are you sick of paying excessive rent want to travel do you work remotely are you retired
do you want to pay 25 a month rent for more than half the year if you said yes to any of those be
warned this video might ignite your wonderlust and if you're wondering yes I did try and make
that sound like a travel brochure from the 1970s with the increased popularity of remote working
van life has become a thing throughout history if you were living in a van down by the river
you were down on your luck life took a bad turn and you can't afford a studio apartment
above a strip club called dirty Joe's that was the old days over the last two years I've been
researching this for myself I kind of want to do it not a full-time thing but for weeks at a
time while I travel around the country if you haven't heard about this life or this
movement and don't really know how popular it is let me explain there have been around 15
million posts about van life on Instagram just in the last few years and hundreds of Van life
channels have sprung up all around YouTube this is now a legit lifestyle and many retirees and
remote workers are choosing this life they aren't just living in 1974 Econoline Vans either Class
B motorhomes Sprinter vans and really nice converted buses seem to be the most popular
ways to live on the road like Jack Kerouac in 2023. today we're looking at the states that
I've learned to be the best states to live the van life and why got it get it good let's take a look
number 10 Texas Texas has a lot going for it when it comes to the van life one it's got
a lot of open space there's plenty of places to camp park and fuel in Texas tends to be a little
bit lower than the national average weather also plays a big part in Texas popularity
when it comes to Camping living in a van kind of makes it easy to explore places you may not
have explored for any other reason one of the best places to do that in Texas is Big
Bend National Park and this is where a lot of Van lifers head to in the winter months
number nine Pennsylvania Pennsylvania is a great place to live the van life and camp
out for about seven or eight months a year then it starts getting cold and you probably
want to head down to Texas or something this one's really popular with retirees
retirees sometimes are drawn to historic places and Pennsylvania obviously is one
of the most historic States we have on top of that if you're into fishing which a lot of Van
life people are into I will tell you from my experience in Pennsylvania it is kind of
hard to find an area where there isn't a lake Pond or River Creek whatever that isn't within
walking distance in all the research I've done Pennsylvania has always showed up in the top 10
for most places to camp and they're always in the top 10 four best places to fish for
Van lifers Pennsylvania has a lot of state parks that are easily accessible and free for campers
number eight Arizona now this one's obviously for people that don't like the cold weather
Arizona does have some places and it's got some mountains where it can get a little cold but for
the most part this is a very very warm and hot State one guy said winter in Arizona is
like spring in Michigan whenever I mention weather or climate in Arizona someone always
has to bring up the fact that Arizona gets snow they do they get some snow but if someone from
Arizona explained to someone from Minnesota how bad their snow gets they'll laugh in your face
now if you're vacationing and you want to camp you know you're going to go to Grand Canyon or
something like that but people live in the van life show up all over the state for good reason
there's a lot of free campsites scattered around Arizona Sedona Flagstaff Southern Arizona Arizona
is a great place for people van lifing it on a budget Arizona is one of the biggest states
when it comes to off-grid living there's a van Life Festival that goes on every I guess it's a
festival convention I don't know whatever you want want to call it but van life and
off-grid people come to Courtside Arizona every February it's like this thing where people are
giving classes showing you how to install solar panels things like that it's another reason that
Arizona is so popular for Van lifers a lot of Van lifers need their computers to work
this place gets great internet from starlink and tons of sunshine for your solar power
number seven North Carolina North Carolina is very popular because it's just a beautiful
state to camp in got the Great Smoky Mountains and you got the outer Bank you know so you got
ocean and you got mountains and you got everything in between North Carolina is
a beautiful place to live the van life or live off the grid for that matter as
a matter of fact the Asheville area mostly the woods around Asheville North Carolina
are filled with hippies and people living off the grid the hippie lifestyle and living off
the grid sounds very appealing to me if it wasn't for one problem I need a legit
shower not you know taking a bath in a creek someplace I gave that up when I left the army
number six Oregon Oregon like North Carolina you got the best of all worlds you got tons
of mountains if you want to go up there for the spring and enjoy the mountains then head down to
the lower lands for the winter and then you can head to the coast Oregon's another one of those
states that kept showing up in the top 10 for the most places to camp and Oregon isn't just
all mountains rain beautiful coasts they've got the Eastern section which is rolling grass Hills
with plenty of sunshine Oregon also has plenty of places to camp for free there's parts of Oregon
where you can just pull off into the woods a little bit and probably not see anyone for a
couple days at least maybe weeks and that may become more of a thing in the future I
