Our first holiday in our new Twin Supreme 600 SPB! The question of "where" was quickly answered: we had wanted to explore Slovenia for a long time and since this is also the "home" of our Twin, this was to be one of our first vanlife holiday destinations.
What fascinates us about the vanlifestyle? The maximum flexibility. Being able to be in a different place every day and seeing as much of the world as possible. That's why we had chosen a few key points of our itinerary in advance, but otherwise kept our minds open as to where the trip would take us.
At the end of August, we packed our bags and headed for the Upper Palatinate. After a night in the pouring rain at the Vulkanerlebnis Parkstein campsite, we continued directly south via Austria. With every kilometre we drove, the weather got better and we reached Slovenia in bright sunshine.
Our very first stop was an absolute treat for me as a landscape photographer: the Catholic Church of St. Primoz and Felician near Jamnik. Beautiful! The towns of Kranj, Škofja Loka and our overnight stop, the capital Ljubljana, also captivated us immediately.
The next day we set off in the morning towards the Adriatic Sea, with a short detour to Muggia in Italy, to continue from there in the afternoon towards Izola in Slovenia. The highlight of the day: a swim in the sea!
With a hike along the cliff Mesecev Zaliv the next morning, we enjoyed the landscape and the view over the Gulf of Trieste. It was only a stone's throw to Portorož, where we had booked a pitch for the night. We cycled to Piran, a beautiful coastal town. For us, one of the highlights of this trip!
A new day, new destinations: this time the mountain villages of Grožnjan and Motovun in Croatia, where time seems to stand still. We ended the evening by the sea in Novigrad. We had chosen the historic town of Poreč, the crossing of the Lim Fjord and Rovinj for the next day. We found a nice campsite above Rovinj and spent the day sightseeing. In the evening, we treated ourselves to dinner in one of the many restaurants in this charming coastal town in Istria, the perfect end to the day!
Halfway through our first vanlife tour, we reached the southernmost point of our journey: Medulin. Unfortunately, all the parking spaces here were occupied, so we decided to drive back to Slovenia. We found a place to spend the night outside Pivka, near the military museum there. From here we continued north the next day through Kanal ob Soči and to Lake Bohinjsko Jezero. At the lake, the next day greeted us with a breathtaking sunrise. Vanlife at its best!
A short stop in Bled and on we went to the Pokljuka plateau, which we explored with a hike to the mountain village. The panoramic view and the play of nature's colours in September were definitely lasting memories of this trip! The final stop of the day was Lukovica, where we conveniently stopped overnight in the car park of a restaurant.
Our last stops in Slovenia: the town of Kamnik and the high mountain pasture Velika Planina, which we reached by mountain railway. Then it was time to say goodbye to Slovenia and we headed towards Austria to Lake Kopeiner and from there along the Drava river to southern Styria, where we found a fantastic campsite above the vineyards in Leutschach.
The next day took us further home, via Maria Zell, Melk and our overnight destination Weißenkirchen in the Wachau. We visited Dürnstein the next morning, after which we headed for the Lipno reservoir in the Czech Republic as the last stop on our journey. And here, too, the new and last travel day greeted us with a beautiful sunrise, the perfect end to our first vanlife tour!
Our conclusion? Simply great! Every kilometre of the 2,600 km long travel route was more than worth it for us. Travelling itself was very comfortable thanks to the automatic transmission of our Twin Supremes, especially during more difficult mountain passages. Every day in a different place, that's the perfect definition of vanlife for us. Simply setting off, being independent and flexible, and having the ideal base camp and our own home with us in the Twin: for us, the most relaxed way of travelling. Soon it will definitely be time to pack our things into the Twin and off we go!
We - that's Jana, Jens and Patrick Eichler, landscape photographer, from Chemnitz. Follow us on Instagram: @vanlifegermany_patrickeichler.