VW Camper Tour | Casual Luxury Offsites

VW Camper Offsites

California Team Building

Gather your friends, family or colleagues together and prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime camping adventure, traveling back in time to experience the real California, the way they did in the ‘60s. Your vintage VW camper, detailed itinerary and private guides await.

No major, crowded highways for you. Instead, drive the California backroads, soaking up the sand and sun with your friends. Road trip destinations include desolate Joshua Tree National Park, the picturesque Pacific Coast Highway and more.

As a sign of the times, you’ll be socially distanced in your classic VW camper, with a caterpillar of friends in the same iconic vehicle following behind you.

Speak to a Human

VW Retreat Highlights

A traditional California road trip
Great adventure for first-time campers
Breathe fresh air, away from city pollution
A chance to truly connect with family or friends
Experience California’s more quirky attractions
Glamp in a way cool vintage VW camper

Included

Private tour guides
All camping equipment
All bedding, linens and pillows
Scrumptious campfire meals
Your own VW camper to drive
Just fly into Orange County (SNA) — we’ll do the rest.

Group’s Interests

Reduce your stress by cruising the scenic California byways as we did back in the day. When was the last time you had a break from your email? Or silenced your never-ending phone notifications? Our VW camper offsite offers the opportunity to explore California’s small towns and famous national parks while learning about your colleagues the old-fashioned way.

Not Included

Add-ons allow your team to plan a road trip based on your interests. From hiking between Joshua Tree’s moon-like boulders to wine tasting in Paso Robles or whale watching in Santa Barbara, we can fine-tune your private retreat to be a memorable one, a story your team will cherish for years to come.

*COVID-19 Policies : Our team is dedicated to providing a safe, healthy environment for all our guests and employees. Read our full list of preventative actions on our COVID-19 page.

Transportation

Practice your peace signs as you turn heads while cruising in your classic VW camper convoy. Your personal, fine-tuned VW camper will be driven by you — current driver’s license required (age 25 minimum) — with ample opportunity for pit stops, roadside attractions and more. Even bring Rover: well-behaved pets are welcome.

Best Campfire Meals

Enjoy card games at the picnic table as your campfire meal is prepared, or dine at one of California’s famous seaside restaurants. Local cuisine, homemade cooking and marshmallow s’mores — nothing is off the table when it comes to planning and creating your custom VW camper offsite.

Private Guides

Exploring quirky and classic California destinations is better when you go with the correct hosts. Our private guides will make your first time behind the wheel of your VW camper – even your first time camping, if that’s the case – a week to remember.

Spend your nights looking up at the bright Milky Way, or take an afternoon nap in your VW camper above a Pacific Ocean cliffside. Your group will never feel lost with our support crew paving the way.

Choose Your Style

What’s best for your private group?

California Coast
Pacific Coast Highway
Explore the famous California coastline with your friends.
National Parks
Joshua Tree National Park
Hike along the Mojave Desert’s desolate trails, away from the crowds.

National Parks
Accommodation
Budget, Midrange, Luxury
Choose the camping style that’s best for your team.
From Orange County
Starting Point
Begin from your hotel’s front door near Anaheim.

From Orange County

Next Steps

Feel free to check out our FAQ page, fill out our Planning Form or give us a call for a clearer understanding of your possibilities. Only when we’re in the same mindset can we begin to create the best VW camping offsite for your team.

Discovery Session
What is the average age of your group? Are there any physical limitations? What kind of feeling do you wish to give your team? Our private guides will help you determine the best offsite style in relation to your group size, budget, and time frame. How many days will you be visiting California in total?
Rooming List and Group Add-Ons
Then complete your Rooming List, with accommodation options ranging from budget to luxury, and varying based on location, followed by selecting your Group Add-Ons — those extra activities that enhance your team’s offsite experience such as wine tasting, solo camping and more.
Disclaimer for VW Camping
Our private guides retain the right to adjust your final route based on unforeseen circumstances. This may include traffic, wildlife, road construction, fires, rock falls or accommodation availability. We recommend travel insurance to cover your potential expenses in case any of these unexpected events occur.

Moreover, we understand that Mother Nature doesn’t always behave as planned. While we aim for a flawless VW camper experience, some retreats may not be possible due to national park regulations, topography limitations or seasonal weather. We apologize in advance if we cannot fulfill your request.

Lastly, each driver will be required to fill out our Driver Authorization Form with insurance approval required. A valid driver’s license (not a photocopy) is required for drivers to operate our vehicles with no exceptions.

