Hi
My name is Seb (Sebastien) and I come from Toulouse, France.
I have a 1966 VW bus since 9 years and I used to use it on week-ends and holidays so as to travel around Europe (Portugal, Spain, France and Corsica).
This bus used to be a panelvan modified by a previous owner (windows and ragtop). I wanted to converted it with original windows frames and samba sunroof (that I've got) but I didn't have enough time to do it.
I made most of the things on the bus by myself : IRS conversion with 8x33 beetle gearbox and 1968 baywindows drums at the rear, 1835 engine, dropped spindles and CSP disc brakes in front. We made with my girlfriend Soizic by ourselves all the furnitures inside including a 12V mini fridge and a RnR bed more or less like a SO42.
We was dreaming since a long time to do a big trip but for us it was impossible to think that we should be able to afford it because we are not millionaires and we didn't win at the lottery. So, in july 2012 we decided to sell all we had in order to afford a one year trip. We sold our 2 modern cars, our furnitures, TV, washing machine, fridge…, and we left our flat we used to rent. By sleeping in the car and cooking inside we saved money.
We really wanted to do this trip with our VW bus because thanks to this car you can meet a lot of nice people all around the world.
Soizic is a school teacher (she teach to students between 9 and 10 years old) and she took a sabbatical year (w/o incomes) and me I used to import RV's (I quitted my job).

The bus :






The 7th of july 2012, I left Toulouse with a journalist in direction of Rotterdam (Netherland) in order to load the bus on a container.


Rotterdam, Netherland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gFbznrNuJc

Where did you ship the bus too?

Looking forward to this thread - what having a bus is all about, using it

he he !
You will know tomorrow

Exciting stuff!

Much respect Looking forward to this story

Sounds like its going to be a great Le road trip , i'm onboard..

The 20th of july 2012, we took the plane from Paris to NY (USA) via Iceland.
We initially planned to spend one week in NY then to receive the VW bus but the container had delays so we left NY (too expensive) to go to Quebec in Canada by bus (public bus). We went to Montreal and Quebec city. There we rent a mid class car (Toyota matrix) and we converted it into a campervan (we bought some swimming pool mattresses and some blankets and we drove to Tadoussac to see the big blue whales and to Gaspesie (2500kms in 1 week).
Finally, we received our VW bus the 16th of august in New Jersey port (NY) after 3 weeks delay.
We crossed US from East to West (more than 12 000kms in 2 months). We had been to the Niagara falls, Great lakes, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Salt Lake city & Bonneville (we saw a race), Yosemite, San Francisco, Route One to LA (in order to tune up the engine at Vintage Autohaus before the desert) then Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley & then we came back to LA via the Route 66 in order to load again the bus on a container to the next destination. Thanks to the help of Vintage Autohaus, I swapped my dropped spindles to original spindles with big off road tires. You will understand why soon...




Manhattan NYC, NY, USA


Niagara Falls, On, Canada


Great Lakes, On, Canada


Ste Catherine, On, Canada


Lac Michigan, ID, USA


IO, USA


Mount Rushmore, SD, USA




Yellowstone, WY, USA


Bonneville, UT, USA


Yosemite, CA, USA



San Francisco, CA, USA


Malibu, CA, USA


Las Vegas, NV, USA


Grand Canyon, AR, USA


Monument Valley, UT, USA


Route 66, CA, USA


Ruby's Diner LA, CA, USA


Moon, Santa Fe Springs, CA, USA



Los Angeles, CA, USA

Wow! Incredible!

Amazing!!!!!!
To sell up your assets and fund a trip like that takes a brave person, respect to you,

You've achieved what a lot of people would love to do (me included), but most of us get stuck in the rut and rat race of life and are just not brave enough.

Thanks of sharing your epic journey, and to have the memories and diary of your adventures just can't be beaten.




Oh, and by the way ............ Europe next?????

Looks great!. I am planning to ship my S042 over someday soon to take my half American/half dutch 8 year old daughter on the same sort of adventure so she can see where she and I come from.

If you are back in France send me a PM. I spend a lot of time at our house near Sancerre.


Thanks for the inspiration

Bon route!

Excellent! The correct use for a bus

The transit between Los Angeles and the next destination took more or less 4 weeks. Before to start the all trip we knew that and we had to book the return ticket before to enter US. My dream was to visit Hawaii and Soizic's dream was to visit Japan. I was a little bit afraid to go to Japan because of the living cost. Hopefully we booked cheap flights tickets and we managed to visit both destinations.
We took off the 10th of October to Hawaii, Oahu and we found some couch surfing on a boat in Honolulu, cool ! We spent 1 week their and because it was the end of the end of our 3 months visa we left US to Japan. We spent 1 week in Tokyo and 1 week in Kyoto (in BnB). Off course, as VW enthusiasts, we went to Flat 4 Japan.





Honolulu, Hi, USA




Tokyo, Japan


Nara, Japan



Kyoto, Japan

Well done both ,you have all our respect.
You have done something we all dream about.
Wish I had your courage .
Our bus came from New York but never think it will go back.But looking at what you have both done I can now say never say never.
Best wishes
Wayne & Julie

Thanks