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Traveling Tasmania in a Van -something to do?

Author: Léa Madoni "Travel Tips by Lea"

This way of traveling is becoming really trendy. You can see of the social media such as Instagram that more and more people are trying it. Some of them are working hard to make a house of a simple van/car while some other are only renting them. This is my experience Traveling Tasmania in a Van!

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Our Van!

Few years ago, a friend of mine and myself have been lucky enough to travel around Tasmania, Australia in a campervan. We called it Jack. During 10 days, Jack became our car but also our house. It gave to both of us this amazing feeling of freedom.

 

We planned an itinerary beforehand to be sure to drive into the right places and not missing anything. Tasmania offers a lot of free camping spots which allowed us to stay in amazing places (our first night close to a beach). As we didn’t have to book any accommodation or camping spaces, we could manage the time we wanted to spend in each location.

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One of the free camping spot was close to this lake

For us, the hardest part was the showers, especially after a day at the beach or hiking. Living in a van means freedom but also no shower. We tried to stay clean and showered in few ways :

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  • Using the melted ice of the cool box : the one was really cold but allowed us to wash ourselves with fresh water,

  • Using the showers on the road when possible : some camping spots were equipped with hot or cold shower (most of the time you had to pay to get hot water),

  • When we didn’t have any of these above, we were trying to find a spot with running water. Usually, when a camping spot has a toilet it has water to wash your hand. This was good to help us wash ourselves,

  • We also used some baby-wipes but we felt like we were even dirtier after than before using them.

 

The other problem we had was the “safety”. Sometimes we were sleeping in the middle of a forest and we were the only one there. As the only thing you can do to feel safe is to lock the car, it is better to be sure to be in a safe place first. Especially, when you are traveling solo or between women.

 

NB: Nothing happened to us, we didn’t feel safe only once but because of the wildlife around (in Australia, you learn quickly that everything can kill you..).

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Where's the Van?

If you’ve never tried this way of traveling but you would love to try. Here are my tips :

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  • No need to buy a special car/van and work on it if you aren’t sure that’s something you are going like or doing more than once. You can rent one with everything you might need during your trip (boxes, bed, kitchen, clod box…). We rent our one with Tassie Motor Shacks (http://www.tassiemotorshacks.com.au) .

  • Try to plan a trip with someone you can travel with that might like this way of traveling. If not you could have a really bad time… :/

  • Make sure you have a map of the area you will be driving into. It could be really helpful if you get lost and there isn’t any service. Just saying. ;)

  • Plan your itinerary beforehand. You don’t have to follow it to the letter. But, it’s always nice to know where you are heading especially if it is your first trip. Or on the contrary, if you are really adventurous, you could follow your instinct and see where it leads you.

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Bay of Fires, Tasmania

Anyway, whatever the way you travel : backpacking, in a car, in a bus, in luxury hotel, solo, in a group… follow your heart and travel in the way that fits you the most. I think that the best tip I could ever give you. We do not need the same thing so if you want to enjoy your trip in a campervan (or any other kind of travel) you should do it in the way you think it is the best for you and ENJOY !!

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Find more Travel Adventures on my site Travel Tips by Lea!

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