Van Life 2 - Advantages and Disadvantages

Over the summer we have grown quite used to being in the van, and have got the hang of navigating around, shopping in different languages and finding everything that we need to live day-to-day. Certainly, if money and time off were infinite, a lack of home comforts would not be a reason to come home. Here are some thoughts about the logistics of van life and some of its advantages and disadvantages that we have found.

Van vs. Caravan vs. Car + Tent

With no toilet, sink, heating, cupboards nor even room to stand up straight inside, the van is more like a big metal tent than a mobile home. Its small size gives it a number of advantages. It has a footprint no bigger than a large estate car and is only 190 cm tall. This means that it can fit into multi-storey or underground car parks (although for some reason we still feel the need to duck as we drive under the barrier) and gets cheaper fares on ferries.

To drive, it is quicker, more manoeuvrable and uses much less fuel than a motorhome. Furthermore, from the outside, there is no indication that anyone is sleeping inside, allowing you to park somewhere overnight as inconspicuously as is possible when you are bright yellow.


The 'stealth' aspect is also a big advantage over a car and a tent. Others include: no setting-up or taking-down; electricity, light and music from the leisure battery; low fire-risk during cooking; more storage space; and the ability to sit upright in a real chair. The flexibility of car-camping could equally be applied to van-camping, as we also carried a tent. The only disadvantages of the van are increased running costs and fewer seats with seatbelts (only three in our case).

Location, location, location

The bed and sofa are very comfortable, so we found that the nature of the overall van experience is determined by where you choose to park. Rural roadsides, 'rest areas', service stations and campsites each provide a different experience.

>> Rural Roadsides. This option is the closest to wild-camping, offering a quiet spot in an often scenic location, and nothing else. It is also free. These were our preferred option, as most of the climbing sites that we visited were in remote areas. They also provide a pleasant base to spend a sunny rest day.

Obviously, there are no toilets. This is not a problem if you bury your waste far from water supplies and, if you are lucky, the place you find to go will come with incredible views. Rivers, the sea, or a trip to a swimming pool allow you to wash.


Scotland and Scandinavia, where the right to wild-camp is enshrined in law, are ideal locations for this type of parking spot. It is illegal in Switzerland, and on Croatia's overdeveloped Adriatic coast you will be hard-pushed to find a single patch of level roadside ground that isn't attached to a hotel or guesthouse.

>> Rest Areas. These can be laybys, truckstops or similar. They are useful because they are found on busier roads, strategically located between A and B. On French and Swiss motorways they have toilets and drinking water, but elsewhere, all that you can expect are a picnic bench and a bin. On major trade routes, these spaces fill with tens of trucks in the early evening, the drivers in their cabs with curtains drawn. Shortly after dawn, they are nearly empty again.


The toilet facilities are the same as wild-camping, but once you get explore the bushes, you will invariably find that you are not the first person to have done so. If it hasn't rained for a while, the smell can be grim, and in limestone regions with Mediterranean climates the odour is so widespread that I'm still not entirely sure that there isn't just some native herb or bush with a decidedly pissy fragrance.

>> Service Stations. Service stations have the convenient locations of rest areas, combined with toilets and a shop. Magic. Unfortunately, they are often next to busy roads and can be very noisy. Plus, in the UK, they charge you to stay overnight. They are useful when you are in transit, but are not the kind of places where you would need to stay for a few days.


>> Campsites. In the personal-hygiene desert of wild-camping, a night in a campsite is like an oasis, where water flows freely: both fresh water for drinking and hot water for showers and (luxuriously) for washing the dishes. We tended to visit campsites about once per week, at a cost of 16-28 Euros per night for a van and two adults. Importantly, campsites with washing machines were our opportunity to do our laundry.


Many campsites have some form of internet access and we even managed to find two where, by parking close to the reception, we could connect to their wireless network and surf the internet from the comfort of the van. There are plenty of books and websites with lists of campsites, so if regular showers are a priority, then extra campsites can easily be factored into the route.

Visiting towns and cities

Over the course of the trip, we found ourselves developing an aversion to towns and cities, mainly due to the problems of getting to the town centre and finding somewhere to stay. We generally tried to avoid any form of traffic, and discovered that while out-of-town retail centres may be killing small business, they are extremely convenient when your only interest is food. Finding a good spot for the night can be problematic, and of course there aren't many bushes in the concrete jungle. At least we are more subtle in the van than in we would be in a mobile home.


Some of our phobia is justified. In some German cities it is illegal to enter the Low Emission Zone centres without a special certificate. Parking in Oslo, Norway, costs 9 Euros per hour. We got a parking fine in Dubrovnik for not displaying a ticket. The nearest machine was 1 km from the parking bay and wouldn't accept notes or cards, meaning that we would have needed the equivalent of 18 x 50p coins to buy our ticket. We haven't paid the fine; we'll see if they manage to track us down...

None of these issues are insurmountable, and I suspect that they would have bothered us less if we were visiting the cities as destinations in themselves, as opposed to interesting places to break up a journey. If you wanted to explore pubs, clubs and nightlife, the best idea may be to find a campsite or a good spot a bit out of town and to get a bus or to cycle in.

Do it! Buy a van! Now!

You might be able to tell that we are fairly sold on the idea of van-based travel. With minimal accommodation costs, massive flexibility, and all our food and toys with us wherever we went, it is the ideal option for the type of trip that we have just done. They're also pretty useful for shorter trips at home, and just think about all that carrying capacity for friends/children/furniture/food/bikes/canoes/booze. We're planning to hold onto ours for a while.