Herbie’s World Tour

Today we found Domi’s “Trabi” in a local newspaper. A pedestrian took a picture of Domi driving through his hometown Klosterneuburg.

Domi turned 30! Therefore we celebrated his big birthday in one of Vienna’s pubs called “Morgenstern”. Many friends and family members came to congratulate him. Special thanks go to Flo, Friedrich, Eva, Heinz, Gabriel, Michi, Georgy, Fabi, Christian, Benjamin, Matthias and of course Zainab who made Domi the most marvelous Read more…

June 28 is the official birthday of Walt Disney’s Love Bug. Therefore we’re celebrating Herbie’s 50th anniversary this year and especially on this particular day, even though our Love Bug wasn’t manufactured on that exact date. But one is for sure, 1963 is the year in which Herbies all around Read more…

The South African adventure travel magazine “Drive Out” features a story on Herbie’s World Tour in its latest edition including six full pages about Herbie’s “gravel travel”.

We just received an English written article by Heilie Combrinck from Uitenhage, where Domi & Zainab visited the South African Volkswagen factory and its museum, the “AutoPavilion”.

“KidsKrone”, the Austrian magazine for the young, just printed a story about our tour around the world in Herbie. This journal for kids is out now in the stores!

Herbie’s World Tour got featured in the latest version of “The Campervan Life” – a British air-cooled VW magazine. By clicking on the article below you’ll get to its website. As you’ve probably read the article above, Herbie is still looking for sponsors for his ongoing trip around the world. Read more…

Herbie and Domi are going to appear at the reportedly “greatest VW show on earth”. The 30th “VW Classic” will take place at the Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine, California, on June 10. For more information about the show, just follow this link! If you’re planning to visit this year’s “VW Read more…

Yesterday we got back to our camp in Ridgecrest, located in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. For the last four months we were traveling across the USA, Mexico and South America along the “Pan-American Highway”. Herbie made 18,166 miles (29,236 kilometers) going down south and all the way back. Read more…

Today we were following the legendary Route 66 aka the “Mother Road” of America. We took several business loops in order to get through cities like Holbrook, Winslow and Seligman. In New Mexico we crossed the so-called Continental Divide. We ended up in Kingman, Arizona, at the end of the Read more…

After traveling the USA for more than sixteen months, we got the chance to visit almost all National Parks across the 48 lower United States. Only a few are missing. Yesterday we explored Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the Southeast of New Mexico. Later on we headed north on Highway Read more…

Following the so-called Texas Mountain Trail towards New Mexico brought us through Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We had a pretty gusty cross wind while gaining height. Road signs got blown away and Domi had to steer very carefully.

Herbie is still running. We’ve already driven almost 150,000 kilometers (more than 93,000 miles) around the planet. And Herbie’s World Tour has not even ended yet! Right now we’re following old American trade routes as well as the legendary Route 66 traveling across the Southwest of the US towards Southern Read more…

As posted here before, Herbie got featured in the Paraguayan “ABC Color” magazine. Thanks to Jorge Ortiz from Asunción we just received a copy of the printed version. The Classic VW Club Paraguay also published a story with a lot of photos about our meeting with Osvaldo Espínola, Jorge Ortiz Read more…

We just arrived in Van Horn, Texas, after crossing the second largest United State. The landscape changed dramatically while Herbie followed old American trade routes. Tomorrow we’ll head north to Roswell, Artesia and Carlsbad in New Mexico, visiting its Caverns National Park right after crossing the state border on Highway Read more…

We made it! After heading through the Mexican States Veracruz and Tamaulipas, we finally crossed the US border entering Texas. From here we’re continuing our road trip across the United States towards Ridgecrest in Southern California. Brownsville, Texas, is the well-known border town, we entered after hurrying through probably the Read more…

Francisco Ibarra from the Classic VW Club Paraguay informed us that the magazine “ABC Color” just published the story on Herbie’s World Tour, we got interviewed about. Here’s the link to the article, of course written in Spanish (by Julio Noguera). Unfortunately we don’t have a printed version. Maybe we’ll Read more…

Our Travel Bug arrived at the harbor of Veracruz on time. Yesterday Domi got the permission to pick him up. Everything worked out great and Herbie is doing very well. We are so happy about that! Now we’re looking forward heading north again. Herbie’s vessel, the “Green Lake”, sailed exactly Read more…

As you know, we are back in Veracruz, on the Golf of Mexico. There is no other country in the world in which so many Volkswagen Beetles were produced like here. Therefore you can still find a lot of spare part shops for air-cooled Volkswagen – just like “La Casa Read more…

The biggest magazine about air-cooled Volkswagen in France called “Super VW Mag” just published a story about Herbie’s World Tour and us globetrotters. The article includes an interview with us, done and written by Julien-David Collombet. For a readable version (in French) just follow Herbie’s page “Press“!

