This video is for, if you're going on a vacation
in a van, for a week or a couple of weeks,
and using it as a place to sleep.
Now, I'm going to answer a couple of your questions.
Hey, my name is Shayla, and I make these videos
every Wednesday.
I've been traveling and YouTubing full time since 2015.
Now, I'm home a little bit more,
trying to figure out the adult thing.
If this is your first time here, welcome.
If you're interested in travel, activities,
doing stuff, learning how to adult,
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This week, I want to talk to you
about a totally, spontaneous trip that we went on.
The last two videos talk about it.
The first one talks about, how Seth was on school break
from his academy.
I was like, "Seth , we need to go do something."
so finally we settled on this, "vancation",
is what I like to call it.
It's, basically, where you go on a vacation in a van.
But, I thought I would do is, I got some tips.
The last weeks video was all about the trip
as a on-the-go flog, but I got so many questions
about it, I wanted to tell you,
how much it cost, I wanted to answer questions
from Instagram, all the things.
In fact, I have notes.
Let's go over my notes, so first of all,
let's just get to the nitty-gritty, what did it cost?
Because, I know, that's what you guys all want to know.
The campervan, depending on where you go,
there's two places that I rented campervans from,
Outdoorsy, and that's kind of an Airbnb for vans.
Voyager Campervan is who we partnered with for this.
They have five different locations, Minneapolis,
Austin, Phoenix, Nashville and Portland.
Theirs depend on the season, it's going
to depend on, how long you have it,
but we went on a eight-day vacation
and it cost us about a $1,000 for the van.
Because, this is a smaller van, it is so good on gas.
We went 2,400 miles.
We flew to Phoenix, Arizona, drove up to the Grand Canyon,
drove through Page, drove to Salt Lake City,
Jackson Hole and then, home, $285 in gas.
We filled up nine times.
That's huge, my van in California,
it was so expensive to fill up.
It was great, it was just, I don't know, it was great.
The rest of the stuff that we paid for,
like, food, and getting into parks and different stuff,
things like that, was about $350.
So total, that's, let's just round up,
and say, $350, $300, $1,000, $1,650
between two people, plus we had
to buy the flights to Phoenix,
which because they were next day, was $250.
So, still though, if you could plan a little bit ahead
of time, you're not buying next-day, one-way flights,
you're not going to pay $250.
Tips, when you're looking for a van,
the smaller, obviously, the space isn't going to be,
but better on gas.
You want to look for something that has a cooler
or a refrigerator, or something to keep your food colder,
so that you can do, fruits, and milk,
or jelly, if you want, but some of you like cooking,
but if you have something with cooking,
you want something with a sink
because if you use all those pots and pans,
it's really difficult to clean them,
unless, you can get cooking, camper meals
that are like, MREs, and all you do
is boil hot water, pour it in the bag,
and let it sit for 20 minutes.
then, you're just dealing with hot water.
You don't really have to wash that
because it's just boiled water.
You want to make sure that if your renting from them,
they have blankets, or you need to bring blankets.
We forgot towels, so I'd recommend bringing towels.
You also want to see if the van has got curtains.
At night, you don't want people to see you,
so look for curtains, and you want some
sort of power, so that you can charge up your cameras,
charge up your computer, charge up your phone,
so make sure that there's solar
or that there's some way to charge it
when the van is not running.
Then, you're probably going to be doing laundry,
so bring some cash or be able to get some cash,
where you can get some coins.
What else do I have?
As far as spending goes, you can save money,
if you're going to a bunch of National Parks,
look up the Annual Pass because the Annual Pass
is only $80.
We paid at least $35 to get into the Grand Canyon.
If you're going to a bunch of National Parks,
look up if the Annual Pass covers it
and then, you have to order it ahead of time.
Seth and I were like, "We're going to order it now,
"so that all the net...
No, they mail it to you, so you need
to plan a little ahead of time,
but look it up because some parks are state run,
some parks are city run, so they don't count
as the National Annual Park Pass.
We went to Horseshoe Bend, which it costs $10
to get in, which is, apparently, a new thing,
but I think it's great.
They've got parking for you.
They've got shade for you.
They've got bathrooms for you,
but there are so many people there.
Apparently, you should get there,
like sunrise, that does not count with your
National Park's Pass.
The other place that we wanted to go,
was Antelope Canyon, which I kept calling, Cantaloupe,
but you need a tour to do that.
