When I began to travel with my van, I felt great pressure from the vanlife community to go wild camping.
When I talk to other vanlifers, in person, in forums or on socials, one of the first questions that come up in the conversation is: Do you sleep in the wild or go to a camping place/paid place?
If the answer is: I sleep in the wild, I often get answers like: "ah, yeah is so cool" accompanied by a smile.
If the answer is: I do go to camping place, I often get answers like: "ah, no, I/we don't do that, it doesn't make sense to spend money and we want to experience the real nature" accompanied by people putting physical distance between us.
Basically, my brain registered:
Wild camping = cool vanlifer
Camping place = fake vanlifer.
Why wild camping is cool?
The idea of traveling in a van is to feel freer, right? You can move whenever and wherever you want.
And what gives more freedom than sleeping under the stars in nature without city lights polluting the sky?
I think most people when hearing "wild camping", thinks:
Freedom, secluded places, nature, and independence.
For me, beneath the coolest of wild camping, there is the idea of being able to survive or at least take care of your basic needs in nature and being able to improvise with what I have around me at the moment.
Therefore, in my mind, a person that does wild camping is someone that knows how to survive and is totally independent and adventurous.
Based on most of the movies I have seen in my life... what else can be cooler than this? :D
Coming from this social idealogy, I put pressure on myself that I must do wild camping otherwise It doesn't make sense to travel in a van, I would have been an impostor, someone that pretends to be a vanlifer.
That didn't allow me to have a good time until I realize what I need in my life and what makes me happy and pursue it is more important than fitting in some social label. At least for me.
So I want to share here the process that brought me to realize what is best for me with the hope it will save some hard time for others.
Pro and cons of wild camping
I do believe that wild camping gives amazing freedom and an independent feeling.
PRO
Being one with nature: Being able to camp in the middle of a forest, in front of a secluded lake, or at the bottom of a mountain, is amazing.
I believe human beings get a tremendous benefit from being in contact with nature and being far from any civilization, immerse in nature gives this calm, peaceful, and grounded feeling.
Challenge yourself: If you live in a van or are thinking about it, you are probably someone that is ok with giving up some comfort and challenge yourself a bit. Camping in nature means you will have to take care of different basic human needs like: Going to the "loo", wash your dishes/clothes/your self, figure out some ways to hang your stuff (while camping there is always the need to hang something! :D), take care of your trash(yes, also the stuff you used to clean your self after going to the "toilet") and so on.
Those are just the minimum required tasks to care about.
If you are in the mood of challenging yourself more, there are plenty of other tasks: make a fire to warm you up or to cook, build some kind of tool you probably will need and don't have with you (fork/spoon/pocking stick/table/box, ...).
This can be very fun and satisfying new skills to learn.
Knowing these kinds of skills makes me feel a bit more prepared to survive in case I don't have all the technology or commodities with me.
Saving money: That's also a big pro. Being in nature is of course free. No service means also no maintenance and therefore no extra cost.
If you would pay 15 euro in a camping place, a week in nature could save you 100 euro. Not so bad.
CONS
Being completely alone: I consider myself 50% extrovert and 50% introverted. I like being alone, once I lived for two months completely alone and I enjoy it.
Anyway, I don't love to be always alone, sometimes I want human contact.
Specifically, while traveling meeting people is what enriches me and makes me grow as a human.
Wild camping is great but it doesn't allow me to get in contact with many new people.
Not experience local culture: I realize that if I always stay in the wild, is way more difficult to get in contact with locals and therefore to get to know the culture of the country I'm discovering.
The result is I spend a month or two in a place and I know just the shape of the mountains or the hiking trails but I have no idea how people talk, interact or enjoy their evening.
Not what I'm looking for.
Difficult to settle down: This might depend a lot on the country where you are but Europe in particular, where most of the countries don't allow wild camping, wild camping means being always ready to move.
Therefore don't think about settling down the big nice awning, the chairs, table and side table. The idea is to be able to leave the place within 5-10mins, so I personally get very minimal and essential with my setup when I do wild camping.
I'm ok with that, I don't need much of setup most of the time but sometimes, in particular, when I have lots of work or some important meeting, I want to know I can stay in one place for longer without worry that I might need to move the van.\
Wild camping as a buzzword
I believe wild camping is nowadays a label, a buzzword.
When I was hearing "wild camping" I immediately thought about some highlander in the middle of a forest or mountain for days, surviving with river water, solar panels, and cooking on the fire.
While traveling and talking with other people traveling with a van, I discover there are a lot of different ways of wild camping and all of them are valid, they just suit better the need of each different traveler and situation.
Wild camping can mean being completely alone in nature for days, weeks living just with what mother nature provides us but can also mean stopping in some amazing natural place while enjoying the comfort of the van like cooking inside or using your own toilet system.
It can also mean stopping renowned wild camping places where you will very likely find other campers.
Stopping in a parking lot near a city center is also a form of wild camping.
Wild camping nowadays mostly means camping somewhere without service. (no proper toilet, no access to electricity or water).
Outside of this definition, everything else is valid.
What has helped me to live a better vanlife
All those informations that I gather while traveling while getting to know myself better and while talking with other travelers, made me realize that:
- Not all the people that do wild camping are highlander that knows how to survive in any wild situation. Actually, very few of them are like that. Therefore, for me, wild camping doesn't necessarily mean being brave, independent, and have a lot of survival skills. This is probably when I define someone as cool, therefore was good to realize not all the people that I talk with are way cooler than me and I'm just a loser that pretends to be a "vanlifer"
- Wild camping is not always what I need and that is OK. As solo traveler, I enjoy sometimes going to places where I can meet other people. I enjoy particularly communities where I can find like-minded people. Stopping in an eco-farm, digital nomads hub, or meditation center gives me the connection I need without taking away the freedom of living in a van.
- I always have to deal with my job. I need a good internet connection to work and I need a quiet environment. When I say "quiet" I don't mean just silence but I also mean knowing that I will be able to work for the next 4-5 hours without being interrupted.
For these two reasons, wild camping is not always the best option for me. I personally like to organize my work in a way that I do most of the work in two or three days so the other days I'm more relax and I can go wild camping in nature.
The learned lesson
Probably once again the best piece of advice I can give to myself is:
"Stop comparing yourself with others!"
What works for others doesn't necessarily mean is good for me or it should set the bar for my goals.
And in particular: when listening to others experiences, go deeper and ask for more details. I often discover that what I hear within the first sentence and the story I made in my mind about that specific person and his/her story, is not a good reflection of reality.