Long-Term Travel and Mental Health // #VanLife

I wanted to start off by saying that I won’t be the person that chimes in with, “Well… you need to spend at least double the time than you’re planning to visit in order to really make it worth it. A weekend (or week) just isn’t enough.” And though that may be true, it’s just not the reality for so many of us. Before traveling in the van, my wife and I were restricted, like most, to weekend trips and the week of vacation a year to somewhere new.  We never had the luxury of traveling for weeks or months on end, and no matter how much we traveled on the weekends. And those Friday to Sunday trips just never felt long enough, but it was all we could do so who were we to complain. That all changed when we spent 2023 building out a Ford Transit into a camper van to travel around the country with, working along the way on the road. Turning a dream of ours into reality.

As of writing this, at the end of 2024, we’ve spent almost 6 months traveling in the van and have taken only a handful of vacation days on the road. This is not intended to brag, but to share the obvious, and not-so-obvious affects that long term travel has had on my life and definitely my mental health. A side effect of sorts, when we broke out of our routines from a full size home to 65 square feet of living space. Temporarily trading our home’s square footage under our feet for the endless acres of national forest and miles of gulf coast beaches!

Everyday Feels like a Vacation… Even if You Have to Work

This is the most obvious part that I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear. Even when you have to work 8, 10, or even 12hrs a day, you’re still doing it, hopefully, in one of the prettier parts of the country. You get to replace the 5 minute break of work, which is normally spent scrolling Instagram or chatting with coworkers, with a walk outside along the beach, inspecting the needles of a desert cactus, or even a stroll under the canopy of a forest. Better yet, after work is done, you’re already in the place you want to be, without any commuting or driving elsewhere. We often find ourselves working from trailheads or beach parking lots so that when the laptop screens close, we are out the door, not wasting any time between work and enjoying the beautiful place we’re in. This sets us up to be able to go for hours of running, biking, hiking, paddle boarding or just relaxing without really much effort at all in getting there. And beyond the outdoor activities, every new destination has a new town to visit.

Sure, not every place we stop is a beautiful, coastal California town, but even then, we make sure we find a park or open space, which still can be beautiful in its own way. I definitely have learned to appreciate the “middle-of-nowhere” towns that we pass through more than I expected. I find myself trying to understand how the residents make a living, what it would be like to grow up there, and how it would shape your view of this country. Of course it is always very funny showing up to a small town restaurant or grocery store and getting strange looks, as if they know we aren’t from around here. But half the time, we get to chat with people at gas stations or in parking lots when they see us get out of the van and wonder what we’ve been up to.

Stress Reduction on a New Level

This is not some magic pill you can take that happens overnight, and most of us can attest to this when on a week vacation somewhere. The first day of your trip is awesome, but even through the first few days of the vacation, you’re still carrying around all the mental baggage of your normal life back home and work. It’s not until those last few precious days where you actually feel that break from responsibilities kick in, and true relaxation can occur. And on that last day of a vacation, right before you start having to pack your bags to return to reality, you reach a zen-like state of relaxation and stress free living. But all that comes crashing down as soon as you pull back up to your home you left a week ago and all the responsibilities come flying back.

Now, extrapolate that feeling, after day 3, and extend it for a month, or two, or more. I’m not saying I reached some nirvana state, as I still was working all that time, but I felt like I reached some middle ground between a stress- free living, and that chaotic, to-do list driven life when I’m in my house. Assuming you’re comfortable traveling on the road, and the curve-balls that can happen, there are just fewer things to worry about while traveling. Which made my 4 hour long bike rides through the trails in Bend, just that much better. I didn’t spend half the ride frustrated about how the water heater just broke or the ever growing house list that I’m not completing by being on the bike. 

Learn to Use All 24hrs a Day

Long term travel can be whatever you want it to be. For some, it might be slow paced, spending a lot of time in a few places to really get an intimate experience. For others, like myself, it’s quite the opposite. Courtney and I find ourselves bouncing around to a new destination every 3 days, trying to pack in as much as possible. We know this lifestyle isn’t guaranteed, so we do our best to experience as much as possible in the time we have. Which leads me to the point of using all 24 hours in a day.

When at home, it’s easy to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow, or there’s always next week, etc.” But when you’re on the road traveling, you might not be in that cool town of Sedona, Arizona tomorrow, let alone next week. So you need to do it right then and there! You can see how this would lead to an exhausting existence, and that is true, but you get to see and do so much with this attitude. Waking up to walk the dog in a new place is a chance to walk into town or down a new trail. Lunch breaks are a chance to go for a hike through the Redwood Forest. And after work, well, at least in the summer, it’s a chance for anything and everything. This lead to us eating dinner at around 8:30 every night, which is very late for us, because we just got so busy running or biking every day. And we loved it because it was one new experience after another. And the next day was much of the same, but different in its own way, trying to maximize our time in new places every single day.

Living a Simpler and Slower Life

Without sounding too contradictory, the opposite of the fast pace lifestyle can also be found within it. Confusing, I know. But long term travel breaks you out of your creature comfort driven routines, and that opens the door to appreciate the little things. Specifically referencing us living in a van, there just isn’t the space to bring anything but the essentials. And that also meant, I didn’t have to spend my free time, “working-on-the-house” or other necessary evils of being home. This gave us so much more time throughout our day. Meals were simpler over our gas stove in the small kitchen of the van. There was no commuting to take up an extra hour or two a day. Parking in beautiful places meant I could sit outside the van and just get lost in thought, without feeling guilty about wasting time that could have been spent working on projects or preparing for winter. So amid the exciting and busy schedules we had, trying to experience the new places we’d visit, I know I relished in the fact we could just enjoy the little bits of down time we had, putting it to good use.

Appreciating the Little Things

Cliche for a reason. Stopping to smell the roses is something I’m not very good at. Only weeks, months, or even years later do I ever really appreciate the things that were happening in the moment. But when you’re on the road for months at a time, the old daily routines seem fade away, and you can focus on a simpler one. Most times that means a routine with much more sacrifices than what you’d find at home. No running water or indoor plumbing in the van, small cabinets that store little food, and a living space that only one person can walk around in at a time. So believe it or not, going into a truck stop bathroom, with warm running water feels like a Spa Day. And that carries over into everything we get to experience on the road.

I’m not saying that being home is inherently bad or boring, but you don’t even think twice about what to do with your garbage, when you’re able to shower, or for how long. If a cold front comes in or a heatwave rolls through, you adjust your thermostat and move on with your life. The long term travel requires you to adapt on the road and constantly be thinking in 2-4 day increments, always planning where you need to be and if you have everything you need with you right now. A heatwave rolled in to Northern California this past summer, bringing in temps over 105 during the day. That simply would not be sustainable in our van, and quickly all the hotels and motels book up, so you have to be on top of things options, everywhere you go. Which makes me smile now thinking how easy it is to just turn down the thermostat if it ever gets too hot here.

In short, I think it made a much more mellow person during our time on the road. I like to think that it brought on a lasting change and didn’t all just disappear as soon as I got home, but who can really tell. The next version of a crisis pops up at work or home and can undo all the benefits. But I still appreciate washing my hands in warm water when I get the opportunity!