I've changed this week from a T5 conversion (same equipment / layout as an SE) to a T6 Beach with 2-seat bench. This weekend so far we've been out in it full-time & a rear seat passenger said yesterday "this is like being on an InterCity train, the windows are huge!". Whilst the interior is impractically pale, the new sense of space & 360' view is fantastic when you're used to squeezing yourself up against laminated cupboards.
Flip-side of course is less storage. I'm on a real Marie Kondo minimalist binge at the moment anyway, so I'm chucking stuff out of the hot air balloon frantically - I had just one gas bottle last for four-years & there wasn't ever anything in the fridge, so we're all good in a Beach.
I already had Duvalays which will go on the bench or up top and am a super-fan of The Really Useful Box Company - we're going to divide stuff into standard car mode, day-van mode and definitely-camping mode:
- hook-up cables, twin gas hob, under awning ground-sheet & tent pegs etc in permanent boot box
- kettle / teabags / sporks / plates / mugs / minimal bathroom bag / loo roll etc in rear bench box & drawer
- Duvalays & baked-beans box added if there's a whiff of a possibility of a sleep-out
- add clothes squashy North Face hold-alls on top of MultiFlex (one each max) if it's a definite camping trip
Years on sites observing the other punters (from my own broad range of vehicles) has convinced me there are three broad types:
- go & only watch Sky telly, albeit with a more scenic backdrop than at your own house (caravan)
- minimum viable kit as hardly in van as really only there to waterski / mountain climb / bike (conversion)
- keeping busy constantly getting specially bought tiny things in & out of tiny cupboards (motor home)
VW vans are slightly different to me as most (generalising) are more about the travel / touring part of things, so in turn more prepared to put up with the compromise of a smaller sized van for the car-like convenience of travel - the journey is the destination, not something to be endured. It's a very personal decision as to whether you'd miss the SE creature comforts, but to me it's a simpler choice of whether you see your van as a car with a bed in it or as a house with wheels on.
There are also no bad choices here - I'd be thrilled with either & there's more that unites 'em than divides 'em