Has Van Life Seen the End of the Road?

My wife and I met these travelers during a trip to Utah to enjoy Zion and other parks. They said, they had planned on spending the summer traveling throughout the West in their early model Vanagon but had to return home eventually. They seemed happy enough, and that’s all that mattered.

It’s challenging to write about the Van Life movement if you don’t know much about it. I was the editor-in-chief of RV magazine at one point in my career so I know what living full time on the road is about… that much I do know. Basically what was once called “Full Timing” is now called “Van Life.” But that only scratches the surface.

What Van Lifers do differently is they “convert” any type of van-like vehicle into a home on wheels, no matter how cramped it may or may not be. Van Lifers tend to be people who leave traditional/conventional things behind… like a home mortgage. A job? Some work as they travel. Others just travel.

And so I guess most Vanagon owners are not Van Lifers either. Not the Vanagon people I know. But some are I’m 100 percent sure, and the Vanagon is the perfect vehicle to do it in.

Yet the story I read from the Daily Mail caught my attention.

It told the story of “Van Life” influencers revealing their nightmares of living on the road, and I thought I’d share it here. Just for fun. It unmasked the truth in one sense.

If this downturn with the Van Life movement is a temporary setback I don’t know.

My wife and I spent two months on the road a couple of years ago living out of our 1986 Westy. We loved it. The $10 per night stays in National and State Parks and home-cooked meals inside the Westy were amazing. I couldn’t believe our good fortune. Then in British Columbia, mechanical failure struck, and it cost us hundreds of dollars to get the Vanagon back on the road, reminding us that nothing is free, no matter how cheaply we had traveled.

In fact, the cost of getting repairs done on the road is 10 times higher than having a reliable shop back home, or working on your van in your garage. Food prices are higher, being without a hot shower sucks, hanging out in laundromats is not enjoyable. There are lists of things that Van Lifers must do daily that make it very difficult to accept that way of living.

I think this article worth glancing at if you are considering hanging out in your van 365 days a year. Enjoy.