How To Test Van Life: Is it For You?

When I first stumbled across #vanlife, I had been camping once in my life. And yet somehow I convinced myself that I could live in a tiny vehicle without heat, indoor plumbing, or hot water.

And I did! For 18 months, I traveled across the country in a van, living my best nomad life.

But I didn’t go from scrolling IG to buying a van overnight. Here’s how I tested out if van life was right for me – and you can test van life too.

2 Ways To Test Van Life

Go Camping

Van life is very different from vacationing in hotels. Its closest comparison is camping and if you’ve never camped, you may have a hard time jumping right into living in a vehicle.

The first way to test van life is by going camping. There are a few ways you can do this.

1. Car camping. Traditional car camping involves renting a campsite at a local, state, or federal campground. You pull your car directly up to the site and use your allotted area for living, sleeping, and hanging out. You can sleep in a tent or in your car – that’s up to you. The benefit of staying at established campgrounds is the amenities – most have flush toilets and showers as well as spigots for running water.
2. Backcountry camping. Backcountry camping involves staying at an undeveloped site out in the wild. Some backcountry campsites are still “campgrounds” with established fire pits to designate each area. Others are purely wild, letting you use your best judgment as to where to sleep that night. This type of camping is a lot more work – you can’t drive to these spots, so you have to hike to them, with everything you need for your stay on your back.

If you can’t stand camping, chances are you won’t like van life. While van life provides some benefits over camping, like sleeping inside a structure and solid walls that separate you from nature, van life and camping share many similarities, including time spent outside and less established areas to… go.

I went camping many times in the years before I bought a van, at local campgrounds with bathrooms and hiked several miles into the woods to pitch a tent and pee behind a tree. I didn’t grow up camping but I found that I enjoyed it enough to feel confident that I would enjoy being in a van.

Rent a Van

Did you know you can rent camper vans for vacation? There are several platforms that allow you to connect with van owners and rent their vehicles, including RoadSurfer, GoCamp, RVshare, Indie Campers, and Outdoorsy.

Most of these platforms have a set amount of miles that you’re allowed to drive each day, somewhere between 50 and 100 miles, so the amount of time you rent it for determines how far you can drive it. Of course, you can drive it farther but you’ll have to pay extra.

I used Outdoorsy. From December 2020 into January 2021, I rented a Dodge camper van for two weeks in California. I picked up the van outside of LA and drove it to Yosemite, Big Bear Lake, and Joshua Tree. This was an epic trip that was also the perfect crash course for van life.

I learned so much during this test van life trip. I learned about van builds: how important a compost toilet is, which orientation the bed needs to go in, necessary ventilation, bug screens, storage areas, and more. I learned about managing my power and water resources. I learned about navigating a large vehicle around tight mountain roads.  I learned about getting a vehicle unstuck in the ice and rain. I learned about parking a van in stealth spots overnight. And I learned how often things go wrong in van life and how important it is to be flexible.

Because oh boy, did things go wrong on that trip. The van batteries died in a parking lot in Yosemite on Christmas Day with no cell reception. I got turned away from not one, but two national park entrances (Sequoia and Kings Canyon) leaving me in the middle of California two days after Christmas with no plans or reservations. There were some tears and plenty of swearing.

But after 18 months of living in a van full-time, going through that rental experience was the best possible way to test if I could live in a vehicle. It’s one thing to dream about it, it’s another thing to live it. If you only do one thing to prepare for van life, rent a vehicle. Actually test it out before you put all of your shit in storage and head out on the road. There is so much you don’t know about van life – and can’t know – until you actually get behind the wheel.

Is Van Life for Me?

Van life online looks glamorous. But social media is only a highlight reel, and behind every stunning photo of a sunset in the middle of nowhere, there are grey water tanks that need to be emptied, a light fixture that randomly stopped working, and a cop waiting to knock on your door.

What people online don’t tell you about van life is how much more you have to manage in a van than in your house. In a house, you turn on the tap and water comes out. Wait a minute and it’ll be scalding hot. You flush your toilet without thought. You turn on the shower whenever you want. But in a van, you have to manage your basic necessities. You have to fill a water tank and empty the grey water. You have to dispose of your own biological waste – even when you’re sick. You have to ensure you’re getting enough power in to put power out. You need to keep warm in cold climates and cool in warm climates. When your van breaks down, your home is gone. All of this is in addition to your daily needs – making food, doing dishes, working a job, getting gas, feeding the dog – the list goes on.

It’s a big adjustment and a lot to manage. Will you build your own van, pay for one to be built, or buy a pre-built van? Will your power come from an alternator or from solar panels? How much water can you carry at once? What is the capacity of your toilet? How many days’ worth of food does your fridge and pantry fit? Where will you go to work during the day? Will you try to heat water to do the dishes, or do them cold? Do you know all the maintenance a vehicle of this size requires?

This isn’t to scare anyone off van life – it’s an adjustment that many people make. There are plenty of examples of people posting their lives that live in vehicles for years on end. But there’s also a fair amount of people who get into a van and abruptly realize they turned their life upside down for something they hate.

For some people, part-time van life is the answer. But many people dream of the excitement that comes with being a full-time nomad and it can, truly, feel like a dream come true. There is a romance and adventure that comes with being on the road all day, every day. You see incredible places and meet unusual people that you never would in your daily routine. There are vistas that take your breath away and hidden gems you stumble across. It is a departure from the norm that puts you in places beyond your imagination.

But the cost of this adventure is hard work and a lot of it. It’s work that you don’t have to do in our modern way of living. It’s work that most people go their entire lives without having to do.

So is van life for you? Only you can answer that. Don’t jump into this lightly – consider the changes that it will bring to your life, both positive and negative. Weigh the cost of adventure against the weight of dumping your own poop and pee. Test it out. Get outside. And if it still calls to you – get out there, because it’s so worth it.