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Trip Report: Van Life in the Dolomites đ
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Van life is (arguably) the best kind of life. Plenty of our Broke Backpacker folk have either travelled (or full-blown) lived in a campervan at some point in their lives. For many of us, it is the superior way to travel. You carry everything with you, sleep wherever (or, well, mostly), and get to travel slow and still wake up in a new place everyday if you so desire. Dani, our resident Kiwi, has just come back from yet another van adventure, so we'll be passing the mic to her for another edition of The Broke Backpacker trip reports :) A Trip Report from Campervanning in Northern ItalyTrip at a Glance
Campervanning is my favourite type of travel. You just canât beat that feeling of cruising around with everything you need to survive in the back seat. The freedom of being able to park wherever you want for the night (within the local regs, ofc đ¤) sparks this sense of adventure that I canât quite describe! So, when I stumbled upon a one-way, week-long van trip for 130âŹâŚ yes, you read that right, it took about 30 minutes before I had that trip booked, locked and loaded. How is it possible to book a one-way van trip for less than 20⏠per night, I hear you ask? Well, amigo, lean in close while I let you in on a little secret⌠Campervan companies such as roadsurfer and IndieCampers need to get their campervans back to the depots before and after their busy summer season. Instead of paying a whack to get it transported, they offer these ârelocation van dealsâ to broke asss travellers (like us!) to book for a stupidly low price. These trips are no walk in the park, though. You are on a mission, 7 days to drive anywhere from 10 to 30 hours, but man, they are an amazing adventure. Iâve just returned from my fourth relocation van trip, and it was, without a doubt, one of the best trips of my life. This one-way journey started in Milan (where we bagged 15 euros flights to from Spain - SCORE) and ended in Stuttgart. In between, we drove through Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. 4 countries in 1 week⌠the slow traveller in me was freaking out. We stayed lakefront in Como, at the highest park up spot in Europe (at 2800m in the Stelvio Pass), two nights in the Dolomites, one night at the top of the Timmelsjoch Pass and a final night in a peaceful park in Germany. I saw some of the most magical places Iâve ever seen in my life, and many of them were my morning views from the van. It was outrageous. All of our campsites were free, found on the Park4Night App, except the lake spot in Como, where we had to fork out a mere 15 euros for a lakefront spot. We travelled in May, just before the summer rush, so at spots, it was just us! We cooked our own meals with fresh Italian pasta, drank supermarket beer (pints of Moretti for less than a euro.. câmon!), plus copious amounts of olives and chips. The perks of having your own fridge and stove in tow are that itâs much cheaper than eating/drinking out, and the views are usually way better! We knew we had to make our way toward Germany, but we didnât have a strict plan for our route. Instead, each day unfolded without expectation. I would search Park4Night over my morning coffee for our next destination, and our day would then be spent making our way there: winding up mountain passes, hiking up hills to break up the drive and saying âwowâ at every hairpin corner (and man, there were a lot of those). One thing that surprised me (even more than the 2⏠P/L price of fuel) was that a lot of northern Italy doesnât feel like Italy at all. The buildings look more Swiss/German, and most local people speak German - even the supermarket announcements were in German! If you havenât yet explored this region, I encourage you to do so. Whether thatâs in a relocation campervan, on a motorbike, a bicycle, a car, or even using the Dolomites bus system, itâs a truly magical part of the world. Further Reading đ¤Want to go deeper? Here's what we've got for you. Travel far. Spend less. Live more.ââ |
The Broke Backpacker
Unlock the world without breaking the bank. Join 30,000+ adventurers every week, uncovering the best budget travel hacks and sauciest travel tales.
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