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Never Pay for a Hotel Again – Road Trips and Van Life Without a Van

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Never Pay for a Hotel Again - Road Trips and Van Life Without a Van

Look, travel can be expensive, we know. We’re constantly being asked how we afford to travel so often and for so long (especially after a month-long road trip all over the western United States). After all, airline tickets and hotel rooms, those things aren’t cheap. Wanna know the secret? Road trips and a spacious vehicle. No expensive flights, no over-priced hotel rooms, just the open road, seats that lay flat, and maybe a tent in the trunk. Don’t think you can experience van life without a van? Allow us to prove you wrong. Here’s how to road trip without paying for a hotel no matter what kind of vehicle you have. Yes, #vanlife!

Road Trip Without Paying for a Hotel: Sleeping

So you don’t want to pay for a hotel every night of your trip (who wants to spend hours researching, reading reviews and scrolling through inaccurate photos anyway?) but don’t have a van with a full-size bed. What’s a traveler to do? Celebrate the fact that you can still sleep for free, that’s what (and probably save a ton of cash on fuel). Our only car is a Prius and that’s what we road trip in and usually sleep in, too. You don’t need a large vehicle in order to live the van life. Here’s how we do it.

Sleep in the front seats: if the driver and passenger seats recline nearly all the way, they often make a fairly comfy sleeping surface. I like to put a bag under my feet so they’re propped nearly level with my lower half.

Never Pay for a Hotel Again - Road Trips and Van Life Without a Van

Dispersed camping (aka free camping) outside of Ouray, Colorado. Our sleep pads and sleeping bags are set up in the back.

Sleep in the back: If your backseat folds forward into a flat surface, you have a nearly ideal sleeping surface available. Seats in the Prius fold down flat, but don’t quite provide a long enough sleeping surface, even for two people that don’t stand taller than 5’6″. So what we did was cut a piece of plywood to fit over the empty space between where the folded down back seats end and the backs of the front seats begin, giving us some 9 extra inches of headspace.

Sleep in a tent: Prefer a little extra room than what your car has to offer? Pack a tent (we like this one) and sleep outdoors. Go as big or as simple as you want and enjoy dreaming under the stars.

Sleep in a stranger’s house: OK, that was a bit of a reactionist heading, but that’s essentially what Couchsurfing is. Find a local, read their profile, and request to crash on their couch or spare room for free. You might even make a new friend. We have on multiple occasions!

Pack the right gear: We’ve written posts before about what gear to pack to sleep better in your car, but here are the basics: sleep pad, sleeping bag, pillow, earplugs, sleep mask, towels (for curtains, obviously).

Find a free place to park (or pitch your tent): Read all about how to find a free place to sleep in this post, but here’s the gist: download an app or two, browse some websites (like freecampsites.net), and ask a local. You’ll find a spot whether it’s in a parking lot or a forested grove down a dirt road.

Van Life: Getting Clean

First of all, you can probably go a lot longer without a shower than you think. I mean, get over yourself. If you don’t wash your hair every day innocent passers-by are not going to instantly cross to the other side of the street just to avoid you. While traveling in temperate climates, I’ve regularly gone 5 days, give or take, without stepping foot in a shower stall or bathtub. It’s not a big deal. You’ll survive. Likewise, you can absolutely wear the same outfit more than once without washing. We wrote all about it here. But if there does come a time when all your clothes are mud-spattered and you have so much oil in your hair you could use it to pour a candle, here’s where to clean up if you don’t have a hotel room.

Find a free place to shower: You can use a website like warmshowers.org to locate folks willing to open their bathrooms to travelers who just need a place to wash off the dirt of the road. Alternatively, if you have a membership to a gym with nation-wide access (like Planet Fitness, for example), pop in for a shower any time. Occasionally, truck stops and community centers will have them, too, though they’re not always free. And if there’s a campground nearby, you’ll sometimes be able to utilize their shower facilities. Also, most beaches have showers of one kind or another. You might just have to bathe in your swimwear if they’re outdoors. Finally, bring your own shower, like this one that’s heated by the sun and hangs from a tree.

Find a free place to do your laundry: Laundry on the road is a bit tougher. I’ve definitely washed clothes in sinks and even taken them into the shower with me, but it’s not ideal. If you’re Couchsurfing, ask to do a load at your host’s place. There are always laundromats, of course, but you could also opt for a small portable device like this one and then hang a line to dry your gear when you set up camp for the night.

Van Life: Eating

Sure, you could eat out for every meal while on a road trip, but that’s going to cost you. As vegan food writers, we like to eat out as much as anybody (though we might be a little more particular), but we save our dining dollars for restaurants we’re certain will impress. That means sustaining ourselves with more basic cuisine in between vegan pig-outs. Cooking for yourself: that’s van life.

Never Pay for a Hotel Again - Road Trips and Van Life Without a Van

Josh preparing our dinner at a free campsite in Redwoods National Park.

Go grocery shopping: Forget about Chipotle and (God forbid) Subway. Stock up on healthy and filling staples at your local grocery store instead. We always have fixings for peanut butter and fruit sandwiches (banana, apple, mandarin orange…don’t knock it till you try it) plus hummus and veggies and tortilla chips for snacking. While you’re at it, get ingredients for dinner, too and prepare your own inexpensive meals (with ingredients like these).

Make your own dang supper: As vegans, dining options aren’t as readily available to us as to our omnivorous brethren. So making your own dinner could be just as much a necessity as a money-saving trick depending on where in the country you find yourself. Pack a backpacking stove or small camp stove, extra fuel, cookware, and eating utensils and make simple meals in a Walmart parking lot or in a wooded campsite. We like a good customized bowl of ramen, instant potatoes, and freeze-dried soups. Find a post about meal ingredients here.

The Bottom Line

See? You don’t need to book a hotel to do all the things you need to do on a road trip. And you can totally do van life without a van! It’ll just be, you know, a lot less spacious. Wander on!

 

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