Ranking the BEST and WORST Countries for Van Life after 1 Year of Full-Time Travel

Hi everyone, welcome back to our channel. If you're new here, I'm Jessica. I'm Rissi and this is Haydn. And together we've been travelling full time across Europe in our campervan Bilbo to reconnect with nature and grow roots in the wild. We just came back from a 6 month road trip around Europe and we're back in the UK so we thought it would be fun to rank all of the countries that we visited in our first year of van life. Travelling in a van can look really different depending on which country you're in and also what kind of lifestyle you prefer. So hopefully this video will help you decide which countries you would like to visit. So we're going to rank the countries that we visited from our least favourite to our most favourite. We're going to take into account things like local attitudes, access to resources, nature, landscapes, park ups. All of the things that are most important to us when we're trying to find a country to visit. And just a disclaimer, this is obviously very subjective depending on how you want to travel, where you want to travel. And also we haven't been to all of the countries we're going to list so our experience might be quite different if we had spent a little bit more time travelling to more areas. So this is just based on the areas that we have actually visited. Yeah and also just about the kind of travel that we do. We wild camp full time and we spend usually 6 out of 7 days off grid. So our ratings will be mostly based on how easy it is to wild camp and the nature and all that kind of stuff. If you're someone who likes to spend more time at campsites or in towns, your experience is going to differ in those countries. So just something to keep in mind. Alright, 7th place, last place, who's it going to be? Shall we have a drum roll here? It is the country we're currently in, England! So just to clarify, we're splitting up the United Kingdom into England, Scotland and Wales. We haven't been to Northern Ireland so that's not on the list. But our experiences in each of those countries have been quite different. So rather than just doing the UK as a whole, we're breaking it up a little bit. Yeah so England is by far our least favourite country to do van life in. Although we do really love the temperate rainforest in the South West. And we do really like Dartmoor which is where we currently are. But van life in England is just so difficult compared to Europe. Yeah so England has a really high population density which can make it quite difficult. So it means you're kind of always treading on somebody's toes. Yeah there's always people nearby. That means that there's not that many nice places to park up. Because most places are either agricultural land or towns. Or private land that you're not allowed to be on. People also really don't like van lifers in England do they? No I mean there's kind of like a historical prejudice against traveller communities. Which I think is quite unfair really. And you're then lumped into that as a van lifer even though you're not related to an outsider. I guess it looks kind of the same. We had people honk at us or walk past us and throw slur at us. Which just makes you feel a bit unwelcome. And in terms of wild camping, I feel like in many places in Europe, within a 20 minute drive you can pretty much always find a nice park up. Whereas I feel in England you have to drive like half an hour to an hour to find any park up. And most of the time they're quite mediocre as well. I think the final thing that really pushes England down the list is affordability. Yeah it's expensive. It's expensive and you don't get good value for money. Food is not very cheap compared to a lot of other places that we've travelled. And the quality of the food is worse so you're paying more for that. Yeah and in terms of resources, it's difficult to find water. So usually what we do in the UK as a whole, but especially in England, is we call the nearest campsite and we just offer them a bit of money. But it does involve a lot of driving around down narrow country lanes just to get some water. And public bins are also not super accessible. So unfortunately, very often in England and the UK as a whole, but especially England and Wales I think, we end up having to put recycling in the general waste bin because there's literally no public recycling bins. So what do we give England overall? How many points out of ten? Four. Four out of ten for England. I'm sure if you love the kind of landscapes that England has to offer, you kind of put up with the difficult bits. But for us, England doesn't have the landscapes that we love the most. So for us, it's just not really worth it. And usually we just come back here to visit family and spend a little bit of time in Dartmoor. And then we leave as quickly as possible. Sixth place. And I do feel a bit bad about this one because it's the country we met in and the country we went to university in that we actually really love and have a lot of happy memories in. I was born there. You were born there, but it's still not great for van life. And that country is Wales. To be fair, I think if you do van life full time in Wales, there's a lot of places that are not necessarily easy to find if you're just travelling there for a limited amount of time and using park for night. I think there's a lot of good places to park if you really know the place quite well. But for us, we only spent a