WHILE VAN LIFE OFTEN SEEMS LIKE THE ABSOLUTE DREAM ON SOCIAL MEDIA, WE ARE HERE TO GET REAL AND TALK ABOUT 12 MAJOR DOWNSIDES OF VAN LIFING FULL TIME. IF YOU ARE THINKING OF VAN LIFING FULL TIME THEN DEFINTIELY CONSIDER THESE POINTS FIRST.
Vanlife is a truly wonderful way to see the world. By combining your home and your vehicle, you seriously open up a whole new level of exploration and adventure possibilities. We have been van lifing off and on for the past couple of years. Funny enough, our van life journey actually started back in the San Francisco Bay Area when we decided to forgo spending hundreds of dollars on rent (at an apartment we didn't even like) and instead buy a 1995 Dodge Van that we promptly named Terra Yacht (or Terra for short). We lived in our van in the crazy city for over 8 months. It was tough, but it was also really freeing. We didn't have to worry about paying rent, instead we got to worry about where we wanted to go that weekend.
After those 8 months we decided to switch it up and instead road trip across the country... on a motorcycle. Yep. We bought a very large, cross-country motorcycle, packed it up, quit our jobs and hit the open road (funny enough that is where the name Backroad Packers came from). But by about night three of that motorcycle adventure we were already missing our cozy van (the constant rain probably didn't help).
Once the motorcycle trip was finished, we both agreed to never do another road trip without Terra - at least on USA soil. From that point on, Terra has been our mode of transport on numerous road trips and she has for the most part been a total rock star. Yes, she has bad clearance and even worse gas mileage. But she gets the job done - and doesn't really complain that much about it either.
So you might be wondering, if van lifing has been that fun and enjoyable, why are you talking about the downsides of it? Well, in truth, van lifing hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine. And we found this to be especially true once we decided to combine van living full time and working remotely 40 hours a week.
Below are 12 downsides to van lifing that we have personally experienced and think should be known before you yourself embark on your first van life adventure. If you are considering living in your van full time (and especially if you are planning to do it and work) then we definitely want you to consider these 12 things first. Obviously, these downsides are totally from our own opinion and personal experience and we 100% know other van lifers will disagree. But we wanted to be honest. Van lifing is amazing. But it is also exhausting.
So with that, here are 12 downsides of van lifing full time that you should probably know about.
1 | It Can Be Tough to Meet New People
This downside to van living actually took us a bit by surprise. After setting off in our van, we totally expected to meet cool people everywhere we went. But in actuality, we found that van lifing - especially while working remotely at the same time - was a bit isolating.
In our experience, it seemed all of the other van lifers were kind of doing their own thing and weren't as interested in talking to new people and making new friends. Maybe we just had bad luck everywhere we went, but after a while it started to feel like this setup (an overall lack of meeting people) was more of a trend than an exception.
In fact, after meeting two other van lifers - in a public library no less - and talking to them about how they made friends on the road, we started to realize we were definitely not alone in this feeling of isolation. It seems people are less likely to talk to you and try to be your friend while you are out van lifing - and even more so if you are van lifing and working remotely.
2 | It is Often Much Harder to Make Long-Term Friends and Stay Connected to Loved Ones
Similarly, we found it was super hard to make long-term friends while van living. For the most part, the friends you did make seemed to be more like "fly-by friends." You know, those kinds of people you connect with while mountain biking or chilling at the local watering hole but then never make an effort to see again. In most instances, this is totally understandable and fine. But if you are someone who wants to make long lasting friends, this can feel a bit depressing.
Likewise, because you are out living a nomadic lifestyle, it can be equally as tough to stay connected with your old friends. We always try to put in the effort to stay in communication with friends while we are out traveling (in the USA and abroad) but sometimes it can be tough to connect - both by just constantly talking via phone or social media and just connecting in lifestyles.
We would say that this downside (having a tough time staying connected to friends and family) is not exclusively from van lifing but from a nomadic lifestyle in general. If you are thinking of going nomadic and you want to stay connected to your friends, be prepared to put in some extra work. For it is much easier to stay connected with people when you live in the same town and can therefore see them regularly, than it is when you are a whole state or continent away.
3 | It Can Be Tough Not Having a Home Base
This downside to van life also took us a bit by surprise. We had been living a pretty nomadic lifestyle before hopping in our van Terra and hitting the road. But it didn't take us long to realize that we were really missing a home base. Maybe it was because we weren't in the best head space, or maybe it was because we were really tired of packing up and moving, but by around the 3 week mark of our road trip we both realized that the idea of having a home with plenty of space for our gear and a designated work area sounded really nice.
It is more than likely that this desire to have a home base had been coming for a while and that van life only sped the desire along. For a couple of years we had both talked about having a spot that we could base out of and travel from - be it a small home in the mountains or an apartment by the ocean. It seemed van life just made us want that a little bit sooner than expected.
4 | Van Life = Decision Overload
This is often one of the most common downsides of van lifing. Though surprisingly, it is the one you most likely won't consider before starting out.
In truth, van life is made up of thousands of decisions, some big (like where do we want to drive to) and some small (where do we want to store this random item). No matter the size though, decisions have to be made day in and day out. Now this is true of almost every lifestyle, but in van life it just feels a bit more overwhelming and exhausting. Having to decide where to camp every night or where to find water or where to go for a shower, all of these things start to weigh on you after a while. In our case, by the time we reached Northern California we were pretty done with making decisions.
In the end, that is why we decided to bypass most of Oregon and just book it up to Washington. Do we regret missing out on all the beauty that Oregon has to offer? Yes, a bit. Do we regret that big decision? No.
5 | The Amount of Time it Takes to Accomplish Basic Tasks
Kind of like the statement above, van living is made up of a lot of time spent doing really basic things that aren't always that fun. For example, you will find that you spend a weirdly large amount of time looking for drinkable water. This super basic necessity can become quite a chore when you have to visit multiple parks and then just hope that the water is indeed potable (sometimes it isn't and you have to start all over in your search).
Then there is the even larger amount of time it takes to find a shower facility that isn't closed or too pricey to use. Sometimes this means you have to clean up in a nice river, and sometimes this means you have to splurge and get a hotel for the night (bonus points if it has a free laundry facility).
During our road trip up the West Coast, we were pretty lucky in the fact that we had friends dotted along most of the route. We ended up not going more than a couple of days without a shower, which we were pretty stoked about. But there have definitely been other van life road trips where this was not the case and we found ourselves always on the hunt for the next spot to clean up.
In the end, one of the biggest downsides to van life in our books is just the large amount of time it takes to acquire basic necessities, like drinking water. While singularly it might seem super basic, when you combine that one task with other necessary tasks (like buying food or finding a safe spot to camp) it starts to feel like a real chore. Plus, this chore time can really start to eat into your allotted free time that could instead be used for things like hiking, mountain biking or surfing.
