Van Life Blog

Van Life Business Features:

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 13:08:14 GMT

Welcome to a brand new blog series, where we feature creative Van Lifers and small business owners who make and create things ON or FOR the road!

First up lets get to know the story behind Tiny Ventures...

Welcome! I'm Nichole,

2020 - My Dad and I converted an Ex BT Ford Transit, a open, light, scandi moving home.

2021 - 2022 - The Tiny Sessions Podcast launched, a space for the community. Here I talk with a host of Tiny Space owners, renters, builders, and adventurers all over the world.

2023 - The Tiny Sessions Podcast video and bonus content is launched on YouTube , feel like you are chatting with us in the room. The first Tiny Gatherings Festival will be launched in the UK and adventures will begin, keen to share both Van and Off Grid Adventures.

GET YOUR TINY SPACES READY!!!

I am the founder of the first Tiny Gatherings Festival happening this Summer, August Friday 25th - Monday 28th August, Devon.

PLEASE VISIT HERE

A boutique festival nestled in rural Devon on the outskirts of Dartmoor in tranquil countryside. A festival for our tiny space and outdoor community that is family and dog friendly. This festival is for you if you love, own, or wish to own a tiny space, camping of every kind or if you enjoy adventures and the outdoors.

YOU CAN BOOK TICKETS HERE

Tickets are limited to keep this Tiny Festival exactly what it's about. Need a bit more time? Please select Paypals 3 interest free payments at checkout to spread out your ticket costs throughout the year.

HAVE MORE QUESTIONS? VISIT FAQs HERE

Many thanks,

Nichole - Tiny Ventures

Join me on Instagram for more

How To Reduce Weight In A Van Build

Mon, 10 May 2021 10:00:43 GMT

Weight is one of the most important yet overlooked factors of a van build out. Below I share my top tips on ways to consider reducing those kilograms!

Windows

You could reduce the overall weight of your van by considering the amount or size of the windows that you put in to your build (glass is pretty heavy)

Windows are great for allowing light in to the space and bringing the outdoors in, but they can also cause a number of issues including condensation, heat loss, or even too much heat on those hot days, where many windows in a van can make it feel like a green house!

Batteries & Solar

Lithium batteries are the real deal when it comes to van builds and can be far lighter than other batteries on the market, however, be prepared, as it is not just the van that is going to be a lot lighter - your wallet definitely will be too! (all be it a very good investment)

When considering solar we are a huge fan of flexible solar panels, you can save a considerable amount of weight here, for example a standard 160w solar panel can be around 15 - 20kg as apposed to a flexible which are around 3-10kg depending on brand. Flexible panels can be a controversial subject in van conversions, however if mounted correctly with adequate ventilation there should be no cause for concern!

Walls & Ceiling

Consider using a lightweight alternative to wood, for example, we use hollow soffit cladding quite often, we discovered this on the off chance as Wayne had lots left over from a housing project

(this type of cladding is typically used for the outside of buildings)

We continued using it mainly because it is very light compared to wood but also has many other benefits:

Light weight & long lasting (won't swell or bow like wood)

Easy to clean and waterproof

The hollow core creates another cavity providing better insulation properties

Available in long lengths

No screw holes visible

No sanding, painting or staining required

In the UK, Eurocell is a great brand for this type of cladding. Although they are selling plastics with in the building industry, this company does care about the environment, and the steps they are taking to ensure this went a long way for me when choosing a supplier of this product.

Bathroom In A Camper - YES OR NO?

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 21:04:31 GMT

When it comes to choosing your toilet, we would highly recommend the Simploo Composting Loo , not only is it a more ecological choice compared with chemical loo's, it actually looks like a household toilet thanks to the sleek modern finish.

If you are travelling as a couple or with friends then we really think having a private space to do your biz may be the best option. If you had a portable toilet that you pull out from a drawer for example, then put it this way, there would definitely be no secrets in your relationships! For us, a full bathroom makes sense to enable a private area to get changed in, shave your legs, or to sit on the loo scrolling Instagram or reading blogs (ha)

Having said all of the above we see many, many people live full time in their vans without any bathroom at all, and they wouldn’t change it for the world! So, at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference and what works best for the individual, couple or family.

