Go West-y
Every year, we take a trip over the winter and go somewhere where it’s warm. This is what we look forward to all year and we weren‘t gonna let Covid stop us so we traveled to the Canary Islands.
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Over the years. VW has built two cars I’ve been interested in. One was the Corrado, and the other - the Westfalia campervan.
Westfalia is a company that took VW buses and converted them to campervans. These became famous as the quintessential “VW campervan”. (Also called Vanagon in the States)
The Westfalia Campervan has always been somewhat of an icon for me. I’ve always loved it for its looks and its features. Also the whole “vanlife” idea of having a vehicle that you can live in sounded entertaining.
So when we got to Tenerife, we decided to rent one out, explore the island, eat, sleep and live on the beach.
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These vans are old. Not, like, your 10 year old car that “you need to get a new one”. But proper old - this particular Westy is 40 years old. That means it’s older than me, and is in a particularly rough condition.
It’s an air cooled engine, 4 gears, so you’‘ll be doing 80km/h top speed. I’ve never been overtaken so much in my life. The driving experience is about rolling the window down and taking in the scenery (also, there’s no aircon).
Gears are challenging to shift and it helps if you know how to double de-clutch. Starting it up in the morning requires voodoo magic.
I’m not the only one who considers Westfalia vans a legend. Buying a Westy T3 van with a pop-top like this one will set you back 15.000-30.000 EUR these days easy.
The T3 is cool because it’s like an RV but not as big or clunky. You can use it as a car and go almost everywhere with it, but still live in it. It has 2 beds, a stove, a fridge, lots of storage space, and most important - a bunch of sunlight and breeze.
It's also cool because it has a soul, and not a lot of cars today have that.
I also have to say, waking up next to a sandy beach in a true piece of automotive history is something I’ll never forget.
The only issue is where to poop.