Have Questions?

See our frequently asked questions or contact one of our private guides today.

FAQ Contact Us

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Employee Happiness on VW Camping Corporate Retreat

Private VW Corporate Offsite in California

Joshua Tree Camping Offsite | SAMPLE ITINERARY

For Six C-Suite Executives and Their Families

Buckle your seatbelts for the California camper offsite of a lifetime. Your Joshua Tree Corporate Retreat features you and your colleagues – whether friends, family, coworkers or even your dog – socially distanced, if necessary, and ready to explore the storied Palm Desert in winter. Leave your whirring laptop behind for California’s most original road trip, featuring national parks, sizzling campfire cooking, refreshing mineral hot springs and more.

The Challenge

Camping Inquiry

An HR representative from a Los Angeles-based corporation called us to inquire about a new employee offsite, one that would bring team building and family interaction together. After a quick phone call and brainstorming session with their team leaders, Stacy and John, our private guides offered our VW Camper Road Trip, a unique corporate retreat designed to enable your employees and executives to slow down – a camping offsite created for their team to experience the lesser known, thus typically uncrowded, yet still amazing attractions in California.

Connect by Phone
The company, with six executives (14 guests in all, including their significant others and kids), wanted to partake in a camping adventure as part of their annual corporate retreat, seeking an original experience in nature, one the whole family could enjoy.
Questions
In a detailed discovery session, we asked more questions, with the intention of fine tuning their request: What is your group’s time frame? Where is your team specifically coming from? Are there physical or dietary limitations? Have any of the players been to California before? What does success look like in your eyes?
Select Your Package
Stacy and John then decided, after a thorough phone discussion with our private guides, to explore the Palm Desert in winter, a vintage VW camping offsite designed for their team (and families) to explore California in a laid-back and turnkey manner.

How We Planned

California is a large state with many world-famous sights. But hopping behind the wheel of a VW camper allows adventurers to take a step back in time and experience the more quirky attractions. These are the Americana gems often missed on road trips in a Tesla or modern SUV. Yet, once explored, you’ll wonder why you passed them up in the first place (Think of the Route 66 movie Cars.) We explained this mindset to Stacy and John, and once we were all on the same page, we moved forward to the next steps in their planning process.

Rooming List
With the Palm Desert chosen as their destination, Stacy and John then completed their Rooming List, following our recommendation of two guests per VW camper, although more combinations also were available.
Group Add-Ons
Our guides then talked to Stacy and John about their available Group Add-Ons and how each may add to their team’s overall experience.
Confirmation
Once their itinerary, Rooming List and Group Add-Ons were completed, we were able to save the dates, accept their retreat deposit and send their confirmation documents via email.

The Itinerary

Stacy and John’s Joshua Tree Corporate Retreat was planned for four days, including three nights of desert camping for their excited team. We would begin in Newport Beach in our trusty VW campers on a Friday morning, road tripping to both Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs over the weekend, eventually returning to Orange County for the team to begin their annual in-house board meetings on Tuesday.

Attractions in the desert would include Pioneertown, hiking among Joshua Tree’s moon-like boulders and exploring the chic shops of Palm Springs, with our basecamp as Desert Hot Springs, where they could bask in the famous mineral hot tubs for relaxation in between. We would provide six VW vehicles for the team, with eight VWs (including our private guides) in total.

Arrival Day

Arrive in Newport Beach

The team and their families were flying in from all over America for their annual meeting. Several of them had been to Newport Beach before…but none while driving in a classic VW camper. So when they flew into John Wayne Airport (SNA), they came directly to world headquarters to check out their new vintage rides. That evening, once their paperwork was submitted and their insurance issued (similar to renting a car at the airport), the families were free to cruise along the Newport Beach coastline in the glorious California sunshine.

Welcome to SoCal
With most families coming from the East Coast, the team made sure to pick up their VW campers before checking into their hotel. We always recommend a travel day, one to arrive at your destination smoothly and without any headaches.
Your VW Camper
We then showed the families the basics of their “new” VW campers – how to pop their canopies, use the VW cooktops and Los Angeles driving tips. We also suggested packing their campers that evening as they enjoyed a Pacific Ocean sunset.
Dinner
The families explored Newport Beach, using our homemade map, and chose a nice restaurant for dinner before returning to their hotel rooms for a good night’s sleep.

