The RV/Camping/Trailer Thread!

[KillerB]

We decided to have a fun experience at an upcoming weekend festival by renting this.

The wife is pretty excited about it, to the point where she's saying that she would rather a Westfalia than a larger RV, since it's always just the two of us camping. We will see how it goes.

[thesameguy]

That is super cool, and super terrifying! How/where/how much?

[KillerB]

Vintage Surfari Wagons is based in Costa Mesa. They do offer an option to pick up in San Francisco. California Campers rents Vanagons up in Redwood City.

$169 a night, or $1100 weekly. More during the busier seasons.

The Vanagons are a much better deal, $129 a night, $830 weekly, but none were available, which was fine with me because I wanted to experience the bay window on this trip, since it'll be mostly back roads and about 120 miles each way.

I suspect we'd end up buying a Vanagon, so I'll definitely rent one of those first.

[thesameguy]

That seems like a completely reasonable number for a specialty vehicle like that. Cool business model, too. But, drive extra safely!

[KillerB]

Oh for sure. Here's the planned route, skipping freeways almost entirely, except for a bit on CA-73, a toll road that skips a lot of the 405/5 through and south of Irvine.
Screen Shot 2017-03-08 at 9.26.42 PM.jpg

[thesameguy]

Should be a nice drive - by the time you start getting irritable about Really Slow you'll be there! (I've always really enjoyed trips in the Falcon, even though it's damn slow too )

[KillerB]

Yeah, we've made this trip before, and even with a normal car, there's no really fast way to get there. I think this will only add about 45 minutes.

[JoshInKC]

Last summer my work wife and I spent a lot of time admiring a Vanagon Westfalia which was camping near one of our digs. It'd be a great archaeology vehicle.

[Cam]

work wife

[KillerB]

Okay, renting a bay window Westfalia was WAY too much fun. Not only did I have a ball driving it (even if it was a little terrifying going only 60 mph on the 15 with the Santa Ana winds kicking in), but the wife loved the view and the ride and the quirkiness of the whole travel experience.

Even better, sleeping in it was perfect - it was small enough to park in a spot we'd normally put a tent in, but we were up off the ground on a cozy but comfortable bed, it stayed warmer inside at night and cooler inside in the morning, and it took us about 40 minutes to pack up and leave.

The pop-top left plenty of space for storage up top, and if it was our van, we could use storage more effectively and be totally devoid of clutter.

We're going to rent a Vanagon to see if the extra space and better drivability make a difference to us, but she really loved the atmosphere in the older style van, and I do too.