance yada-yada. Only problems I found when driving one were the stupid centre-dash and the steering is also veeery light. Saying that, once you have driven it for a while you get used to both. Just a bit of a shock going from the wrx into one if you haven't driven it for a while.
Overall I don't think you will be disappointed with one though.
FYI: I have driven one offroad on some gravel tracks but never on sand.