Full time van lifers that work and live on the road are often members of nationwide gyms - this enables them to have a shower daily after a work out (no matter where they are in the country)

This is a really good solution to saving space in your tiny home, and just having the portable loo for emergencies or night time!

Part Time / Weekends

You could probably do without if you prefer the space for something else.

Where To Fill Up Your Water Tanks

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:00:43 GMT

Are you wondering where to fill up your water when living the full time van life? Below I share my top tips!

My first pointer here would be to have a water tank that is over 70L to ensure you aren't having to fill up too often (especially if you are planning to be off grid for a few days at a time)

You'll still need to preserve your water as much as you can, so try not to keep that tap running unnecessarily and invest in a stop/start shower head, if you have a shower set up in your rig.

The most obvious one is to fill up at friends and families, in between adventures or before setting off, this is probably the easiest way to obtain water!

Keep a long water hose in your van, so if you spot a tap on your travels you are well prepared! On the road look out for these at fuel stations and services, not all of them have taps so I personally like to do a little dance when I find one (this is optional)

A not so obvious one (and one that is probably best to use in a low water emergency) is a jet wash or screen water fill up point in fuel stations, you just need to make sure there are no chemicals or soap added to these! Oh and be prepared for some funny looks from people if you do try this method - if in doubt just smile and pout!

Make friends! This is super easy in van life because the community spirit is so SO strong! There is a whole host of support out there both at park ups or online, so if you are stuck just ask around!

I found that country pub owners were particularly friendly and kind enough to let us use their outdoor taps, they often have these for doggos, so after a spot of lunch take the opportunity to ask - the worst they can say is no!

Lastly there is the option of a campsite, you could make use of the paid facilities and fill up your water, lots of people we know plan to do this once every few weeks for a night or 2!

Travel The Nordics (The Indie Projects)

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 19:30:32 GMT

Vanlife Legends Bee & Theo from The Indie Projects have just released an inspiring guide book, all about their experience of travelling through the breathtaking Nordics!

This book Travel The Nordics literally couldn’t have come out at a better time for me! I have just purchased a new van, ready to build out in the coming months, and Norway / Northern Lights being TOP of my travel bucket list! Reading this book has completely solidified the fact that I just have to go, and now even better I can feel fully prepared with the practical advice of The Indie Projects! I CANNOT wait to get on the road and experience all of the amazing sights that Bee & Theo share in this book, but this time with my very own eyes!

I do not want to give too much more away so I am going to leave it there and let you guys have a read for yourself...please follow this link: https://www.theindieprojects.com/travel-the-nordics-guide-book to purchase the book and support The Indie Projects for all that they continue to create and share within this amazing van life community!

Our TOP VanLife Underrated Destinations

Sun, 21 Jun 2020 19:56:14 GMT

Laura, Carly, their daughter Agnes and Roy The Dog make Rainbows On The Road - an Adventurous family who have travelled far and wide in their super unique home on wheels! They have absolutely nailed alternative living, and they are a great inspiration to us and many others! Let's find out their TOP underrated travel destinations below in the blog they have written for us all to enjoy!

Cappadocia - a surreal other-worldly landscape; which in itself is enough reason to visit, but then there’s the hot air balloons! Weather depending, every day at sunrise dozens and dozens of hot air balloons take off from all over this area. It’s hard to describe how it felt to wake up to the drone of the balloons being inflated right behind our van and sit in awe watching the balloons pop up from all over this magical place.

Chimera - naturally occurring flames erupting from rocks - check it out online. Very cool thing to see.

On a more general note, although Turkey is a popular holiday destination, not many people seem to come down in their vans, and it is brilliant outside of the peak season. All the popular spots are near-deserted!

It’s a very affordable place to visit; food is cheap, we could even afford to eat out occasionally here and we became hooked on Turkish coffee and their delicious freshly baked loaves of bread that you find in cabinets outside most grocers. Fuel is also exceptionally cheap there. And lastly, of all the countries we have visited so far, the majority of people we met were very friendly and welcoming.

Favourite parkups/drives:

While we don’t have any specific drives to mention, a lot of the roads make for pretty epic drives. The roads are generally in much better condition than those in the Balkans(!), and very few toll roads. The scenery is stunning, from the beaches to the mountains and everything in between.

