'The Van' and 'The Clan'

We love creating fun adventures at Big Tree Campervans, and this morning was especially exciting as Duncan Shaw & Ricky Crompton from The Clan arrived to pick up their campervan.  We've teamed up this week with The Clan - Scotland's famous cycling stunt team - after first working with them at the Outdoor Pursuits Show in Glasgow last year.  We've been hatching some fantastic plans for several months now, and it was great to see these two cycle stars finally get to pick up their Big Tree Campervan and start their adventure!  The really exciting part is that Duncan & Ricky are accompanied by Paul MacDonald who's a superb film maker, and the plan over the next week is that they're off on their adventures making a cycling/wake boarding/climbing/bungee jumping/campervan road movie in wonderful Scotland!

Duncan & Ricky's bikes are pretty impressive - an Echo trials bike and an awesome dirt jump bike, and the theme of the trip is all about having fun on their bikes, capturing loads of great stuff on film, and doing some adventurous stuff they've not done before... so we've teamed them up with some other cool adventure providers around Scotland (eg Mike Pescod's Abacus Mountaineering, and the guys at Highland Fling Bungee amongst others). 

We did a wee bit of filming when the guys got here, and now they're off on their Big Tree Campervan adventure extravaganza.  We're going to try and hook up with them later in the week to see how they're getting on, and I know we'll be in for a real treat of a movie when it's all finished in a few weeks time!

Arisaig Adventures

Every so often we have a snatched opportunity to get away in one of our own campervans... and checking our 'In-Out' schedule this weekend, we realised we could pack a van on Friday, look after some customers on Friday evening, then zoom off early on Saturday and get back for late Sunday afternoon. Van packed, family in, and it was off up the A9, across the Laggan road to Ft William, then the stunning drive down 'Harry Potter Valley' (aka Glenn Finnan) to see our pals Julie & Ian at Sunnyside Croft in Arisaig.

We often recommend Julie & Ian and their fab new site at Arisaig, and for very, very good reasons! There are lots of sites at Arisaig, but Julie & Ian took the great step last year of setting up a brand new 37-pitch site on their croft right by the gorgeous sandy beaches at the bottom of their land. They've done an amazing job, with a lovely eco-friendly shower/loo/facilities block, a great wee shop with local produce (but sensibly not trying to compete with the Spar in Arisaig village), very generous pitch sizes... I do so hate it when sites try and cram you together!. Most importantly, Julie & Ian major on friendly and genuine customer service, which is almost (almost!) as good as Big Tree Campervan's !!!. The views out to Skye, Rum and Eigg are awesome, and the beaches could be in the Seychelles.... It's still April of course, so no swimming (yet), but superb pottering around rock-pools and wading across sand bars to fun wee islands, then back to a cosy campervan (heating on full blast in the icy wind!) for a meal, then a movie on the DVD player.

So, all in all, an excellent snatched wee trip away!

Awesome April - 30% off Big Tree Campervan adventures!!

April can be a fantastic time for campervan adventures in Scotland, with snow still on the high mountains, but spring-like in the glens. We’re really busy during this April, but we’ve also got the following last minute slots left:

4 berth Elevating Roof Campervan April 17th – 19th, and 23rd – 27th

2 berth Hi-Top Campervan April 13th – 16th, and 13th – 18th.

And here’s the great news.... any three days in the above dates are now only £180, that’s an Awesome April saving of 30%!

If you want to add extra days, then you can combine your Awesome April days with a longer adventure, so if you want to hire a campervan for, say six days, three will be at the normal April rate of £90/day, and three at the Awesome April rate of £60!

It's the little things which really count....

I read an interesting article in Saturday's Money Guardian where a customer of 'MotorHolme' was really dissatisfied with the small print in this (fairly large) motorhome rental company's terms & conditions... to the point where they tried (unsuccessfully) to get their money back. After reading the article I sat back and realised just how good our own approach to the 'fine print' is, and how we hope we've made it easy for Big Tree Campervans customers to see and understand what they are getting when they book with us.

