Interview With Adventures In A Camper

Jade - VLB

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!

What made you go for a Fiat Ducato?

We started with a Ford Transit and this ended really badly. In short, after a year of working on it (slowly) it failed its MOT due to excessive rust issues and it just wasn't worth reparing it. Luckily the week before this we had gone to Netherlands for a few days in the van. With a blow-up bed on the floor and half insulated, it was amazing and it gave us the bug. If we didn't go on that trip, I think the van write off would have been the end of van life for us.

The Ducato we have now was the next van! We chose a Ducato because they're the main option for professional conversion companies. Fiat, Citroen and Peugot all use the same van so parts are mostly interchangeable, meaning they're easier to get hold of, and we love the width of the Ducato - it means that we can sleep sideways across the width of the van.

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!

What is it like taking your van on a ferry - can you explain the process for someone who is new to van life?

I've heard that you can get some good deals turning up on the day, but since we're restricted with work, we have to pre-book our ferries in advance, but we've found super early morning and late at night crossings tend to be cheapest. We also always book a flexi ticket which means you can cross on any ferry within so many hours of your booked time - we've never actually been on time for a ferry except the one to Spain because if we missed that, our trip was over!

We just book as a campervan and then (attempt to) turn up for our time slot. They have border control and ask some questions like where are you going and what have you got in your van etc, then you wait in your lane to be guided onto the ferry. Always make sure your handbrake is on, leave it in gear and turn off all gas (has to be isolated). You can't return to your van so ensure you have everything you need. That's basically it! There's food etc on board or you can bring your own. Depending on the crossing length, there might be entertainment like movies etc.

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.

Would you ever take your cats on a trip with you?

We really want to, but Keeko is an outdoor cat and I don't think she would cope well with being stuck in a van. Isla on the other hand is more of an indoor cat but she is 3 years old and still acts like a 3 month old kitten, so she's a little on the wild side and terrified of everything. We bought a harness and lead to try them out with small journeys to get used to the van, but as soon as we put the harness on, they flop over and can't walk, then go into hiding until we coax them out with treats to take it off again. April would also never forgive herself if we lost them.

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!

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