Excited new VW California owners!

[NessaMilne]

After many years of wishing and hoping for a VW campervan we have collected our California Ocean. Excited and slightly nervous of our first trip! Any advice welcome!

 

[colintfcolintf]

You could do worse than your first night on your drive! You’ve the backup of your own home and own bed, and if you’ve forgotten something critical then it’s only a few short steps away. Travel light, and stay local

 

[Perfectos]

Any advice welcome

Enjoy it

 

[24OCEAN]

Travel light!

 

[dspuk]

Get out, use it, don't buy too much cr@p!

 

[AdamsFamily]

Welcome @NessaMilne - its a great feeling after dreaming for years isn't it!
Hope its everything you wished for and more - enjoy.

 

[Jimmylondon07]

Show us a pic then

 

[Groovygrandma]

Congratulations. As relatively new owners ourselves, I agree to travel light and be selective what you pack. Rather than have cupboards full of jars that you might use one day, pack for one or two nights food only. I must admit I originally packed all sorts of everything we might need but over the past 6 months they are gradually coming back out of the van because we haven’t used them. As long as we have water, coffee, milk, eggs, bread (beer and wine), we can shop locally for dinner if we are not eating out. Our first trip was to somewhere we had been camping before so the place was familiar and no nasty surprises. As our heater didn’t work, we soon found that thermal hats were useful in March! Prepare for the seasons. I bought packing cubes for the wardrobe, which stack on top of each other and work really well. It is a learning curve but so satisfying when you manage to store something new! Enjoy!

 

[PerkyCalifornia]

Welcome to a glorious new chapter in your lives!!

There are so many youtube, facebook, insta etc.. tips and tricks you will love trawling through and there are so many wonderful people who have taken time to offer advice, it's a wonderful community (We love waving to fellow campervaners coming in the opposite direction!!), but the one tip i wish i had seen was one that would seem so blinking obvious (until you do it yourself!), is:

Do not use the arm rests on your front seats as a step when going up or coming down from the bed!!!

Your Cali is built to such a high standard but we broke one of ours a few months ago and were gutted. It's such a faff getting them repaired as well.

Enjoy your new family member :0)