VANLIFE as a SOLO FEMALE TRAVELER
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After college, Alex took time off to do some unpaid internships abroad as a way of travelling the world and getting outside perspective. This landed her in New Zealand for a year where she lived out of a tent for a year. During her time there, she saw all sorts of different van conversions and was impressed by the way these people had managed to turn vehicles into their own portable dwellings. Their resourcefulness and what they were able to pull off with such limited resources inspired Alex to get a camper of her own. After her year in New Zealand was up, she ended up moving to Seattle, and getting what she referred to as a ‘big kid job’. “I got the nine-to-five, the office, big apartment, the whole thing.” It was during this period that she found her van, Penny.
“I was home for Christmas and one day we were driving through this lot, because my mom was thinking about getting a new car at the time, and on the way out of the lot I shouted, ‘Stop the car!’. We jumped out of the car and I saw this van parked way in the back.” Despite Alex’s resistance, her Mom ended up calling the dealer to inquire about it, and see if it was for sale. It wasn’t, it had just been brought in for service, but the dealers promised to check with the owner and let them know that there was an interested buyer. A week later, Alex got a call from mom letting her know that the owners were open to selling it.
The van ended up belonging to an older couple who had bought the vehicle to travel in for their retirement. While the man loved the vehicle, his wife wanted nothing to do with it. They only got a single road trip through Glacier National Park out of it before deciding that a life on the road wasn’t for them. Over the years, the man kept it in good condition and used it on small solo trips until Alex eventually bought it from him.
Alex couldn’t believe the mint condition it was in. It had only 4000 miles on it, plastic was still on the floors, and the fridge had never been used. According to Alex, it was the find of a lifetime. Even though she wasn’t actively looking for a van at the time, it proved to be a deal that she couldn’t pass up on. Thus, Alex became the proud owner of her 2000 Eurovan named “Penny.”
Not a lot has been changed to the interior. Being a practically new camper van with all the needed amenities, Alex has been able to keep the interior relatively stock, excluding a few tweaks to make it feel more like home. Living in the Pacific Northwest, she found that the grey interior was a little too dreary for her, especially on one of her first trips to Yosemite. It rained the whole time, and she ended up getting sick, so she wasn’t able to leave the van. “I got really depressed because it was so gray. And so one of the big things when I decided to move into the van full-time was to put as much color into it as I could.” So she opted to reupholster all the seating with super colorful fabric that really pops in the vehicle’s otherwise monochromatic color scheme.
She worked at REI before getting into the van, so a lot of her cooking equipment is camp oriented. This works well in the camper as everything she needs is able to fold up compactly, not take up a ton of space, and handle the abuse of living on the road better than what would be conventionally used in a regular sized home. For coffee, Alex, like many vanlifer’s, is a big fan of the Aerobie Aeropress. It provides an easy way to make single cups of fantastic coffee without needing electricity, while being very compact and easy to clean up. For spices, she installed a magnetic spice rack to the underside of the cover for her stove. This keeps her spices out of the way when she doesn’t need them, while remaining easily accessible when she does.
Her dad ended up making a table for her to use in the van that she stores behind the driver seat when not in use. It has a single fold out leg on one side, while the rest of the weight is on a hook that attaches to the galley cabinets. It gives her plenty of room to eat meals and work on the computer, while being unobtrusive when not in use.
While the van does have a pop top with a second loft bed up top, Alex prefers to use the convertible bench in the bottom, as she often sleeps in urban areas. This draws as little attention to her and her rig as possible. As a solo female traveller, this is very important to her. To keep safe, she makes sure that the driver's seat is always clear with the keys close in case she needs to drive away quickly. She also has a knife handy if she ever needs to defend herself from intruders.
For electricity, Alex has a Semi-Flexible 120w Solar Panel installed on the back. A challenge she had to deal with when choosing where to install her panel was the Thule Motion Rooftop Cargo Carrier that she already had installed. It left too little room on the top for her to install a panel as well, so she opted to have a removable system that can be orientated independently from the vehicle. This gives her the advantage of being able to park in the shade while in warmer climates while still being able to get electricity from the sun.
While a lot of single women might be nervous about travelling alone, Alex didn’t want to wait around to do what she wanted. She had watched too many of her friends end up in jobs or relationships that they weren’t thrilled with, so she decided to take the chance and embark on the adventure by herself. In her experience, it’s a lot safer than most people think, and that if you give people the chance they’ll surprise you.
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