Volkswagen Camper Adventures

Having the right playlist for your campervan trips is absolutely essential.   If you're anything like me, hearing certain songs will remind you of specific trips, holidays or journeys.  For example, whenever I hear Vanessa Carlton's 'A Thousand Miles', it takes me back to a road trip to Cornwall for a lads holiday to Board Masters in 2007.  The song was five years old at this point, so it isn't like it was hanging around the charts and playing on the radio regularly, it was more about the funny moment where two, big, rugby league players and an Army engineer blurted out the opening lines in perfect harmony without thinking, when it played on whichever radio station we were listening to at the time. Wyatt, the T4, may be 22 years old at the time this blog is posted, but he's fully equipped with a modern Alpine head unit, meaning I can attach my phone by Bluetooth and play my favourite songs from my Spotify account.  Being a bit of a music fan (and ex DJ), I have

If you've followed any of our social media outlets ( Instagram / Twitter / YouTube ), you'll know how much we love the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby.   What was once a quiet, historic fishing town is now a booming tourist hotspot, and it's easy to see why. Like Moana, the sea calls me.  That's why we head to the coast whenever we can.  As much as I love to find new places, I'm regularly drawn back to Whitby.  It has a special 'feel' about it when you walk around it's historic east side of the River Esk, which cuts the town in half and flows into the 700 year old harbour.  I love to walk around the cobbled streets, and browse the independent shops before climbing the infamous 199 steps to St Mary's Church graveyard.  It was in this graveyard that I proposed to my now wife.  That may sound a strange place to pop the question, but if you see the view from this vantage point over Whitby, you'll see why it is common to find the benches

When you have your pop top down, where do your straps go?  Do you leave them hanging loose, and feel like you're playing with fire, waiting for the headwind to lift the lid? Maybe you do what I did? Tie them in a knot and stuff them into the canvas?  You’ve probably had dozens of people telling you how this damages the straps and canvas.  I know I did. The stuffing and knotting technique is one I wasn't really happy with, but it kept the straps out of the way (until they eventually slide down and make you jump while you're driving as they hit you on the shoulder) but then I came across a suggested product being sold on eBay by Yorkshire 3D Printing. The Pop Top Strap Spool. The spools are one of the best £15 I've spent on the van. They're one of those 'why didn't I think of that?' ideas.  Such a simple design, yet extremely helpful.  The strap is fed through the centre of the spool, wound up, then held in place by an elastic band.

  What is Van Life? Some people think van life is just about living full time in your camper, parking up wherever you want and and taking a morning photo from the tailgate, overlooking a lake or beach.  That's what it may look like on Instagram, but, in my opinion, van life is whatever it means to you. For me, it's the break away from a busy working week.  It is holidaying with my family.  It is the festivals and meet ups.  It is using the camper as base camp when we want to explore a corner of the UK.  It is climbing underneath my T4 and changing an oil pressure switch.  It has become vlogging and blogging.  It is a drain on my wallet.  It is my commute to work.  My van is a big part of my life, so surely this is MY van life? Who knows what the future will bring, my van life may change.  Maybe I'll have a big lottery win and decide that I'd like to tour the whole of the UK coast line (there may be a little vlog about this in the coming months... the trip i

When someone says, 'campervan', what springs to mind?  Most people's vision of a campervan will involve a Volkswagen Transporter.  But which Transporter appeals to you?   Whatever your taste, VW will surely have catered to it at some point, since the beginning of production of the Transporter in 1949, to over twelve million (and counting) units sold worldwide, which makes the Volkswagen Transporter, the best selling van in history.   Look at the majority of memorabilia labelled 'Volkswagen Camper' and you will see the famous 'V' front end below the sought after split screen.  This is where we'll start. Between 1950 and 1967, 1,477,330 of the O.G. VW Split Screen vans that we all love and adore rolled off the production line.  At present commonly known as a T1, the Splitty was originally known as a Type 2.  It was the second vehicle produced by Volkswagen after the Beetle, or Type 1.   The first buses were built in Wolfsburg, up un