About banda
Our gang (slov. banda)
We are a family of five from the Slovenian coast, who like to travel, camp, explore new places, climb mountains, go on trips, or sometimes just go for a drive without a defined final destination. We are spontaneous and flexible, as are all our plans. Because we are a big family, it is almost impossible for everything to always go according to the original plan, for that reason we like making plans on the go - often only for an hour in advance. To others it may seem odd that on some days in the afternoon we still do not have a fixed plan about the location where to spend the night. Or that we change the plan at the last minute and sleep by the lake in the hills instead of sleeping by the sea, 200 km in the opposite direction. This became even easier after our van conversion, because we are no longer dependent on the occupancy of the accommodation infrastructure.
The beginnings of our travels
Miha and I travelled a lot during our student years, even before we met. Then we started enjoying it together. I will never forget the golden age of cheap Ryanair airline tickets, when one could travel to the other side of Europe for just 5 €. If you were a lucky duck, you caught a ticket for just 0.99 € ! Our first trips together were in the company of friends to Krakow (Poland) and a month later to Sardinia (Italy), where we wandered around and slept in a hostel for 5 days. This was followed by my adventurous car trip to Brussels when, in March 2010, after more than 200 years, a volcano erupted in Iceland, paralyzing all air traffic. Miha could not leave Brussels, as tickets for buses and trains were sold out immediately. After 3 days of waiting, I decided to take my little Twingo for a trip to Brussels to pick up my future husband and possibly some others in need of a ride. After our summer camping with bikes on Mali Lošinj (Hrvaška), we moved together to the Netherlands at the end of August. We lived there 6 months and travelled around even more. The Netherlands, England, Sweden … pregnancy was not an obstacle for us either.
All of a sudden we were no longer alone ...
After Luka was born, we started camping more. However, when he was 2 years old, we planned a 13-day trip to mainland Spain and Tenerife: 3 days of Valencia, 7 days of Tenerife, a day in Seville and again 2 days of Valencia - fantastic! 5 flights, 7 days of car rental and a great public transport in Valencia. Yes, even with a child, traveling is more than a possibility; in fact, they are much more flexible than we adults are.
The following year we became a family of 4. Zala was 2 years old when we got her on a plane and spent the Christmas holidays on the sunny Malta. The challenge of driving “like the English do" on the left side of the road in a rented car- accepted. We managed to take photos of the Azure Window on the island of Gozo, which collapsed into the sea only 3 months later during a storm. In case you do not know, among other things, the first episode of Game of Thrones was filmed there.
From 4 to 5
When our youngest member of the gang Žana was born, it became a bit crowded in our Dacia Dokker. We had to find and buy the narrowest child car seats, so that all 3 could fit on the back seat. Still, we managed to pack everything (and more) into the car and onto the car, for camping. By the way, our children camped for the first time at the age of two months. Žana was one year old when we went on our first Balkan road trip as a big family during the spring holidays: Zadar-Split-Neum-Pelješac Peninsula-Mostar-Međugorje-Šibenik. We planned and booked our accommodation online every day on the go, which works wonderful if you travel outside the top summer season.
Buying a van - when, why and how
With the increase in the number of family members and the end of the golden age of cheap airline tickets, long distance travel has become much more expensive for us. By the way, we calculated that the cost of airline tickets to Spain or Greece would cost us over 1000 €. Plus the cost of a car rental, as we like to stay mobile and explore. We have been dreaming about a van for some time, so the solution was obvious. I will write more about how we approached the choice of the van type in a special post, because it is a long story and deserves special attention. However, the decision for the Renault Trafic Spaceclass van prevailed, mainly at the expense of interior space measurements. This was followed by a DIY conversion, which we carried out - from the idea, plans and production - completely on our own. We are still thinking and planning some improvements, but everything is in regular use. It takes 5 minutes to convert the interior of the van into a bedroom for 5.
The creation of our blog
The idea of our own blog has been maturing in our heads for some time. Especially when we were looking for information and breaking new ground on the topics of travel, planning, transportation, buying a van, van conversions, assembling certain things in or on the car, etc. In short, we obtained information and knowledge often based on our own experience, because Google sometimes still doesn't know it all ;) . In those occasions, we often thought that perhaps the information we gained might be useful to someone else. From the Idea - desire - gathering information – to gathering courage – and now we have it, our own blog! Enjoy your reading and we hope you will find our blog informative!