just read how Oregon actually lost population in 2022. they expect that Trend to continue
number five Nevada Nevada does have some beautiful Parts but for the most part Nevada is a desert
State and a majority of the state is owned by the federal government not just military
and weird places like that they do have a lot of federal land where you can camp on
and no one is going to bother you and if you do go there this is the one that I mentioned
in the beginning you could live for 25 a month for seven months a year in Nevada there's this
thing called BLM Bureau of Land Management and they have different campsites throughout
the western states I think back East a little bit too but for the most Parts in the western
states where you could buy these passes to camp and it equals out to about 25 dollars a month
now for someone that's paying fifteen hundred dollars a month in some City here in the United
States that doesn't sound like a bad idea do van life for three years and have a nice down
payment for a house but yeah it's not all just desert in Nevada you have the mountainous area
up by Reno you also have other areas that look like the surface of Mars and you have casinos
number four Utah Utah is another great place if you want to see some great national parks
Utah's home to five national parks Capitol Reef National Park Canyonlands National Park
Arches National Park Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park if you want to camp in those
things you gotta you know kind of put your name in early make like your reservation
type thing because those fill up fast every single year mostly it's with tourists not
people live in the van life and if you are living the van life and you want to go hike
one of these places get there early because during the summer and spring months those
trails get packed Utah is another place that has an overabundance of free places to camp
number three Tennessee is a popular state all the way around people wanting to move
out into the country people want to move into the cities and Van lifers love Tennessee it's
beautiful plenty of places to camp and normally outside the cities it's not like you have to go
far to find a place to Camp like Pennsylvania they got plenty of places to fish and Hunt if
you want to tons of hiking trails campgrounds and the Great Smoky Mountains which is one of
the most visited national parks in the country Tennessee is another state that's really big
and off-grid living they also have a lot of open land for sale so if you want to park a
nice trailer or whatever on some land this might be a great place to do it
number two California probably should be number one I mean the state is huge it's very diverse
they have so many places to stay things to do it's just expensive so that's why they're not number
one on this list gas is expensive here camping can get expensive here all kinds of fees and
everything else just a camp in this state it's kind of a pain but it's huge it's beautiful and
there's plenty of things to do I would suggest California for someone living the van life that
needs to be close to like the Bay Area or Los Angeles San Diego there's places you can camp
it's cheaper than renting a place anywhere in the state just about it's just overpriced you
could head out to Lake Tahoe you could camp near Yosemite head on over to Death Valley Camp and Big
Sur which is kind of life-changing go to Sequoia National Forest there's a lot of people doing this
in the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area in Silicon Valley not because these people want
to live the van life it's kind of necessity for a lot of them especially if you're working for
a company that's in the San Francisco area you know that place where you got to make
over a hundred twenty five thousand dollars a year to even consider buying a home or 250
000 if you want to live in a neighborhood that doesn't require bars of the windows
and in California those are becoming harder and harder to find all right before we get to
number one don't forget we have another Channel called on this day there's a link down below
we'd love it if you went over there watch some videos and subscribe all right on to number one
and number one New Mexico New Mexico doesn't really show up that often on positive lists
and this one they kind of win hands down it's beautiful it's affordable and that BLM Bureau
of Land Management they have a lot of lots for that this is another place where you could survive
for seven months a year on 25 a month rent sure you gotta Supply your own van or camper
or whatever but for 25 a month seven months a year you could live in one of these spots you
can go from different spots you're 25 a month isn't for one spot you can move all around the
state let's say there's someone there you don't like living around you could pack up your stuff
and go to one 50 miles away now New Mexico has some problems but 99 of their problems are in
the cities living off the grid living the van life whatever you want to do it's going to be
pretty safe in New Mexico one thing I will suggest almost every single person that I watch or I read
about that's living the van life they suggest having a dog doesn't have to be a giant dog and
dog's just a really good idea to have if you're living the van life especially if you're a young
lady which a lot of them are if you do decide to do this in New Mexico everyone says you got
to get a telescope that is one of the greatest things about living the van life in New Mexico
is star watching New Mexico is also an affordable place when it comes to fuel and supplies the cost
to live in New Mexico is pretty low but plenty of things to do it's affordable and it's beautiful
all right that's today's video hope you guys enjoyed it hope you got some
information of it now go out have a great day and be nice to each other