#VANLIFE: Sleeping Around – More Than a Dozen Apps for Road Warriors

So you’ve decided to do #vanlife. Yay you!!

 

It’s a fun way to live and travel, and especially to work remotely now that being a “DN” (Digital Nomad) is becoming more commonplace – (working remotely from wherever there’s a good WiFi connection rather than sitting in an office cubicle) while not worrying about paying too much (or anything at all!) for accommodations along the way. After all, you’ve got your bed, your cooking stuff (coffee is cooking, right?), and all your cool camping gear with you – chairs, coozies for your beer, a hammock etc.

So how did I become a road warrior? I had been backpacking the world for four years when Covid hit. Rather then sit in my tiny apartment in Denver waiting for world travel to once again be possible, I bought a campervan! 🚘

After purchasing my 1997 VW Eurovan in June of 2020 I spent the entire summer exploring the eastern seaboard of the USA from Atlanta up to Maine on my own . I fulfilled my goal of spending my birthday in Acadia National Park and absolutely loved it there. The next summer I explored the west coast on my own – sleeping in the van for 71 nights and driving along the Pacific Coast enjoying the 101 and Highway 1 alllllll the way up through California, Oregon, into Washington, and aboard the ferry ⛴ to the San Juan Islands. Along the way, I’ve gotten pretty adept at living life in a contained space with minimal clothing and stuff 😊

17,000+ solo miles and almost 180 van-nights later- plus nearly 50 more nights doing European #vanlife in Italy, Switzerland and France with My Frenchman in his snazzy deluxe Sprinter-type van, adding another couple of thousand miles…I hereby present to you my suggestions for the essential apps that will make your life on the road easier and more fun. 🥳

(and if you’re looking for some information (possibly TMI!) about how and where to shower and, um…go while vanning, click here for another scintillating post! )

My biggest concern as a single woman sleeping alone in a van was to find a clean, safe, comfortable place to park and sleep. Although I did spend a couple of nights parked along the highways in big pullouts along the West Coast that didn’t have “no overnights parking” signs, I preferred to stay in a “real” spot if possible. But I wasn’t willing to pay exorbitant prices at campgrounds – most were charging $45 or more for simple tent ⛺️ sites with no amenities like water or electricity. I did splurge and spend $70 for a site one night in Big Sur 🤦🏽‍♀️ because i wanted to stay in that amazing part of the world and so I just bit the bullet and paid. 💰

To find good overnight spots, I used a couple of different apps and cross-referenced them to find the best place to stay the night.

And so – here’s my first set of recommendations: Campendium, iOverlander, and RVparky.

These apps are all very similar and the info can overlap, so see which interface you like best. You’ll find private campgrounds like KOA and RV parks, state and county campsites (I found the off the beaten path nearly-all-locals campground Jalama Beach outside of Santa Barbara, California and was one of the only non-locals there), as well as boondocking* spots, dispersed camping and local or state or national forest land that’s ok to camp on. I loved the various filters you can use in iOverlander – I could narrow down my searches to find free camping but also to find propane refills, showers🚿 , dump 💩 stations, water 💦 fill-up and more.

The Dyrt is another app you may like. The free version allows you to read reviews of campgrounds and offers suggestions on best sites within the campground.

If you don’t find anything available or of interest using these apps, try HipCamp. HipCamp is sort of like Airbnb for camping! It’s comprised of individuals who will let you camp on their property – maybe they’re on some acreage or have a farm. Perhaps they have a spot to pitch a tent. I found them to be a little pricey – $30-45/night to park Tilly. But when I did use them, it was because I couldn’t find anything else at the last minute. Here’s a sample screen from a search on HipCamp – 

If you’re heading to the National Parks here in the USA, try NPS, National Parks and Recreation.gov
You’ll find maps, guides, hikes, outfitters, tours and more. Also there’s an app for public free forest service campgrounds – USFS&BLMCG. You’ll find BLM lands (forests maintained by the Bureau of Land Management) and USFS (US Forest Service) sites where you are allowed to spend the night. I stayed three nights in a great spot between Flagstaff and Sedona, Arizona on FS Road 237 (Forest Service) off of Highway 89A. There were 3 campsite 🏕 loops with maybe 25 sites in each loop, all numbered and clean and well-maintained…and free! 😯 There were no toilets, picnic tables or fire pits – just beautiful trees, blue skies and blissful quiet – and barely any humans! 🥰

If you’re looking for some different and unusual places to overnight along the way, I’d recommend my two favorite paid subscriptions – Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome.

