It’s at this time of year – when we’re planning our travels and getting ready to leave for the winter – that we often get asked why we choose to travel in a van. “Wouldn’t it be easier”, friends ask, “to just get on a plane and fly to our destination of choice?” “Yes!” It would be easier, faster, and a whole lot less stressful. But there are many reasons we love (… and to some extent need) to travel in a van. Read on for our top 6 and maybe we’ll convert you to vanlife!
#1. Dog-Friendly
The number one reason that we choose to travel in a van is so that we can go on epic adventures and bring Walter along for the ride. For me and Marc, long-term travel without Walter is unthinkable. Walter would make a terrible flyer so overland travel is by far our best option. When we adopted Walter, one of our first questions to the rescue organization was “Does he like car rides?” They said he loves being in the car and well, the rest is history.
#2. Flexibility
Travelling in a van means that we never need to worry about organizing transportation or accommodations ahead of time. Thank god, because we are terrible at booking ahead and making time-related commitments. Being on our own schedule allows us a huge amount of flexibility in deciding when to leave home, what destinations to visit and how long to stay in each place. We have become very spoiled in this regard. I love being able to show up somewhere new, decide that I like it and stay for a month instead of a week. Or on the flip side, if we are disappointed by a destination or if the weather is crap, we can just move on.
#3. Home On Wheels
Slow Sally, our van, is like a mini apartment on wheels, stocked with all the comforts of home. We have our own bed and pillows, our favourite cookware, staples from home that are hard to find elsewhere (dark chocolate and quality tea being the most important ones) and our very own toilet! No matter where in the world we find ourselves, Sally feels familiar, comfortable, and like home. This makes travelling in foreign places a whole lot easier and I personally think it helps ward off traveller burn-out. When we become exhausted after too much travelling, we sometimes decide to hunker down in the van for a day or two until we feel ready to venture back out into the world.
#4. Getting Off the Beaten Track
We love getting off the beaten track but that can be hard when using public transportation to get around. Buses, trains and planes, particularly if they are geared toward tourists, tend to bring you to the most popular places and attractions. We find that the van is the best way to get to the places that are hard for the other tourists to visit. Often we find ourselves overnight parking on the streets of little out-of-the-way towns that no international tourist has heard of and often enough, these end up being our favourite places to visit.
#5. Budget-Friendly
Travelling in a van is not as cheap as people think but it can be a relatively budget-friendly way to travel if you make that your aim. To keep our expenses low, we camp cheaply or for free as much as possible (check out our post about budget van travel), limit the number of kilometres/miles we do per day, cook in the van for most meals, choose attractions based on best value and do most van projects ourselves. We also spend a lot of time in Mexico and Guatemala, where the cost of living is significantly cheaper than in Canada or the USA. Some of the best free camping we’ve found is on public lands in the US Southwest.
#6. Community
Everyone has different reasons for living part or full-time in a van but independence, minimalism and intentional living are definitely common threads. Most vanlifers have previously lived much more traditional lives and somewhere along the way, decided that they’d be happier doing something different… and apparently living in something that rolls! We find it really easy to meet friendly, like-minded people on the road (van and “normal” travellers, lol) and this makes travelling a lot less lonely and a whole lot more memorable.
Do We Miss Other Types of Travel?
I’m not going to lie. We do miss travelling overseas and flying to far-away destinations – arriving the same day instead of the next month. If we didn’t have Walter, we’d likely still be doing some of that. But for now, I can say that van travel is without a doubt the best way for us to explore the world.
Stay Tuned
Van travel sounds pretty great, right? It is! But anyone who has travelled in a van for extended periods knows that it’s not always fun, easy, or pretty. Sometimes it’s downright ugly. We’ll elaborate on that reality in our next post.
SLOW SALLY & CREW 