About Us

Welcome to Planet Vanlife, a page dedicated to sharing ideas, discoveries, products, stories and hacks on all things vanlife.

It is a little known fact, partly because it isn’t true, that we invented vanlife back in 1988 when we created our little home (pictured), and drove it nearly 10,000km from Brisbane to South Western Australia, over the top …the longest possible way (pictured).

Note: We take the position that we invented vanlife comfortably aware that there is no evidence to prove otherwise, no evidence existed until  Instagram’s inception a good 22-years later. 

We named the trip, Across the Andes by Camel, not because there were camels – and sure the location was entirely wrong – but because it sounded exotic …and it does, doesn’t it?

This was a very primitive vanlife and would be barely recognisable to today’s influencers.

Barely anyone but the adventurishly crazy travelled the route, whereas these days the serious vanlifer has to contend with the horde of retirees, the families taking a year to do the circuit and overseas backpackers. In 1988, contact with family was at best once a month from a phone booth chewing up valuable travel money, we simply didn’t speak to our friends while away, and we didn’t see our photos until we got home.

We didn’t have air conditioning – we would stop, soak ourselves in water, then drive off with the window down until we dried, then do it all over again.

But that’s enough of the the good ol’ days – because things are so much better now.

The internet has made it a community, it has made it safer, and it has made it better – nowadays you know it’s a nudist campsite before you accidentally arrive there just before dark on “Sausage Sizzle Night”.

We have also changed. We went from our van to a fifties plywood caravan (lived in that for about six months) to an ocean racer/cruiser sailboat (lived on that for about four years) and travelled overseas onto a narrowboat in the UK and a camper on the South Island of New Zealand.

Along the way, we have picked up the occasional friend, tip, hack, solution and shortcut – and this is what this page is about.

Please comment and contribute as much as you can, either by the site or social media, so we can make sure the information is kept relevant.