This month, Mercedes-Benz announced it would be bringing production of its Marco Polo camper van in-house, essentially cutting Westfalia out of the Marco Polo business it's been in for 42 years. While that seems like a big hit to the world's most beloved camper converter, don't cry too hard for Westfalia. The German shop actually builds a better Mercedes small camper van than Mercedes itself. The Jules Verne combines three-pointed star style with a Ford Nugget-like multi-room layout that includes the full bathroom the Marco Polo completely lacks.
While we understand the attraction of camping at organized campgrounds with their own toilets, maybe even showers, what really makes a camper van attractive is its ability to live as self-sufficiently as possible. A big part of that is supplying its own bathroom – or at the very least, a toilet. This isn't merely critical when primitive camping in areas without any infrastructure or plumbing at all, it's also helpful in letting campers avoid overcrowded porta-johns at tailgates and music festivals and skip over rank, rarely-cleaned, fly-infested pit toilets in semi-primitive areas.
Quite unlike the Marco Polo – or the Volkswagen California, for that matter – the Westfalia Jules Verne has its own bathroom. And it's a pretty decent one so far as toilets shoehorned into small pop-up camper vans go, bringing together an integrated toilet and hot shower in a rear compartment that separates from the front via a roll-out privacy screen.
Westfalia introduced the Jules Verne in 2016, smack in the middle of its work modernizing the Ford Nugget. Just three years prior, the company had transported the Nugget's split-room/rear kitchen concept to the brand-new Transit Custom, a smaller midsize alternative to Ford's Transit commercial van, which had previously been the base of the Nugget. Westfalia applied a similar floor-plan strategy to the Jules Verne but trimmed down the kitchen and squeezed in the rear bathroom that didn't find its way to the Nugget until 2018.
Only the Jules Verne's bathroom is even better than the Nugget's. Unlike the bathroom in Ford's camper, this one brings the shower inside rather than leaving shower users outside the tailgate. It warms that shower with a Truma water heater and has an integrated shower drain pan with a removable floor panel to cover it over when not in use. Also, unlike the Nugget bathroom, the Jules' Verne's is split more discretely from the kitchen by a wardrobe closet containing the aforementioned roll-out privacy screen ... so it doesn't quite feel quite as much like you're pooping in the middle of the kitchen.
The Jules Verne's bragging rights over the Marco Polo don't stop at the bathroom. While layout preference will ultimately be different for each individual buyer, Ford and Westfalia have made a long, strong case for the split-room concept (rear kitchen, front living lounge/convertible bed, upstairs full-time bedroom) with the Nugget design. The Jules Verne carries a similar setup over to a Mercedes base van and arguably even improves on it a little.
Like the Nugget, the Jules Verne includes a front-facing rear bench with seatbelts, this one a two-seater. Westfalia adds in side-facing cushioned seats to create a wraparound sofa lounge for camp, a feature the Nugget lacks. This lounge seats up to four or five people around the dining table once the swivel cab seats swing around and includes a chaise lounge for extra comfort during the day. At night, it converts over into a 68 x 47-in (172 x 120-cm) double bed – markedly shorter but slightly wider than the Marco Polo's 80 x 44-in lower bed.
The Jules Verne doesn't have quite as discrete or large a kitchen area as the Ford Nugget – the price to pay for the full wet bathroom with shower – but the side kitchen's placement toward the rear of the van does seem like a more dedicated, convenient space than the common kitchen placement right next to the seating bench/bed, as in the Marco Polo. It comes stocked with a dual-burner gas stove and sink on that passenger-side block and a 51-L compressor fridge in the tall cabinet across the aisle.
The Jules Verne's pop-up roof stands at reversed orientation compared to the Marco Polo, opening up the highest standing room at the rear of the van over the bathroom area. It still houses a fold-up double bed measuring 75 x 46 in (190 x 117 cm), accessible via a folding rear ladder.
Other standard equipment aboard the Jules Verne includes a 92-Ah leisure battery, 2,000-W Webasto heater, 50-L fresh water tank and 36-L waste water tank.
Of course, the Jules Verne doesn't outperform the Marco Polo in every category. To start with, the Marco Polo makes a much better first impression thanks to the sleeker style of the V-Class passenger van underneath. The Jules Verne has always been based on Mercedes' Vito commercial van, which doesn't arrive quite as gussied up.
That base van differential comes into play beyond aesthetics, too. The Marco Polo comes equipped with a higher automotive standard equipment spec that starts with a 161-hp 2.0-liter diesel engine/nine-speed automatic transmission versus the 134-hp diesel 2.0/six-speed manual transmission in the Jules Verne. All-wheel drive is optional for both camper vans.
The Marco Polo cockpit also rises several rungs above the Jules Verne, though those that prefer a simpler analog environment will probably like the latter better. The Marco Polo brings in a full-width digital instrument panel/infotainment display as standard. That MBUX infotainment touchscreen also ties into the standard MBAC smart home system for control of camper features like lighting and heating, a system can also be tapped into using the accompanying smartphone app.
While the Jules Verne does come standard with a 10-in MBUX touchscreen, it does not include MBAC connectivity or the digital instruments. Other standard features that come with the V-Class-based Marco Polo but not the Vito-top Jules Verne include Active Parking Assist with reverse-camera system and Distronic active distance assist. Both are available as optional upgrades on the Jules Verne.
To our eye, the Marco Polo offers a better, higher-spec base van, but the Jules Verne boasts the better camper layout, especially for a family with kids that can fit comfortably on the short folding bed. The Jules Verne also undercuts the €80,664 (approx. US$95,250) Marco Polo with a €74,180 ($87,575) base price.
Note that price is for the current 2025 Marco Polo, not the updated 2026 model that Mercedes will be building in-house – MY2026 pricing has not yet been announced.
Sources: Westfalia and Mercedes-Benz
