Vanlife Packing List

October 31, 2021 Andrea Comments 0 Comment

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So you decided to try out vanlife?! How exciting! It’s definitely a unique way to approach life and travel. As it is quite different from a regular trip, you will likely have unique needs. Here we will discuss your vanlife packing list to have you ready for the open road in no time.

My very first time trying vanlife was when we rented a camper van in New Zealand in 2019. I hadn’t thought much about vanlife before the trip but during my research I realized that this was a really popular way to experience New Zealand. So we decided to try it and it was really fun!

Fast forward to the pandemic and we decided to purchase and renovate a truck camper. This was very spacious and we loved the finished renovation, however for our move to Portland it was not a good fit. Therefore we sold the truck camper and purchased a van instead. This van was already built out for us so fortunately no renovation this time around.

After we purchased the van we spent about a month living out of it on our way out to Portland and then have used it on most weekends meaning we have now spent more than 40 nights in our van. This has definitely helped me figure out what to pack. If you are looking to do more than a weekend, check out this post on planning the perfect road trip.

Keep in mind what might need to be on your vanlife packing list may have to do with if you are renting it from somewhere that includes basics or if you are using your own van for the first time. And maybe even more importantly, check out this post if you are looking for how to save money on your next road trip.

For us, we have a separate set of utensils, plates, bowls, etc that stay in the van all of the time. This is nice because I don’t have to worry about packing them each time.