I fell in love with the concept of getting a tiny residence on wheels that you may take any and in every single place. The flexibility to simply choose up and go appeared like a dream. You need not pack suitcases, board a airplane, or verify out and in of motels. Simply inventory your van with meals, arrange your garments and toiletries into drawers, and head out whereas bringing alongside all of the comforts of residence. It is next-level glamping.
Personally, I like stepping into nature, however I am not into tenting. I've no want to sleep in a tent on the bottom and pee in a shared outhouse. So tenting in a van is one of the best (and solely!) choice for me. Sooner or later, I hope to have one in every of my very own. However within the meantime, I have been dying to attempt it out. So when I discovered Cabana, an organization that means that you can lease luxurious camper vans, I jumped on the probability to check its providers.
The logistics of van life
From RVs to Airstreams, there are many camper van choices, however transformed sprinter vans have turn out to be stylish over the previous couple of years as a result of they're compact. You do not have to fret about parking a 40-foot RV—as a substitute, you will get a van that is a little bit over 20-feet lengthy (a couple of ft longer than a big pick-up truck) and transfer it round with ease.
Associated Tales
I rented a tricked-out sprinter van outfitted with a sink, stovetop, fridge, bathe, rest room, mattress, and closet. There are additionally photo voltaic panels on the roof, offering you with ample electrical energy to cost gadgets, and warmth and funky the van. With pickup out there in Los Angeles and Seattle, Cabana vans are excellent for as much as two individuals to discover the west coast.
Reserving/choosing up your van and beginning the journey
Reserving and planning a van journey by Cabana is extremely easy. You'll be able to decide to simply select your dates, lock in a van, and do the planning your self; you possibly can e book one in every of Cabana's pre-planned journeys that embrace the price of a van and a full itinerary; or take a quiz so Cabana's concierge crew can see what you are thinking about after which plan a (complimentary) customized journey.
Beginning your journey is much like utilizing a carshare service like Zipcar. When you e book, you may get the deal with of the pickup location. When it is time in your journey, head to the lot and use the Cabana app to unlock your van and begin your journey. Inside you may discover the keys, and directions on the way to do all the things from turning on the AC to establishing the kitchen.
Driving the van
Dwelling in New York Metropolis, I do not drive typically. So the concept of spending seven days driving round California in an enormous van freaked me out a little bit. However as soon as I bought behind the wheel, I noticed it wasn't that troublesome. It positively feels completely different than driving a automotive, however you get used to it fairly shortly. It has huge aspect mirrors and a backup digital camera so you possibly can see your surrounding very nicely. It additionally comes geared up with a cellphone holder on the dashboard so you possibly can see your GPS with ease.
Sleeping
Cabana vans characteristic a comfortable, queen-size mattress that stays stationary at the back of the house, so that you need not fear about establishing your mattress at night time. My favourite a part of sleeping in van like that is that with the mattress within the again, you've an ideal view out of the again home windows. On our first night time, my boyfriend and I bought to our first campsite after darkish, so we did not actually know the place we had been or what the surroundings was like. Waking up and taking the covers off the home windows in the course of the desert exterior of Palm Springs was breathtaking. I cherished with the ability to simply keep in mattress and absorb our environment.
Cooking and consuming
Whereas the within of the van is residence to a sink, fridge, and scorching water kettle, cooking is dealt with exterior. Head to the again of the van, open the doorways, and you will find a kitchen that pulls out from beneath the mattress geared up with a sink, a two-burner propane range, counter house to prep, in addition to cookware, and compostable dishware and utensils.
Having the kitchen pull out of the again is a tremendous house saver so there's extra room contained in the van. Nevertheless, it may be a bit inconvenient, particularly if the climate is chilly. Contained in the van, the passenger seat swivels round to face the middle, a bench pulls out of the aspect of a cupboard, and there is a pole that means that you can arrange a tabletop, creating the right eating house for 2. However, in the event you're staying at a campground, there'll doubtless be picnic tables arrange the place you possibly can take pleasure in your meal exterior.