The tour for that is anywhere from $50 to $100
and it looks really cool.
There's photography ones, there's regular ones,
there's night ones, there's all sorts of stuff.
We just didn't plan it well enough
and it was Memorial Day Weekend, and we, I don't know,
we just didn't do it.
A friend of mine from Utah, said that,
Leprechaun Canyon, it's very similar,
very beautiful, less people, no entry, no tour,
you just get to go, so don't tell anybody that.
We're going to go to Zion, but we did not realize
that it was Memorial Day Weekend,
which I realize, is absolutely ridiculous.
We were walking into a store and it was, like,
"Hours different for Memorial Day Weekend."
and we're like, "When's that? "Oh, it's this weekend?"
So we opted out of that, but Angels' Landing
is this, insanely, epic heighth that's terrifying
and dangerous, and with 85,000 people there
on the weekend, we were like, "We'll come back
"when it's less busy."
Really quickly, I wanted to answer a couple
of your questions.
@wandereinglittleredboots on Instagram asks,
"Essential supplies for living in a van."
I think just, general hygiene things,
so baby wipes, when you need to just wipe yourself,
wipe your face, wipe your body before you go to bed.
You want to have water bottles.
This is the water bottle that I really like.
It is a water purifier, so you can fill this up
in the gas station.
They have a Diesel one that's, only like, $50
that you can fill out of the stream,
so you don't run out of water on your hikes,
but it's super great.
I've really enjoyed it, so far.
Water's good because you can wipe off your toothbrush
or you can just drink it.
You want to have toilet paper.
You want to have those curtains like I talked about.
Then, some sort of power source to charge your things.
I like to have an external battery
that just charges stuff.
@knan23 said, "Where do you park on
"when you vacation in a van?"
Good question, you're going to look it up in the state.
Some places you can park in a Walmart, or a Safeway,
you can look at a rest stop and park there.
That's really nice because there's bathrooms.
Obviously, campgrounds are everywhere, you can park there.
We, sometimes, park in cities.
I don't know that you're supposed to
but when it's like, "Free parking from 10:00 pm to 9:00 am."
we just know to be out by 9:00 am.
I don't know if that's legal.
Look it up wherever you go.
"Tips about water and electricity in a van."
Make sure that your van has it.
If you're renting a van, just make sure
that it has some sort of electricity, for sure.
Water, you don't really need.
Like I said, you can get the food things,
so that you can just boil water, make the food,
and you don't have messy dishes.
"Where to pee at night?"
You're parked at a rest stop, you pee in the rest stop.
If you're parked at a Walmart, usually they're 24 hours.
If you're parked at a campground,
you can go there, or you can do whatever you want.
"Should you plan for a solo trip or just book it?"
If you're going solo, I would say plan a little bit more.
You want to make sure that you have somewhere
to sleep at night.
I've, definitely, been in situations
where I'm out, and it's getting dark,
and I don't know where I'm going to sleep,
and I start to stress and so then,
you want to make sure that you have some sort of plan,
but I would say, have a plan, but just, kind of,
leave it loose.
So in the van, it's really easy
because you can just find resting spots.
When you're choosing a place to go,
you really want to think about who you're going with
and what their expectations are,
what your expectations are, do you want to hike a lot,
do you want to go to history, do you want to spend a lot,
go and stay in hotels, do you want to go camping,
and just figure out what the theme of the trip is,
and what you guys are trying to accomplish.
That's going to determine a lot
because if you're trying to save money,
you might opt for the staying at Walmart parking lot
versus a campground, where you can do a fire.
@sarahelena.barrios, best van life luxuries
to make sure to bring.
That's a good question.
We bought some of those screens for the windows
so the sun doesn't blast you all the freaking time.
Like I said before, this water filter's really great.
If you could bring, I'll put a little picture of it,
but it's like a little charger
that you can plug into the wall before you go,
and it gives you some power for things
while you're on the road.
If I think of anything else, I'll put
it in a list, after this.
I hope this was helpful.
If it was, please leave a comment below.
Please, "Like", the video if you enjoyed it.
If you are going on van trip, I'd love
to hear where you're going, what you're doing,
any other trips you would like to add.
This video is for, if you're going on vacation
in your van for a week or a couple of weeks
and using it as a place to sleep.
It's so much fun.
Thank you guys so much.
Please subscribe and I'll see you all next Wednesday.
(lips smack)
(soft mellow music)