Our plan was to explore the Andes of South America in our beloved Volkswagen Bug from 1963. Herbie accomplished his mission by driving 13,080 miles (21,050 kilometers) – all thanks to his very same engine with just 1,200 cc and 34 horsepower. We’ve experienced so much by following the “Panamericana” Read more…

Today we delivered Herbie to one of Cartagena’s ports where he’ll go aboard on his vessel “Green Lake” heading across the Caribbean and the Golf of Mexico to Veracruz. Unfortunately too many things went wrong again at the “Contecar” port and we had to spend the entire day getting almost Read more…

As you know we are back in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, waiting for the ship, which will take Herbie back to Veracruz, Mexico. Hopefully it will depart on May 12. We initially booked a boat called “Green Lake”, which got canceled but they called the cancelation off again, so Herbie Read more…

After we crossed our last border in South America, we ran into a protest of the Colombian teacher’s union, who blocked an important highway intersection right after the border, one of just two roads connecting Colombia and Venezuela with each other. They demonstrated for higher wages and even blocked the Read more…

While having lunch in the shade of a tree on Highway No. 6, heading towards Colombia, we got to know true Love Bug fans from Venezuela who invited us to their home. They even filled up Herbie with a couple gallons of gas. Getting closer to the border, it is Read more…

You probably won’t believe it, but a complete fill up for Herbie just costs 30 US-Cents in Venezuela. This is not a joke! Venezuela has the cheapest gas prices in the world. Herbie feels like he is in paradise. Gas for just three US-Cents per Gallon (or less than one Read more…

We literally stuck in the border town San Antonio in Venezuela, because the custom office is closed on weekends. We reached the border on a Saturday morning. After we got our immigration stamps we wanted to apply for the vehicle permit. But the Venezuelan custom office was closed – like Read more…

A lot of slow trucks, countless construction sites and extremely steep roads Herbie had to manage the last days, while we were heading northeast towards Venezuela. It was very exhausting driving an average speed of 12 mph (or 20 km/h) for hours. We passed Barbosa, Bucaramanga, Pamplona and Cúcuta – Read more…

Herbie brought us back to Colombia. We left the Pan-American Highway heading east towards Venezuela after we passed cities like Pasto, Popayán and Cali. We were driving right through the heart of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. Our plan is to visit Venezuela before we’ll put Herbie on a vessel going back Read more…

After spending the night in Latacunga, we followed our “Evacuation Route” out of Ecuador, passing Quito, Cayambe, Otavalo and Ibarra, crossing the border in Tulcán. We left the country with carrying more than 25 gallons (or 100 liters) of gasoline and we’re still running on it, as gas prices in Read more…

Domi loves drinking fresh coconut juice. Herbie prefers gas without ethanol instead. One coconut ($ 1.00)  is more expensive than one quart of gasoline ($ 0.38). Ecuador has the cheapest gas prices we’ve experienced in America so far. A complete full tank for our Love Bug costs just 15 US-Dollars Read more…

We just entered Ecuador on our way back north. Although this country is not a “Banana Republic” within the political discussion, it has definitely the biggest banana production in the world. Below you can see “Herbie goes bananas” while the sun was setting. The Love Bug reached the border between Read more…

Herbie continued riding the longest road on earth, the Pan-American Highway, heading further north on Peru’s Highway No. 1. We passed cities like Chimbote, Trujillo and Chiclayo. Lambayeque is the name of the town where we stopped for the night. The “Pan-Am” along Peru’s coast is full of sand dunes Read more…

Our final destination after South America will be the Mojave Desert in the Southwest of the United States. We are not there yet, even though the landscape of Peru’s coast looks quite similar to the area around Herbie’s camp in Ridgecrest, Kern County, CA. Today we were following the “Pan-Am” Read more…

After catching up with new post on Herbie’s World Tour, checking the motor oil level and tire pressure, we hit the Pan-American Highway again. We left Camaná, heading north and passed Nazca and its desert and stopped for the night in Ica. Peru’s coastal desert dunes and the Pacific ocean Read more…

Go west, Herbie! We traveled all the way across the Andes with altitudes over 14,850 feet (or 4,500 meters)  to the west coast of Peru again, passing Puno at Lake Titicaca, Juliaca and Arequipa, ending up driving in Camaná at the Pacific ocean. In Puno we met Juan Carlos, a Read more…

After riding Herbie on unpaved roads across the Bolivian jungle while it was dark during the night and police men asked us for money, we finally reached Santa Cruz de la Sierra and moved on to Cochabamba and La Paz towards Peru and Lake Titicaca.

We were actually planning to go all the way back to Colombia by heading across Brazil on Highway No. 319 reaching Venezuela. Unfortunately we had to change our plan. The Brazilian Highway No. 319 is well-known for one of the worst “roads” in the country. And as we have the Read more…

We entered Brazil coming from Paraguay. On our way through Brazil we passed a junk yard for old Volkswagens. But it was more like a burial site for “Fuscas” – that’s how they call Beetles in this country. Rest in peace!

The soil is red and the people are very nice – we traveled through Paraguay on Highway No. 3 towards Brazil, after meeting Jorge, his wife Natalia and their friend Osvaldo, in Asunción. Paraguay was an unexpected beautiful surprise!

Jorge Ortiz, an air-cooled Volkswagen fellow from Asunción, and his wife, Natalia Florentin, as well as his friend, Osvaldo Espínola, president of Classic VW Club Paraguay, welcomed us in Paraguay – the “Heart of South America”. Jorge showed up with his totally new renovated red VW Beetle made in Wolfsburg. Read more…

Herbie made a long way riding from General Güemes on Highways No. 34, 81 and 11 to Clorinda, at the border to Paraguay. Tomorrow we’ll enter this country in the heart of South America. Although we won’t spend much time there, we’ll have a very warm welcome. Jorge Ortiz from Read more…