#vanlife Essentials For Life On The Road

If you ask us, vanlife is THE life! Is there anything better than travelling the open road and discovering awesome coastal towns off the beaten track? Whether you’re considering vanlife for a short stint or a lengthier amount of time, you’ve got to make sure that you’re prepared.

If road trips are all you dream about, chances are you're familiar with Elise Cook's picture-perfect Instagram featuring her adventures with husband Domenic and their trusty van 'Scout'. With spring and summer just around the corner, we thought that we would pick Elise and Domenic's brains about what essentials you need on your next road trip.

Here’s what they had to say!

Music

We always have music playing while we’re on the road. We’ve learnt that as soon as you drive a few kilometres out of a city in Australia, reception becomes very unreliable. We recommend making sure you have your playlists downloaded or even mixtapes if your ride is especially vintage; good music on a long drive is a must!

Deck chairs

Or our preference - the double deck chair, this is our vanlife version of a couch! Instead of curling up and watching TV together, we curl up on the double deck chair with a rug, some wine and watch the sun go down.

A good rug or two

On a big road trip you spend most of your time outdoors, we always carry a couple of rugs or throws with us. You can throw them on the ground outside of the van for some lounging space, use them at the beach, take them on walks for picnics, hang them to create a bit of privacy if you're in a busy spot, or throw them over your deck chair to make it feel more like a couch!

Wine

This probably should have been number one as it is very important. What’s a good road trip without a sunset and a bottle of wine at the end of the day? We've even built a little-insulated wine rack in the bottom of our van pantry. We recommend drinking good organic wine and if you need a recommendation please reach out, although we are a little biased as we make our own wine and it's rather delicious.

Toilet paper and a hand shovel

This is a very practical necessity, not to be ignored. The roads are long in Australia, and toilets are often further apart than you'd care for. The shovel is particularly important folks - bury it.

Elise and Domenic get around to some epic locations, to check out where they're heading to next and for more tips check out their blog [HERE] and don’t forget to follow Elise on Instagram [HERE].