We’ve just got back from our first visit to Slovakia and we absolutely loved it. We’ve barely scratched the surface of this beautiful country and have a list of places we’d still love to explore. Besides the mountains, ice caves, castles and lakes the people are really friendly and the diesel is nice and cheap!

Germany is a great place to travel by camper van. Not only are there some really beautiful areas to explore but it’s also one of the easiest countries in Europe for van life. Read on for our hints and tips for travelling to Germany by van, including regulations for wild camping in Germany, how to find drinking water and road rules you need to be aware of!

Ah Ireland. How do I put this? If you’ve not been yet you need to go! Seriously, stop reading this (please don’t!) and go book a trip! Hitting the road is the perfect way to explore and there’s no better route than the Wild Atlantic Way.

Next up in our camper van build series is Piglet’s bedroom. We get lots of comments about her kennel area and we’re really pleased with how it came out. When designing our layout we went forwards and backwards on whether to have a dedicated space for our dog. Now that we’ve lived in the van we’re definitely glad we put some room aside for her.

Having a bathroom in your van conversion is one of the most hotly debated van life topics! Some vanlifers think they’re a complete waste of precious space whilst others couldn’t live without one. I definitely fall into the second category! In fact, the first thing I did when we bought our van was google Sprinter Van Bathroom. Luckily I was greeted with lots of inspiration and ideas, minor panic over!

We’ve spoken to so many people recently who have just finished, or are close to finishing their van conversion and looking forward to moving in to their vans and living the van life. We were in a huge rush towards the end of our build and a few finishing touches had to wait as we had a date we needed to be on the road by.

There are so many different reasons for getting in to van life. For some, like us, it was for freedom to travel more, for others it’s about seeking an alternative, off-grid lifestyle and for others still it might be to avoid high rental costs or mortgages. What ever your reason for living or traveling in a van if you’re anything like us you’ll always be on the look out for van life money saving ideas!

Preparing for van life with a dog? We share our top tips to ensure it’s as stress free as possible! We often get asked what it’s like living in our van with a dog, and how she finds it on the road. Part of the attraction of van life for us was being able to take our dog with us on our adventures. Piglet is an 8 year old beagle who is opinionated, stubborn and lots of trouble!

We often get asked where we found our van build ideas, who inspired us and how we tackled our van conversion. Firstly, we never planned to convert a van (or own a camper). In fact, it wasn’t until Will announced to me he’d bought a van (in exchange for the car he wrote off on black ice!) that I realised we were actually seriously doing this!

There are a lot of options out there for roof racks on your van, and even more options for mounting your solar panels. Some of these options really aren’t cheap! We opted to make a DIY van roof rack during our conversion mainly to save a bit of money but also because it gave us maximum flexibility on how we mounted our solar panels.

The first few weeks of living or travelling in a van can be a bit of a learning curve! We quickly realised there were a few van life essentials we were missing that would make life on the road just a little bit easier! We’ve put together a list of 10 items we never knew we needed but now would not be without in our van conversion.

If your only experience of van life so far is through pictures on Instagram you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s one stunning view after the next! If you’re about to hit the road or are thinking about exploring in a camper van you’ll soon discover this isn’t always the case. Finding overnight parking places can be really stressful!