For a very long time it has been on our "bucket List" to drive a vintage VW camper along the California coast. After a little searching we found a company that rents out vintage buses! Happy Day!!!
Vintage Surfari Wagons offers nostalgic VW camper buses for rent/hire from our Los Angeles area location.
Our little green bus/tardy turtle was a perfect little ride for us.... it came with everything you would need to camp. We stayed in hotels along the way....but it would be totally do-able to camp....we just like our soft bed and nice shower. (smile)
We rented tardy turtle for five days....starting in Costa Mesa, driving up hwy 1 to Big Sur and back.
Knowing what I know now...I would opt to start closer to Big sur, like around Cambria or even Malibu. It took us 4 hours just to get out of town and close to coastal views.
We jotted down tons of things to do, places to see and eat, and everything else based on recommendations we’d received, however, didn’t pre-book anything except the vintage van. ( we were able to use our SPG points to stay at half of the hotels)
It was just a stop and go as you please kind of trip.
Our Trip at a glance-
Day 1 morning picked up VW in Costa Mesa
– Manhattan Beach
– Santa Monica Pier
– Spent the night in Ventura Ca.
Day 2:
- Solvang Ca.
– Stop off at a beach
– Morro Bay
Day 3 and 4 stayed in Cambria
– Big Sur
– McWay Falls
– Bixby Bridge
Day 4- Venice beach
Day 5- Los Angles area returned Van
This is just a glance at what we did....we stopped and looked at so many different places along the coast.....hard to list them all.
The van was fun to drive.....well, I didn't drive, Dan did all the driving. The no power brakes, no power steering, and stick shift....kind of made the decision for me.
But the "vintage" of the van made it all the more fun to drive/ for Danny.
Nice and slow
Here is a pictorial look at our trip.
In Cambria we shopped the downtown area for a little bit. This shop is awesome, stop in to taste test best gourmet olive oil and Balsamic vinegar . They also have an on line store Montello Fine foods check them out!
Big Sur with Bixby bridge in the background
Watching the whales at sunset.
Vintage meets modern .... we stayed at hotels along our way (smile)
We had a wonderful relaxing time!
For more pictures check out my Instagram account; teresaandersen1
Happy Day!