Vanlife is always an adventure
For those of us who enjoy camping, roadtrips, and travelling, van life is some next level living. We get the best of three fabulous and filthy worlds.
Camping is awesome
For the sake of this article, I'm defining camping as strictly the act of parking your van somewhere to camp overnight. Whether you're into the good old hiking, fishing and nature camping, or just pulling over for the night, it's still an adventure.
Camping in the city is not as easy or relaxing as camping in nature, but can still be fun once you learn some basic tips and strategies.
When we lived in our van in Vancouver, British Columbia, finding places to camp turned into a sort of game; finding the right combination of neighbourhood, parking spot and resources takes some practice, but it's still fun (if you're into that sort of thing).
Camping in nature in a van, is also great. You never have to worry about setting up a tent, a kitchen, or your bed. In the vanlife, you're always good to go, as long as you're prepared.
During my massive roadtrip of Australia (consequently, in a van) we found campsites to be extremely hospitable, with a bustling culture of nomads, great cooking resources and relatively clean and available facilities. Pulling up in a house-on-wheels made everything about this experience work extremely well.
If camping is already your jam, you know what I'm talking about. If not, you'll get there soon. I mean, it's not all glamour. In fact, it's never glamping (slap me), but it's a hell of a lot more convenient than travelling across provinces, states or countries in a small car with a tent and I freaking love it.
Waking up in strange places
Pulling in to a town at 2am and choosing a parking spot is not cool. If you're in a new place, it's tough to judge a neighbourhood, scope the town and make a wise choice. Sometimes you just have to settle. Most of the time this works out fine, and you'll end up making it through the rest of the night with no hangups. The best thing about this situation - if it turns bad - is that you live in a van, and you can just move.
For the most part, you really can wake up where you want to be. If your camping spot is too noisy, you can move. If you don't like the town you're in, on to the next!
All the vanlife-related glam on the internet includes waking up to beautiful views, feet dangling off the edge of the bed and out into nature. If vandwelling is in your future, this could be your reality.
Vanlife is good for you wallet
When my partner and I first decided to move into our van full-time, it was largely a financial decision. We were living in what is now one of the most expensive cities in the world, and we wanted to see how much we could save without paying regular rent, and enjoying the benefits of living in a mobile home.
Van / work balance
This lifestyle actually made us want to work less, so we could travel more. Long weekends got longer as the summer went on, and we spent more time outside the city, in the mountains, or by the ocean beside a campfire.
Living in a van truly is a cheaper way to go, and you did make the decision to move into a mobile home, so why aren't you taking advantage of it? Come on, money is not all it's cracked up to be (he said, doubtfully).
Minimizing external expenses is smart
There will be certain things you come across, like lack of a shower, or lack of a toilet while living this lifestyle. Consider your lack of facilities a slight disadvantage, but you'll need access to a shower and washroom regularly (I think?). Since you're already paying for that yoga membership, and you can shower there, you're saving $1000 on rent! Wow, much savings!
A van can be hard to keep warm, especially if you have a limited amount of power (to power a small heater per se). If there's two of you, you're at a great advantage. Body heat comes free of charge. A small amount of nutritional input which results in a good amount of heat output can save you thousands of dollars per year, (unless your live near the equator).
If you're dwelling in the winter, in places that are cold, finding somewhere to plug in can be hugely beneficial. Park in a friend's driveway and offer to do a little work in exchange for plugging in at night to keep the heater running and charge your devices. This alone can be a huge boost, and can save another good chunk of money.
Seriously, just go.
Vanlife can enrich or destroy your life. It really depends on how you take it. Like most things in life, if you want to experience it - just do it, or you'll never know. You'll never know if you don't try it.
Travel, save money, go on adventures, experience culture (and subculture!). These reasons (among others) are enough to get thousands of folks like yourself into a van each year.
If you're still on the fence, and want to find out more about living this way, be sure to check out Vanholio for entertaining van stories and experience, check out Our Open Road for immense amounts of inspiration, and follow the conversation in /r/vandwellers for a large amount of very useful information on the subject.
This is a continuation of Why You Should Live and Travel in a Van - Part 1
Read Part One Here