They gave up their San Francisco apartments to travel in a van: Here's what this couple learned

Photo: Courtesy Of Juliana Linder Photo: Courtesy Of Juliana Linder Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close They gave up their San Francisco apartments to travel in a van: Here's what this couple learned 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

The idea of leaving most of your possessions behind to start living (and adventuring) in a van might seem like either a faraway dream or a foolhardy undertaking, depending on who you ask.

Juliana Linder and Richmond Hollen plunged into that nomadic lifestyle after purchasing a 2002 Freightliner Sprinter van.

Before taking off on a yearlong trip in their van-home, the couple spent time saving up and customizing the van. They gave up their apartments in San Francisco in 2016.

"Some friends just thought it was a little out there, but most loved that we were making our dreams a reality," the couple wrote in an email to SFGATE. "Some people thought it was brave, or would say, 'I couldn't do that with my partner!' Our families were really supportive though and older family [members were] extra supportive, noting that they'd wished they'd done something similar when they were younger.

"That really encouraged us and helped us feel confident in our choice. It was really nice to have all of that love even though it was a pretty unconventional lifestyle change."

TRAVEL MORE: 10 ways to travel the world without breaking the bank

Linder and Hollen were able to save up $20,000 each for their year on the road, noting they did not wind up spending all of those savings. The couple said they were glad they were able to save money so they were able to enjoy their year away from San Francisco.

"Our living costs were so low along the way, it was much easier to fund our van lifestyle than our San Francisco lifestyle," Linder and Hollen wrote. "Our expenses were about a third or less than what we were paying there in rent and living costs (depending on where in the country we were at the time)."

The couple traveled from British Columbia to Mexico in 2016, documenting the trip on their blog Home Sweet Van and Instagram before returning to San Francisco this past spring. The couple is now staying with friends in Oregon while fixing up a new van to live in. We caught up with the couple via email to ask them questions about what it's like living in a van with your partner and lessons learned on the road.

Answers were edited for clarity and length.

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What made you both decide to leave SF — first for the trip, and now for Oregon?

The biggest reason we left to begin with was to experience our country (and neighboring countries) in a personal and sustained way. People travel the world and see all kinds of different cultures and places, but often overlook how much there is to see and experience in the places that are closer.

Now, coming back to what was once our home, things have changed and one of the biggest reasons we're continuing to live in a van is money. What's amazing is the two of us were working pretty well-paying, relaxed jobs in tech and were making solid incomes. And yet there was this huge vacuum on our bank accounts labeled "rent + living costs." It just got to be too much to handle, and we really wanted to spend our money on experiences and have less stuff to worry about. So we want to keep saving.

The culture in the Bay Area also feels a lot different to us now. Everything from the cost (WAY more expensive than we remember) to the traffic (WAY more cars than we'd seen anywhere else we've been) have made the readjustment difficult. We know a lot of people coming back from traveling feel this way, it's just easier for us to leave again since our home is mobile. Our goal is to find a good situation in the van back in the Bay Area so that we can pursue our dreams of settling down in one community.

Which difficulties did you expect of the van lifestyle, and what was surprising?

We expected to have issues with space, but we really didn't understand how tough it would be to take a breather every once in awhile. It's harder than we make it look, living in 50 square feet with your partner or really anyone else. Imagine spending 24/7 with one person for a week, a month, a year. So we've definitely had our adjustments with that! We love each other, but we've learned a lot about what pushes our boundaries as individuals and when we need breaks.

We also expected to have to live more moment to moment, but that was surprisingly difficult to adjust to coming from a world that revolves around planning months in advance. It took awhile to unlearn the stress of the question, "What should I be doing right now?" Instead we tried to relax and just enjoy what was in front of us at that time.

Was anything scary or daunting about the prospect of van life?

When we left, we were both kind of in shock that we'd ditched it all (our apartment with "rent control," a huge chunk of our personal belongings, our friends and family). But really, since the first time we even talked about it, we knew that it was something we had to do.

