Anyone done any long term/distance travelling in their bus?

[Supertramp]

My girlfriend and I have always planned on doing a good stint of travelling, a few months and more. Originally we had planned to get a round the world ticket and backpack for six months, but with having the VW we were considering touring Europe+beyond for a few months instead.
Has anyone done this? Did you enjoy it? What sort of costs did it incur?
Thanks!

 

[vwed]

Forty years ago me and two friends spent 6 months travelling around Europe, Turkey and North Africa in an Early Bay. Had the time of our lives. Go for it! (Costings of our trip irrelevant with inflation since then).

 

[StuF]

Yep done loads of travelling in the bus
Went to Italy, Spain, Monaco, Belgium and France last year and I am currently typing this whilst sat in Deep South Germany next to the Swiss border, after negotiating some crazy mountain roads through Belgium and Germany

Love going away in the bus 8)

 

[Trikky2]

Yep done loads of travelling in the bus
Went to Italy, Spain, Monaco, Belgium and France last year and I am currently typing this whilst sat in Deep South Germany next to the Swiss border, after negotiating some crazy mountain roads through Belgium and Germany

Love going away in the bus 8)

Mountain roads in Belgium?

 

[StuF]

The ones leading down to Spa were enough to overheat my disks to the point of failure!
11% inclines with run off areas - scary at times fully loaded

 

[Foz]

Piece of cake on drums

 

[StuF]

Piece of cake on drums

Haha - true though!

 

[Tofufi]

I've never been away for that long in my bus, but I've taken it through France and Spain without a hitch.

2 things to consider:

1) A service interval of every 3000 miles means you'll be doing a lot of oil changes if you go far...
2) Do you really want to spend several months living out of a very small van?

If that's OK, then go for it

 

[Supertramp]

Thank you for the replies.
We were thinking of maybe a 4-6 month tour of Europe from Spain to Bulgaria and everything in between, making use of lots of free camping and going off season.
As for living in a small space, I think we should cope. Being able to open the sliding doors onto mountains or the beach gives that bit of extra space :msn4:

 

[weeboll]

some reasonable long distance travelling but not all at once..

3 weeks east cape of north island new Zealand
3 weeks south island of new Zealand
3 weeks north cape of new Zealand
3 months travelling se asia whilst van shipped home
3 weeks Scotland
3 weeks all over france

.. and you might argue that living in new Zealand at the time doesn't count as long distance!

never stayed more than a couple of nights at any place, never had a problem finding a cheap garage for 'assistance', always met interesting people, never got bored. did invest in good foam for the bed.

I would fit an oil filter if going for a long time, doubles the oil change interval and helps with cooling too

 

[blogdroed]

There's a longish trip thread here somewhere ... I'll try and find it ...

 

[DeeDeeTheBay]

:worship: to you guys, I'm worrying about a trip to Devon from the northwest! I love the faith you have in your buses slowly building mine/ours (and slowly being the correct word :lol: )

 

[Foz]

Belgium twice, Isle of Wight twice, and a trip to Scotland via the Lake district. So far no hiccups! 8)

 

[StuF]

You have to have faith in your bus!
I am sat here on the German/Swiss border enjoing a half litre of Alpirsbacher Klosterbrau Pils beer sunning myself - only through our bus getting us here!

I know come the winter the engine and gearbox are coming out as we have a noisy 4th gear after all the hills and he is leaking a little oil but it's all part of the adventure

Weird to think in a week we will be sat in Lincolnshire enjoying Skeg Vegas - only 1000+ miles to go!

 

[Supertramp]

Some excellent information here. The trip is starting to build up in our minds and we've started jotting down notes and planning. Thanks to a tip on here we've also joined and started contacting 'host' families where you go and work for a couple of hours a day in exchange for accommodation and food - to break up the weeks of travelling in the bus.

I'm also building up some ideas for space saving and how we're going to attempt to live comfortably in such a small space. Thinks like changing the westy wardrobe to accommodate shelves etc

 

[StuF]

Sounds like you are making a good plan
We have a 300+ mile journey tomorrow to Luxembourg which we are looking forward to

 

[Supertramp]

Sounds like you are making a good plan
We have a 300+ mile journey tomorrow to Luxembourg which we are looking forward to

First person I thought of when I thought lots of travel in a VW was you Stu. Your thread is quite the inspiration!

 

[blogdroed]

There's a longish trip thread here somewhere ... I'll try and find it ...

Fpund it at last!

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16195" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[StuF]

Sounds like you are making a good plan
We have a 300+ mile journey tomorrow to Luxembourg which we are looking forward to

First person I thought of when I thought lots of travel in a VW was you Stu. Your thread is quite the inspiration!

Cheers buddy - we like getting out and about in the bus!
Loving travelling in Europe and it's our long term plan when I leave the RAF to do a whole year in the bus! Some amazing campsites on the continent

 

[Haveacamper]

It’s always good to read that someone is planning a big trip in their camper

I have to say, I haven’t spent that long travelling but I did spend about 8weeks back in 2007 in my first camper, followed by another trip around france in 2012

In 2007 I travelled about 4000miles in 8 weeks
In 2012 I travelled about 2800miles in 16days

On both trips I first plotted an approximate route on google maps or Michelin journey planner website to work out the mileage.
I then added an extra % for detours, getting lost around towns and unforeseen sightseeing.
I then looked up an average price of fuel for the country
This would gave an approximate budget for fuel.
TIP – use the Michelin website as it not only tells you which roads are toll roads, it also will give you how much the tolls will cost. It also works out the fuels costs for you, if you cant do the conversion yourself

As others have said, if you are going to be travelling a significant distance then you should at least be doing an oil change and re-setting you valve gaps. You could potentially replace standard distributor points with electronic ignition before you go if this is something you don’t want to do.

Budget the cost of spares if you don’t already have them… maybe spare set of ht leads, rotor arm, distributor cap, coil?

As for camping, if you are going in off-season then this will be dramatically cheaper. When we went to France in 2012, we went 1st 2weeks of July. Even though we were just before high season, we found the prices/night were around 10Euros/night cheaper. Even for a 15night holiday this saved us 150Euros. I know you mentioned that you would be looking to do a lot of free camping, but it’s always good to budget an amount. After all, if you do save money, then you can always treat yourselves with a nice meal out or something.

When I went in both campers I fitted a hidden security box. We kept any valuables in this along with passports and SD cards that we had filled up – maybe worth thinking about.

Anyway, it sounds like an awesome opportunity if you can go ahead with it…very exciting

Michelin website: http://www.viamichelin.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NaFe

p.s. makes me think that I should write up my 2012 trip on here!!!