Leonardo's Campervan

Très bonne lcoation. La voiture est une vielle voiture old school qui vous donnera la meilleure des allures.
Comme toute vielle voiture, pas de direction assisté, mais ce minivan se manipule très bien et est très agreable à conduire. La consommation d'essence est aussi très faible tant que vous roulez à ~70km/h.

En bref, je recommande l'experience

Super van très agréable à conduire pour voyager à travers le Portugal. Quelques points négatifs cependant : le lit est beaucoup plus petit qu'annoncé (environ 110cm). Le frigo n'est pas vraiment un frigo mais une glacière utilisable uniquement de jour (nous devions le débrancher la nuit...).

À part ça nous avons passé un excellent séjour dans ce van ! 

Breakdown on the second day - no refund. 

We booked this van for 12 nights in July based on the great reviews. Before beginning the trip Leonardo was easy to reach, he'd usually answer non-urgent questions within a day or two. We were told where to pick the van up from and made our way there on the first day of our trip. 

Leonardo did not meet us at the van, but sent a friend instead - this would have been totally fine but his English wasn't great, which made communication difficult and he didn't seem to know much about the van at all. We even pointed out some features that he forgot to show us. One thing he did do, however, was point at the dashboard lights and say 'light on/off - ok'. Since it is quite an old vehicle we thought there must be a light which sometimes goes on and off without any consequences.

The handover took barely 20 minutes and we had many unanswered questions. Supposedly the owner is supposed to drive the van with us in it and then let us have a go at driving it while he is a passenger too, but that didn't happen. It was just a very quick tour of the vehicle and some documents to be signed. 

Once on the trip, the quick communication with Leonardo stopped. He either wouldn't reply or would give a rude message to say he was busy, despite the fact that we were having van troubles. 

On the morning of the second day the oil light began to flicker in red. The bumpier or bendier the road, the more it flickered. It seemed very much like a loose connection and we thought, 'this must be what he meant by light on/off - ok'. We texted Leonardo before we drove that morning to see if he could confirm if this was ok or not. After a long wait, we did not get a reply and had to continue on our journey - we couldn't just sit and wait around for hours on day number 2. Shortly after, the oil light became solid red and as we stopped by the side of the road the van would not start again. 18 hours into the holiday, maybe not even 3 hours of driving. Even at this point we could not get hold of Leonardo, finally getting a response after many attempts. 3 hours by the side of the road before the assistance he arranged finally arrived.

At first Leonardo was actually very understanding and said we would get both the deposit and the rent back. He offered us another van to use, but we decided we weren't comfortable taking another and had lost trust. The roadside assistance took the van and we had to make other plans for our remaining 11 days, booking hotels and a rental car, etc. 

Leonardo assured us that he would take care of everything, talk to Yescapa and the next Monday we would have a refund of our deposit. Turns out this wasn't true.

Over the course of the rest of our holiday we had a lot of phone calls back and forth with Yescapa and it turned out Leonardo had decided he didn't want to give our money back. Yescapa officially decided that it was unclear who was at fault for the damages to the van so the cost of repairs was split 50/50. But what about the 11 days of holiday we did not use? Leonardo's argument is that he offered us a replacement van but nothing says we HAVE to take that. We opted for a refund because he said he would give us one. 

In short, we paid almost 1800 euros for one night. Yescapa tells us to contact Leonardo in order to settle a refund. Leonardo tells us it is up to Yescapa to make the decision. As such, we are getting nowhere. Yescapa's final decision for cause of damage was 'unclear', therefore we paid half each for the repairs. What we don't understand is how we can not be owed a refund for at least 11/12 holiday days, since the cause of damage was labelled 'unclear'! And now, he is not even willing to answer to my messages.

I WOULD ADVISE EVERYONE AGAINST RENTING FROM LEONARDO.

It seems he has done a good job renting out in the past, but didn't deem it worth the effort to properly deliver the car himself or to respond to messages regarding problems with his car.

For us it was the first and the last time with Leonardo and Yescapa. 

The vanette is in a perfect state and it is furnished with everything you need.

The communication with Leonardo is super easy and he is very accomodating.

I definitively recommend traveling with this vintage van which will make your trip unique!