Why the camper van craze is here to stay

Britain’s staycation charge has seen thousands of people buying campervans for the first time, not least the classic VWs beloved of hippies, surfers and generations of families whose definition of a good day out is a Thermos flask of tea.

These clattery, engine-in-the-back vehicles already had cult status, but it seems the pandemic has supercharged their appeal, with demand for VW campers soaring both before and after lockdown. But what’s it like living with a box on wheels originally conceived seventy plus years ago?

Fun, according Midlands-based Graham ‘Dougie’ Douglas, who owns two 1966 and ’67 vans, the latter, a retired Austrian police minibus, bought on a whim in 2006 when his wife and family were out and he had nothing but eBay for company.

She wasn’t enthusiastic, but if we lost everything, my wife would want it to be the last thing to go,’ said Dougie, who reckons one of his van’s great virtues is that it slows everything down.