From van-life videos to van life
They watched the videos and imagined the road trips. Then they bought a van, converted it around their jobs and set off in February 2023.
Read the account ↓
It started with the kind of video you watch from the sofa and keep thinking about after you close the laptop. During lockdown, Charlie became fascinated by campervans. Emily began watching alongside him. Somewhere between one route and the next, imagining a trip became imagining a way to take one.
They saved for a van and bought one. The conversion had to fit around full-time jobs, so the work belonged to the hours outside work: making a space they could travel in while everyday life carried on around the project.
In February 2023, they set off. Savings funded their first year on the road. It was a substantial leap, but not a story about having every year ahead mapped out before leaving.
What followed became a changing mix of European van trips, remote work and winters farther afield. The road did not have to look exactly like the videos that first caught their attention. By then, the important change had already happened: Charlie and Emily were making their own plans from inside a van they had made ready to go.
At some point, the next van-life video became their own van.
Where this story comes from
This is FIBI’s original retelling of Charlie and Emily’s publicly shared account. It is not an interview, a contributor submission or an endorsement by them.
Read Charlie and Emily’s account at Slowmadders for their story in their own words.