What It Actually Takes to Become a Van Lifer

Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.4 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If, after over a year at home, you're thinking that the best salve for your sanity this summer is to pack up, get out of your house or apartment, and hit the road in a van to explore America's great outdoors, this episode is for you. With advice on what to pack, how to route your trip, and how to avoid the mistakes they made, our guests—van lifers Erin McGrady, an Asheville-based writer and photographer, and Noami Grevemberg, founder of Diversify Vanlife and one half of the @IrietoAurora Instagram account—can help you get started. But while this episode is in part a van life for dummies guide, it also gets at the no-filter realities of living in your van, the privilege that comes with choosing a voluntary nomadic lifestyle, and the responsibility travelers have to respect and understand the public lands they visit. It truly hits all the bases.

Listen to "Why We Should Consider Whose Land We're On When We're Outdoors" with Jaylyn Gough: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-we-should-consider-whose-land-were-on-when-were-outdoors-women-who-travel-podcast

Find a full transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-it-actually-takes-to-become-a-van-lifer-women-who-travel-podcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone and welcome to Women Who Travel, a podcast from Kondayas Traveler.
0:08.4	I'm Lalea Arakoglu and with me, as always, is my co-host Meredith Carey.
0:13.1	Hello!
0:14.0	With many companies still offering flexible and remote work options and the outdoors calling our name,
0:19.7	we think this summer may be the ultimate
0:21.5	time to pack it up and live on the road for a few weeks, or months in fact. So, we're calling on
0:27.6	the pros who have more than their fair share of experience living out of vans and RVs to give you
0:32.7	all the advice you need to set out for the first time. We're joined by Asheville-based writer and photographer
0:38.1	Erin McGrady and Naomi Grevenberg, founder of Diversify Van Life and one half of the
0:44.0	Instagram juror, IRE to Aurora, who are here to help debunk the myths of van life and prevent you
0:50.2	from making rookie mistakes. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for
0:55.1	having me. So to just set a baseline for everyone about how much you both know, what got you
1:01.9	into traveling and living in vans in the first place? My story starts with a romance. I'd been doing a solo adventure trip, and I'd driven my car to
1:15.2	Asheville, North Carolina, just on a whim, and I started swiping through a dating app, and I matched
1:20.7	up with my soon-to-be then-wife partner, but we actually didn't meet in real life that evening
1:27.4	after matching. We didn't meet in real life that evening after matching.
1:28.3	We didn't meet until like three months later.
1:30.3	We just wrote long love letters back and forth to one another over the winter.
1:34.3	And then we finally brought it into real time.
1:36.3	And then life just really took off from there.
1:39.3	We both just like quit our jobs.
1:41.3	I was a teacher.
	...

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