Відео

Hi ! On arrival at a France Passion site one of their Golden rules they request you follow is that you introduce yourself and show your membership. We were able to do that at all of the stopovers we visited this summer. Although I imagine depending on your arrival time farmers may be busy with their daily routine. They also provide you with a windscreen sticker that is dated. Thanks for watching and getting in touch! JT

Glad you enjoyed your visit ! Cheers JT

You're right. The ratchet straps can be a bit fiddly, but in general they are OK. Overall it is a good rack for the price. Thanks for taking the time to give your feedback Cheers JT

Whilst we were there a routine police patrol travelled past. There was a nice atmosphere, with lots of vans from different backgrounds and countries there. I think lots of people were visiting the stones for the day in their Moho / Camper and staying overnight as other options would be a campsite not tha many in the local area, or a carpark in nearby Amesbury / Salisbury. Fingeers crossed it stays as is for the forseeable future... thanks for watching JT

It's a Byway Open to All Traffic (BOAT). English Heritage tried to get it stopped up but groups such as the Trail Riders Fellowship fought and won the case. So everyone has a right to use it without hinderance.

@@blacktiger955i Thank you for confirming that. It is a special place and deserves its status of being open to all. There will always be a minority who disrespect a location, but the vast majority don't and the more people have an awareness of a location, I believe the easier it is to ask for their support to look after it in the long term...

Well it’s not the council who control the airspace it’s the civil aviation authority and all that area is coved from ground level either in the exclusion zone around the stones or because of the military training area that frequently has low flying aircraft and helicopters which drones are a hazard too and that’s why they restrict access

Thank you! Thanks for watching. JT

Thank you very much! We managed to squeeze in a trip to Stonehenge, vlog coming soon… we hope to cross the channel again before the weather changes … watch this space ! Cheers JT

Yep! Apart from us having to change our plans and head west into France and not east into Germany due to the weather, it was a great first trip! We could do that easily though as we are pretty self sufficient with all the facilities the new van has. Thanks for getting in touch. Cheers JT

Hi Scott. The weight is always at the back of your mind. Ours comes in at under 3100 kg before we load up. So we had enough headroom for the stuff we were going to carry. At some point I will go to a weigh bridge loaded with all our kit to get the exact figure...cheers JT

Thank you very much ! It has been a great move from the Cali to this new van. Your trip Sounds great! Enjoy it and safe travels back. We have yet to travel to Spain. Maybe next year... cheers JT

Thank you very much. we are very pleased with the new campervan... cheers JT

Thank you !

Hi Nigel, No problem ! The van came with the fitted sheets. They had been specced as an option from Hymer. If I was building my own van, I would have thought twice about them as they aren't cheap, but having had them, they are definitely worth it as they are tailored to fit the seperate mattress sections. The solar panel has been fantastic ! Cheers JT

Hi Ian. Its an Atera Strada DL that we used on our previous VW California. It's worked well on the Hymer and the slide / tilt action means you can use it with the rear doors, just. There is a video on the channel from a while back, the link is here (if it doesn't work just scroll back through the videos on the channel and you'll find it..) ua-cam.com/video/bMKQ6MHDBV8/v-deo.html cheers JT

@@CampervanJourney Very interesting and many thanks!

Yep, the extra space has been great ! I'm sure when we are away and the weather is not as nice, we will appreciate it even more....

Not many so far... the mosquito net for the sliding door has come out of its guide rails twice. we have been able t fix it in the field but it was a fiddle. The speakers in our rear cabin area don't appear to work. Just a couple at the moment, and nothing that we can't put up with / adapt to. Thansk for watching and getting in touch.

Hi there ! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a detailed comment with your experiences and the few niggles you have and their fixes. I really appreciate your insight. Hopefully we won't have the too many issues in the long term. thanks for watching, JT

Hi Rob, the downstairs bed is around 1.9m long ( side to side) within the flares. We aren't tall so that is fine for us ! The pop top net is fixed with a bar that clips across the hatch opening. It's simple, yet effective. The Lithium Battery and solar has been a game changer, we didn't use EHU the whole time we were away ! cheers JT

Thank you very much ! Had a comment recently from one subscriber who said the opposite, they didn't like the one with the bugs on it ! Cheers JT

Thank you very much ! And thansk for watching and getting in touch. I was hoping to get out to Caravan Salon, but time did not allow. Just as well, as I would only have been distracted by other vans! I did hear that Hymer were no longer taking orders for bespoke builds, but the spec of ours gives us pretty much everything we would want or need, so if that's what's going to come through to dealers, most buyers should be happy with what they get. We had both the towbar and solar retrospectively fitted by independent specialists in Dorset. The Tow bar was approx £750 and the solar around £1400. We have been very pleased with the install of both. The Solar, combined with the lithium battery has been amazing . Whilst the weather was ver good, we did not need EHU once on our trip. It took us a long time to decide on our next van, but so far we have been very pleased with it. Good luck with your decision making... cheers JT

Thank you, we had a great trip. Can't wait to get out on another adventure !

