Our Mazda Bongo campervan

We wanted a campervan for several years before we finally bought our Mazda Bongo campervan. We felt that a campervan was out of our reach financially until we discovered Bongos. We love camping with kids and wanted a way to extend the season and go away more often. I’m a bit of a fair-weather tent camper (June to August only). We now use our campervan for over 6 months of the year.

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Buying our Mazda Bongo campervan

We bought our Mazda Bongo campervan (also known as Betsy) in the summer of 2020. At the time it was a 14 year old fresh import from Japan. It had been used as a people carrier type vehicle in Japan and was not converted into a campervan. We bought it from Bongo Spares and we have continued to use them for our annual service and MOT. I can’t recommend them enough if you are in the area and have or want to buy a Bongo.

We went over to the Bongo spares garage in West Yorkshire and chose from the range of Mazda Bongos they had for sale. We then chose to have them add a pop-top roof conversion to ours and they also turned our middle row of seats to be rear-facing (we don’t use these seats whilst driving). This means that in the back of the van we have two rows of 3 seater benches facing each other. They also added a rail that we attach a full-width table to (they will make the table to any length though).

These are the only alterations we have made to our Mazda Bongo which is a front-wheel drive, 2l petrol engine. We originally intended to use it for the rest of the 2020 season and decide what sort of conversion we would like to fit. We then intended to have a conversion fitted over the winter.

We bought an awning and all the other bits and bats we needed and took it away for a few days just days after we bought it. Surprisingly we found we didn’t crave a full conversion. 18 months on and we still have no regrets or plans to convert our Bongo. Read on to find out why and how our van works for us.

Where do we cook and eat in our Mazda Bongo camper?

This is a question we get asked a lot when we say our campervan isn’t fully converted. The simple answer is we cook outdoors most of the time. If the weather is really bad and we can’t even cook under the shelter of our tailgate, then we either have takeaway like fish and chips, ready-cooked or cold foods. Some of the supermarkets now do pizzas that you can pick up hot or warm cooked chickens. Cold picnic foods are always a winner too.

Most of the time though we cook on our * Cadac 2 cook 2 pro Delux which we couldn’t be happier with. It has two burners and it comes with 2 hot plates, one smooth and one is a griddle. It all packs up in a neat carry bag and the hot plates save us having to store a frying pan. All we need is a pan. We do have a * Ridgemonkey as well for making cheese toasties but this isn’t essential.

We have 2 different cool boxes for storing food depending on how long we are away for and if we have an electric hook up. If we are just going for a couple of nights and aren’t planning to have an electric hook up, we take our Coleman 28QT Xtreme cooler box (click for my full review). It is a fantastic passive cooler and will keep food chilled with just ice packs for a weekend easily. If we are going for longer and have an electric hook up then we take the electric cooler box that we picked up in Aldi.

So where do we eat? Most of the time we eat outdoors, after all, that is why we love camping. If it’s cold or wet we either eat in the awning if we have it with us or in the van itself. One of the things we love about not converting the van is that the back is perfect for family meals and activities like colouring or card games. There are 2 three-seater, comfy benches facing each other and then we add a full-width bench between them. It creates such a social space that we use a lot at the beginning and end of the camping season particularly.

Where do we sleep in our Mazda Bongo camper?

Another common question we are asked is how we all fit in the van at night. Our girls sleep in the pop-top and as it is an aftermarket roof conversion, it’s different to the original Mazda Bongo campervans. It’s possible more like a VW pop-top.

LIt’s a manual push up roof with straps. There are 3 removable boards that make the sleeping space. If all 3 boards were up it would close the pop-top off from the van which my young children wouldn’t tolerate. That is one of the reasons we were unsure about the original Bongo camper as there is a hatch in the middle of the van that is the access and then the kids sleep on top of it. Some kids would be fine with this but not our youngest. We currently just have 2 boards up and my eldest (8 and tall) still has enough sleeping space.

Myself and my husband sleep in the main part of the van. The middle and back benches fold flat making a good size double. The photo below was on our first trip when we used our double air bed from our previous tent. It fit perfectly width wise and there was space to spare at the bottom of the bed, which gives you an idea of the size.

We no longer use an air bed, as comfy as it was, it was a lot of faff. We now have a mattress topper and manage just fine. The bed comfortably fits us both in and our 5 year old when she wakes in the night. We even spent one stormy night with our eldest sleeping across the width at the bottom and we still had plenty of space. The size of the bed is another reason we aren’t getting the van converted.