month in Wales in a van last year. And we found it quite difficult. Yeah, I think also if you're not moving around loads and you don't mind parking in towns, there's a lot of train stations with big car parks in very small populations where no one's going to care if you park your van there overnight. But it's not the kind of place we try to park. Yeah, people are also more relaxed about vans. We didn't feel as unwelcome as we did in England. There's a lot more acceptance around van life. But yeah, it's still not super easy to park. We had to drive quite a bit to find good park hubs. And kind of the recurring issue across the UK is that often you have to, if you want to go on a hike, for example, you have to drive to that hike in the morning and you're not allowed to camp in the hiking car park overnight. So then you have to drive in the evening again. You just do a lot of driving, which then also makes it less affordable because you are spending so much more on diesel. Yeah, and it's just not very pleasant either to be having to constantly get the van ready to drive. So we have to put a few things away so they're not flying around when we're driving and then we have to get them out again when we arrive. So it's just a little bit of a pain. Wales is more affordable than England in general, I would say. And we really do love the landscapes. We absolutely love Snowdonia and we really enjoyed Pembrokeshire as well. Although Pembrokeshire was probably the worst place we visited in a van ever. It was really difficult to drive. It was worse than anywhere in England, in fact. Yeah, it was really difficult to drive there. It was really difficult to find park hubs. So, yeah, Wales is still quite difficult, but not as difficult as England. And it's not as nerve-wracking. The lower population helps a lot as well. Yeah, definitely. So something that's an issue across the UK is that we feel slightly less safe compared to Europe. And I think that's mostly because you're never that far from a town. And many people think that, you know, all the creepy stories happen in nature. But in reality, when you're in the middle of nature and there's no people nearby, that's when you're the safest. But Wales feels a little bit safer than England. That could be just all in my head. But that's definitely how it feels, just because it's easier to be in a remote park hub. Before we continue, we want to give a big shout out to the sponsor of today's video, Bob & Brand. You may know them as the two physical therapists on YouTube with over 5 million subscribers. And they've created some really great wellness tools. And today we're going to talk about one of them, which we've been really loving recently. So I'm very sensitive to humid climates. And whenever we come back to the UK, I start getting a very puffy face in the mornings. And also these dull headaches that kind of just linger all day and don't go away. And I've kind of been putting up with it for the last few years. But it is exhausting, especially when I'm trying to film or focus on work. So recently, I've been trying Bob & Brand's iOasis 3 Eye Massager, which has been a game changer for both of us, hasn't it? Yeah, I've been using it in the evenings after I've spent maybe too much time on a laptop. 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It's really quiet, so I can use it while Rissi is still sleeping. And it's also super lightweight and folds up. Plus, the battery lasts for ages, which also makes it perfect for traveling because it's super low maintenance. So if you're dealing with tension, headaches, eye strain or just want something to relax, I think this is a really cool thing to use. Yeah, we've been looking forward to using it every day and we've actually been really surprised at how much we love it. A big thank you again to Bob and Brad for sponsoring this video. And we'll pop a link to the product in the description if you want to check it out. And you can also get 10% off by using our link. All right, and now back to the video. Number five. And again, I feel a bit bad about this because it's the third UK country in a row. Scotland. Yeah, the whole of the UK is just a little bit challenging, but Scotland is better than the other two. Scotland is better than the other two, although we did have two negative experiences in Scotland, didn't we? We did, pretty much within a few days of arriving. I think it was the first time we parked up in the northernmost point of Scotland, which is where we had our final destination set to. We arrived there and then someone threw an A out. So the thing in Scotland is it's a bit overrun with motorhomes and camper vans. So locals can be quite hostile towards people in vans, which obviously is not an excuse, but we can also kind of understand it if you experience so much camper van tourism. But, yeah, we had another really scary experience where Rissi was out for a run and we were parked just outside Inverness. And it was near some farmer's field and we weren't blocking the road or anything. We were like in a lay by. But the farmers were driving up and down the road in their tractors and one of them started screaming and swearing at me. And he started driving past the van really close and he started shouting at me and threatening to drive his tractor into the van. And it terrified me. So we very quickly left. That said, we did have different experiences in Scotland depending on the area. So that was all along the NC500, which we wouldn't choose to