A parkup we came across early in our travels in Turkey, a picnic area on a big hill near the village of Güre. It was very popular during the day with locals who would come up for picnics (in fact we ended up being invited over to join some locals for tea!). Beautiful area, with stunning views, friendly goats, a great little café and a cool tower. It was peaceful at night and I’m pretty confident that I heard wolves in the distance from here one night. The police came up during the day but they were either just there to enjoy the views (they were taking photos) or to check up on the locals - they were friendly to us and had no problem with us being there for a few days.

Cappadocia - as mentioned above, this is an amazing place, but not just that, it had a lot of options for parkups. We were specifically seeking out good spots to see the hot air balloons, but there seemed to be plenty of places you cold potentially stay over night and it didn’t feel like you’d be bothered by anyone. Our favourite was down near Love Valley, as we were literally surrounded by balloons taking off in the morning and that was just epic. During the day it was visited by quad bikes, people on jeep safaris, walkers and stray dogs but everyone was friendly and it was peaceful over night.

Dalyan - this was a nice little pull-off the road down to the beach. The beach itself was lovely; popular with turtles and has a great turtle rehab and information centre which is well worth a visit. But the area we parked was a little further up the road and felt more like a woodland area. Lovely walk down to the valley.

Interview With Van Life Straya

Sun, 31 May 2020 18:47:17 GMT

The awesome Claire & Luke from Van Life Straya have just completed self converting a Sprinter Panel Van into their very own FULL TIME home!

We have throughly enjoyed watching this fun couple during their van build. Australia is near to our own hearts, so we have definitely been following this one extra closely!

Let's dig a little deeper...

How easy was it to decide what van to convert?

Well we wanted a van that had enough space for both of us and also that we could stand up in as we would be living and working from the

van fairly long term and not just doing short trips. So it kinda came down to the Ford Transit or the Sprinter and everyone said how amazing

the Sprinter was so we just went with that ;)

What was the hardest part of your build out?

Hmm the most frustrating part was the tiles. We used the wrong adhesive (it didn't say on the tin that it wouldn't work on timber) but after checking on the website after we'd stuck them all down we got a tip from Claire's bro that it might not work and sure enough it wasn't really meant for timber. So it took us another whole day to

strip them off and all the adhesive before finally settling on just using heavy grade liquid nails ;) It basically took us three days when it should've been just under a day. Anyway we won't make that mistake again! The other part I hated was installing the reflective vapor barrier, so bloody annoying and time consuming!

What was the easiest part of your build out?

Honestly struggling to think. Nothing was really that easy or as quick as we sometimes thought it might be. Probably pulling out the cage and

existing ply that came with the van originally! ;)

What is your favourite part of your van so far? She’s looking like a beauty!

Aw thanks! Actually we're super happy with how a lot of it has turned out. But maybe the bed wall where the slide out table and toilet cupboard are, pretty happy with how we (as a couple of amateurs)

managed to finish that off!

What do you both do for a living and will you be able to work remotely?

Claire is a personal trainer and nutritionist and has recently switched her biz to go online so has some select online clients that she works with.

Can catch her on @coachedbyclaire if you wanna check it out. My main business, Wild Wood ( @wildwoodme ), still operates from Dubai so yes I can work on that and oversee it remotely too which is great :)

What’s the plan once you are all done? Where are you off?

Well the original plan was to head through the middle of Aus through Alice Springs into NT and then onto WA. We're not used to this cold

Melbourne weather and wanted to get north for the winter! But doesn't look like the SA or NT borders will open anytime soon so we're thinking about going east coast route into Queensland now.

Interview With Driving Dee Dee

Tue, 19 May 2020 18:22:39 GMT

Courtney & James are a lovely couple that we have followed throughout their van build / life journey! They are living full time in an amazing self built Mercedes Sprinter van. They are currently in Spain, lets find out how they are finding the van life!

We really enjoy watching your travels on Instagram - but life is

certainly different right now, and you are currently in Spain on

lockdown due to the Covid-19! How are you adjusting to this? Were you

unable to stay in the van over there?

