{"id":2286,"date":"2017-10-17T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2018-01-01T20:13:54","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T20:13:54","slug":"vanlife-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/vanlife-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"What is vanlife like in Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I recently interviewed Lieselot who is exploring Canada in a van. She is a European who I met (via Skype) while living in New Zealand and is now in Canada with her kiwi partner.<\/p>\n

As you know, I’m interested in everything to do with mobile living and Lieselot was kind enough to answer some of my questions.<\/p>\n

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Tell us a bit about yourself<\/h5>\n

I\u2019m Lieselot! I\u2019m a traveller who lived 3.5 years in New Zealand and just moved to Canada to experience the vanlife. My partner and I bought our white van (with a mirror on the ceiling!) in Vancouver and have been exploring the country since two months. We\u2019ve done\u00a0lots of hiking<\/a>\u00a0and taken many photos. Vanlife in Canada is pretty awesome!<\/p>\n

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Why did you decided to get a van?<\/h5>\n

My partner and I wanted to be flexible when travelling through Canada. Buying a van gives you a lot of freedom, and you end up saving some money too. Our van is our car, our home, our kitchen \u2013 almost everything. We do a lot of photography, and being able to sleep in the van gives us the luxury of parking and sleeping close to a photo location.<\/p>\n

What type of van is it?<\/h5>\n

It is a \u201998 Dodge Ram 2500.<\/p>\n

What have you modified?<\/h5>\n

The van was in great condition, so we didn\u2019t have to change much. There were seven seats, with the back ones turning into a bed. Because we\u2019re quite tall people it wasn\u2019t big enough for us, so we took two seats out to create more space and extend the bed. We added two big storage boxes to make the bed longer, which also function as our closets.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t remove much more, but we did add some things to the van. We installed a little drawer, which stores our food and is our tiny kitchen, and also put a cooler in between the front seats, with a cutting board on top of it. In the back, under the bed we had quite a bit of space, and managed to put three more boxes, to store our hiking and other gear.<\/p>\n

Here is a video where you can see the changes we made:\u00a0Our Tiny Home on Wheels<\/a><\/p>\n

[embedyt] https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k7YTNhN4Eig[\/embedyt]<\/p>\n

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Do you still want to make any changes?<\/h5>\n

I would love to make it cosier, but we\u2019re no experts in that department. The van is great at the moment, but maybe next year we\u2019ll get the seat\/bed out and install our own bed. It would be great if we could also have more of a kitchen area, but the bed now takes too much space \u2013 on the other hand we have a very big bed!<\/p>\n

What were your concerns before getting the van?<\/h5>\n

My biggest concerns were bears and the cold. As a newcomer to Canada, I had no idea if bears could smell the food in our van and would try to break in at night. It turns out that it\u2019s no problem to have food in the van. And regarding the cold, I\u2019m still concerned about that\u2026 haha. It gets really cold in Canada (-30C), and van life doesn\u2019t seem very attractive then. So far we\u2019ve been warm enough with our three blankets, and when it really gets too cold we\u2019ll rent an AirBnb.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t