A daily driver and weekend getaway in one In Curbed?s exhaustive coverage of RVs and in our active community group of camper obsessives (head over here to join), one question emerges again and again: Why doesn?t the U.S. have as many cool camper designs as Europe"
In particular, Americans are obsessed with the fact that since Volkswagen stopped making the Eurovan stateside in 2003, the U.S. has lacked a small footprint pop-top camper. In spring 2018, I drove the Volkswagen California camper on a road trip and came to understand what generations of families already know: A pop-top camper van is the perfect weekend RV that can also function as a daily driver.

Seattle-based Peace Vans is no stranger to the joys of pop-top campers. As the largest Volkswagen camper shop in the country, Peace Vans both services Vanagons and Eurovans and helps owners customize and restore their iconic vans. Recognizing that there was a gap in the North American RV industry, Peace Vans has been working since 2016 to bring a modern pop-top camper to market. The Peace Vans Modern is a new take on what the classic VW buses have long offered: A versatile camping experience in a compact package. Peace Vans uses the 2019 Mercedes Metris van and offers three different builds. The first is to pop the top of a stock Metris and not touch the interior. The second?called the Weekender?pops the top of a passenger Mercedes Metris and installs a special seat the folds flat into a bed, allowing four ...