Yes, we're currently in the south of Spain near Almeria and have been here for around 9 weeks now. We decided to rent an AirBnB about two months ago to wait out the lockdown rather than staying in the van as it felt safer and gave us peace of mind – as well as not having to worry about emptying the toilet and having access to long hot showers every day!

We spent the first week of lockdown in the van but because the rules were so strict here with heavy fines (up to 2000 euros!) being threatened to anyone out of the house without a valid reason – and rules against having more than one person in a vehicle - we were constantly looking over our shoulder and felt really on edge all the time. On top of that all caravan parks and the majority of aires or motorhome service points closed too so finding water and grey and black drop-off points was really tricky.

It's not quite how we imagined spending the Spring months, that's for sure, but we've tried to stay positive throughout it all and will just have to adapt our route plan accordingly, as and when things start to resume some normality and country borders begin to open again.

Lockdown restrictions have eased slightly now, so we are leaving the AirBnB to move back into DeeDee this week and drive to an animal sanctuary near Valencia who have offered us to park on their land whilst we volunteer with them to build their new rescue centre. That should keep us entertained for the rest of lockdown (hopefully!).

How do you guys earn money on the road?

We both worked in digital marketing before we got into Vanlife so our income is tied to that. James still works for the marketing agency he worked for before we started travelling, working Monday – Wednesday in a SEO role. Courtney quit her agency and now does a combination of freelance projects and helping our family financial planning business part time.

This structure allows us to maintain a routine for our week, with the first 3 days being work days and then the rest of the week is exploring and travelling – whilst also doing all the life admin bits like shopping and getting water etc. We find this super helpful as it means we always have a routine and don't find ourselves getting stuck in a rut. It is also super helpful that James is contracted, meaning we have a guaranteed wage, holidays and sick pay, taking the pressure off finding lots of freelance projects.

Is there anything about van life you find particularly difficult?

After working full-time in a lifestyle where being constantly busy and 'go-go-go' all the time is encouraged, transitioning to a slower pace of life and accepting that you don't need to have a plan for the next month is harder than we expected. For the first month or two, we were constantly checking Google Maps and planning our park-ups a few weeks in advance, agreeing in advance how long we were going to stay somewhere before even arriving and experiencing it.

There's a bit of an expectation with vanlife (and a lot of alternative lifestyles) that everyone is really chilled and no one has any set plans, moving freely with their mood and following good weather all the time and although when you get to that stage it feels amazing, it's something that we struggled with a bit. Learning that it's ok to not feel totally relaxed and 'go with the flow' on day one (or day 30) is something we wish people had prepared us for before we left. And now look at us, we have no idea where we're going to be next week, let alone next month!

Having lived in the van for some time is there anything you would now

change?

We wouldn't change anything about our lifestyle – we're happier, have more disposable income, better savings and a more fulfilled life than we did working full time in the UK, it really has been that good a change for us.

As for the van, there are a couple of things we would change for sure:

- We'd plumb gas into a cooktop this time, the small canisters are expensive and we were really just scared about dealing with gas. Now we've got some experience and spoken to other vanlifers, it is something we would 100% change.

- We'd change the worktops, they scratch super easy! Whilst they look awesome, they are also super heavy so take up valuable weight. We'll probably do it when we get back to the UK at some point and swap in lighter (but still pretty) worktops that have much better scratch resistance.

- We'd probably change some of the cupboard space in the kitchen area for more drawers. Whilst the cupboards have loads of room, most of it is wasted in the top half of the cupboards whilst drawers would eliminate that. Plus in such a small space, trying to contort yourself to reach the thing you need at the back of the cupboard isn't always the most enjoyable.

Interview With Adventures In A Camper

Thu, 14 May 2020 18:04:46 GMT

We asked our friends Shane & April from Adventures In A Camper, a few questions relating to travel and van life! We have had the pleasure of meeting these guys in person at the Eamon & Bec meet up last year, they are such lovely people and we also got to check out their fantastic tiny home on wheels!
Let's find out more...

What inspired you to get a van?

