Picture this: you step into a campervan and instantly feel like you're in a stylish living room. Petrol-colored upholstery, cream-colored cushions, Viennese wickerwork on the fronts, and a handmade ceramic sink from Morocco.
This is exactly the dream van Nele stumbled upon at Caravan Salon in Hall 12 — and she immediately grabbed Aurelia Dobroschke for a chat. Aurelia is co-founder and owner of FIDIBUS Camper, a Berlin-based workshop that converts vans into anything but ordinary campers.
From backyard to workshop: an unusual founding story
Aurelia isn't your typical camper builder. As a trained psychologist, she was originally an outsider to the industry, until her partner John, who worked at the van rental platform PaulCamper, spotted a massive demand for individually built campers. The pandemic pushed that trend even further.
With barely any hands-on building experience, John started converting his first van in a friend's backyard. The original idea was to convert vehicles and rent them out. But it quickly became clear that selling the individually designed campers was the better path.
What started small grew into a genuine workshop. From an initial five vehicles a year, it grew into a professional team of carpenters, electricians, and bodywork specialists. Today, FIDIBUS builds high-quality vans by hand in Berlin-Reinickendorf. After John's death, Aurelia took over as owner and continues the business, passionately preserving this special legacy.
The FIDI family: more than just customers
What sets FIDIBUS apart from many other van converters is the personal relationship with every single customer. Aurelia calls it the "FIDI family." Before a vehicle is built, the team takes time to understand individual needs through detailed design planning:
Do you want to be fully self-sufficient off-grid?
Do you need a fixed shower cubicle?
How many people are traveling with you?
Throughout the build, customers stay closely involved: FIDIBUS keeps future van owners updated with weekly photo and video documentation. The result: over fifty vehicles built so far, and no two alike.
FIDIBUS works with two proven base models – "Juna" (compact & flexible) and "Lykke" (spacious, with optional shower cubicle) – within which you're free to decide almost everything yourself. From the upholstery color to the handles, tiles, and sink, you can design your camper exactly to your taste.
Natural materials instead of plastic look
One key feature of FIDIBUS vehicles is that they skip plastics and veneers entirely. Instead, you get real wood (mainly oak and birch), fired ceramics, stone, or stainless steel.
To keep the weight in check, the workshop uses lightweight poplar wood in the right spots. According to Aurelia, payload sits at around 500 kilograms, depending on vehicle size and fit-out. The details make all the difference:
Handmade tiles from Portugal or Valencia
Retro-style porcelain light switches from Czechia
Acoustic ceiling panels for a cozy interior feel and reduced noise
Vienna wickerwork on the fronts for a distinctive boho touch
Special innovation: invisible sound
One real highlight inside isn't visible at all: FIDIBUS skips visible speakers cut into the furniture entirely. Instead, the wooden ceiling paneling itself is set into vibration. The result is a room-filling 4.1 sound concept over Bluetooth, individually tuned to the interior by a professional.
Thoughtful floor plan: comfort meets practicality
The floor plan is the result of five years of hands-on experience and customer feedback. FIDIBUS deliberately skips pure "Instagram decor" that gets in the way while driving, focusing instead on everyday usability.
Sleeping comfort:A fixed transverse bed with slatted frame and cold foam mattress (available in two firmness levels) is standard. The bed width is at least 1.20 m (with the electrics housed underneath) and offers a sleeping length of 1.90 m thanks to bed extensions. Longitudinal beds allow pull-outs of up to 1.87 m.
Living area: Two benches sit on either side of the aisle. A solid dining table pulls out directly from the bed – perfect for enjoying your morning coffee without any rearranging.
Kitchen: A depth of 60 cm leaves room for a 50-liter compressor fridge. Cabinets with 40 cm depth on the opposite side keep enough space to move around.
Flexible expansion: pop-up roof & self-sufficiency
For families or trips with four people, a pop-up roof (like the Europine from Vickywood) can be added. You get in comfortably from inside through a Midi-Heki skylight cutout. Up top you'll find a slatted frame, a mattress, USB ports and windows on all four sides.
The vehicles are also perfectly equipped when it comes to self-sufficiency: with LiFePO4 lithium batteries (100–200 Ah), solar panels (up to 400 W) with MPPT controller, a parking heater with hot water, and up to 100 liters of fresh/waste water, nothing stands in the way of off-grid camping.
Base vehicles & costs
FIDIBUS mainly converts panel vans from the Stellantis Group (Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer, Citroën Jumper) as well as the Mercedes Sprinter. As an official Fiat contract partner, FIDIBUS can often arrange new vehicles at especially good rates. Customers can also bring their own used or new vehicles.
Since every camper is built entirely by hand, FIDIBUS operates in the premium segment. For a complete conversion including a new vehicle, you should budget at least 100,000 euros.
Conclusion: craftsmanship you can see, feel and hear
FIDIBUS proves that a camper conversion can be far more than pure functionality on four wheels. The combination of genuine natural materials, clever details like the invisible sound system, and an uncompromising passion for carpentry turns every panel van into a true "tiny house" on wheels.
The close involvement of customers and the transparency through weekly updates build trust – from the first sketch to the handover of the keys. If you're looking for an individual vehicle that feels like a genuine extension of your living space and clearly stands out, Aurelia and her team in Berlin-Reinickendorf are the right address.
The price sits in the premium segment, but the build quality and the feeling you get on the road justify every cent. Want to find out more about FIDIBUS? Check out the website at fidi-bus.de or visit them at the Caravan Salon in Hall 12, booth C84.
You can listen to Nele's full interview with Aurelia right here:
Podcast · Episode 423
Caravan Salon live: Schockverliebt bei FidiBus – Handgefertigte Kastenwagen-Ausbauten mit Boho-Vibes
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