ATKINS FAMILY CAMPERVAN TRIP
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STORY BELOW:
There’s a certain romance to the open road. Sort of.
The kind you imagine involves dusty highways, questionable servo pies, loud music, and the slow unraveling of whatever routine you thought mattered back home.
For us, the Atkins family, it was a Giant camper van, a truck load of snacks, and a hard deadline: get to Tamworth Country Music Festival, where I — NICKA — had multiple shows to play.
Tamworth during festival week isn’t subtle. It' hot. Guitars bleed out of pubs. Boots stomp across footpaths. There’s a kind of electricity in the air that feels equal parts Nashville and regional Australia on steroids.
And we decided to roll into it in a campervan.
The First Lesson: Two Hours. That’s It.
Here’s what we learned quickly.
Never drive more than two hours at a time with kids.
Two hours is adventurous.
Three hours is a negotiation.
Four hours is a full-scale nightmare
So we broke the trip into small, manageable bites. Beach stops. Park runs. Random bakery discoveries in towns we’d normally blast past without a second look.
The road stopped being something to “get through” and started being part of the story.
Snacks Are Currency
You think you’ve packed enough snacks.
You haven’t.
Pack more.
Then double it.
Snacks are morale. Snacks are distraction. Snacks are peace treaties brokered in the back seat.
And water? Same rule. More than you think. Then add more again.
A campervan gives you the freedom to stop anywhere — but only if you’re prepared to actually enjoy stopping.
Plan Something. Every Stop.
Freedom is beautiful.
But kids need direction.
So at every stop, we had something in mind. A swim. A playground. A short walk. A bakery mission. A surf check.
Structure inside the chaos.
It meant the travel days didn’t feel like waiting rooms between destinations — they felt like chapters.
Rolling Into Tamworth
Pulling into Tamworth in a campervan during festival week is a statement.
While pubs filled with country ballads and cold beers, I bounced between DJ sets, bringing my own brand of energy to a town built on twang and tradition. Not everybody loved it but by the end of the week I think i won them over.
And at the end of each night?
We didn’t Uber back to a hotel room.
We climbed into our sweet sweet van.
Shoes kicked off. Kids asleep. That hum of festival noise and generators in the distance.
The Van Changed Everything
The truth?
The van didn’t just transport us. It transformed the trip.
It was easy to drive. Easy to park. Easy to live in.
Morning coffees with the doors open.
Cooking simple dinners together.
Late-night chats about the day.
The van made the chaos manageable and the nicer moments last longer.
We surfed. We swam. We wandered. We threatened to kill we did it all.
And somehow, in the middle of a packed festival schedule, it became the best family trip we’ve ever had.
If You’re Thinking About It…
Stop overcomplicating it.
You don’t need the perfect plan.
You need a van, a loose itinerary, too many snacks, and the willingness to pull over when something looks interesting.
If you’ve been waiting for a sign to take your family on a proper adventure — this is it.
Rent a JUCY Rentals van.
Use our affiliate code NICKA5
https://www.jucy.com/au/en
Book yours now.
Send us some pics!
Nicka