April's parents bought a caravan a few years ago, and after using it for a year or two we decided having a fixed base for weekend trips didn't work for us. To go on a weekend trip meant that we would have to book Friday's and Monday's off of work as we would spend Friday driving to our campsite and setting up and Monday packing up and driving home (you can't really go anywhere with a caravan hooked up to you). We'd pick a campsite in a central location to the places we wanted to visit, then we would spend the weekend traveling anywhere from 2 to 3 hours each day from our base location and then return at night. A camper van gave us the freedom to spend more time exploring as our home would be with us all the time - and it also meant that a weekend trip was literally a weekend trip, so no extra time off work, meaning more trips!

If you could choose your top travel destination that you have visited in your van - where would it be?

We loved Italy! We spent a few days on our roadtrip to Slovenia in the north of Italy (Lake Como, Lake Garda and the Dolomites) and didn't want to leave! We found it really accomodating for vans - plenty of free sites to stay and easy access to drinking water and waste points. We'll definitely be heading back there when we can, because the views are amazing! We also really love Portugal - we've been a few times without the van, and finally made it there for Christmas on the beach last year in the van!

A popular question we get asked as van builders is: bathroom or no bathroom? You guys pulled your wet room out and no longer have a bathroom right? - how do you find this when on the road?

Yep! When we first started the van April wanted every comfort of the house - Shane wasn't convinced we needed a bathroom as it takes up a huge chunk of space for a room you use once a day.

After various meet ups and speaking to other van lifers who either didn't have a wetroom, or had one and never used it, we decided if the full timers can do it without a shower then we don't really need one. We spent 2 weeks in Europe a few months before without and managed just fine, nevermind for a 2 day weekend trip.

We used to just flannel wash between campsite stops - now we've upgraded to a popup shower using a hoola-hoop, shower curtains, some buckets and a USB shower, though we haven't had the chance to use it yet haha!

What are 3 items in your camper that you wouldn't live without?

1. Toilet. Although we got rid of our bathroom, we still kept our toilet! We have a porta-potti that slides out of a drawer and we couldn't live without it. When we went on our first Europe trip, the van wasn't finished so we didn't have a toilet. We quickly decided that if we wanted to wild camp, we needed a toilet! So we spent a morning driving around Switzerland to find ourselves a porta-potti. After that, we only used campsites every other day so that we could shower!

2. Calorifier Tank. It gives us hot water using the coolant system from the engine. We tend to travel most days meaning we always have hot water available even when we don't need it, it just sits in the background doing it's thing. When we do need hot water and haven't been driving, it's a case of just running the engine for 30 minutes or so, and ours also has 230v heater element for the few times we visit campsites.

3. Solar/ Battery to Battery Charger. I've grouped both these as having any ability to recharge your power is a must for us. We don't ever worry about power as the sun recharges us and also driving does as well. We have had a couple times where we accidentally ran the power down (our fault) and without either of these we would have been unable to recover.

We love your travel videos on YouTube, will you be making a van tour in the future?

That's the plan! We've been waiting till it's pretty much finished, which we're almost there with it now, but also we want to be able to do it somewhere with better views than our driveway haha! Check us out here

Last one is for April, name your scariest moment on the road? We are sure you'll have a story ��

Hahahah, well - anything with mountain roads or insects! Although the views in the Dolomites are amazing, the roads are not (for me at least). I'm terrified of hill starts and some of the inclines on those roads are insane. Luckily it's Shane driving, not me, but I can't help but sit there clinging onto the door for my life. I remember when we slept at the top of the mountiain in the Dolomites - I was terrified of going back down (our brakes overheated the first day of the trip on waaay less mountainous roads) and Shane said that I was sleep talking in the night telling him to keep his eyes on the road haha! Also, the time a MASSIVE hornet flew in my window and landed on Shane's leg. We were doing about 50mph, and fear just took over me and I was literally taking my seatbelt off and opening the van door to jump out - I had no control of myself haha! Luckily Shane pulled over and jumped out before I could!

Van Life With A Doggo

Fri, 08 May 2020 06:48:10 GMT

We're To the Mountains and Back and we've been travelling around Europe in our sprinter van conversion for the last 16 months (off and on). The star of the show is definitely our beagle Piglet who prides herself in causing mischief everywhere we go! We often get asked what it's like living in our van with a dog, and how she finds it on the road so we thought we'd share a few tips and tales with you from our travels.

Tip #1 - Only you know your dog!

