Did seeing beautiful pictures of campervan sites in UK on social media make you dream about the van life? Do you want to throw caution to the wind, quit your job, and live in a camper van carefree? If you’re prepared and have the right mentality, van life may be a terrific way to save money, travel the world, learn about yourself, and rediscover what truly matters in life. However, a few things to consider before moving into a van full-time exist.
What Exactly is Van’s life?
Van life is a way of life for those who prefer to live in vans or other vehicles converted into tiny mobile houses. This nomadic lifestyle is defined by adventure, minimalism, simplicity, and a reevaluation of what is significant in life. Van life is sometimes linked with haphazard travel and stunning photographs on social media, but the reality of this living is frequently far from what is depicted.
Why is Van Life So Great?
There are several reasons why people choose to live on the road, and these reasons vary from person to person. Here are a few reasons why van life is excellent, whether you want to go on a big journey or save money:
The Capability to Travel and Discover at Your Own Pace
Van living allows you the flexibility to visit locations you’ve always wanted to see on your timetable. Whether exploring all of the National Parks or taking a meandering cross-country road trip through all 50 states, van life makes it possible to travel without time limits, bookings, or agendas.
Van Life Enables You to Live a Simpler Life
Living in a van necessitates adopting a simple living with fewer possessions and only bringing certain campervan essentials. You’ll have to prioritise the critical aspects of your life and let go of the non-essentials. This is one of the most essential lessons of van life for many people.
Increase Your Time Spent Outdoors
Van camping might be an excellent reason to spend extra time outside. Living in a van enables you to get out and experience beautiful nature, from scattered camping to exploring National Parks. Vans may also serve as excellent basecamps for skiing or beginning and ending overnight activities such as multi-day hiking treks.
Reduce the Amount of Money You Spend
Living in a van may be as expensive or as cheap as you like. The simplicity of van living, which typically involves free camp on public lands and free outdoor activity, appeals to the majority of van lifers. If you live in a van full-time, you won’t have to pay rent or utilities, so you may save money while travelling.
Be Location-Independent
One of the most major benefits of living and working on the road is the ability to be location independent. If you work remotely, you may need to locate decent WiFi on occasion, but living in a van allows you to travel wherever you want, whenever you want.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Van Life
Before diving into van life full-time, one must evaluate some of the benefits and drawbacks of living in a van. The following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of van life that you may face during travel.
Benefits of Van Lifestyle
- Depending on your specific budget, lower spending may imply that you may save money and achieve your financial objectives.
- Live more simply with fewer possessions.
- On the journey, you might meet others who share your interests.
- Remove yourself from the constant flood of news and social media.
- Spend more time outside.
- The flexibility to go whenever and wherever you want on your own schedule. It’s freeing not to be bound by location and time.
Drawbacks of Van Lifecc
- Cell and campervan WiFi might be unreliable.
- Driving and exploring the city might be a chore.
- Campervan cooking may be quite challenging.
- Finding filling and disposal stations is a problem.
- Showers are becoming less frequent.
- There isn’t much room, especially if you’re travelling with family or pets, such as dogs or cats
- Vans accumulate clutter quickly and require continuous cleaning.
- When parking and selecting campsites, you must keep safety and campervan security in mind.
- You’ll almost certainly spend more time in public bathrooms.
- You should prepare a backup plan in case you get stopped or your automobile breaks down.
How to Prepare for the Mobile Lifestyle a Van Offers
There are several factors to consider when preparing for a van life on the road. Here are the crucial questions you need to consider:
- “What are you going to do with all of your belongings?”
- “What equipment should you bring?”
- “How do you plan on cooking and keeping your food?”
There is no single correct response to these questions, but here are a few suggestions to help you prepare for van life.
What Are Some of the Problems That Come With Living In a Van?
Although there are various reasons why you would choose to live in a van, it is only for select people. Here are some of the most significant problems of this way of living.
#1: Adapting to a Life Spent In a Van Necessitates a Love of the Great Outdoors
If you don’t appreciate being outside, living in a van will require considerable adjustment. It’s one of the things that pulls a lot of people to van life. However, it is crucial to recognise that being outside always has certain inescapable drawbacks.
Dirt, leaves, mud, and sand will be present. Insects of various types will be attending, including flies, mosquitoes, spiders, and ticks. You will either be chilly, heated, moist or sweating. Things aren’t always clean, and you’re not always comfy. The sooner you realise this, the more you’ll like life in a van.
#2: Earning a Living While Travelling Requires Effort
Living in a van is only a vacation if you have saved enough money to take time off work for a quick van life road trip. What you don’t see on Instagram is how hard everyone who lives in a van full-time works to make ends meet. Vanlifers earn money on the road through manual labour, seasonal farming, starting their enterprises, employment, internet freelance work, and various other creative and independent means.
Suppose you like the steadiness of showing up at a set location for a predetermined number of hours and receiving a regular salary in exchange. In that case, you must make modifications if you want to live on the road. Many van lifers have made this transition, so there’s no reason why you can’t if you work extremely hard enough.
#3: Van Life May Be Exhausting
Despite what you might see on Instagram, van life isn’t all about lazing in your van in picturesque locations. Real van life requires much effort and continually strategies. Constant planning, scheming, and unpredictability can sometimes take time to manage. You may feel anxiety and burnout if you are not careful.
#4: When You’re Living Out of a Van, You’ll Be Experiencing All Kinds of Climate Conditions
In a camper van, you have limited control over your surroundings. You’ll always be at the mercy of the outer elements. Whatever you do, you’ll never have the same level of control over the temperature in your vehicle that you do at home.
In order to maintain your van at a proper temperature regardless of the weather, you may insulate it, add reflective window coverings, create an awning and seek shade in hot weather, and install a ventilation fan. A little gas heater may do wonders in the cold. To be able to use AC in the summer, you must plan on spending all of your time linked to the grid at campervan parks. You’ll have to become used to dealing with temperature fluctuations and figure out how to deal with them.
#5: You’ll See and Experience Many Strange and Unsettling Things While Living In a Van.
Unexpected events occur when you live on the road. You may find yourself in various uncomfortable circumstances and need to grow accustomed to being uncomfortable. There will be mental health problems and layers of suffering to go with inwardly, especially when you initially begin your van life.
However, if you remain adaptable and have an open mind, you will become accustomed to not knowing what is ahead. This sense of unpredictability becomes an essential element of the van life experience, and you’ll feel like you’re experiencing life every day. You’ll leave your comfort zone in the rearview mirror, paving the way for significant personal progress.
Conclusion
Living in a van is a worthwhile experience, as long as you come prepared by knowing what essentials to bring, how to manage your new lifestyle, and how to maintain your van. You may also need to know how to process your van insurance to keep you secured at all times.
If you’re concerned that you won’t enjoy living in a van – that the restricted space is too little for you, or that you’ll wind up killing your significant other – it’s a good idea to try it out for a short time before committing to it full time. Renting a campervan is one method to accomplish this. You can rent a van practically any place and take it on a road trip from your house, or you may fly somewhere special and pick one up when you arrive. If you try out van life before committing, you may save money if you decide it’s not for you.