Thank you, Glad you enjoyed it. You sound like experts, hope you enjoy your new van as well. Cheers JT

No, it’s the front wheel drive chassis.

@@CampervanJourney what about service and maintenance costs? how do they compare to the ocean?

@@nordnung I believe that they are comparable here in the UK.

Thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and getting in touch. Cheers JT

Great news ! We have been very pleased with the kit that Solar Solutions fitted for us. How long have you had your campus for ? It would be good to hear from another owner, campervanjourney@gmail.com Cheers JT

Mines Hilda. As per Instagram. Arrived in January and we're 62 night into the adventure. South of France 3 times and Ireland planned for 2 weeks over Christmas

@@CampervanJourney We may be another too. I posted earlier that choosing a replacement to the Cali is so difficult. We're in our early 60's and love both the flexibility of 'compact' and want space with German engineering. Unfortunately it comes at a ££ which is why the Free 600 is such a reasonable 'compromise'.

No problem, thank you for watching. I know lots of people are on the same journey as us, which is one of the reasons I like to make these videos. The Grand Canyon is a lovely van. We saw one when we collected ours a bit higher specification than ours, and it had fancy leather interior. The new Eriba car does look interesting, but I would imagine it's going to be a while before we see it here in the UK. We were lucky that Leisure first in Poole had our van in stock when we went to see them, pure coincidence. We went to test drive with them and the van we ended up buying happened to be available and almost exactly the specification we would have ordered. I would guess lead times are going to be at least 6 months... good luck with you final decision and order ! cheers JT

@@CampervanJourney Ooooh! Poole is very accessible for us as we are in West Dorset. We will have to go and have a look there!

Hi There ! Thanks for watching and getting in touch. If you watch some of the older videos on the channel when we are looking at vans to replace our VW, you will see that for a long time the Westalia Columbus was our preferred choice. But, we really wanted to have the flexibility to sleep four people. The folding seat that they offer is really good but we'd still want a pop top. In the UK the Westfalia is expensive making it a comparable price on a Fiat chassis to those based on a Mercedes or VW / MAN which have superior driving characteristics. In the UK you could also not add to the specification two key things that I wanted. LED Headlights and Adaptive cruise control. And my preference was for a german van, that had good driving characteristics. If Westfalia made a 4 berth Sven Hedin, that would have been right up there... but they don't ! Thanks again for getting in touch. cheers JT

No problem Kevin, thanks for getting in touch, hope you found it useful. We are beginner / intermediate at best skiers, so I would say we are still working on technique...! That said, whilst the ski mojo does make you feel a bit more rigid in your legs, I found after 2 or 3 days I was beginning to flow with my turns like before...and definitley helped even up my balance compesating for my weaker leg. I think there are places in some french resorts where you can hire one. They really rate them and use them for coaching as well apparently. Cheers JT

He mentioned he wanted a German engine/chassis; froma a quick look at your suggestion it seems to be a Fiat..

@@tbir5689 check the specifications on the autotrail miles better and a better price paying extra just because its a Mercedes mine was brand new with pop top automatic alloy wheels two trays in the garage which slid out for mountain bikers solar panel towbar up graded stereo and still about 20k cheaper thats how i look at i know he said he wanted German make its a nice ban but still seems very cramped

@@andrewthornhill4229 I hope you have many great trips in yours. As he mentions there is no perfect van - a mixture of initial cost, residual value, size, layout and reliability..

Hi Andrew, thanks for getting in touch. The Autotrail does indeed offer great value for money, but it missed the mark for our personal preferences. We were after something with a German Chassis, VW, Merc or MAN/TGE. The 68 is too big for us as well. We can only accomodate a 6m van with our parking restrictions at home. Cheers JT

@@CampervanJourney sorry yes i forgot you only wanted a 6 meter van love the videos look forward to some more

You're welcome David ! Thanks for watching. JT

Agreed, we knew the update was coming, and having seen details from Caravan Salon, it seems the update was mainly the interior dashboard and control panel. Some of the other niggles we had, have not changed. Thanks for getting in touch, we are enjoying being part of the Hymer Club. Cheers JT

Harry sleeps up there with a sleeping bag and he found it fine. Ambient temperature got down to around 10C so not too cold. For cooler weather we took the option of a 12v heated blanket Hymer offer that he can use in colder weather.

I hope you like them ! We asked the dealer to organise them with a local sign writer they work with and gave them a brief idea of what we were after,. They came back with two designs, the one we have was our favourite. If you are local, i can find out the name of the company...

@@CampervanJourney Yes do like them hence why I commented. I'm based in the North West so probably too far from your area. Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.