For $99/year – or use my affiliate link for 15% off and pay only $85 – Harvest Hosts has an amazing selection of unique places you can spend a night at no cost (you’re only allowed to stay one night at each location, though). I’ve stayed in flowering fragrant lavender 💐fields, at bustling busy brewpubs 🍻 (that were nice and quiet after last call!), in vineyards redolent with the smell of grapes 🍇 warming in the sun, and in quirky museum parking lots. The hosts do expect you to purchase something from them as a token of your appreciation for their hospitality. Doing a 🍷 wine tasting, quaffing a pint from a microbrew pub or buying a creamy lavender-scented hand cream is worth finding a friendly and unusual spot to sleep – and chatting with the owners is pleasant as well.

Boondockers Welcome is another cool members only resource and is only $49/year. This is a compilation of ordinary folks offering up their yard, their driveway, maybe a parking spot at their farm. ⛺️ The great thing is, they are RV/camping peeps like you and me and just want to extend hospitality and share a travel tale or two. I stayed in a driveway of a host’s home on the rugged coast north of iconic Big Sur in drop-dead gorgeous Moss Beach California, and spent a few hours having coffee ☕️ with the wonderful Collette and Trevor in their cozy flower filled backyard. Another stay was at a hilltop hobby farm in Tillamook, Oregon. I was there for 3 nights – the hosts were kind enough to invite me to go see fireworks with them on the 4th of July, 💥 and in the morning brought me eggs 🥚 freshly laid by their hens. I was extremely grateful to find this spot, as it was the crazy busy 4th of July weekend and everything – private and state campgrounds as well as HipCamp – were booked solid for miles around.

If you’re more casual and maybe just need a place to rest your weary head on the way to or from somewhere, the RestStops app is definitely helpful! 

Use this app to find a rest stop along your route and you’ll be able to see if there is WiFi, a picnic area, a dog run, food, and bathrooms. I stayed in a stellar rest stop in Connecticut along the interstate that was clean, well-lit (I always park under a street light for security) and had a spotlessly clean and gigantic restroom, pet area, picnic tables and Dunkin 🍩 Donuts! So nice to wake up, use a nicely maintained bathroom, and grab a Big One ☕️ and a donut for the road! I found out that the rest stops in Colorado prohibit overnight stays 🤨 so make sure you double check your chosen rest stop by looking for signs posted, or use this RestStops app to verify.

Speaking of free overnight parking at rest stops, I found that staying in Wal-Mart parking lots isn’t a sure thing any longer. I recommend you call ahead and ask the manager for permission – and get that person’s name – and tell the security guard patrolling the lot that you’ve been given the OK to sleep there. I stopped at a W-M one night and the place was deserted – it looked like the apocalypse had blown through the lot- there was trash and debris everywhere! I left and tried another Wal-Mart down the road. That one had drag races  🚙 going on, complete with rap or hip hop blasting out of the car trunks. Left that Wal-Mart too!

Cabela’s and Cracker Barrel also offer free overnight parking -but again, call ahead if possible and confirm with a manager. I slept in a Cabela’s lot in Grand Junction, Colorado, even though I was only a few hours from my destination. I was just too tired to go on and knew it wasn’t a good idea to drive when I was exhausted. I parked under a tree, watched a movie on my laptop, and slept soundly.

Of course there’s often the option to sleep on the side of the road. In the Redwood Forest area along the 101 in Northern California I found an amazingly large shoulder to park safely and spent the night under the watchful eyes of two towering redwoods – I felt like they were two silent brothers who sheltered me that night. Another night I slept on Highway 1 in Cali near Bodega Bay on a gorgeous bluff overlooking a seal 🦭 sanctuary. Just make sure there are no signs prohibiting overnight camping or parking.

Not all the apps I found to be helpful on the road were for accommodations. GasBuddy ⛽️ was really useful. Simply open the app and do a search of gas stations nearby to find the best price 💰on fuel before you spend too much by pulling into the first gas station you see.

Another app to have handy is SpotHero. I don’t know about you, but driving 🚙 around and around busy bustling downtowns looking for a parking spot with all the one-way streets and stoplights isn’t my idea of fun. It’s super stressful tbh. Plus, my van Tilly is fairly tall (80″) and she doesn’t always fit in indoor parking garages. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Using SpotHero I was able to use filters to find – and pay for in advance – outdoor parking lots in Seattle, Philly and other metro areas near the places I was planning to visit.

These apps were truly lifesavers and timesavers and also stress savers for me, especially being a solo traveler.

So hey! Do you have a favorite app you rely on when #vanlife-ing, camping, or road tripping? I’d love to know – share in the comments!

Be safe, road warrior. 🚙. Have fun and enjoy exploring!

*boondocking is camping without electrical/water/dumpstations/bathrooms/ picnic tables/fire pits. It’s purely primitive camping.

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See you there! 😉

 

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling. Looking for something, what can it be…Looking for the key to set me free. Joni Mitchell