Van life - calling it a day

[lefty107]

We are still working so limited to a few fortnight's in Europe per year but most weekends at 40s events in the summer only have food, beer and fuel as we are part of the show so expensive in beer . If show not on there is always a social. Football or rugby club with band or function on that let us stay over when you ask. Ten years with the old van and wouldn't change a thing apart from the van itself but that can wait a few years until retirement

 

[Drover]

You can't drive anything 'through' the Grand Canyon, you can visit certain areas at top with vehicles, or hike, raft, in the canyon. It gets very busy with RV's let alone other visitors, and getting a pitch in park is difficult, but well worth a visit, and go just a few yards off the beaten track and nobody to be seen. Gf loved it and we ended up spending more time than expected, I prefer Monument Valley where you can (or could?) park overnight in the reserve carpark, but that's maybe because I was brought up watching cowboy films.
View in the morning out the back window of RV.
View attachment 118370

We rode up a bit of it .....on horseback.
A good while ago when I was younger.

 

[trevskoda]

i thought of these ,but not very scary looking

Army

 

[colinm]

We are still working so limited to a few fortnight's in Europe per year but most weekends at 40s events in the summer only have food, beer and fuel as we are part of the show so expensive in beer . If show not on there is always a social. Football or rugby club with band or function on that let us stay over when you ask. Ten years with the old van and wouldn't change a thing apart from the van itself but that can wait a few years until retirement

My advise to anyone is don't wait until you retire before doing anything, the younger you are the more you get out of it.
In my 20's I decided to travel around Europe, in my 30's I decided to travel around the world.
I've hit state pension age, never intended to retire as I like my work, but I've pretty much been forced to retire as I can't do what I could and it frustrates me, I intend to travel a lot still, but I know full well I'll not be hiking 10+ miles over difficult terrain anymore. I always kept saying I'd do the Pennine Way (having done sections), I know I'll never do it now.

 

[bigbarry]

Seriously getting to the point of why do we bother ?
Van life is slowly losing its appeal, for the price of a weekend away food/fuel/location we could of hopped on a plane and gone somewhere warm for a few days.

Just struggling today trying to remember the reasons why I loved it so much

With sites fees now increased so much and the need to book weeks in advance I think the days of touring if you find an area you would like to explore more you cannot just roll up at a site and find a place. Unfortunatley we have just made the decision not to renew our van

 

[barryd]

My advise to anyone is don't wait until you retire before doing anything, the younger you are the more you get out of it.
In my 20's I decided to travel around Europe, in my 30's I decided to travel around the world.
I've hit state pension age, never intended to retire as I like my work, but I've pretty much been forced to retire as I can't do what I could and it frustrates me, I intend to travel a lot still, but I know full well I'll not be hiking 10+ miles over difficult terrain anymore. I always kept saying I'd do the Pennine Way (having done sections), I know I'll never do it now.

Definitely agree with that. We were 42 when we started motorhoming and taking off across Europe 15 years ago. I already had early stages of hereditary Arthritis and now 15 years later Im pretty much fooked. Still enjoy trips away but glad we did it when we were relatively young. I appreciate though we were very lucky to have been able to do so. The one thing I absolutely love though is being out on the Scooter or the Kayak. I Can still manage both of those ok as long as I can get the Kayak near the water first.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

With sites fees now increased so much and the need to book weeks in advance I think the days of touring if you find an area you would like to explore more you cannot just roll up at a site and find a place. Unfortunatley we have just made the decision not to renew our van

Well, this is the wild camping forum.

 

[barryd]

Well, this is the wild camping forum.

True. Didnt you just do a month long tour of the UK without using a single site Kev? I reckon its still very much doable without using big expensive sites.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Not been on a site since 2007 and that was closed anyway.

Tell a lie we did go onto one but only for a service stop last year oop north somewhere. it's not a money thing though, it's a no Chance thing, kids, dogs, people, rules, never been one for rules as my prison record will show

Ireland next, no sites again.

 

[mistericeman]

Not been on a site since 2007 and that was closed anyway.