Day One

Depart for the Desert

The next morning, meeting at world headquarters in Costa Mesa, with the coffee hot and ready, we assembled the corporate team and their one-of-a-kind VW campers to go over the ground rules of our adventure. We explained our stops for the day, emphasizing no texting while driving (safety is paramount!), and how our private guides would lead the road trip. If anyone were to fall behind or lose our group while driving (which happens rarely), our itinerary and daily stops were listed in their dashboard paper documents.

8 a.m.
Meeting the team early, our guides performed one final gear check, answered any last-minute questions and we were on our way.
10 a.m.
After cruising along California’s famous Highway 101, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, we turned inland to cross over the lesser-explored Cuyamaca Mountains. Our first stop was Julian, a small Gold Rush town known for its apple orchards and Wild West-era architecture.
Noon
After savoring the town’s legendary apple pie, we leisurely strolled past Julian’s old jail before descending into the desert in our VW camper convoy. We searched for the famous Borrego Cimarron, or bighorn sheep, as we drove.

Hot Springs Solitude

Our basecamp was nestled in Desert Hot Springs, a small town renowned for its natural mineral springs and accommodating resorts, an ideal VW camping set-up for all ages and mobility levels. But prior to our arrival at camp, each family, including our guides, made a stop at the local grocery store to gather our personal provisions for the weekend. We stocked up on snacks, four days’ worth of lunch ingredients and other items of individual preference for our famous potluck dinner on our final night.

1 p.m.
Stopping for restrooms and to gather groceries, we filled our VW camper fridges and topped our vehicles’ gas tanks (91 octane only) before exploring Borrego Springs’ famous metal-statue garden.
4 p.m.
After driving a few more striking, desolate Mojave desert roads, we arrived at Desert Hot Springs, our beloved basecamp for the next few nights. The team popped their VW camper tops for the first time and delighted in the pink sunset.
6 p.m.
With our VW campers now ready, the families enjoyed snacks, conversation and a dip in the hot springs as our private guides prepared a casual dinner of burgers and vegetarian options. The team enjoyed their desert setting, eager for the stars to appear.

Day Two

Hello, Sunshine!

The group awoke to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, although some early risers took charge and brewed their own coffee using their VW camper cooktops (they were still on East Coast time). After our breakfast, including both savory and sweet options, the folks then closed their VW camper pop tops and we departed for our day in Joshua Tree National Park. In true road-trip fashion, the families had the option to stay the night in Joshua Tree (depending on campsite availability) or return to our basecamp for more mineral-bath solitude.

6 a.m.
Coffee and breakfast were ready for the early risers, with some families even hopping in the hot mineral springs to begin their day off right. The morning was theirs to enjoy, away from their email and texting.
9 a.m.
Next we departed for Pioneertown, an 1880s-themed town developed as a shooting location for Hollywood western films. Have you ever walked through a set of swinging saloon doors? There’s a unique photo op.
11 a.m.
Once we arrived at Joshua Tree National Park, our private guides explained the best strategy for each family to enjoy a successful day. Options included hiking, exploring the unique desert plant life during the stunning spring super-bloom and taking unique and fun photos.

Hiking Joshua Tree

Ready with lunch provisions stored in their VW campers, each family had the day in Joshua Tree to themselves. Some ventured on longer hikes, while others preferred a scenic drive through the park to absorb as much as possible before returning to our comforting hot-springs basecamp. Our favorite parts about Joshua Tree? The absence of cell signal, giving the families the perfect opportunity to disconnect and embrace a slower pace.

12 p.m.
With their VW campers stocked, the families had the freedom and flexibility to stop wherever anyone pleased. Options included enjoying a picnic lunch below a Joshua tree or indulging in a well-deserved, shady nap after a few miles of trail hiking.
3 p.m.
After a good day of exploring, those who chose to stay in Joshua Tree popped their VW canopies, while those wishing for a relaxing hot-tub evening returned to basecamp.
Is Solo Camping for You?
Although not mandatory, Joshua Tree camping was available for anyone who wished to experience solo camping. Three families chose to stay the night, while the rest returned to the hot springs to soak their tired hiking legs.
5 p.m.
Dinner was on the families’ own tonight, with some choosing to cook on their VW cooktops, while others preferred the full service at a restaurant. One of our private guides stayed in Joshua Tree with the families; the other assisted the hot springs team at basecamp.

