9 Reasons Why We Are Building A Campervan (In Our Thirties!)
If you have just stumbled across our blog, you may well be wondering why we are building a campervan (in our thirties!!!)
We purchased our 2010 Mercedes Sprinter back in April 2023, after spending maybe over a year or two searching.
Our dream of doing up a van and eventually living van life, stems from our love of travel and really came out of the wood work during the pandemic, when we started to see people building their own campervans and heading off to explore the world.
It also intertwined with another big dream of ours (see REASON 9!), which we had already chatted about.
In this post we’ll share with you what inspired us to start building our own campervan and eventually we will get out on the road and live our very own van life adventures.
So grab a coffee, run a bath or get comfy on the sofa and let’s get into it!
1) Easier And Cheaper Way To Explore Northern Ireland
We really want to explore Northern Ireland (and the Republic) a bit more before we go further afield, and having a campervan will *hopefully* make this easier!
Not to mention so MUCH MORE affordable!
The price of hotels, Airbnb’s & rentals here has really skyrocketed since the pandemic.
And as such it really puts us off stay-cationing locally.
Whilst we would often love to book a weekend away somewhere not-too-far, we find ourselves feeling that we just can’t justify the price – which can sometimes be nearly the same as a week abroad!
(We usually end up booking the week abroad with much better weather lol! 🌞)
So, having the campervan will be great in the sense that we can visit anywhere we want in Northern Ireland with a bit more ease and comfort. Plus we will save money by not having to pay to stay anywhere!
On the same note, we hope that by having the campervan at our disposal, it will encourage to actually be more spontaneous on the weekends!
Even if we wanted to just go exploring for the day, it’ll be so much easier to get around, and we can park up at the places we want to see!
It will be nice to have somewhere cosy to chill if it was raining, to have coffee or make ourselves a spot of lunch before we explore!
2) Will Save Us Money Travelling
If there’s one thing about us you need to know, it’s that we absolutely LOVE our holidays.
Apart from our monthly outgoings, traveling abroad is what we save all our money for.
However, our money can only take us so far, and on a limited amount of holidays! 😭🥹
By having the campervan, although we will still have to spend a bit of money on a boat and diesel, we will save much more by not having to book flights, accommodation or car hire!
Which *IN TURN* means that we can get away MORE OFTEN and see more of the places we are dying to get to!
3) Freedom To Travel Anywhere At Our Own Pace
We rarely find ourselves sitting by the pool when we go on holidays, we always hire a car so that we can explore the area!
We’ll research towns, sights or viewpoints we want to visit before we leave, and then try to get around as many as possible!
HOWEVER, there just never feels like there’s ENOUGH time to really see everything and go everywhere we want to.
Especially when you are only visiting somewhere for a week, and you’re trying to cram a few sightseeing spots or whitewashed villages into each day – it can be really fun but ALSO REALLY exhausting!
So, with that said, another reason we thought having a campervan would be great, is so that we can have the freedom to literally go wherever we want!
And to be able to stay for as long as we want in each place.
If we are really enjoying somewhere, and we want to stay a bit longer – we can!
And if we aren’t too keen on a place, or we’ve seen everything there is to see, we can move on to the next!
Just being able to have the freedom to see more of a country or area, without being restricted by time or the place you are staying sounds pretty great to us!
4) To Enjoy The Outdoors More
Whether you are just travelling or actually living full-time in a van, chances are you will be in the outdoors a lot more!
We really like the idea of this, ESPECIALLY when we are somewhere with sunny weather! 😅
Being able to park up in scenic areas, nearby to hikes, or just even wake up and open the doors to a sunrise makes us so excited!
PLUS, we are sure that Luka our Samoyed will love being outdoors more too!
5) Reduced Bills And Cost Of Living
Now we are getting into the idea of living real ‘Van Life’.
One reason it appeals to us is that our monthly bills would be dramatically reduced, giving us more freedom to spend on experiences and things that bring us real joy.
We would save major amounts of money by not having to pay for things like: electricity, home heating oil, council tax, our mortgage or even home/life insurance.
All that we would really have to fork out monthly with in our campervan would be: diesel, gas for cooking, our wi-fi, food and van insurance. (and a little pot for emergencies!)
This would all work out A LOT LESS than we are paying on bills right now – and save us so much money each month.
Of course converting our van will take a bit of investment initially to get things the way we want – but we know it will be worth it in the long run!
We’d much rather spend our hard earned money on experiences, travelling around and doing things that will bring us real fulfilment!
6) To Experience A Different, And More Simple Way Of Life
Van Life is a totally differently way of living, especially to what we are used to.
One thing we really hope when we get out on the road, is that it’ll really help us feel more fulfilled, and that the experiences we have will help us grow not just as a couple, but individuals as well.
It will be an experience that challenges us, but for the better!
We also like the idea of living a bit more simply, and appreciating moments more than money or things!
7) The Freedom To Work From Anywhere
The digital nomad life is one we really like the thought of, being able to work from anywhere in the world with just our laptops! 💻
Currently Andrew works as a Civil Engineer, and Jane is a self-employed Personal Trainer and Business Owner.
If we were to eventually go full-time in the van, the hope would be that we could bring Jane’s business fully online and we’d love to create a few sources of income together!
Who knows, maybe this blog will take off too! ✈️
8) We Want To Move Abroad Permanently
Over lockdown, we had plenty of chats about our future, and we came to the conclusion that we cannot see ourselves living in Northern Ireland for the rest of our lives.
By no means are our lives terrible lol, but as we’ve grown together, we don’t feel like this is the place we are meant to be.
Our dream is to move somewhere in Spain, where we can enjoy more of an outdoorsy way of life and experience an interesting new culture.
So we thought converting a campervan would be a fantastic first step to that ultimate goal.
We can explore different areas in Spain and decide where we would like to settle and where we like best, before making our life changing decision to move!
9) LIFE IS SHORT!
We know this is the most CLICHÉ of reasons, but it’s true!
Whilst we by no means have a terrible life or living situation, we are just starting to realise that there has to be more to life than doing the same things everyday, going the same places & constantly stressing about bills!
We want to get out and create memories together (and with Luka of course!), to immerse ourselves in new experiences & to just really find more fulfilment in our lives than there is currently.
If you have been dreaming of converting your own camper, we hope that sharing our reasons behind our build have given you some food for thought!
We are nearing the end of our conversion soon, and really can’t wait to get out on the road and share our adventures with you!
If you would like to keep updated with our van build, do head over to our Instagram!
We’d love to have you! 💗
Andy & Jane
If you enjoyed this post, you may like:
- Clean & Prep Your New Campervan Ready To Convert
- Construct And Insulate The Floor In A Campervan
- Build And Insulate The Interior Walls In Your Campervan
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