visit the NC500. But I was doing my driving licence in northern Scotland, so we had to drive up there because my instructor lived there. But the NC500 honestly is the worst road we've ever driven on. But then in the West Highlands, it was very relaxed. The Isle of Skye was also really nice. On the Isle of Skye, we were able to just park in hiking car parks and there was a small daily fee. And it was really easy to find places to park. Locals seemed a lot more relaxed about vans being there, although there were quite a few campers. There were quite a lot. Although it might also be because we were there in September. Whereas we were on the NC500 more during the high season, so that may also have played a part. And the Cairngorms were also very quiet and relaxed. So it really depends on where you are. We would not recommend Scotland during the high season in the really busy areas. That may have contributed to our negative experience. But yeah, there are a lot of campers and motorhomes. That said, Scotland does have some of the most epic landscapes in the UK. Yeah, I think in terms of the density of them as well. You can do a very short drive from one place to the next and go from epic landscape to epic landscape. Whereas in a lot of the UK, you have to drive a longer distance to go between them. So it's ideal in that sense as well in that you don't have to spend hours and hours and hours travelling about. Scotland was also more affordable than the rest of the UK. Yeah, it was. I was kind of surprised actually. Even on small islands like on Skye, they have small convenience stores which actually have very reasonable prices. We actually forgot to give Wales a rating. So now we have to give a rating for Wales and Scotland. So we gave England a 4 out of 10. Wales, 5 or 6 out of 10? I would give it a 5. Yeah, I guess for van life it's a 5 out of 10. And Scotland, 6 out of 10? Yeah, 6 out of 10. 6 out of 10 for Scotland. I think the West Highlands carry it. Yeah. Fourth place in our ranking goes to a country that's not really that well known for van life, is it? It is not. And that country is Germany. So we spent about a month in Germany in November, I believe. And the main reason being that my mum and my stepdad live there. So we spent a bit of time kind of in the Palatinate area, in the Palatinate Forest. And then we drove through the German Alps on the way to Italy. And we were actually really positively surprised, weren't we? Yeah, I mean you had always told me before we actually tried it that Germany was not good for van life. Yeah, well, my German friends told me that wild camping is quite enforced and not really legal in Germany. But I think that we might be more willing to bend the rules a little bit compared to the average German. So we found it super easy. We camped a bit in the Palatinate Forest and we just pulled up in any hiking car park really, which we found super easy. It was really relaxed. People didn't really mind us. We got a few funny looks, but people also greeted us in the morning. So it was very relaxed. And the German Alps were also a dream, weren't they? Yeah, they were pretty good. We did have to stay in a few lay-bys a couple of times. We did have to spend a bit of money in the Alps occasionally to park in a car park. But it was generally pretty easy and very pretty. Yeah, so pretty. There was already a bit of snow while we were there and it was just gorgeous. Yeah, I think the only downside of the German Alps is that you do have to pay for hiking car parks. But the good thing is that you're allowed to stay overnight. So they are often concrete car parks, but they're very close to trailheads and beautiful hikes. So it was really worth it for us. We spent about a week there and spent like €20 on overnight parking, I believe, which isn't too bad. Just in general, we had a very easy experience. Beautiful nature, very pretty forest. And yeah, no complaints really. Access to water was good. There was public... I guess there are springs coming in from the mountains, aren't there? And they're just permanently running and you can just go and fill the van up from there, which was ideal. Yeah, there was just like this free water tap in the middle of the town, right? That made things a lot easier. Germany was also surprisingly affordable, right? Actually, it was cheaper than the UK, which we didn't expect. Yeah, I feel like the essential things that you need in Germany, like fruits and vegetables, carbs, things like that, are all quite reasonably priced. The things that you don't really need seem to be quite a lot more expensive in the UK, which is probably a good way of doing it. Germany is also the country we felt the safest in. We felt so safe there, so that's a plus. Yeah, I mean, it's just very, very orderly, isn't it? Yeah. As you would expect. So we give Germany, what, a 7 out of 10? Yeah. Yeah, I would give it a 7, maybe 7 and a half. Yeah, I feel like it deserves more, but because we like other countries even more, we kind of have to situate it there. But yeah, definitely recommend Germany for van life. It's very pretty and surprisingly easy. Third place goes to the country with the best food and some of the most beautiful landscapes we've ever seen, and that is Italy. Italy was very, very nice, and the food was incredible, especially for how cheap it was. We made a minor detour when we were driving somewhere to stop by a pizza place, which is vegan pizza. It was the best vegan pizza we ever had in our entire