Besides being able to travel all the time, enjoy summer breeze all year round and have countless road trips, sleeping in a van also means waking up with a different view every single day.
Sleeping itself is not a problem. The issue lays in finding a place to sleep. This is probably the most stressful part of the day, and I’m sure every van lifer can agree on that.
After driving all day, the last thing you want is to stress out because you can’t find a decent spot.
We started our van life journey over 10 months ago! You can only imagine how many weird places (and people) we found, and how many things we learned from #vanlife!
Here are our top 6 weirdest places to sleep!
Sleeping in a van in big cities
Sleeping in big cities is a struggle itself, as too many people are watching and, overall, cities are not really van life friendly. Especially during weekends, when a lot of parties are going on and it seems like everyone is losing their minds.
We lived and worked in Sydney for four months, that’s why it’s no surprise that most of the weirdest places where we slept, were in this area.
Darling Harbour bridge
We used to sleep in a pretty cool place close to the iconic Darling Harbour bridge. It was incredible to wake up with a view, but that was extreme stealth camping and sometimes it went wrong.
The first warning, came one Saturday night. We both finished work around the same time and, exhausted, were considering to sleep there.
As we were talking, we noticed the car behind us was moving up and down. The moving goes on and on until we realized a couple was (probably) having so much fun!
We moved away and gave them some privacy but, after a couple of nights, we were back there again.
This time, we thought everything went well. Instead, we woke up with a parking fine on our windscreen!
Sydney: the Fast & Furious cliff
I have no idea how we ended up in this place, and I can’t even recall where it was exactly.
All I know is that we found ourselves cooking dinner on top of a cliff, with breathtaking views and a lovely sunset. This place was so good, we were about to stay the night.
As soon as the sunset was over, dozens of fancy customs cars showed up, and the competition started.
They started to run up and down the street, at super high speed, and they had no intention to go home.
I’m a big Fast & Furious fan and, at first, it was cool and felt like being in one of those movies. After a while, we realized that sleeping in a van was totally impossible, and we left.
Sydney: the yoga gathering
One of the funniest (and weirdest) moments of sleeping in a van, was waking up in a park and realize we were in the mid of a yoga gathering for mums.
The park was huge but, obviously, the meeting was happening exactly in front of our van. We had things to do, like having breakfast and going to work, but it wasn’t easy to look discrete in an environment like that.
We hoped the yoga session was about to finish but, apparently, it had just started. In the end, we had no choice than simply get out of our van and, with total nonchalance, we had breakfast.
We came back to that park over time, hoping for a quieter morning, but we truly had no luck at any time. Apparently, they had something planned for every day of the week, including football games, BBQ, and training sessions.
One morning we even woke up in the mid of a “little farm” party, where children could play with chickens, guinea pigs, calves, goats. That was a great morning!
Sleeping in a van in Wollongong (NSW)
Wollongong is a cute town, not too far from Sydney, and we went there to catch up with some friends.
It was the first time there, and we found a super cool spot on top of a hill, next to the lighthouse.
At night, the sky was incredible and watching the stars with the sound of the ocean was truly the perfect way to fall asleep.
Apparently, it was everyone’s favorite place as well, as it was attracting so many couples. And they definitely were not there for watching the stars and have a good sleep!
We had a hard time sleeping that night and we were considering leaving the place.
In the end, I’m glad we didn’t as we woke with the best view!
Shepparton: the ghost campsite
Shepparton was the town where we tried to have our 88 days signed off. Things didn’t quite work out, and we found work months later on a sheep farm in South-Australia.
We had just downloaded the best app for camping: Wiki Camp. It lists all sorts of campsites, from free to paid, together with other useful spots (such as showers, drinking water, gas station, parks, beaches and so much more!).
Wiki Camp brought us to one of our first free camping spots, but we couldn’t find it. We drove around the area for more than half-hour, and the only spot available was a very old sports field.
That abandoned (and awkward) sports field was surrounded by family-houses: no way it was a campground.
We were so tired, we ended up sleeping there being sure we were about to get a huge fine. Instead, other vans parked there later that night, and we had one of the quietest nights.
Sleeping in a van in Brisbane
When we left our jobs in Sydney and headed north, we couldn’t wait to reach Brisbane and explore the city.
Apparently, luck wasn’t with us that day. We drove around a few different camping spots before we found the right one.
The first place was a cute little park. No one was there, except for another car next to us. We had dinner, washed the dishes, and started to brush our teeth.
As we were about to get in the van, a black car approached our neighbor and the two guys started to fight.
We had no idea what was going on, but it seemed pretty harsh! Jumping in the car and leaving was a good idea, and we did so.
After getting lost a couple of times and passing through a cemetery, we finally found what we thought was our spot for the night.
Needless to say, that place was awful and not stealthy at all! Just a parking spot right next to the main road.
Our third and last spot wasn’t even a spot. We pulled over a national park entrance and saw two other backpacker cars. Spotting other travelers simply mean it’s a safe place!
Sleeping in a van in any other random places
Those were the weirdest places where we slept I can recall, but I didn’t mention EVERY weird place.
It would be impossible, as we slept in too many rest areas next to highways, supermarkets parking spots, libraries, we even slept in a university campus!
We now look back and laugh at those moments, as we learned that sometimes you can’t plan everything. We always try to be as stealthy as possible, but at times things are out of your hand and you simply have to adapt!
Have you ever slept in a weird/creepy place? Where was it?
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