Day Three

Palm Springs Glam

After preparing breakfast and enjoying the crisp morning, the hum of VW camper engines broke our peaceful camping setting as we stepped on the gas to cruise past the legendary Palm Springs multi-colored landmarks. Meanwhile, those who opted for a night of camping in Joshua Tree in their VW campers would join us in Palm Springs later in the afternoon. The families had the freedom to roam the desert at their leisure today, with the understanding that all would reconvene at 4 p.m. at our basecamp for our infamous group potluck dinner.

7 a.m.
Some families woke up early for a hot breakfast, while others chose to stay under their VW duvets for a few more hours of rest and relaxation.
10 a.m.
We showed the group the distinctive architecture of Palm Springs, including Elvis’s honeymoon hideaway and Frank Sinatra’s former winter residence, and also explained the process of hiking Mount San Jacinto for anyone who was interested.
11:30 a.m.
The team strolled Palm Canyon Drive, admired the shag-themed shops and found a good lunch spot with suggestions from our private guide.

Potluck to Remember

After three days immersed in the desert, it was time to bring the families together for one final, memorable dinner. The assignment was for everyone to cook using their VW camper stoves, with the idea that, whether your dish resulted in a good or bad taste, a meal prepared with friends and the stories exchanged, taking place in a picturesque desert setting, were what created lifelong and fulfilling memories. The top culinary kudos of the night went to Sean, whose now-legendary asparagus dish became the talk of the evening. Are you a chef at heart or a newbie?

4 p.m.
The families tested their cooking skills by preparing their potluck dinner on their VW camper cooktops. We asked for everyone’s VW campers to be set up for visitors, with the front seat swiveled and their common areas tidy.
6 p.m.
The families sampled potluck dishes, swapped stories and dipped in the mineral hot springs as the sun set behind the mountains. Cold drinks, laughter and card games kept the night entertaining, with the group bonding in the old-fashioned way.
Potluck Dinner
Every potluck dinner evening carries its own personal touches. Some groups enjoy a few drinks, while others delight in shared tales or both. The point is to be relaxed with one another in a natural environment. Why choose an uptight routine when the beauty of spontaneity awaits?

Day Four

Goodbye Desert

Our last morning in the desert kicked off with our guides whipping up another campfire breakfast, setting the morning tone for a leisurely pack-up before our final journey home. The families relished their last hot-spring soak, then packed their suitcases in preparation for a quick transfer from their VW to their hotel once they returned to Orange County. Our normal, modern lives were about to resume again, but the team felt refreshed and recharged to check their emails in preparation for their annual meeting.

10 a.m.
We closed our VW pop tops for the last time and said goodbye to our desert home. The families were now pros at operating their VW campers, with zero help required from our private guides (although it was always on offer).
1 p.m.
Two stops then followed. One was at the first McDonald’s on earth, which eventually revolutionized the restaurant industry. And the other was a pit-stop for Route 66 photos and souvenirs at the historic Wigwam Hotel.
2 p.m.
Is there anything more iconic than a California road trip? We think not. Only a few days ago, we were learning how to operate our VW campers; now we were experts, cruising as they did back in the ‘60s. The families soaked up the last moments of their unforgettable glamping experience.
Heartfelt Farewells
The group then checked into their hotel to wash off the desert grit and said goodbye to their VW campers. The next couple of days involved an annual meeting for the execs, with their families enjoying free time at Disneyland.

A Quick Recap

Palm Desert VW Camper Road Trip

14 Guests

4 days, 3 nights

VW Camping

Add-Ons: Hot Springs, Socks

A Final Note On Camping Offsites

California is a location that can be experienced in many ways; you’re only limited by your imagination. So why not go back in time to experience California as it was? Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be – it’s better

We were proud to show the families this original road-trip lifestyle in a VW camper, with not everything about fast cars or internet connection. And much of the fulfillment came from the time spent with each other (and the quirky stops), rather than by seeing and visiting the typical California attractions, such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Wine Tasting on private California coast tour

Where We Went

On Our VW Camping Offsite

Team Building’s New Era

In a world of editing, filters and autotune, give your colleages the experience they subconsciously crave – a true, authentic connection with each other, one they cannot find on a phone or online. Slowing down as a private group, with patience, is a pastime we as a modern society seem to have forgotten.

We’re talking about genuine one-on-one interaction. Even time to peacefully reflect as you watch the clouds float by. When was the last time you lived in the here and now with your friends?

Get away from behind your desk and feel what it’s like to live in the slow lane. VW camping options range from luxury to casual. Give it a try and you’ll realize that this type of camping road trip is a rewarding experience. Go Camping »