- Lita Talisman has traveled to all 50 US states in her RV.
- She says life on the road can be made easier by being flexible and trusting your instincts.
- She also recommends that first-time RVers set aside some savings for emergencies.
Many Americans embraced “work from anywhere” policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, trading permanent residences for homes on wheels.
By 2022, around 3.1 million people in the US were living in vans, a 63% increase from 2020, Yahoo Finance reported.
Travel content creator Lita Talisman, 31, and her husband, Dylan Regan, 30, were among those who made the switch.
In 2021, while they were still living in a Washington, DC, suburb, Regan turned to Talisman one morning and asked, “Why don’t we make a van and move into it?”
And just like that, the duo decided to move out of their current home once the lease ended.
While the decision to travel and move into a van came easily, building the van to fit their needs took them an entire summer.
“For the first few months, we were just working really hard on weekends and some weeknights on converting the van,” Talisman told Business Insider. “We were working on the van every free second we had.”
Finally, by October 2021, after transforming the van to their liking, they set off on their adventure.
The couple initially planned to travel for just one year, but that journey extended into three years of van life. They only recently moved back to their parents’ home in Washington, DC.
If you’re considering joining the van-life community or plan on remodeling your van for life on the road, Talisman has a few tried and tested tips to help you have a smooth experience.
Here are her six tips for first-time van travelers.
