A small fleet on purpose
Birbi started with two bright yellow Volkswagen T3s: Kamanė in Portugal and Bitutė in Lithuania. They are not identical units from a rental fleet. They are specific old vehicles with names, histories and different personalities.
We keep the number of vans small enough to know each one properly. The goal is not to make an old vehicle feel new. The goal is to make renting one feel clear, cared for and unusually easy.
The names matter
Bitutė means "little bee" in Lithuanian — she was the founder's first van and first van-life home. Kamanė means "bumblebee". Bee and Bumblebee later crossed Europe together. The names carry the origin of the brand: these vans were loved before they were rented.
A note from the founder
I wanted to live in a van since I was in eighth grade.
Years later, during a summer in Nida, a friend and I impulsively drove 200 kilometres to buy an old yellow Volkswagen. I called her Bitutė — "little bee" in Lithuanian — and spent the summer living out of her.
She was basic. Then I rented a properly converted van in Lanzarote and realised what was possible: water, electricity, a place to work, everything you needed in a few square metres. I went home and spent the next months teaching myself how to build that life into my own van.
Eventually I sold my part of the company I was running, packed the Volkswagen and drove from Lithuania to Portugal. I lived in parking lots, worked from the road and learned to surf.
Birbi comes from all of that. I wanted to build the van-rental experience I wish existed when I first started: beautiful vans with character, every detail thought through, no rental-company ugliness, and enough comfort that the van gets out of your way.
You should not need eight months of YouTube videos and a half-built Volkswagen to find out why this way of travelling is so special. You should be able to pick up the keys and go.
— Chris, Birbi
Premium means care
Remove friction. Preserve freedom. We solve the parts that do not make the story better — confusing bookings, surprise fees, tired vehicles, missing equipment — and leave the road completely open. The vans are characters, not SKUs. Reality should outperform the website.
