Timeline

Title One Big Board Instead of Two: Our Tandem SUP After Four Years

Text We borrowed two boards, sent one tandem straight back to the shop, and then bought the Bluefin Cruise 15 Tandem – four and a half metres of board that both of us fit on, and by now our son as well. Four years of Croatian bays and one Corsican summer later: why we only fit one of its three fins, why the compressor stays at home, and the one part the manufacturer clearly got wrong.

Title Qeedo Motor Tarp: Good Tarp, Slow Setup

Text Before this we tried a cheap tarp with four poles and then a folding gazebo, and neither really worked. The Qeedo Motor Tarp looked made for our T6: around 3 kg, packing down to 101 x 13 cm, 250 x 250 cm of shade, about 150 euros. It is well made and genuinely stable in wind. But without a keder rail we had to guy it over the roof, and getting everything taut kept us busy for half an hour – the telescopic poles slid back together mid-setup more than once. We sold it on again.

Title Renogy 100 W Solar Suitcase – Why We Sold It

Text Our first foldable 80-watt solar bag gave up after a single year, so we wanted something built to last: a hard-shell 100-watt suitcase. It is genuinely solid – thick cables lying out in the open where nothing can chafe, massive hinges, a proper carry case – and it paired perfectly with our self-built battery box. The catch is 9.3 kilos and hard edges. At every single spot you set it up, angle it at the sun and bring it in at night. That got old, so the panel now lives fixed on the roof.

Title A Strange, Quiet Night in the Velebit Mountains

Text The campsites down on the coast were all full, every metre taken and a noisy road alongside, so we drove ten minutes up into the mountains on narrow winding roads. What we found barely counted as a campsite: no reception, no shop, a toilet and maybe a shower, and the rule was roughly park somewhere and pay. The area felt deserted and slightly eerie, with paths simply blocked off. But we hung the hammock from a tree to the roof rail and had one of the most relaxed nights of the trip.

Title The Island of Pag – and a Marriage Proposal

Text We wanted the opposite of the last campsite: smaller, more remote, no speedboats. So we took the ferry to Pag and drove almost the full length of the island. Olea Camping is a bit bare, but laid out in terraces with the pitches looking straight out over the sea. We paddled the coast for days, landing in one small bay after another, red-brown rocks against turquoise water. Storms most nights meant taking the tarp down every evening. And then came pizza, a sunset, and Susi said yes.

Title Plitvice Lakes: Beautiful, but Very Organised

Text We skipped the campsites near the park and found an orchard meadow on Park4Night instead, where we stood almost free among the fruit trees and the owner came by with schnapps in the evening. The lakes themselves are genuinely beautiful: waterfalls everywhere and water so clear that going in is not allowed at all. But it is all fixed routes, built paths and boats, and on some stretches you simply walk in a queue. Read up before you go and your expectations will fit.

Title Premantura: Great Paddling, Chaotic Campsite

Text Our first stop in Croatia, on the Premantura peninsula in Istria – and honestly the campsite was the weak part. Huge and rather chaotic, no marked pitches, sanitary facilities closer to festival standard, and speedboats and quads going all day. What saved it was the water: we paddled along the coast on the SUP, landed on small islets and made it to the cave at the end of the peninsula. Clear and turquoise, and worth the trip. The campsite is not one we would go back to.

Title Camp Spik: A Forest Stopover in the Julian Alps

Text Fred was only looking for somewhere to break the drive down to Croatia, and found Camp Spik more or less by chance. The pitches are arranged in circles among big trees, so it feels like camping in a forest – plenty of shade, and high enough in the valley to stay pleasantly cool in summer. The rock faces of the Julian Alps glow behind it and a clear stream runs nearby. We stayed one night on the way there and one on the way back. As a stopover it is hard to beat.

Title A Week Off-Grid at Lake Neusiedl, Austria

Text Austria's shallowest lake, and a reliable kitesurfing spot thanks to the thermals. It was also the first full week our self-built battery box ran everything: a whole week off-grid with the cool box and all our devices supplied, which is exactly what we built it for. The lake itself was struggling that summer – low water, warm and murky, dead fish on the surface, so swimming was out. The kiting still worked, and the sunset walk to the Podersdorf lighthouse made up for a lot.

