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 . It means different things to different people. And, with the retail price of a new van large enough to live in reaching $190,000 or more… this thing that started out as a way to avoid a home mortgage has really spun out of control. But I’m optimistic that Van Life still makes sense.

My understanding is that Van Life began as an alternative to owning or renting a traditional home.

One question remains: is Van Life relevant today with vehicle prices soaring?

I think it is under certain conditions.

What Van Lifers do is “convert” any type of vehicle into a home on wheels, no matter how cramped it may be. Yes, most of the conversions are commercial vans, hence the name Van Life. Van Lifers tend to be people who leave traditional/conventional things behind… like a home mortgage. Many work remotely as they travel. Others just travel.

Yet a story I read caught my attention because I’m a sucker for gossip I guess. Read it with loads of skepticism.

It told of “Van Life” influencers revealing their nightmares of living on the road, and I thought I’d share it here. A warning though; this particular newspaper is considered a bit of a gossip rag, But check it out for fun and don’t take it too seriously.

The reason you can’t believe everything you read is that 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.

It is true 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. But I must say those two months were a mostly positive experience that I’d certainly repeat.