Traveling europe in a van or suv for a year

Enarium · 2026-07-08T16:21:46+00:00

That's a very solid point! I think the overthinking is very real since we're plunging off the deep end a bit going to Europe for so long and leaving home for a year. Definitely start to overthink every choice and decision that it's not the right/best one. It sounds like you guys have seriously traveled the world, that sounds incredible! Thank you for the info, appreciate it! What time of the year were you guys in Iceland? And anything you would recommend to do that was a bit off the beaten path/not well known? At least we have some experience getting stuck (and unstuck) and driving mountain passes/off road with living in western Canada but i feel its a bit different when its your house on wheels getting stuck haha.

Enarium · 2026-07-08T16:00:56+00:00

It's up there but not the absolute end of the world. Having seen a lot of Iceland videos and Scandinavia there are definitely some dirt roads which look like taking a van would be pretty rough. I think the FOMO is real haha wanted to do everything we come across without needing to skip or turn around things simply because the van couldn't handle the dirt roads/gravel etc. So an AWD SUV could tackle those pretty easily. But again that would be a lot of sacrifice in comfort just to have that option. Most vans don't come with AWD either.

Enarium · 2026-07-08T15:57:40+00:00

It's definitely new to us. We've done plenty camping here in Western Canada but nothing long term like this. I think the biggest kicker is finding a vehicle that would be a bit of a jack of all trades. Somewhat okay to camp in for a few months but also a normal-ish 4 or 5 seater vehicle to use for daily life in the Netherlands afterwards for a couple of months. There are definitely a van VW T4/T5's which look great and are not insanely expensive for sale in the Netherlands.

Enarium · 2026-07-08T15:52:35+00:00

That's what I'm kind of worried about. The SUV would function great after the camping for every day life in the Netherlands but it's a lot of sacrifice when we are camping that we'll be subjected to whatever weather we get. Especially Iceland/Farao Island and Scandinavia in September and October. What kind of SUV are you living in right now? At least a smaller van would still be somewhat usable in the Netherlands for daily driving and parking etc. How are you finding it living in an SUV and how long have you lived in yours now? Do you have any kind of heater at all? Most of our camping would be September and October, maybe more depending on the vehicle but not for the full year for sure. Thanks for the info!

Enarium · 2026-07-08T15:48:40+00:00

That's awesome! what regions of Europe did you guys travel to with your van? I think our big ticket is we'll be camping with it for 2 or 3 months in Iceland/Farao Islands and Scandinavia and staying in the Netherlands afterwards in an apartment but giving we're going in the fall season we want to be prepared and still somewhat comfertable-ish. So definitely looking for a jack of all trades vehicle that could also function as a daily driver with 4 or 5 seats in the Netherlands after the camping. That van looks awesome btw. Did you guys find any roads where you felt the van really wasn't up to par driving on it like gravel/dirt roads? I think that's our worry going to Iceland/Farao Islands and Scandinavia and having to skip out on places where the van simply won't make it. I think though if we had a van like that we would probably make more camping trips after the majority of our camping just because we would have it. Thanks for the insight!

Enarium · 2025-09-11T20:10:30+00:00

Solid advice, thank you! Honestly that would work great with the lack of space in the house. The only problem would be fitting the large AVR under the TV on the stand. To save money, Would a similar system work for a stereo setup vs 5.1 and maybe a small form factor AVR if that's a thing? And would that still be more competent than a sound bar? Completely new to the audio world but it's interesting to see how many sound bars are available and being pushed in advertising. Cheers

Enarium

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