There's a whole raft of people out there that will give you every reason under the sun why van life is or isn't a good idea with a dog. Trust me when I say Piglet is her own dog! She travelled with me to work everyday since she was a pup so being on the road isn't an issue for her. She loves getting in the van and heading off; new places and smells are her idea of heaven (well, that and any kind of food!) and she's incredibly sociable with people. Only you know what your dog enjoys and what stresses them out and that's the best way to know if van life is right for your dog or not.

Tip #3 - Check the regs

Currently your dog needs to have had a rabies vaccine and have a valid European Pet Passport to travel. Some countries, including Norway and the UK require your dog to be treated for tapeworm 1-5 days before entering. It's always worth checking the regulations for the country you're heading in to as well to ensure you won't have any issues. This will most likely change with Brexit at the end of 2020 so make sure you're aware of any new requirements. Currently, the most likely scenario is that all dogs will need a rabies test to travel (can take up to 4 months) and a health certificate, but nothing has been finalised as yet.

There are also some local regulations you may need to be aware of too, for example some areas in Italy require a dog to be muzzled in public areas and on public transport. Not having a muzzle with you can result in fines. Piglet was not a fan of wearing a muzzle (it makes it harder to grab stray food!) but we always carry one with us now just in case.

We use a car safety harness for Piglet whenever we are driving. The seat belt loops through this and she sits on the middle seat in our van. Most countries require your dog to be secured when driving so this is definitely one to think about as well.

Tip #5 - Get a tag with your phone number!

Your dog needs to be microchipped to get a Pet Passport to travel. I cannot recommend enough making sure your dog also wears a collar with a tag containing your contact details. Piglet usually only wears a collar when we're taking her out but she wears one at all times in the van except at night. Why? Because she is a serious escape artist (she got out of a locked crate when she was a puppy, still no idea how)! Losing her is my biggest fear and we never let her off her lead as despite knowing perfect recall she's very opinionated about when she needs to listen and when she doesn't! Take, for example, Trysil Ski resort in Norway. Somehow she managed to squeeze through the tinniest gap in the side door and she bolted through the car park at great speed, straight to the ski slopes and was off!

Will chased after her on skis (it's definitely funnier to look back on it than it was at the time!), I ran frantically around the car park and ski resort with dog treats and toys in hand. 45 minutes later we got a phone call from a Norwegian lady saying "I think I have your dog". You have no idea the relief! Piglet was obviously delighted with herself having had the most fun in weeks (she was found head in a bin behind a restaurant!!) and I didn't know whether to kill her or never let her out of my sight again! Needless to say it was a pretty traumatic 45 minutes for us but it could definitely have been a lot worse if both our phone numbers weren't on her collar (with international dialling code).

Interview With The Dixie Tribe

Thu, 07 May 2020 13:15:27 GMT

We asked The Dixie Tribe, a travel filled family of 3 (soon to be 4) some questions about the REAL van life and their experiences as a family. Sam & Rach previously travelled around Europe for 5 months making beautiful memories with their son, Ellis, and are now super busy undertaking conversion number 2!
Let's find out a little more...

How did you first get in to van life?

For a long time, we had really wanted to travel, and we had come close to moving to Canada for a year to live and work. But we kinda realised we would just be doing there, what we were doing here....working and not actually having quality time together as a family. We wanted to be able to travel full time and enjoy every experience together.

We almost came close to buying a house too, but the seller pulled out, and we realised that we didn't want to be tied into a huge mortgage. Van living just really offered us what we were looking for. Minimal living and full-time travel. So we went for it! We purchased a 2005 LDV Convoy and converted her into a tiny home on wheels over nine months and then travelled full-time across Europe for five months.

How do you guys plan on making a living when you hit the road again?

It has always been one of our primary goals to have a remote income so that we can travel full time while still making money. Rachel now has her own online business as a Kangen Water Distributor and mentoring others in launching their own successful online businesses. More and more people are seeing the value of working online and being able to make money from anywhere in the World. Having your own business takes guts and hard work, but it sure does pay-off when you can travel anywhere at any time!

If you could give someone who is thinking about van life any piece of advice, what would it be?

Do it! Van living is an incredibly freeing way to live.

