When you ask a van what it is that you like the most about traveling with the house on your back, it will tell you: freedom, improvisation, being able to sleep in beautiful places, being able to move at your own pace or not depending on public transport schedules. Without a doubt traveling in a camper as a family has its advantages.
But what they do not tell you is that this way of traveling also has its drawbacks. Although for us, the van, those inconveniences are part of the attraction.
We are going to confess those 7 things that nobody has told you about traveling in camper:
1. No bath or shower
The first and perhaps the one that can be a little more uncomfortable for those who are not used to it is that camper vans do not usually have a bath or a shower. The bathroom takes up a lot of space and is a luxury reserved for larger motorhomes.
Are you scared? Quiet, there are solutions for everything. The already initiated know that the field is very large, that when you visit cities there are public baths, bars, and coffee shops. And, if you do not get used to that, then you can always buy a portable wc. The subject of the shower may be more complicated, but in the end, you end up learning to wash your hair with cold water or to bathe your child with just over a liter of water. It’s about practicing.
2. We lack space
It may seem that a van fits everything and that you will never lack space, but it is not like that at all. You can not load up a vehicle in which you have to cook, eat, sleep, get dressed, move. So that life on board your mobile home is comfortable you must have the minimum necessary.
But it is a matter of organizing: every object that you have must have a function (or several) and it must be as small as possible. We love everything that is foldable and the things that fit inside others (the pans, for example). In addition, the vans usually have many pockets, drawers, cabinets, and corners in which to organize your things.
3. The sheets smell like chistorra
In the vans, everything is at your fingertips: the bed, the steering wheel, the clothes drawer, and the cooking pots. That means that, sometimes, putting on a pair of trousers means hitting your head against the ceiling, trying to get a fork ends with a glass of milk lying on the floor or the sheets smell like the chistorra of the previous day’s dinner.
Here you have no choice but to be very organized to avoid domestic accidents as much as possible and take it with humor when they occur.
4. We feel persecuted
Unfortunately, there are municipalities and autonomous communities that do not welcome in good manners the van or motorhome. In some places, there are signs that prohibit the parking of this type of vehicle and there is even a city that goes so far as to prohibit the mere circulation of motorhomes through its streets. This persecution is not legal, it is discriminatory and it contradicts the Traffic Law, but it is there and sometimes it gives us inconveniences and even fines.
But, fortunately, more and more municipalities are realizing that itinerant tourism is another form of tourism that generates profits for their towns and cities and they are beginning to build motorhome areas. We hope that things will improve and we will be more like the French, who have motorhome areas everywhere. Meanwhile, it is best to avoid the places where they chase us and try to sleep in secluded places where nobody bothers us.
5. We sleep in riding schools
Sometimes, especially when you travel at night and do not have much time to find a good place to sleep, you end up sleeping in vacant lots or parking lots, if they seem great for you to take a nap, the couples in the surroundings seem great for your little things. Those do not bother, they go their own way. But other times, those same places are meeting points to spin with the car, bottle … which can complicate the night a little more.
So that this does not happen to you, you have to try to find places as rural as possible, well away from urban centers.
6. We suffer the cold
Personally, we love to travel in a van during the winter season: there are fewer people, less traffic, the prices are lower than at other times. But this supposes that you will suck ice nights. The van does not stop being a vehicle that will never be as isolated as a house.
Good quilts and blankets, thermal clothing, polar sheets, stationary heating … Everything is good to survive at nights below zero. If you want to know how we do it, read our entry: “fight in the cold when you travel in a van”.
7. We suffer the heat
If there are critical moments in the cold, it will not be less with the heat. What’s more, in our experience, controlling high temperatures is much harder than surviving the cold. In the hottest days of summer you can forget to sleep late because when the sun starts to warm the van, you start cooking. A nap in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun is tightening, is impossible. But not only is it difficult to sleep, but there are also times when just surviving the suffocating heat is complicated. In the van, we had moments when we were not comfortable anywhere, and we realized that this happens invariably when it is very hot.
We have an awning on the side of the van to be able to take refuge underneath, we always look for shadows of trees, we sleep with open windows, we look for well-ventilated places and bathing areas. But the best thing to do with the heat is to avoid it: we decided years ago that we were not going to travel through southern Spain in summer. Our summer destinations are usually in the north of Spain or Europe because we prefer to avoid this inconvenience.
These are, in our opinion, the 7 things that nobody has told you about traveling in the camper. If you are not a van and you are considering being one, we do not want to discourage you. Traveling in a van is fun, it gives you freedom and is the best way to travel that we can imagine. But it is better that you bear in mind that nothing is perfect; Sometimes enthusiasts forget about it because we are already used to solve all the problems that may arise.
Talking Your Time 