Barely a week goes by without someone telling us that they’d love to buy a campervan of their very own… but that their dream will have to wait.
It’s funny how we tend to think that there are more important things in life to ‘get out of the way’ first before we can start travelling, exploring, and enjoying a bit of time away from our everyday lives.
Or that we have to put in a certain amount of work, a certain number of years grafting, before we can ‘reward’ ourselves with happier times doing something we’ve always dreamed of.
Here at Orange Campers though, our philosophy is that life’s too short, and far too uncertain, to delay your dreams until ‘one day’.
Why wait to start creating happy memories in the campervan of your dreams?!
There are so many reasons to say YES to new adventures today! And here are just a few of them…
1. You don’t need to retire to start travelling
If we had waited until retirement to start campervanning, our lives would look completely different to what they're like today.
We wouldn’t have seen so many beautiful places, enjoyed so many incredible experiences, and created so many memories - all of which have shaped us into who we are today.
Looking at campervan life from the outside in, it can be easy to assume that you need to clear your schedule and be able to set aside months at a time to really make the most of it, but the reality is that that’s just one way to enjoy campervan travel.
We enjoy day trips, overnight stops, weekends, short holidays, longer tours, and even just an hour or two parked up at a beautiful spot catching up on emails or taking a lunch break.
A compact van is so versatile, you can use it as your everyday vehicle, and start enjoying campervan life right now.
2. A long and healthy retirement isn’t a guarantee
We can tell you all sorts of stories of customers who’ve lost their partner just before retirement, experienced the loss of a friend or family member in their prime, or been through some major health issues themselves, and each of these stories is a reminder to us - life is short.
Some of these customers were bravely setting out on solo campervan adventures they imagined they'd be enjoying with their partner. Some were coming to invest in their dream van far sooner than initially planned, because they’d come to realise that those retirement travel plans they’ve been dreaming of for years… they weren’t guaranteed.
When it comes to campervanning, your health and your mindset are both key factors in being able to enjoy all that the lifestyle has to offer, and we all know that ageing can bring with it challenges in both of those areas.
So if owning your own campervan is something on your bucket list, why wait when you can start enjoying the lifestyle now while you’re still fit and able enough to make the most of it.
3. Travelling makes your life feel fuller and longer
Have you ever noticed that if you do something on the weekend that’s familiar, something you’ve done many times before, you don’t remember it that well?
But that when you do something completely different, out of the routine, you can recall all kinds of details?
You may also have noticed that when you have a routine to your life, time seems to slip away really fast, but that when you try new things, it’s almost as though time slows down.
What happens when we experience new things, explore new places and meet new people, is that the cognitive load on our brain increases, which means our brain gets bombarded with information that it has to try and process.
This overload of new stimuli or information creates the perception of time moving slowly, which is call time dilation.
What all of this means is that if you want to live a fuller, longer-feeling life, your brain needs to be fed with a diet of new experiences all the time. Like taking your campervan to all kinds of different places that are new and novel to you, enjoying new adventures and new environments wherever you go.
If that’s not an advert for getting out there and saying yes to new adventures in your van, I don’t know what is!
4. Travelling inspires personal growth
Getting out of your familiar environment and immersing yourself in a new one - potentially outside of your comfort zone a little bit - is the most incredible way to get to know yourself.
There’s so much personal growth that can come from finding new places, meeting new people, discovering new interests, experiencing new ways of doing things, or even learning new things about your travel partner, all inspired by your adventures on the road.
What we like most about campervan travel though is that you get a bit of a mix: You get your home comforts by taking your ‘home’ with you everywhere you go, and you get to enjoy new experiences by taking the van to new places you've never discovered before.
The best of both worlds if you ask me!
5. The world is changing
Life in the 21st century is moving at one heck of a pace, and without listing out all the reasons why, the message seems pretty clear that the world we live in is changing fast.
None of us can guarantee that the life we know and enjoy now will be the same in 10 or 20 years time, so our answer to that is to get out and do what we love right now.
We don’t know what the future holds, and we don’t know what campervan travel will look like in a decade or two, but we do know that right now, today, we can jump in our van after work and enjoy a weekend at the seaside just for the fun of it.
If that’s something you’ve been dreaming of too… there’s no time like the present!
At the end of the day, campervanning is one of those things that’s not for everyone, and that’s ok.
But if watching one of our YouTube videos feels exciting and inspiring, or you find yourself dreaming about how you'd customise your own van when you get one… then why wait?!
Owning your own van might be easier and more affordable than you think, and it’s a great investment too as resale values on high quality conversions are excellent.
Get in touch and let’s chat about your options. We'll always be happy to answer any of your campervanning questions.
All you have to do is drop us a line and tell us you’re ready to Carpe Diem - Seize The Day!!