Do as much research on the practical aspects beforehand so that you KNOW what you need from your conversion - power output, water usage, layout and space, appliances and fixtures etc.

Of course, that can be difficult to do before you are living in it, but you really want to make sure the conversion works for you when you're months down the line.

We wouldn't have changed much about our LDV conversion, except maybe to put in a 240v hook up!

Get Closer To Nature With Vanlife

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:56:40 GMT

Taking a look through #vanlife on Instagram you can see plenty of picturesque vans – and accompanying them are the epic shots of the natural world. Vanlife and Nature go hand in hand - here's our story...

Two nature nerds with a van

The two of us, Connie and Nick, make We Are Vanimals. We are a couple of animal biologists that love to explore and find nature whenever possible. We are part time Vanlifers – or weekend warriors - that go out and document our adventures on our Instagram and Youtube channel.

Bucket List Road Trip

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 08:27:25 GMT

I might be learning something new about myself... I’m slightly impatient! Building our own van has been a dream of ours for some time now and having to rely on others to get it off the ground has been somewhat er challenging, well for me anyway.. (I like to use the term ‘us’ however Neil is extremely laid back and I don’t seem to ever see him slightly stressed... hmm!) So in the mean time, I thought I’d share the road trips that are calling our name… Now just where to decide to go first?

Driving A 41 Year Old Banger Around France, Spain And Portugal

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 10:00:43 GMT

Van life has exploded in popularity, transitioning from a niche lifestyle choice to a desirable and cheap way to live. As a family of four (two humans and two dogs) we have been living full-time in our yellow tin can for over a year. In January 2020, we decided to take the van on its biggest adventure yet.

This is what we learnt along the way...

Can you REALLY camp for free?

Yes! In our eleven weeks away, we didn’t stay at ANY campsites. What you want from a park up will influence whether wild camping is for you. For us, we love to get amongst nature, so often we spent the night in a forest car park, a viewpoint with panoramic mountain views or we’d settle by the coast. Not many of these park ups will have facilities - that’s the beauty of them - but it does mean that you will have to plan when and where you fill up your water tank. France is great - they have public water taps everywhere. In Spain and Portugal, it’s not so easy. Download the park4night app and use google earth to scout out potential spots, and be flexible. Even with all the planning in the world, occasionally you may find yourself at the end of a dirt track, with no view, a dried up lake and a ‘no camping’ sign!

Write down what you spend

In our first week of the trip, we were so distracted with the excitement of travelling that we didn’t write down what we were spending. Every time we filled up with petrol, we’d pop into the supermarket to buy a few treats (by treats I mean Grimbergen - our favourite beer). When the ‘holiday haze’ lifted and we started to track our finances, it become clear that if we continued on our beer-and-junk-food bender, we’d be coming home a month earlier and a stone heavier. Writing everything down helped us to budget more effectively, making our pennies go further.

What item could we not live without?

Our split relay charger…this is a MUST have for all vanlifers. In simplistic terms, this neat gadget will charge your leisure battery when the engine is running. So if you are moving little and often as we were, it means that you will always have power for your electronics. And if you are running low? Leave the engine running for a few minutes. Sorted!

Be prepared to get your hands dirty

Just like a house built with bricks, they’ll be little things that go wrong along the way that will need fixing. If this happens (and unfortunately it will) keep a cool head, use your phone to research the problem and formulate a plan. We were amazed at how many people helped us in our hour of need, often complete strangers. Reach out to the community online, discussing a problem and sharing knowledge helps to get you back on the road sooner, and keeps you sane too.

Leave no trace…

As travelling by van increases in popularity, it’s more important than ever to look after our beautiful planet. Bag up your rubbish, empty grey waste correctly and don’t overstay your welcome. As a rule of thumb, we stayed at most spots for one to two nights. This gave us plenty of time to explore the area, enjoy the views and continue onward with our journey.

Our VanLife Story

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 10:38:33 GMT

We are Sophie and Lewis and the combination of vanlife with our golden retriever Humphrey sums up ‘bucket list’ for us. Travel has always been a huge dream for us both, but it wasn’t until our whole world was flipped upside down when we were in our early twenties, that we even considered the possibilities of converting our own campervan, and bringing Humphrey along for the ride.