Getting on the road for the first time is truly an amazing accomplishment & exciting feeling, we just gently remind you of a few pre-checks and physical van limitations, before you make your individual tracks and to keep you smiling!
All the hard work has been done. You’ve successfully built your van, loaded up with everything you need and made sure the fuel tank is full. Tyres inflated. Oil and water checked. The Spotify playlist you’ve been meticulously curating for months is finally ready to go.
What you do next depends on the type of person you are – either you’ll drive off towards the horizon and see where that takes you, or you’ll do what I’d consider to be the more sensible option: taking the time to plan out your first van life adventure.
Okay, sounds easy enough… how do you do that, exactly? It starts with a simple question – what are you (and your van) truly capable of?
If you’ve never taken your van out on the open road before then you may never have thought about fuel efficiency or offroad capability. Vans are designed to bear a lot of weight, sure – however all the things you’ve crammed inside may result in more frequent visits to petrol stations.
I’ve nearly been caught out by this a few times – do not take the risk and assume there’s going to be some place to fuel up on your route!
Similarly, as much as you may want to drive your van half way up a mountain so you can wake up to beautiful views, a lot of vans are designed to be transport vehicles which means driving long distances on nice and (relatively) flat motorways. You can’t treat your van like an off-road vehicle and expect it to survive for very long – even heavy-duty tyres can only do so much.
Then it really comes down to you. Van life is ultimately about freedom, which means you can go wherever you want. The flip side is that you could go months or potentially years without seeing the people you care about the most.
I’d advise thinking about how long you want to be on the road for and how far you are comfortable being away from your established social circle. You’ll meet some fantastic new friends on the road – the van life community is second to none. Remember that it’s not a one-way trip but it can take a few days to circle back around if you want to see a familiar face.
Step 2: Choose a destination and plan your route
Planning your first van life road trip is a lot like a kid being let loose in a sweet shop – everything looks amazing! The beauty of this lifestyle is that you can eat all the sweets you want (by which I mean visit all the places you want) however you do need to put a little thought into how you’re going to achieve it.
I’m going to say it again – and probably keep saying it – you have to think about fuel. On top of that there’s finding sources of fresh water and somewhere to responsibly dispose of your waste.
It wasn’t until I was a few days in to my first ever trip that I realised… how am I going to wash my clothes? Even though you may want to park up by lakes, forests and beaches – and there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s a good idea to also plan in stops at camp sites which have a lot of bonus amenities – including somewhere for you to do your laundry.
I’m not one for fancy apps so I usually plug in my ‘hotspots’ into Google Maps and let that suggest local camp sites and petrol stations for me.
Depending on where you’re going you may lose signal so you can actually download your route so it’ll work offline. There’s no harm in picking up an old-fashioned paper map too and keeping that tucked away in a cupboard, just in case.
Step 3: Set a deadline and get on the road!
I’ve made this sound simple. Planning a trip in your campervan can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. This is why the first step is so important – I know that if left to my own devices I’ll spend months planning where I’m going to go and never actually set off!
Analysis paralysis is my biggest weakness. To be successful at living in a van you have to embrace the unknown. Sometimes that means not knowing exactly how you’re going to get somewhere or making peace with the fact that some things are going to go wrong and you’ll have to figure out how to fix them.
That’s where I find setting a deadline to be so useful. Not just for setting off but also how long I plan on staying in a particular place. This isn’t always a hard and fast rule – it really depends on how much fun I’m having, what the weather is doing and even things like seasonality. Some places get really busy at weekends and it isn’t always the vibe, y’know?
Final thoughts on first adventures for beginner life vanners
Don’t forget to look for petrol stations! You’ll thank me later. Apart from that, I want to echo what I said about embracing the unknown. Some of my best memories have come from taking detours and trusting that I’ll get to a place eventually. Don’t be afraid to embrace opportunities when they present themselves.
At the end of the say it’s a learning curve, the experience you get from your first adventure will flow into the next and the next. You may intend to head out for a couple of weeks and end up going for a couple of years!
Andrew.
Andrew has been doing vanlife on & off for years. In fact, one of the reasons Andrew went into writing is so he can work from anywhere with an internet connection – so a prefect fit with van life and he does exactly this during his many vanlife escapades.
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