For example, according to the article, MotorHolme take a £1,250 security deposit up front... Big Tree Campervans ask for a £750 security deposit and all we do is take the customer's card details when they pick up their campervan - we don't take any money unless the campervan gets damaged; Motorholme have a clause whereby they charge £3,000 if the campervan is stolen (!!!) - we have no such ridiculous clause; MotorHolme ask for a deposit before they confirm the booking, whereas we ask for the deposit to be paid 7 days after we've confirmed the booking, because although we technically don't have to do this (as the distance selling regulations which would normally apply to buying somehting online don't apply to 'transport services on a named date'), we believe this really is the fairest way to treat our customers when they've just bought something as fab as a Big Tree Campervan adventure!

Of course we make sure that our customers understand the important parts of our Terms & Conditions (things like cancellation policy) when they book, and go through all the key T&Cs with them when they pick the campervan up at the start of their adventure.

So, whilst the small things like T&Cs aren't the most exciting part of a campervan trip... we believe that being fair, upfront and transparent about them is an important ingredient in giving our customers a safe, professionally delivered, and worry-free Big Tree Campervan adventure!ll

It's Still Winter....

In December, we posted a taster to the Scottish Tooling Series movie 'STS on the Ben With Big Tree Campervans' which Simon, James & Dom made. Quite a few folk have been asking to see the full-length movie, which personally I think is simply a brilliant wee climbing movie. So, here it is.....!!!

A Great Day (Morning) On The Hill

We're delighted to see our Austrian pal Charly Fritzer back in Scotland for another Big Tree Campervan Scottish winter climbing road-trip, and when I picked Charly and Matthias Wurtzer up from the airport yesterday, they were really keen to get out and climb! So, they headed up to Aviemore in their campervan last night, with plans for a bunch of us to meet up with them this morning in Coire Cas carpark. I was planning to climb with Chadders (aka Mark Chadwick), and Greg Boswell, and Will Sim, and Will's pal Ally had also agreed to come and play - the only problem was whether the crags would be in good winter condition.

We all met as planned at 7.00am in the carpark, the Austrian boys having had an excellent night's kip in their campervan, but I must admit to feeling pretty apprehensive having persuaded all this winter talent to head into Coire an Lochain.... when in fact there was a percentage chance that the crags wouldn't be white enough! The forecast had definitely been better for the west coast, so it was a huge relief when it got light enough to see the crag... in perfect mixed climbing conditions! White with hoar frost and rime, with solid old snow up to the base of the crag, and not too much ice in cracks to make gear placement difficult. Phew!

Chadders and I both had to be back home pretty swiftish (me in time to get to a ceilidh which my daughter was playing at, and Chadders to do an avalanche awareness evening for the Mountain Rescue Team), so we sprinted up Overseer Direct, an excellent fun V,6 route which was very very enjoyable. From our route we could see over to Charly and Matthias who were making (very) quick work of Fallout Corner (VI,7).

Topping out in the sunshine we wandered over to watch Will looking cool on the top pitch of Daddy Longlegs (VIII,9) before we had to head down. It was only midday when we left, and whilst we did see the Austrian boys starting up Grumbling Groove (VI,6), there's a fair chance that lots more steep stuff was done! In a way it was a shame to have to leave so early, but it was a great morning out, excellent company, and a fun climb in superb conditions!

Below: A strong team (Greg Boswell, Will Sim, Matthias Wurtzer, Charly Fritzer). Chadders on pitch 2, Overseer Direct. Will cruising toppitch of Daddy Longlegs.

STS on the Ben with Big Tree Campervans - The Movie!!

An excellent Christmas pressie - the wonderful trio of Simon, James & Dom have just sent through the results of the superb work they've done editing together hours of footage from the 'STS on the Ben'.

The full version (27mins) will be out soon, but in the meantime, here's a shorter Christmas Teaser version to enjoy with your turkey & mince pies.http://vimeo.com/34159850 Enjoy!