Tell a lie we did go onto one but only for a service stop last year oop north somewhere. it's not a money thing though, it's a no Chance thing, kids, dogs, people, rules, never been one for rules as my prison record will show

Ireland next, no sites again.

It HAS got a 'Trevor' though ....

 

[barryd]

Not been on a site since 2007 and that was closed anyway.

Tell a lie we did go onto one but only for a service stop last year oop north somewhere. it's not a money thing though, it's a no Chance thing, kids, dogs, people, rules, never been one for rules as my prison record will show

Ireland next, no sites again.

Agree with that but the money thing defo plays a part for me. If I end up on a site I feel like I have somehow failed. Made worse by the fact that I have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for stopping somewhere I would rather not be. To me thats anything more than twenty quid night. Im happy to pay between a fiver and a tenner for a CL Site though.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

It's a business like yours, I assume they have invested quite a bit and they provide a service, so I would expect to pay, but as I have no idea what the running costs and maintenance are or how much to put aside for development so I have no idea how much is reasonable, I just hate the whole idea of living ten feet from someone I don't know, then doing it again every day somewhere else, and I'd get ridiculously bored staying more than two nights in one place

 

[barryd]

It's a business like yours, I assume they have invested quite a bit and they provide a service, so I would expect to pay, but as I have no idea what the running costs and maintenance are or how much to put aside for development so I have no idea how much is reasonable, I just hate the whole idea of living ten feet from someone I don't know, then doing it again every day somewhere else, and I'd get ridiculously bored staying more than two nights in one place

I'm the opposite now. If we find somewhere we like we stay until we have had enough. Stayed on that CL near Lee Bay near Ilfracombe and Woolacombe for three weeks last summer and Arran for two months but we moved around a lot on Arran.

 

[n brown]

we never really did much in the UK . as soon as we had a van sorted and enough for the ferry and a bit of diesel we were offski. never gave a thought to 'wild camping ' ,just parked up where it suited us , funny enough the first reference i ever saw was at lac de st croix where we were parked near a sign saying ''Camping Sauvage interdit ''

 

[trevskoda]

I would have loved to travel when young and not hold to retirement, but as poor billies from the north we get very little monies if working for others.
Then one day a thing my old g dad told me hit my head, if you have to take your coat off to work for others you are beat from day one, so I got my Arthur
Dally head on, it worked out ok so van trips are my thing now and feck work.

 

[n brown]

my thought was that if you're good with your hands and had your own tools, you'd find work anywhere . it worked for us .

life's too precious to waste it working any more than you need to .

 

[Penny13]

My advise to anyone is don't wait until you retire before doing anything, the younger you are the more you get out of it.
In my 20's I decided to travel around Europe, in my 30's I decided to travel around the world.
I've hit state pension age, never intended to retire as I like my work, but I've pretty much been forced to retire as I can't do what I could and it frustrates me, I intend to travel a lot still, but I know full well I'll not be hiking 10+ miles over difficult terrain anymore. I always kept saying I'd do the Pennine Way (having done sections), I know I'll never do it now.

Work five days get two off.
Work till you 67 not well enough to enjoy and maybe die to young !!!
Modern slavery without chains.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

The crash in 09 made me redundant, DWP said take Pension credit, I said what's that? Nuff said sorted, early retirement @ 59, the barstewards then made it back by savaging womens pensions, and raising the retirement age Barstewards.

 

[barryd]

Working in IT helped. I could have retired properly a few years back really but I still keep my hand in as 99% of it is all remote now. The little bits I do away in the van generally fund the entire trip. I get some kind of perverse pleasure making a few quid and invoicing people when Im away enjoying myself.

 

[QFour]

We swapped from a boat 11 years ago and have loved every minute of it. We have places we like that we go back to and new places we find along the way. Its a hobby that we enjoy. We have a small dog that is learning about MH life and enjoying it. If you keep thinking it would be warmer if we went abroad then perhaps thats what you should do. We downsized three years ago to a 6.4M Carthago and it was the best thing we have done. Normal driving licence and you can parrallel park it. We put money on one side each month for trips. The MH is warmer than the house. We were in Exmouth in January and just come back from North Shields and Seahouses. South Coast next and then Norfolk.