As I tour vans, I ask them what they love about vanlife
and what challenges they've
found. In this video, I've put together three of these interviews to help you get on the road.
[upbeat music playing]
What I love about van life is the freedom. Just the freedom to pick up and go anywhere you want
to go. The freedom to just be. Because if you don't want to go, like, that's one of the things
that I enjoy, that we can just find a spot and we can be there for, for a week if we want to.
We enjoy traveling slow and I think that that's one of the things that I really really appreciate
about van life. I can travel as slow or as fast as I want. Another thing that I love about van life
is the community The community has been absolutely amazing. They've been welcoming and we meet people
everywhere. And that's one of the reasons why I decided to uh, to join the community. So
I really love it. So I think the main challenges that we face when it comes to
van life is actually finding a place to park. [laughs] Other than that, we haven't had many challenges.
We... we equipped ourselves with lots and lots of apps so that we have lots and lots of resources.
So it's ah, it's been pretty easy that way. But trying to find... I'm not gonna say the perfect
place because there is no perfect place to park... but trying to find a place to just settle down and
relax for the night after you've been on a road for a long time can get a little tedious at times.
That's why I say it's best to plan your day days ahead... like a day ahead or something like that,
because, yeah, it can definitely get a bit tedious trying to find a place to park.
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I've always wanted to own a house and like have my own space but I don't think I'm ever gonna
have enough money to like own a house. I'm gonna be real with you. I don't think I'm gonna ever
be able to own a house, like a normal per... person's idea of a house. But this is like,
it's just so good to be like, this is mine, this is my space. I can decorate it whatever way I want to
and I can pull up the roots and settle... settle down like wherever I want to go. My favorite thing is
that it's, it's just like completely my space and I can like just have fun with it. Yeah there's
like little like inconveniences like sometimes but they're not like super challenging. Like
this van is a long van so sometimes uh parking it can, can be a little annoying. Like,
oh I want to go into that like that coffee shop that looks like yeah but they have like this small
ass parking lot and I'm like I don't know how like I had a and then everybody's staring at you
"Oh where's the... what's the big van going to do? Are they gonna, you know..."
and so, so the part. The parking can be a little tricky sometimes because you're like,
oh I don't want to hit anybody. But you, you know, you get used to it like over time. Yeah... [laughs]
[upbeat music playing]
I've always loved to travel and so in being able to be on the road and travel and visit
new places and explore all these like hidden gems in America while also like affordably doing
it. I think that was kind of like where both worlds kind of like meshed really well for me.
Um, I mean, us being able to work, for example, like right outside Zion and being able to look
outside our windows and see like these red rock canyons is like out of this world.
And then being able to go on a hike after we finish our jobs for the day.
Nothing's really set in stone. We can like plan an adventure but like, things are always up in
the air, and I kind of like that lifestyle where you just never know where you're gonna
be next. It makes it like a constant adventure so like we can be in Zion for like two weeks
or like if we love it so much we can stay for four weeks. I mean, we always have this
ability to just decide where we want to go when we want to go and there aren't really any limiting
factors except for the fact that we need cell service and WiFi to work Monday through Friday.
What I found the most challenging about van life is navigating such a small space with a partner.
So I think it was really crucial that my partner and I had been together for five years
before we even decided to move into the van. Like, we needed to build like a rock-solid
foundation in our relationship so that we had good communication to say like, "Hey,
I'm feeling a little overcrowded here, like can you take a walk?" You know,
I think it's really important to have that good communication so that you can just like avoid,
you know, fights or arguments that could happen in living in such a small space.
I think also one of the other things that is overlooked in van life is that there's just
a lot of systems in the van that you have to like keep up with that you normally wouldn't have to do
at in a house. Like for example, like we're constantly having to look for like
water, where to dump our toilet, where to dump our gray water. Like monitoring our energy to make
sure that we have enough for the day. So I think that there's a lot more time spent into just like
having the basic necessities in your vehicle and I think that's like often overlooked because
sometimes you could be in this amazing campsite like an hour outside of town and there's no
water nearby so you have to go into town just to fill up on water just to do it like in a week or
so. So I think that is kind of hard because it takes away from the experience of like this oh
free lifestyle like I can just boondock for weeks on end and depending on your setup you could,
um but I think that that is just kind of like some of the things that you have to maintain
on the road much more frequently and things that you have to just be like more mindful of when
you're traveling. We also like lack this same sort of like friend group that we have while traveling
and so that's something we're going to be actively looking for now. Um we've gotten recommendations
from Joni here to look at Xcapers. So going to these meetups and meeting other digital nomads
that we could travel with full-time I think would fill that void that we have right now. Or like
wanting to just have a community with us all the time. Um, we would really love that. Yeah...
I just love hearing from other women on the road and I'm so grateful Tenaj, Zo,
and Lucy were willing to share their experiences to inspire other women. If you liked this video,
please share it. And if you'd like to see more van and rig tours, van life tips, and
other videos to help women get on the road, hit subscribe and
ring that notification bell so you don't miss any upcoming videos.
I appreciate your thoughtful comments and if you'd like to join in deeper conversation I invite you
to join our Facebook group, Gal Adventurers. This is Joni with TheGalavan. Enjoy your journey!
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