What do we love about our VW California campervan?

Now this could be a very long list so I’ll try and summarise. Frankly it is a simply brilliant piece of kit. It has been described as ‘the Swiss Army knife’ vehicle and that is a pretty good description!!!

• The electric raising roof is brilliant. After a long drive you simple push a button and ‘voila’ your upstairs DOUBLE bed is ready!!
• There is plenty of storage space is cupboards, draws, wardrobe and even alockable safe.
• The two hob gas cooker, fridge & sink set up when combined with the sliding table creates a very useful kitchen area if the weather isn’t suitable for prepping and cooking outside.
• The chairs and camping table that fit into the doors are brilliant and have never let us down. We do need extra chairs though for the children and usually take  folding picnic table & bench.
• The camping / surf shower isn’t what you would call powerful, but it is adequate if you’re wild camping, at a music festival or if you want a quick rinse after swimming, surfing, diving etc. It is also VERY handy if you have dogs that like to get dirty like ours do!!
• The integrated blinds are good and you can block out pretty much all of the light around the sides. The front blinds do leave a bit of a gap (but then we tend to take a windscreen cover too as this helps keep the van cool / warm).
• The fridge is cavernous and we’ve lasted several days on supplies. It can get a bit wet at the bottom with condensation and you have to be careful not to have it set too high as it will freeze!!
• The camping heater is very useful when camping in colder areas. It can be a little noisy when it first kicks in and it will ‘click’ a little throughout the night. We’re wary of using it next to tents as we don’t want to annoy people and it does run off diesel so there are fumes outside. 
• We opted for a two-ball and in our opinion it is much better that the rear door mounted bike rack for transporting bikes. With the bikes on the door, you cant get into the boot which can be a problem.
• We like to listen to music and have been very pleased with the Dynaudio stereo upgrade. It’s a great sounding system (though have bass will vibrate everything in the campervan and that can be annoying).
• Apple CarPlay works well and means that we can use Spotify for music and Waze as a Sat Nav. The proprietary VW satnav is ok (but VW Car Net is a complete waste of money if you have a smartphone and internet access).
•  The DSG automatic gearbox was an expensive upgrade, but is very smooth and makes it easy when driving in heavy traffic (the start/stop engine function can be annoying and sometimes kicks in too early).
• Heated front screen has been very useful in sub zero temps and allows you to clear the windscreen very quickly.
• The wind out awning has been great as a sun shade and if you angle it correctly, it keeps the rain off too. Just be careful not to use it in high winds. There are cool panels that you can add to the awning using the sliding kador rail and velcro tabs, which creates a very useful awning for bad weather.
• As you’d expect with a campervan (especially when fully loaded) rear visibility can be a challenge. Parking sensors and the parking camera have saved many a scrape.