I’ve received tons of questions during our trip to California about renting a VW Westfalia Van! It’s a dream that a lot of us little free-spirited hippies have had, and I am going to share with you how to make it your reality (even if only for a week!)
… Then I’ll be back to share some of our favorite spots from our trip, as well as some outfits along the way!
We rented this beauty, also known as Honu Liu or “slow turtle” from Vintage Surfari Wagons. (No, this isn’t sponsored, we found the company years ago and used them once before, and loved the trip!). Bill, the owner, is just a really nice guy who bought some VW vans to rent out years back, and now he has about a dozen of them. His garage is my HEAVEN.
How much did the trip cost? It cost us $1220 for the entire week + our flights to California. We lived in the van for the week, so we didn’t have any other fees other than gas, the cost of some campgrounds that charge a nightly rate and food, but we cooked most meals in the VW! It’s of course not as cheap as a roadtrip with an Airbnb near home, but it’s also not as expensive as a trip abroad with different hotel fees each night.
What did we pack for the trip? We tried to back suuuper light this time around – we brought 2 sleeping bags (30 degree weather for cold desert nights), a flashlight, some camera gear, gear to charge our equipment and phones in the car and some easy to throw on outfits. Bill provided pillows, a heater, blankets, a cooler and some other necessities.)
What did we pack for Hudson? Traveling with a baby definitely adds more things to the list, and I will go into way more detail about this in a separate post, but for Hudson we brought his carseat + base, stroller (the carseat hooks into the base), ergobaby 360 carrier, Wildbird carrier, sunscreen, portable sound machine, 2 bottles and pronto changing pad. When we arrived, we stopped by a Babies R’ Us and picked up a sunhat, formula, diaper and wipes (it was way easier to not bring all of these on the plane, and to just buy them when we arrived).
Sleeping in a van isn’t for everyone, but if it is something you’ve dreamed about doing, than do it!!! This trip is SO worth every cent, and while it comes with it’s annoyances, like having to shift things around in the van each night to sleep or cook, or not showering quite as much as you’d like, it’s SO worth the experience of seeing and doing as much as you can all trip! More to come soon!
JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.