Volkswagen Bus Tours of Europe for college students
Back in the day of Woodstock, volkswagen busses began traveling the country loaded with beaded, flowery people from the neighborhood of Haight Asbury to the farm land of upstate New York.
At about the same time, several European travel experienced college grads from Texas (Ronny Hames, Oliver Heard and Lonny Walthal), began to develop tours of Europe, mainly for college girls, using VW busses leased from dealers in Belgium and Holland. At that time, "college girl" tours were predominately operated as two to three week programs utilizing large motor coaches or a combination of motor coaches and occasional flights between cities.
The VW bus tour concept utilized two to three month, on the ground tours, that covered a great part of Western Europe. The drivers were normally male students who had sold the tours to the 5-6 girls on his bus. If he did so, his trip was free. Generally, 4-5 busses traveled together. These unique trips bridged the gap between high cost shorter tours to backpacking - a relatively new concept that was rapidly taking the place of organized student tours.
PAST PARTICIPANTS ON THESE VW BUS TOURS (1968-1973) are invited to add comments about your experiences on these tours.