If you search #VanLife on Instagram, you’ll find over ten million images of people sprawled out in luxury RVs (recreational vehicles) wearing bikinis, parked next to picturesque seascapes. The hashtag dates back to 2011 when photographer Foster Huntington used it for the first time. A decade later, the hashtag represents an entire lifestyle – a group of people who have given up traditional living for vehicles they have turned into tiny houses. The more cynical might suggest this lifestyle is just another photo op, citing that often “vanlifers” will park in a beautiful location for a few minutes to get the photo, post it on social media, and then drive to a less scenic campground to spend the night. (Apps such as Hipcamp and Harvest Host are popular with van dwellers to help find farms and wineries to park). To others, living out of a van sounds crazy: many vans don’t have a bathroom, or if they do, it’s often just a composting loo that slides out from under the bed. Many vanlifers get by just fine without a loo – using public facilities or investing in gym memberships – but that’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. To devotees, however, this new way of life affords the ability to pick up and move to a new destination at a moment’s notice. With advances in technology and communication, living off the grid and on the road is becoming a more and more viable option. (Adding solar panels is a must for most vanlifers to help power their computers and other electronics). 

As the pandemic has worn on, vanlife is a fantasy that more people are finding compelling. It’s a way to escape restrictions, high housing prices and reassert some control over their own environment. In Ireland, data from the National Vehicle and Driver File shows the number of campervans in the country rose from about 11,200 in 2018 to almost 12,600 in April 2020 and had reached 13,700 by October last year.

As a holiday option, it’s definitely trending this summer. Net-a-Porter’s global head of styling, Harriet Haskell-Thomas, has been exploring the Welsh coast in a camper van. Irish photography stylist Ann Marie O’Leary (founder of The Flower Press Company) is taking her old VW campervan to the Burren in search of indigenous wild flowers for new pressings. Her minimalist collages reflect different areas in Ireland. Irish travel blogger Nadia El Ferdaoussi of (@nadia_dailyself) recalls a memorable week-long trip in a borrowed VW Grand California in Donegal. Celebrities seem enthralled with this back-tonature pursuit. Oscar-winning film Nomadland, written, produced, directed and edited by Chloe Zhao, starring Frances McDormand, tells the story of a van-dwelling nomad who leaves her hometown after the death of her husband to travel around the US. Celebrity mates Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé did just that on a joint couples’ trip in a luxury Winnebago van with husbands Chris Martin and Jay Z. Despite a few crashes, actress Drew Barrymore, also enthused about her holiday in a campervan, calling it, “The most fun, soul-searching, entertaining, interesting experience I’ve ever had.”

Chef Jamie Oliver is synonymous with the vanlife lifestyle. His televised cooking tour around rural Italy several years ago was all conducted from a souped-up VW camper. Vanlife transcends age, gender and budget. Typically most vanlifers spend less than €4,000 converting Ford Transit or Volkswagen Transporters themselves (twinkly lights are optional). Others leave the conversion in the hands of professionals such as Dave Hanley, of Vanderlust, Co Clare, who also rents vans to novices: prices start from €1,000 for a twoberth VW Transporter for a week. Yet the lifestyle is nothing new. The origins of vanlife actually began hundreds of years ago in the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities. Isn’t it ironic that while holidaymakers and van-lifers can book to stay on caravan sites, most of these sites have restrictions on commercial vehicles, designed to keep out Travellers? And while many are looking at living on the road as an exciting new chapter of their lives, for GRT communities, longstanding ways of life are becoming increasingly difficult to pursue. Perhaps worth remembering, for many people, this lifestyle is not just a travel trend, but interwoven with decades of tradition and history. One thing universally acknowledged is that living small and possession-free is more complicated than it sounds. Vanlife Tetris (the constant packing and rearranging, like a game of Tetris) can become cumbersome even to the most equitable characters. Take the stylish Marie-Chantal of Greece, who went on a joint holiday several years ago with her sister Pia Getty and their nine children to explore the American west. They hired two luxe Winnebagos, which came with a driver and a nanny to clean up the mess. Even though Marie Chantal enthused about the experience, she admitted: “We had 13 pieces of luggage in that damn RV. Next time I am definitely packing less!”