living a Nomadic Lifestyle has many perks!
There are many more than 7 things we love about living a nomadic lifestyle. Dare we call ourselves nomads after 8 years on the road? Our shuttle bus conversion gives us a lot of desirable comforts that have helped keep us on the road through the good and bad. I think we can say that the bests outweigh the worsts for us or we wouldn’t still be on the road finding hidden backcountry camping gems and cooking up delicious meals with friends. We love living mobile and all the freedom van life and bus life has given us.
Let’s jump into our favorites about finding home on the road!
1. MEETING & SEEING FRIENDS ON THE ROAD
Meeting people on the road while living a nomadic lifestyle has been a true highlight of our experience. We have made lifelong friends just from sharing a campsite at Yosemite, soaking in a hot spring, or similar timing on a hike. We’ve been introduced to some of our closest friends by pure happenstance and that is the magic of living on the road. These people have taught us much of what we know today and helped push us outside our comfort zone.
Through the power of social media, we have found it easy making friends within the buslife and vanlife communities. Not only are people very kind in our experience, but we have one major thing in common: van life or bus life living mobile. This helps connect us all together and gives us a lot to talk about.
Another great perk is being able to see old friends that moved away from where we grew up. We always make a point of stopping for a visit when we’re traveling through there area. This means we get to see these friends way more often and have been able to maintain close, long time friendships even from a distance.
2. CHOOSING WHERE YOU WANT TO LIVE
This is an obvious one. Your house is mobile and so are you. If you want to try out Portland, OR for a month or get away from everything in the Tetons for a month, you can!
If you love winter sports you can always be in the perfect spot for the next snowfall or if you surf you can follow the best waves down the coast. No matter what you’re interested in, you can always be in the perfect spot for it because your house is on wheels!
We have no idea where we want to settle down so we always joke that we’re “trying out” new places to move one day when we stumble upon a place we love. We’ve really enjoyed several unexpected small towns during our time on the road. I can guarantee we never would have found those places without bus life giving us time to explore this hidden gems.
3. MORE CONTROL OVER OUR EXPENSES
To a certain extent we have much more control over our cost of living while in a shuttle bus. Is this life free? No, not by any means. We still have to pay for gas, groceries, insurance etc. We also invested in the initial cost of our shuttle bus conversion. However we don’t have as many fixed costs as when we used to live in a more traditional house or apartment.
Our gas costs can be lowered by driving less. We can only buy essentials on our next grocery trip. We can choose to camp for free. The list goes on.
Lowering our overhead was a huge reason that we decided to go forward with buslife. We wanted to be able to support ourselves as full time musicians and artists which often means inconsistent forms of income. Bus life and van life are by no means free but many of your expenses are more easy changed when finances become tight or you want to save some money. This allows us to do what we love for a living.
Having more control over our expenses gives us more TIME. We can work less and enjoy our life more. We stress less about bills and money and spend more time enjoying our lives.
The bottom line is freedom!
4. MORE FREEDOM
Living a nomadic lifestyle has not only allowed us to have financial freedom, but it has also given us mental and physical freedom. We don’t have to physically go into a job every day. There is no boss telling us where to be and when.
We also work for ourselves. This style of nomadic living has given us the confidence and freedom to pursue our interests and figure out how to make money at them.
Beyond work life, you have freedom of movement. You can choose where you want to go and when you want to go there. As we said above, your house is mobile. You probably also have less expenses and belongings weighing you down. Minimalism was a huge gateway to freedom for us. The more we figured out exactly what we needed, the easier we could get rid of what was weighing us down.
Having ownership over your own life! That is the ultimate mental, physical, and financial freedom.
5. CHASING NICE WEATHER
When your house is mobile you can always chase that perfect 75 degree weather.
We grew up in Buffalo, NY where cold, snow, grey skies, and rain encompassed 7-8 months of the year. Personally, we never wanted to be cold again. So we decided to live a nomadic lifestyle seasonally to follow the beautiful weather.
As we also mentioned above, if winter sports or surfing is your thing, you can always be in the perfect weather for those sports.
Whatever your lifestyle and hobbies, you can be in the ideal weather for it!
6. ALWAYS HAVING YOUR KITCHEN WITH YOU
Always having our kitchen with us had to be included on this list. We love to cook, bake, try new recipes, and share food with friends. Food is important for us and it encompasses a lot of our lives. We love to make it and we love to eat it.
When your kitchen is always with you, you never have to go without a meal or snack just because you’re out and about. You can whip up food before a big adventure, spend the whole day doing fun things, and come right back to your house at the end of the trail. Having our kitchen with us has also saved us a lot of money from eating out. Theres no excuse to spend lots of money at restaurants when our groceries and kitchen is with us at all times. This has helped keep our budget in check!
Another perk is always having healthy snacks available which is extremely important for having a balanced life. If you have any kind of food allergies or restrictions, always having your kitchen with you has even more added benefits. We have been vegan for almost 4 years now. Our friends and family are extremely accommodating to our dietary choices, but there have been times when we showed up to gatherings or picnics and there wasn’t much for us to eat. Now we can always go back to the bus and cook up whatever we need to feel full and satisfied.
There are so many perks to having a full kitchen with you at all times!
7. GAINING CONFIDENCE & TRUSTING YOUR OWN ABILITIES
Nothing will help you gain more confidence in yourself than being thrown headfirst into problems you don’t know how to solve. When you get through the hard parts and fix the problem, you will have learned so much! People can give you advice all day, but nothing is as life changing as learning things through experience.
When we first started living a nomadic lifestyle, we knew nothing about vehicle mechanical issues, how to get a rock out of our duallys, where to get water, what to do when you break down, when to ask for help, how to find free camping (read our article on that here) or anything else you encounter while out in the world. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. We had to learn as we went. The more problems we faced and overcame, the more confident we became in ourselves.
Living a nomadic lifestyle will consistently push you outside your comfort zone. The more you are pushed outside of your comfort zone and problems you overcome, the more you will trust in yourself.
and thats it!
We hope you enjoyed these 7 best parts of living in a bus or van. Living on the road can be difficult. It can push you outside your comfort zone. Trust us when we say, it’s all worth it for the freedom that mobile living gives you!
Below is our 7 best and worst of buslife videos from Youtube. Part 1 is the worst and Part 2 is the bests! Check it out and let us know what you think!