lives. It was 5 Euros per pizza. And 2 Euros for the wine, which was also the best wine we ever had. Yeah, and it was like a random small place on the side of the road. I don't know if it's... it can't be exceptional, can it? Yeah, I mean, it was just a family-run place, and even the family was growing their own grapes for the wine and all that. So yeah, just all round, really lovely. We did spend a bit of time in the dollar mines, and then we drove down to southern Italy because our heating broke. So we did have a bit of a different experience in southern Italy. So northern Italy was all round perfect, wasn't it? Beautiful landscapes, very quiet park hubs. We spent about 10 days in one park hub without really being noticed, kind of in the foothills of the dollar mines. And that was really gorgeous. There were bins and free water everywhere, so resources were super easy. People didn't mind us. It was also, like, off-season, so it was super quiet in general. And then southern Italy was also really gorgeous, but it was very difficult to get water. And there were no bins anywhere, so we ended up just stockpiling all of our recycling in the driving area. And one time, you had to go on, like, a one-hour walk to empty a bin, which was ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, there was just so few bins. There was no big bins. It was all just teeny little street-sized bins, and I couldn't put all of our rubbish in one of them without overflowing it. And then other people wouldn't know if I did that, so I had to put a teeny bit of rubbish in, like, 20 bins. And I decided to go on a big one-hour walk to try and find as many bins as I could. It was a bit nuts that I had to do that, and it's no surprise that a lot of people do just dump their rubbish. Not an excuse, but I can understand why. Yeah, there were literally no bins anywhere. It was so difficult. But other than that, southern Italy was also very easy for wild camping. Locals were so lovely. There was one place where we parked for quite a few days because we were doing some repairs on our van in a town nearby. And the locals that drove past every morning, they gave us a little wave and smiled at us, and it was just so lovely. We felt very welcomed there. And, yeah, the landscapes were beautiful, lots of places to camp. Yeah, don't have many negative things to say about Italy. It's one of our favorite countries in the world, and we just love Italian people and culture. We could really see ourselves moving to Italy one day. Italy is also quite cheap overall, but you do have to be mindful of the toll roads. Yeah, the toll roads are more reasonably priced than somewhere like France. But they do add up a little bit, and they're kind of more essential than they are in France. It's the time difference, at least for the journey we were looking at. It was 12 hours with toll roads and about 22 hours without toll roads. But I think in total, to drive halfway across the country, it was only about €70 or €80. Yeah, it wasn't too bad, was it? It's not too bad, no. Second place is a bit of a weird one because it goes to the country that's actually our favorite. But it's not necessarily the easiest overall for van life, so we gave it second place instead of first place. A very close second. Yeah, very, very close. And that country is France. Yeah, France has so many varied landscapes. It's really, really nice in that sense that there's just so much variety. You've got fairly warm weather in the southeast. You've got gorgeous mountains, beautiful forests. I don't think there's many countries that have as much variety as France does. Yeah, yeah. The only thing to say about France is that it's slightly less ideal in the winter because it still gets a little bit colder there. But yeah, we spent December in France. We spent December in the Alpine, which was super gorgeous, and we just had a really great time. Finding park hubs in France was a dream as well, right? Yeah, I mean, they're just everywhere. Yeah. You can trip and fall over and all of a sudden you're in a nice park. And it's just so accepted by the... By the public. By the public, yeah. It's kind of like an expected way of going out and experiencing nature, isn't it? We had lots of really positive experiences with locals. It was very easy to park pretty much everywhere, including in small towns. And yeah, beautiful nature, really intact nature. We just really like lush forests and mountain rivers and those kind of places. And there's just a lot of them in France. And the bread. The bread is incredible. France is also quite reasonably priced as well for a fairly sort of wealthy Western European country. All of the essentials that we need to buy are actually very reasonably priced. So they have a nice organic food chain, which has a lot of local produce in it as well, which is super nice. Obviously, that brings the price up a little bit. But for value for money, it's actually still quite good, I would say. And even just in some of the small and big towns, they just have areas dedicated for campgrounds. Yeah, there's literally like camping areas that are completely free where you can just pull up for the night if you want to visit a town or something. And generally, we also felt super safe. So what do we give France overall? I would say for van life in general, probably a 9 out of 10. But for us personally, a 10 out of 10. Yeah, yeah, I reckon 10. Yeah, yeah. So it's probably our favorite country to travel in. But for van