We were also scared of getting arrested or having our van broken into while we slept when we were in more urban areas. It quickly became clear that those kinds of things were the total exception. That yeah, we may have to move our van in the middle of the night, but that would be the worst of it.

We feel really comfortable in there now, it's hard to relate to our apprehensive selves in the beginning. But honestly we do try to find better spots to sleep nowadays when we're in an urban setting, since we don't like to risk having to move in the middle of the night. It's still a pain, even if it's not scary. But we've never even been asked to move, we've just moved a few times when it felt uncomfortable or unsafe (rare).

Photo: Courtesy Juliana Linder A view of the van in Moab, Utah where Linder and Hollen camped out...

Would you recommend the van life to others? What qualities do you think would make a successful van dweller?

It really just depends on how willing someone is to be uncomfortable. Living in a van brings with it some discomfort, which is one of the reasons we chose to do it in the first place. We both believe that it's one of the best ways to learn more about yourself and the world, putting yourself in uncomfortable situations.

You also have to be willing to let go of a lot of things. We do have a small storage unit that we've been slowly cleaning out (plan is to get rid of it altogether) but there's not much in there. We purged most of it and continue to do so.

There are also more and more people moving into vans. In urban areas, there isn't a ton of room for van dwellers. We kind of stick out. We can see this eventually becoming an issue that needs to be addressed somehow. People being pushed out of the Bay Area by living costs, some moving into their cars not by choice ... it's a big problem. We're lucky we had the means to make that decision, but we know a lot of people don't.

Do either of you ever miss having an apartment? If so (or not), why?

The biggest thing we miss at times is just having more personal space. As a couple, it's been a challenge to live in 50 square feet together for 14 months, even when we've been traveling to incredible places. For any two people it's difficult. Imagine the person you love most and then imagine knowing exactly what they're doing all day, everyday. For anyone, it gets to be a little overwhelming. It's pushed us apart at times, but has also brought us much closer together. It's one of the many reasons why this has been a life changing experience, one that's hard for a lot of people to really understand, and we wouldn't take it back.

Photo: Courtesy Juliana Linder Linder is seen in the foreground of this photo taken at Zion...

What made you decide to continue life in another van?

Whenever we spend days at a time out of the van, we miss it. It's just hard not to. The simplicity of it is one big reason it's so hard to give up. There's something comfy about cooking dinner in that small, little space and then curling up to sleep while Roscoe [the dog] snores under the bed. It's just home right now. And we've realized that we can make home just about anywhere and don't need much to do it.

As for Oregon, we came up here to build our new van out because a generous friend has let us do it on her property. This time we'll be designing more for living in one place instead of traveling so much. We're so excited to get it done!

And finally we decided to continue because, after crunching numbers, we came to the conclusion that living in the van and saving (working remote or full-time jobs like before) will allow us to save about 50 percent more than if we're living in an apartment. That's a big draw for us, since we really do want to settle, to buy properties like our parents were able to at our age and younger, and to build a home. It's also kind of shocking that we're feeling like it's the best option for us right now.

What's crazy is that this seems to have become a spin-off of the new American dream: to move into a van, to explore, to save money, to escape office life and have some adventures. We definitely see a big shift happening, as large numbers of people are starting to do similar things.

Any lessons learned about yourselves, or the world, from traveling and living in a van?

One of the biggest things we've learned is that having more stuff makes us less happy. It's something you really don't realize until you start assessing the baggage you have and quantifying it. It really has unraveled our idea of what's necessary vs. what's totally frivolous and just silly for us to have. That's been an enlightening experience for us.

Also [we learned] that embracing strangers is one of the most important things we can do. It's been humbling meeting people of such different backgrounds on our trip, hearing what they've been through, and exchanging stories. Seeing how others live and get by, looking at the space between us and learning from our differences. Obviously these experiences aren't tangible, we can't put a price on them. But they're the most valuable things we've collected over the last year, hands down.

Scroll through the gallery above to see photos of Juliana and Richmond in their van during their year of travel, and to read more of their answers about life on the road.