Title DIY Solar Battery Box for Camping – €220

Text We wanted to run our compressor fridge without a hookup, and the ready-made power station we tried kept shutting itself off whenever the fridge went into standby. So I built our own: a LiFePO4 battery, an MPPT charge controller and three lit toggle switches in a plain 40 x 30 x 18.5 cm Eurobox, for about 220 €. It powers the fridge, charges phones over USB-A and USB-C, and runs a fan or a string of lights. A few hours of sun a day is all it needs – and it has been going for years.

Title The 15 L Camper Fridge That Runs on Solar

Text We swapped a 60-watt thermoelectric cool box for a 15-litre compressor fridge – and finally got camper van cooling that a small solar panel and a small battery can keep running for days. What actually fits inside (less than you think), how loud it really is at night, and the power station quirk that made us build our own battery box.

Title We Walked Into a Stranger's Wedding in Liguria

Text Our stopover on the way home was a simple room up in Verezzi, in the hills above Finale Ligure. We set off in the wrong direction with all our bags, found a key safe whose code would not work, and slowly noticed the courtyard filling with dressed-up guests – we had wandered into somebody's wedding venue. Once we found the right place, the view from the window was exactly what the photos promised, and the evening ended on the last free bench of a pizzeria high above the coast.

Title Pine Terraces and Kitesurfing on the Côte d'Azur

Text We drove out to the Presqu'île de Giens because the peninsula looked good on the map and the kitesurfing is reliable there. The campsite turned out lovely: pitches terraced into a slope, pine trees everywhere, the scent of resin and dry grass, crickets all evening. Then university friends of Fred came walking down the slope by pure coincidence. One catch when you sleep in the car – once everything is converted for the night you cannot just drive off, so the kite gear went to the spot by bike.

Title The Best Pitch We Ever Had – Dune du Pilat

Text A neighbour at the last campsite tipped us off, and we got the best pitch we have ever had: a forgotten corner spot under old pines, 200 metres above the sea. Too small and steep for bigger cars, so we levelled it with stones we collected by hand. Paragliders circled in front of us, and one morning we climbed Europe's largest sand dune at four to watch the sunrise barefoot. Then the 2022 wildfires took those old pines. Hearing that really hurt – and we would still go back.

Title Vango Tailgate Hub Low on a VW Caddy

Text We wanted a tailgate tent that also works without the car, and the Vango Tailgate Hub Low really does. The build quality is genuinely good, and in rain or cold the covered space is worth a lot. But on a small car like our Caddy the attachment is fiddly, and in even light wind the fabric never settles – not loud, just a soft slap every few seconds, right where your head is when you sleep in the car. That is why we sold it again. Photos from the French Atlantic coast.

Title Wild Camping in France: One Night by a Lake

Text After a few crowded days on the Atlantic coast we needed a night off, so we drove inland to the Étang d'Aureilhan. Susi found a quiet spot right by the water on Park4Night – somehow silent, despite the huge tourist campsite next door. A swim in the lake, pasta cooked on the Ququq rear kitchen, then a blanket, red wine and a sunset we did not see coming. Sometimes the small nights are the best ones.

Title Beach Camping on the Atlantic Coast of the Landes

Text First stop on our big France trip: Camping Municipal de Cap de l'Homy, where a wooden boardwalk leads through the dunes down to endless Atlantic beach. The coast completely won us over – the walk down to the water alone was worth the trip. The campsite itself was busy and we pitched right next to a loud group, so the quiet we were after did not happen that week. Plus two gear lessons we took home: the roof box and the flapping tailgate tent.

Title Ququq KombiBox: Turn a VW Caddy Into a Mini Camper

Text One box, a few minutes, done. The Ququq KombiBox turns an everyday Caddy into a proper mini camper: a two-burner kitchen, a surprisingly comfortable 195 x 110 cm bed and room for the rest – and it lifts straight back out when you need the car to be a car again. It came with us from Slovenia to France and Croatia. The one catch on the short Caddy: the rear seats have to be shoved forward to make the bed fit. We would buy it again anyway.

Title Our First Caddy Trip: Lake Attersee, Austria

Text The first trip with our little yellow Caddy, fitted out with nothing more than a Ququq box: a few quiet days at Lake Attersee in the Salzkammergut, Austria. The water was calm and clear enough to swim straight off the shore, with mountains on every side. The campsite was small and modest, nothing fancy – which suited us exactly. Not a grand adventure, just a small and quiet one. We left feeling lighter.