You’ve seen #VanLife on Instagram. You may even follow a handful of single nomads traveling the world while living out of their vans, paying their way by selling organic hemp bracelets or hawking skin care products. Oh to be young again! Can’t do that now, right? I mean you have a career, a spouse, oh and the real kicker, a couple a kids. Even if you wanted to, where would you put all your stuff? Hell, where would you put your kids?
After spending the past year traveling as a family of four through most of the western United States and all of Baja California, Mexico, we’re here to tell you that family van life is possible, but it’s definitely not for everyone. I’ll be honest — if we can make it work, you can too. In this post, I’ll share a few reasons why we chose van life for our Great Big Adventure, as well as some things you’ll want to consider before pulling the trigger on your own family adventure.
First of all, why van life? For us, we already had a Sprinter van before we decided to set out on Our Great Big Adventure. While we contemplated other means of travel, it just made the most sense to convert what we already owned. Plus, we had added a platform bed and a bare-bones setup that we had tested on many weekend camping adventures, and loved the idea of building it into a tiny home. There are so many cool places you can travel to — and camp near — in a van.
When we converted our van into a home, we built it with the intention of taking epic road trips together as a family. We knew we would be covering large distances, and we wanted to be equally comfortable getting from location to location as we would be in camp. Our experience over the past year has affirmed that vans are the ultimate road trip vehicle, and can be done with a family. We have survived multiple 10+ hour drive days, driven some truly harrowing backcountry roads, and camped in some of the most magical places that just can’t be reached with a standard RV or travel trailer.
Being able to access these (mostly) free backcountry campsites has saved us a ton of money over the course of the last year, and allows us to travel without much advanced planning. We regularly start driving towards a destination without a specific campground/campsite in mind and have always been able to find something along the way without ever having had to settle for a Wal-Mart parking lot. Because we are considered “self-contained” and our van is less than 20ft long, we are often allowed to stay in “tent only” sites, which are cheaper and usually better positioned within campgrounds. This flexibility allowed us to find last-minute campsites within Yellowstone National Park last year, which usually book six months or more in advance.
With an average fuel economy of 17 mpg, we have also saved a ton of money on fuel over a traditional RV or truck/trailer combo.
Our van also allows us to explore small towns and urban areas without much issue. We can fit in a standard parking space, and have even had the luxury of pulling through a few fast food drive-thru windows with the appropriate height clearance. (Hello, In-N-Out!) Vans are also fairly discreet when parked on the roadside in small towns or cities, and we found ourselves taking advantage of this a few times while traveling through Baja.
Of course, all of this efficiency comes with a pretty big trade off – less space! Less space for everything… and everyone! We have discovered lots of helpful hacks to deal with the lack of space, but the reality is that this can be a real challenge. For families who aren’t looking to tackle multi-day road trips or take advantage of dispersed campsites, other options might be a better fit.
The lack of space inside our van forces us outside in many positive ways. We have spent many days out in nature, on hikes, and discovering local parks and museums. However, when the weather doesn’t cooperate, it is definitely not ideal for a family of four to be stuck inside of 86 sq.ft. You can manage for a day, but much more than that is asking for trouble. We avoid rain and temperatures below freezing at all costs, and sometimes find ourselves driving a few hours towards the sunshine. If your travels will be taking you places with inclement weather, or you plan to stay put and inside for large portions of your day, a larger footprint is highly recommended. This is especially the case if you are planning to work remotely on the road.
The limited space in a van also means that you might have to trade off some amenities commonly found in an RV or travel trailer. A van outfitted to safely transport and sleep two children is unlikely to also have a shower, or even a toilet. Are you comfortable using campground showers and bathrooms? Have you ever dug a cathole to do your business out in nature? Better yet, are you cool with doing that for your kiddos? If not, something with more amenities might be a better fit. Our experience is that camper vans with all the amenities leave very little space for storing necessary items for full-time van life, but should work fine for families looking to do 1-2 week trips. Alexis and I also consciously decided to limit the amount of things we brought with us on this journey in order to provide the kids with more room for their toys, Legos, stuffed animals and books (which is still pretty bare bones!).
More space and amenities also come with trade-offs. A standard travel trailer or RV is typically limited to campgrounds that offer full hook-ups (water, sewer, and electricity). In our experience these campsites are expensive, tightly packed, and usually lack the natural beauty one seeks while camping. Full hookup sites in national parks or near the coast, which can be quite beautiful, are almost impossible to book unless you plan months ahead. There are some modifications that can be made to RVs and travel trailers to make them fully self contained for “off-grid” camping, but finding an RV or travel trailer for sale with these modifications is rare.
Life is full of trade-offs. Van life is no exception. If your family is willing to trade off space and amenities for maximum flexibility and epic backcountry camping, then van life might just be what you are looking for.
I love the ability to travel to the most beautiful places with my family, and the ability to live simple and with only what we truly need. We enjoy meeting people on the road, whether it be locals or fellow travelers. And we get a kick out of surprising people that four of us and our dog not only fit in our van, but that we truly enjoy this little space. This tiny little van has brought us closer together.
Would you ever consider living in a van? Whether the answer is an emphatic YES! or hell no, we’re always happy to answer any questions you have. What do ya wanna know? ??
Check out our next blog post — eight things to consider before buying a van!
