When my boyfriend and I first moved into our van, we both thought we were about to sleep in natural parks only, surrounded by nature and wild animals. Truth is, we spent most of our nights stealth camping in awful parking spots, hoping that nobody would mind us.
Stealth camping means parking and sleeping in places where you’re not supposed to sleep, without drawing attention to yourself. This is a huge and sometimes inevitable part of van life if you live or pass through a city without rest areas.
We lived and worked in Sydney for four whole months! Besides sleeping in weird places and interrupting occasional hookups, we definitely learned how to get ninja with stealth camping.
Sydney is a particularly van-unfriendly city and, in the beginning, the idea of living in such a strict city was challenging. We had our rough and stressful moments but, eventually, everything went fine. We now share some hilarious memories from that city!
The following tips on how to live in a van in big cities are all coming from lessons learned through experience, our mistakes, and unfortunate nights.
Get your vehicle ready for stealth camping
If you are going to sleep in big cities often, then you’ll have to optimize your vehicle.
For your safety and privacy, buy some dark curtains and make sure every window is covered. Even the front window! You don’t want anyone to be able to take a look inside your van.
Another great idea is to don’t customize your van. You want to be as forgettable as possible. Bright colors, stickers, Instagram handle are very, very easy to remember!
We had awful stickers (which we now removed) and some colors, but we’ve always been clever enough not to customize it more than that.
Keep it clean!
Most people would be okay with a regular van parked in their neighborhood. However, if the same van is all rusty, with dusty windows and trash all around the place, they might be bothered.
The idea here is to not look like a homeless!
Unfortunately, we backpackers have a bad reputation, and sometimes people associated us with homelessness. That’s why is important to change this idea by keeping our van/home sparkling clean, as well as ourselves.
Dirty and not well-maintained vans simply cath the eye (in a negative way!) and are more likely to be stopped by the police. I can assure you it’s extremely easy to pick the backpacker van from the crowd, and the police can too!
Do everything you have to before reaching your spot for the night
Have dinner, use the toilet, and brush your teeth wherever you feel comfortable, but don’t sleep there. As soon as the van is ready for the night, drive away and reach your spot for the night.
Remember that you don’t want to draw attention, and you don’t want anyone to think you’ll be sleeping in a van.
Don’t drink anything 2 hours prior to bed!
I always had this routine where before going to bed, I would have a cup of tea or drink some water. This is actually a super healthy habit, but it’s the worst if you are living in a van!
Trust me, waking up at 4 am because you reeeeally need a toilet, and not being able to use it, it’s not a great feeling.
The best way you can avoid this is simply by not drinking anything before going to bed, or by parking nearby a 24h gas station.
I would avoid (even if I did) leaving the van in the middle of the night and go find a toilet or, even worse, squatting in front of your vehicle! Better to keep it, or use a cup 🙂
Arrive late, leave early
The best way to stealth camp is to arrive late and leave early. Always arrive at your spot for the night when it’s dark already, and be ready to go to bed.
Ideally, you want to park, turn off the lights, and go straight to bed. All without leaving the van or opening any doors. Now it’s time to cover the window with your dark curtains and just sleep.
In the same way, the following morning, wake up as early as possible and drive away. Don’t open the van, stretch your leg, or make breakfast. Just wake up and go. Just drive a couple of blocks away and park again. There, you can have breakfast, use the toilets and so on.
This is the safest routine for any van dwellers!
Rotate parking spots frequently
Don’t sleep in the same place more than a couple of nights in a row. This is particularly important if you think you’ll spend a lot of time in the same big city. Try to find 7-8 different spots and rotate through them!
In the end, every parking spot is different, and you should always follow your gut. Always make sure you are comfortable in the place you found!
You know you are in a good and safe spot when other vans are parked overnight. As mentioned earlier, Sydney is not really van-friendly, and finding places to sleep was hard.
However, arriving at a certain spot just to find out 10 vans are staying overnight was such a relief!
Have a plan in case something happens
Always park in places where you can drive away easily. Keep your keys nearby and, if anything happens, just leave. Don’t try to confront people or argue with them, just go.
If the police know on your window, always be respectful and do what they told you. In most cases, the police know you are sleeping there either because someone called them or because you are staying in a bad neighborhood. They are usually polite, and they expect you to be the same.
Remember that people are sometimes not okay with van dwellers just because of past issues, and they don’t want to have any troubles again.
Where to stealth camping
Here are some places that worked out for us so far:
- 24h supermarkets
- gas stations
- local parks
- campgrounds
- rest areas, truck stops
- quiet neighborhoods
- libraries, motels, hotels (being extra careful)
- friends places
- casinos
- 24h laundries
Stealth camping can be really fun if done right. You’ll be sleeping in a variety of different places and you can park strategically pretty much everywhere.
We would change our overnight location according to our schedule. If we had a morning shift, we would park close to our workplace. In the same way, if we had a day off, we would park by the beach.
As I said, always follow your gut! Sometimes this is the only way to stay safe.
Have you ever slept in a big city? How was your experience?
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