life, it's slightly, ever so slightly less convenient than our number one. Okay, number one. Shall we edit in a little drum roll again? And it is Spain. Perhaps not very surprising. I mean, I think probably it's the country we spend the most time in, right? Yeah, we spent the last two winters in Spain. And it was just lovely. Yeah, I think a lot of the reason that it ends up getting above France is just because you can be there happily all year round. Yeah, it's great in winter. You can still get 15 to 20 degrees in the southern half of Spain. And we're warm weather people, especially me. I like having a few weeks of winter, but then I quickly get tired of it. And Spain is just really great if you want some warm temperatures and nice weather in winter. Yeah, it helps keep the battery charged up. You get good solar all year round as well. And there's just nobody there. Yeah, yeah. It's really, really quiet. So the first time we went on a road trip in Spain, we were mostly in the coastal areas. And it was a little bit busier then. But this time round, this winter just gone, we ventured a little bit more inland. And it was just completely empty. There was no one there. We never spent more than a week at any park hub. But there were a few places where we could have easily stayed for a month without anyone noticing us. Yeah, and one of the great things as well is not only is there nobody there, there's a lot of very natural landscapes. And there's a lot of hiking trails as well. Yeah, the trails are great. So there were a number of times while we were in Spain I was able to go out running for sometimes even a few hours along a trail. And I would have the entire trail to myself. I wouldn't see a single other person. Also, Spain is so cheap. Very cheap. It's so affordable. The food is very reasonably priced. A lot of it is produced locally, which makes it tastier. And the fuel is cheap. It's the cheapest place that we've been to. I was surprised by how cheap it is. It's like a third cheaper than the UK at the moment. The UK is particularly cheaper, but sometimes it's even better than that. It was also really easy to access resources. Spain has a lot of public bins. Literally on the side of the road you'll regularly find four or five different kinds of recycling bins. And it just makes life so, so, so easy. France has it as well, but I think Spain is particularly good with recycling. Spain has a lot more of them, I think. And it just makes it so easy to actually sort your rubbish properly. So often in other countries it's difficult. You have to really go out of your way to recycle properly. But it's never a problem in Spain. It just feels nice. Yeah, it is nice. Water can sometimes be an issue. Not in terms of filling up a water tank. You can do that at pretty much every petrol station. We've got a full water filtration system in the van. So we could, in theory, drink the water. It just doesn't taste very nice a lot of the time. Especially in southern Spain. So when we're in Spain we do normally have water in our tank which we use for washing up. And showering. Showering, things like that. And then we'll buy bottled water just for drinking. Yeah, we kind of resisted buying bottled water the first time round. But, yeah, the water just doesn't taste great. And we know that most Spanish people buy bottled water. So that made us feel a little bit less bad about it. So that's just something to keep in mind. Because obviously it will use up more storage space. And you'll have to get rid of your recycling more often. But it's a small price to pay really. Because overall van life is so easy in Spain. And it's also super accepted. And locals are completely fine with it. Because there's just so much space for everyone. The only thing about Spain that we like a bit less is just how dry the landscapes are. Which is nice. We really like the dry landscapes. But, as we said before, we really like the lush rivers and green forests and all that. And after a month or a month and a half in Spain we do start missing those landscapes. That said, Mallorca was really beautiful for that. Mallorca was kind of the perfect in-between. And there are parts of Spain that we haven't been to which probably hit that box. Yeah, Galicia. So most of our time in Spain was spent in Catalonia, Andalusia, Valencia. I think that was it. So we have been mostly to the drier regions in Spain because we spent the winters there. But, yeah, Spain is a very diverse country with lots of epic and beautiful landscapes. And we've been to some areas that had really lush waterfalls and beautiful forests. So, yeah, it definitely has that too. So we give Spain probably a 9 out of 10 overall. It's not matched with everyone really. Yeah. We would say that overall it's probably the best country for van life. That ticks pretty much all of the boxes. That's it. Those were the 7 countries we visited in our first year of van life. If you liked this video we might do another one next year with an updated list of countries. But for now, if you enjoyed this video, leave it a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't yet for more van life adventures, slow living on the road and the folklore we encounter on our travels. And if you have any questions about the countries we visited, then pop them in the comments and we'll be sure to answer them. Until the next video, take good care of yourselves and we'll see you next time. Bye. Heidi, do you want to say bye? Come, say bye. Come here. Bye.