benivanadventures

The Jurassic Coast - Dorset May 2019 After our last trip out at Easter we were really looking forward to our next, the Whitsun (end of May) bank holiday has for many years a chance to meet up with friends Alan, Cathy, Geoff and Jayne, they have had campervans or motorhomes for many years and are seasoned campers. This year we decided to take a trip down to Weymouth on the Jurassic coast, Alan suggested that we try out a Camping & Caravanning Club THS (temporary holiday site)  and at £12.00 per night was by far a lot cheaper than any of the commercial sites. We phoned to make sure they had space and if we could have three pitches together, pitches?? err, three, err, no problem. Saturday 25th May We left mid morning and as it was a bank holiday Saturday we made the decision to that the old roads down to Dorset rather than take the motorway, roads should be quieter and far more scenic. The morning soon went and lunch time was upon us...

Isle Of Anglesey April 2019 We started to plan our next mini touring holiday the day we got back from the last. The good lady wanted to go to Anglesey, North Wales, our plan, if you can call it a plan was to cross the bridge over the menhir straights and travel around the island anti-clockwise and, well that was as far as the plan got. We left home on the Thusday before Easter, had a lovely trip up through Snowdonia National park and crossed onto the Isle of Anglesey for lunch, found a smashing pull in over looking the straits towards the old menhir bridge. Having had lunch, we went for a short walk then snoozed, perhaps for a little longer than we should have because when we awoke it was getting later in the afternoon and had not found anywhere to camp, checking on the camping and caravaning club app we found a small site not to far away and they had got space for tonight but were fully booked for the Easter weekend, we put the postcode into the now frustrating sat-nav,...

Our First Trip March 2019 After picking up the Benivan 120 we decided to take our first trip out to Tenby, Pembrokeshire. We put a few items in the van, topped up with water then ventured out to fill the under floor gas tank, I'm sure that petrol stations put the LPG pumps in the most difficult places so as to entertain the staff watching 'newbies' struggling to position their vans, then comes the connection of the pump to the van, not rocket science you would think but after about fifteen minutes trying a kind gentleman waiting behind us came over, which was a god send especially as I then had to operate the pump itself. Eventually all done with the added bonus that a full tank cost about £7.00. Onward to Wales, a good drive from the midlands to Tenby, on arrival we went out to Manorbier our favorite area on the coast, we took Izzy our ruby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, for a walk on the beach. It was March but the weather was lovely, the time s...

In The Begining.. When we first started our epic search for a new van we knew exactly what we were looking for, or so we thought, a Renault Trafic sized van with pop up roof, rock 'n roll bed, side kitchen, something that would go in our garage, it would be just like the old days. After going to the NEC to finalise our decision we both decided that it was not for us, there wasn't enough space and we really needed a toilet / washroom. Back to the drawing board. We started again, listing what we needed, what we would like, what we did not want, we needed a van that we could use for weekends as well as longer holidays or even months away but not a coach-built motorhome as size matters, in that, we wanted to get to small destinations, as one salesman said "if white van man can get there so can you"  Our new ideas came in with a Ducato sized van with front dinette and rear lounge / bed, we found a few that were in our price range, however, we found tha...