Let’s talk storage in an unconverted Mazda Bongo

We have no built-in cupboards in our Bongo but we do have plenty of storage space for our needs. Under the middle and back seats, we have under bed storage boxes. We can fit 2 standard size ones under the back one which store dried food, plates, cups and cooking utensils. One can be opened from inside the van and from the boot, the other only from the boot.

Under the middle bench, we can only fit one full size and one smaller one. In these, we keep toiletries, lamps, books, card games etc.

There is also a good-sized space behind the middle bench and the front seats. We stash blankets and sleeping bags here. We can also slide both the internal table and a camping table (for outdoor and awning use) in this space. Near the sliding door, we store our shoes.

We have these * hooks on our headrests for coats and bags. When we are travelling to our campsite we have pillows and our * packing cubes of clothes on the middle bench and in the footwell. I got sick of packing cubes ending up scattered all over the van so now we have one of * these large storage bag that we put them all in once we get to our campsite and then we put this on the front passenger seat during our stay (or the awning).

The boot space is the perfect size for our cooler box, awning, camping chairs and a large storage box that has all sorts of things in like tent pegs, mallet, spare gas canisters, washing up liquid etc. We also stack the stove on top and have an IKEA blue bag with beach toys, outside toys and shoes in it. We hook the large handles over the mead rest to stop it from falling out when the tailgate is lifted up.

Once on-site, we either have an awning for longer trips (find out more about choosing an awning for a Mazda Bongo here) or a 2 man pop up tent for 1 or 2 night trips. This little tent to store car seats, cool box, camping chairs and tables etc overnight.

This was our first * drive away awning. It is quick to put up, has a sewn-in groundsheet, doors on all sides and plenty of space for storage and extra space in the rain!

We have recently (June 2022) swapped our awning for a slightly bigger one. Find out more in our OLPRO Loopo Breeze review

Other items we love for making our trips easier

There are some items that live in our campervan that we couldn’t live without. They are usually space-saving as space is at a premium but they are so useful that they get given space.

A level pitch is so important. We love this * mini spirit level that we use with our * levelling ramps.

On a week long or longer trips, we often have to do some laundry. This * travel wash line doesn’t require pegs which is genius!

Whether it is for running the portable shower or handwashing some smalls, we love our * collapsible bucket.

We don’t have a sink or water tank on the van so unless we are fortunate to have a tap on our pitch, then we use this * collapsible water storage for storing drinking water. We’ve had it a few years and it has had a lot of use and is showing no signs of damage. I clean it regularly with * Milton sterilising fluid.

We store our washing in a * large dry bag. Perfect if anything is damp and it also takes up significantly less room than any other storage solution. They’re also great for storing wet towels etc after a beach trip.

During the times when campsite facilities weren’t open we purchased a * portable shower which is still useful for things like washing sand off feet after a trip to the beach. Save 5% with my code ladybirds5

At the beginning and end of our camping season, we use a small * camping heater to warm up the van in the evening. We love this heater, it only takes about 10 minutes to warm our van up. We plug it into our * electric hook up which we have the cable running out of a slightly open front window.

We are currently OLPRO ambassadors and love all these bits we have been sent – Family camping essentials from OLPRO

Why we love our Mazda Bongo unconverted

As you can see our unconverted campervan works for us as a young family. We love the living space with two benches and the full-width table. We also love the size of our bed. It makes a very affordable campervan.

We love having a campervan and the freedom it gives us to explore and go on lots of Family walks and days out across the UK.

We have no plans to convert ours but I know it won’t be for everyone so if you want to know about converted Mazda Bongo campervans, then you need to head over to TraveLynn family blog.

I first heard about Mazda Bongos when Jenny bought their 4×4, fully converted campervan. She has written all about hers on her blog. It’s worth a read as her experience and Mazda Bongo is very different to ours. Hers is fully converted and she purchased it from eBay already converted.

Where have we camped in our campervan?

We worked out that last year we spent over a month in our van. We visited Norfolk, Suffolk, the Gower, the Cotswolds, Mid Wales, Betws-y-coed, Yorkshire dales, the lake district and Shropshire.

We joined the camping and caravan club and often stay on their 5 van sites which work out very affordable. We’ve stayed in some gorgeous small sites. We also enjoyed Sandringham Camping and Caravanning Club Site.

We also loved Fforest Fields and several others that I still need to write about! Find my Fforest Fields campsite review here.

I wonder where we will get to in 2022. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram to find out.

Camping activities for kids

We spend a lot of time camping with our kids and have done since they were toddlers. I have created a blog post filled with camping activities for kids.