HI there, thanks for getting in touch. Firstly as seasoned VW owners it took a lot for us NOT to buy a Grand Cali 600. Just prior to renting one, we had decided that we were going to buy one, had specced one up, got quotes and were just having a weekend away in one to check we were happy before we committed to a £90k purchase. I am glad we did, as we found several things that were niggles that were enough to make us look at different brands. In no particular order. (BTW These comments relate to the 600 not a 680) We found the rear overhead locker latches infuriating, they have a very odd way of working. The lockers themselves weren't as big as they looked. The Fridge is silly. The sliding door is temperamental, there is no shelf. It goes back a long way to give you the illusion of space, but this eats into storage space for kitchen cupboards / drawers. Kitchen storage space is poor because of the above. The overhead bed is a great idea in principle, but in reality only really useful for young children. Harry is 12 and he is already too big for it. Access to the lower bed is tricky as the is no step. When you do put a step there, you can't open the shower room door... As much as I tried I couldn't get the looks to grow on me. In the few days we rented one, there were a few electrical niggles. None of the above are deal breakers on their own, we have found that all these vans are going to be a compromise. Its just for us, added together there were enough compromises to warrant looking at other things... hence we ended up with the Hymer (which still has compromises!). Some of the points above don't relate to the 680. But the 680 is too big for our parking and more importantly is only a 2 berth. Hope this helps ! Feel free to drop me an email at campervanjourney@gmail.com if you have any other questions. Oh, and thanks for subscribing if you have ! If not, please do, as liking and subscribing really helps me grow the channel. cheers JT

@@CampervanJourney thanks for the comprehensive reply. Next step is to rent one I think like you’ve suggested 👍🏻

Hi, I'll get the details together and post a note in the description. It is 300 watt flexible panel... I know that much without checking !

Thank you very much ! We are so glad to have discovered the FP scheme this summer, we loved staying at their locations. I’ll have a video with a bit more detail coming soon… cheers JT

Thanks for watching and getting in touch. There will be a video coming soon all about France passion, please be sure to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss it! Cheers JT

Hello Denmark ! Welcome to Campervan Journey ! Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. I am trying to persuade Claire to take a Nordic trip in the van and visit Denmark, Sweden and beyond...we'll see how that goes...! Cheers JT

@@CampervanJourney don’t hesitate to reach out if you decide to do a Scandinavian road trip 👍

Well, Leanne, where shall I start! In fact there could be a video on the subject... To summarise we really love the general vibe of the Huttopia sites. They have a nice family focussed back to nature feel. The pitches are usually a good size, the sites are well kept, they are in nice interesting locations, have good facilities and on site activities but are not full of water slides and over populated like some of the large chain campsites / camping parks can be. It's very easy to relax quickly when we stay on any of their locations and whilst they are certainly at the more expensive end of camping pricing scale, we have in over eight years of visiting, not had a bad experience.... does that answer your question ?! JT

@@CampervanJourney thank you - I think we stayed on one near Rome a few years back?? I remember a huge flipping tree in the middle of the pitch so I think this tainted my experience lol - maybe we were just unlucky. Will look at Huttopia again for the future, thank you xx

Thank you so much Nigel! Thanks for watching. We have really enjoyed getting to know our new van on this trip. We certainly have lots more adventures planned... cheers JT

Thank you Richard. The Bike rack is an Atera Strada DL we had it with our previous VW California. It carries up to four bikes and slides back and forth easily. There is a detailed video review on my channel. Cheers JT

Thank you Linda ! Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a comment. JT

Hi ! Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. There is no easy answer to your question.... We have just changed our VW California for a Van with an integrated toilet, shower room, kitchen and good size fridge. For a tour round France it was SOOO much easier than travelling with a smaller tent and / or awning or tent.we dounf that we travelled further and stopped at more locations. I know there are several couples who do the same type of trip with a VW California or Transporter conversion, so it can be done. If you are not affected by bad weather, it makes all the difference. A Small van in Bad weather is much harder to deal with as the interior space is smaller. If you want to do longer trips both in distance and time away, if your budget will allow I would go for a bigger van, 6m or thereabouts. If that is going to be occasional and most of your trips will be local and it could be your daily vehicle, I would go for a smaller van. Why not hire one of each like we did ? It could save you from making an expensive mistake ?! Hope that helps ?! Cheers JT

Hi Jeremy, our Hymer is based on a Front wheel drive Sprinter chassis. A rear wheel drive could well have been more of an issue in those wetter conditions.

Thank you very much ! It took a long time to find a replacement for our VW California, but so far we are very pleased with it …🚐🚐🚐

@@CampervanJourney we have a t5 transporter pop top and feel it's time to upgrade to a sprinter/ crafter also .

😂😂😂 i used it as a deterrent for mosquitoes, and I think it might have worked! I only got bitten on my legs !

Thank you so much, I enjoy sharing your adventures with you too!