Utilizing the toilet
The toilet is teeny tiny and homes a showerhead and a rest room. Utilizing the bathroom is straightforward—you simply go and flush such as you would some other rest room. The identical goes for the bathe, besides the house is far smaller than your commonplace bathe. Plus, there isn't any separation between the bathroom and the bathe so when you suds up and get clear the bathroom shall be very moist. However, with the assistance of the exhaust fan, it dries comparatively shortly.
The bathroom empties right into a black water tank beneath the van whereas sink and bathe water empties right into a grey water tank. On shorter journeys, you need not fear about emptying these. You may get three to 5 days value of use out of the bathroom earlier than the tank fills relying on how a lot you utilize it. And there's a digital monitoring display within the van that means that you can keep watch over how full the tank is getting.
As a result of I had a van for seven days, I did find yourself having to empty the tanks on day 5. That is one thing you do at a campground, and you may see indicators displaying you the place and the way to do it. The expertise was humbling, to say the least, however not almost as gross or troublesome as I believed it might be. I mainly needed to pull a hose from a storage tube beneath the van, connect one finish to the van and the opposite to a particular pipe within the floor on the campsite. Then I opened a valve to empty the black tank (the tank with all the things you flushed down the bathroom) after which the grey tank (the tank with the water drained from the sink and bathe). The instruction e book has nice instructions and a pair of gloves so I may keep clear through the course of. However, it was tough. I by accident created a large line of vans as a result of I could not determine it out and an angel of a human who was driving the van behind me got here to assist me.
Storage
As a result of the van is small, packing gentle is a should. However, you possibly can nonetheless carry a good quantity of stuff—my boyfriend and I every introduced a carry-on-size suitcase and a backpack. The van options two pull-out cabinets to retailer baggage and a closet full with a rod and hangers. There are additionally two drawers beneath the mattress, and we used one to deal with pantry items and one other to deal with our toiletries and different objects we wished inside straightforward attain like a candle and a bluetooth speaker.
When you're driving, your objects must be stowed away so they are not flying throughout the again of the van. Every door and drawer encompasses a particular deal with that clicks into place so they do not open whereas the car is in movement. So long as these are all correctly closed earlier than you pull off, your objects will stay secure and safe.
What the journey was like
Spending every week touring round California in a van was really a dream come true. I began my journey in Los Angeles, and the lot was a brief stroll to a Dealer Joe's and a Goal so my boyfriend and I had been in a position to refill on meals and different necessities like tissues and sunblock earlier than we hit the highway. Scorching tip: Convey a string of Christmas lights with you to make the van really feel homier.
Then we headed to our first cease: Palm Desert. We parked on the Lovelight Tentsite & Automobile Tenting website and had such a tremendous time. The campsite has an excellent cool and eclectic vibe. Attending to know the host Mikey, his three cute canines, and his tortoise was a lot enjoyable. The campsite was about half-hour from Palm Springs, so we drove there to buy and go to dinner earlier than heading for 2 nights in Joshua Tree Nationwide Park the place we stayed on the Jumbo Rocks Campground.
That is simply the best place I've ever been. The rocks had been certainly jumbo, and I felt like I used to be on Mars. We went on hikes, went into city to go thrifting, and took so. many. footage. Whereas we had been within the park, we had zero cell service, forcing us to be tremendous current and simply take pleasure in our environment. It was superb.
For the final three days, we stayed in Dana Level, a seaside city in Orange County. For the primary night time, we actually parked on the aspect of the highway exterior of our good friend's house, and spent the opposite nights proper on the water at Doheny State Seashore. We backed into our parking spot so we may simply open the again doorways and hop into the sand. I cherished attending to lie in a comfy mattress whereas watching the waves crash on the shore. It was really essentially the most surreal and magical expertise.
Would I do it once more?
Staying in a Cabana van solely strengthened my want to have my very own van. I bought to expertise all of those new, beautiful locations from my very own little slice of residence. I cherished that I did not need to shuttle from a lodge—I used to be residing proper within the thick of nature. After all, you get this with any tenting expertise, however, like I mentioned, I am not a camper. Van tenting is the one type of tenting I've ever thought of, and it was a wonderful expertise. After a protracted drive, I knew that mattress was simply 4 ft away. And I all the time had entry to meals and a rest room that was all mine. Regardless of the place we had been, we had our personal little house to return to and that felt extraordinarily grounding.
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