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Now that we’ve moved onto our off-grid land in Portugal, we’ve been reflecting on the time we’ve spent in vans over the past few years and the challenges we have faced living full-time on the road in the UK and Europe. We are in no way saying goodbye to vanlife and we have some exciting travel plans coming up this year.

Owning property in Portugal simply means we have a piece of the planet to come back to after our travels where we can grow food, wind down, and live freely.

We’ve been living and travelling full-time on the road for nearly 3 years now and during this time, we’ve figured out little vanlife tricks and hacks that have made our lives easier. There are a lot of vanlife tips we haven’t included in this list, but if we shared them all this blog would be pretty long!

Like anything in life, when you try something new for the first time, there’s usually an adjustment period along with some trial and error to find your footing. Living and travelling full-time on the road is no exception to this. We do things so differently now in comparison to when we first headed off on the road and it’s funny to think back to how we started out.

We hope these tips help and inspire you, but remember, our way isn’t the only way!

How Much Water Should You Carry In A Campervan?

The amount of water your camper will hold depends on the size of your fresh water tank. If more than one person is on board and you have the space, a minimum of 60L of water is a good amount to carry. This will give you plenty of fresh water for drinking, cooking and the odd shower too.

In addition to our 75L underslung water tank, we also carry our 5L Lifesaver jerrycan and a 10L jerrycan in the garage that we keep for showers like this one on Amazon. I cannot express the number of times we have been caught short, run out of water from our main tank and have had to pour in the 10L jerrycan from under the bed. Carrying an extra water container is also super handy for winter months in case any water pipes freeze. Our water consumption has increased since bringing Cali into our lives, but our 75L tank still lasts several days.

As for our toilet, we don’t need to factor in any water usage, as it is a Simploo dry composting toilet. We explain more about our composting toilet and have a cheeky Simploo discount code over on our composting toilet blog.

How To Cook In A Campervan Without An Oven?

Having an oven in a campervan is the ultimate way to enjoy all the food you’re used to, however, some vans may not have the space for an oven. Campervan ovens can also be particularly expensive, so using alternatives like the Omnia Oven allows you to still cook delicious food, without making a big dent in your campervan budget.

We absolutely love our Omnia Oven and I can’t explain how good a fresh garlic and herb loaf of bread smells in the bus, or a hot, bubbling, sweet potato lasagne. Anyway, before this turns into a food blog, the Omnia, although a bit of an initial investment, has completely transformed the way we cook and eat in the van. The Omnia Oven along with the Ridgemonkey are fantastic cooking accessories, especially if you don’t have an oven in your campervan.

You can see the best price for an Omnia Oven on Amazon by clicking HERE.

We’ve often thought about including a recipe section on our website, or maybe a blog series of campervan-friendly recipes, so let us know if you’d like to see this happen in 2023!

How to stay secure in a Campervan?

For many, a big concern with vanlife and full-time travel is security, however, there are things you can do to help prevent a break-in. We leave nothing on show when we head out of the van for a few hours, and activate our motion sensor alarm in case anyone tries to get inside Peppé!

Campervan security is crucial! Van thefts are on the increase and so it’s important to take measures where possible and deter people from even thinking of breaking in! Along with making sure no vents or windows are left wide open, we also have a loud alarm that goes off as soon as contact is made with Peppé. The alarm is connected to our battery and is motion activated - it even went off when we were about to go on a hike in Scotland last Winter and a branch fell off a tree and landed on the roof!

How to find the best overnight parking spots?

Finding an overnight parking spot can sometimes be easier said than done, and with the UK, in particular, clamping down on wild camping, finding a decent spot to sleep can be hard. We tend to try and find overnight spots ourselves, but if we’re struggling big-time, we use apps like park4night to help.

We’re not massive fans of sharing our exact locations and park-ups on social media, as part of the magic of life on the road is finding secret, blissful spots for yourself. A technique we use is zooming in on Google Maps to various tracks and seeing where they lead. Doing this has resulted in us finding spectacular spots both in the UK and South-West Europe. If it’s late or we’re struggling to find a park-up, we use apps like park4night and Search For Sites that provide valuable spots to park overnight. Along with spots to stay, apps like these also show the locations of campsites, showers, laundry facilities, water fill-ups and black waste dump points.

Is vanlife worth it?

If you are someone who is craving adventure along with a slower pace of life, vanlife might be the answer for you. Moving from a house or apartment into a campervan can seem impossible, but cutting down on personal belongings can be a freeing task and will ensure the inside of your camper doesn’t look like the contents of a storage container.

Vanlife has given us a completely different perspective on life.

We have to source water every 5-7 days, forage for wood every couple of days when colder weather hits, and we have to be mindful of our electric usage when the sun isn’t shining. It’s this consciousness that has really allowed us to live more of a simple life with fewer distractions and more activities out in nature. There are of course frustrating and testing moments, like when Peppé decides to leak from the fuel lines AGAIN or when the LPG runs out halfway through cooking dinner - click here for the LPG adaptors we use for Europe!

In all honesty, though, we are very much content with our lives right now and life on the road is one of the things that has led us to this point.

Some people may think we’re crazy, but we can heat and power our home for free, choose our neighbours (if we want any) and spend the majority of our time out in nature, all whilst making an income from the road too.

This lifestyle isn’t for everybody, but for us, vanlife is most definitely worth it.

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