Why the car camper?

I understand that camping is not for everybody. And a dream of living in a camper van/RV one day may seem completely nuts to some. Something I want might seem awful to you. Something you want might be an anxious nightmare for me. It's actually quite fascinating how different one person is from another. But that's not the point of this post.
Today I wanted to share the main reasons we as a family converted our car into a camper and are aiming at having a van/trailer/RV someday.
 

Camping with kids

Kids can be tricky at times. As a parent, you might be hesitant to go camping, road-tripping or doing any kind of travelling with your kid. Staying at home is always comfortable and safe. It's so easy to convince yourself that you're fine just where you are. But. If you love camping with all your heart and the only thing that stops you from going is your kid, give me a chance to convince you that prolonged travelling and/or camping with kids is very doable and absolutely not scary.

In this post, you'll find a few suggestions to what to consider when camping with kids and how to make it enjoyable for everybody.

Flying with anxiety

Flying triggers anxiety for many people. Airports and airplanes are stressful environments where you have to rely on others, be cautious and organized, follow a set of strict, but not always clear rules and trust others with your life and safety. Even the most resilient of us might feel nervous in places like this.

 

A big part of my anxiety is triggered by transport. Cars, subway, buses, boats, planes – you name it. I’ve had panic attacks in them all. However, I am a wandering soul, I love to travel, see the diversity of our world and the richness of different cultures. Avoiding transport is simply not an option. In fact, I strongly recommend you to face your triggers as much as possible and not let them influence the choices you make.

I can’t cure your anxiety or rid you of your fears but I hope the information I’ll share with you today will make flying easier for you.

First Aid Kit

Here is a short list of things we have in our first aid kit. Hopefully, it'll help you make yours more complete. If we forgot something that you consider a 'must', please let us know.

La Bufadora | Baja trip | Day 9

Initially, we were planning on camping for one more night. However, we were nearly home and in desperate need of decent shower and pizza, so this marks the end of our little Baja trip for now.

The road went by La Bufadora, a very famous spot where the oh-so-beautiful ocean meets the land in just the right way. It was worth seeing. So we did.

The perfect camping spot | Baja trip | Day 8

The first day of 2019 brought many great memories. Vacations were almost over, so we turned towards home. And managed to find an amazing camping spot that we will definitely revisit in the near future.

Guerrero Negro | Baja trip | Day 7

Continuing the rant about this restaurant. Don't hope that I'll ever shut up about it. That's not going to happen. I have fallen in love with the family that owns it and we'll be visiting them again this spring and any other time we happen to be in Guerrero Negro.
Ojo de Liebre can be found on iOverlander, Google Maps and Facebook. 😉

Bahía de Los Angeles - Guerrero Negro | Baja trip | Day 6

Guerrero Negro has always been on the list of places we must visit at some point. It offers a number of unique experiences, and I strongly recommend you to consider this place if you are going to Baja.

Bahía de Los Angeles #2 | Baja trip | Day 5

One of the most relaxing days on that trip. It involved the beach and nothing but the beach. If you want to convince yourself to go to Bahía de Los Angeles, keep reading.

Bahía de Los Angeles | Baja trip | Day 4

From stuck to Bahía de Los Angeles | Baja trip | Day 3

The previous day ended with no success at getting out of the sand. As you can imagine, our car didn't unstuck itself while we were sleeping, so we woke up to this:

Here is what happened after.

San Felipe - Bufeo (sort of) | Baja trip | Day 2

This is probably one of my favourite days from that trip. It's dynamic, ironic, beautiful and "dream-crushing" all at once. Like a beautiful sunrise with a sudden slap of reality. Everything that might or might not happen is entirely our fault, so let's approach it as a learning opportunity.
Here is the first picture of the day, let's make it a cover. A mixture of excitement and fuss. I'm sure any parent will relate.
Also, don't you just love how weird people's faces look upon waking up? Like you've been poorly impersonated by an alien.

Tijuana - San Felipe | Baja trip | Day 1

It's finally time to talk about our first serious camping vacation. I'm talking about a week (give or take) of camping. No visas, no schedule, no hurrying. Camping for the sake of camping, basically.

Camping hacks and ideas that worked wonders for us

The thing I love the most about people's diversity is their endless number of ways of doing things. Many people go camping, but everyone does it in their own unique way. You might not even realize that your "obvious" ideas might be mindblowing and incredibly useful for others.
I want this blog to be the beginning of a conversation, a way of learning from each other. Today I'm sharing a few hacks and must-haves that have worked for us on our camping adventures. I really hope some of them will be useful to you or give you an idea for something entirely different. I would also love to hear what tricks do you have up your sleeve, so feel free to share them in the comments if you feel like it.

Toyota Avanza the SUV-camper

Our camper 2.0. To some of you, this might seem like a tiny thing for 3 people, but I would disagree. We used to camp in a much smaller car, which you can read about here if you're curious. This one is spacious and almost luxurious compared to our little smurf. It even has a place for our dog.

Nissan March 'the tin' camper

I wanted to write a post about both of our DIY campers, but in the middle of my picture hunt I realized that it would be endless, so I'm going to break it into two parts. The first one is about our little blue hero. The second one is available here.

El Salto, Ensenada | First time in our SUV-Camper

Many of you might recall our adorable smurf car, that we owned for a good while and had some awesome camping adventures with.

It was really cute and very uncomfortable to sleep in, but we appreciated it. It has seen some places and it deserves to be remembered. However, children grow, dogs want to be included and there are only so many nights you can take in a tiny blue can before going mental. It was time for a change.

We've had this car for about 6 months now and it has already seen some epic adventures. This is a post about its first - El Salto near Ensenada, Mexico. Enjoy.

Suomenlinna the fortress island (crazy travelling edition)

Our last full day in Finland. We can't leave Helsinki, because next morning we have an early flight. At the same time, we owe it to ourselves to see as much as possible because God knows when we'll be back. Of course, possibilities are endless, and you will always find something that suits your taste.
Somewhere between breakfast and packing, I was scrolling through touristic destinations within the area and instantly fell in love with Suomenlinna.
First of all, islands. Second of all, fortress. Nature and great distances to walk, but also lots of bathrooms and occasional museums. And it involves a ferry boat, which is always a plus in my book.

Days in Finland (crazy traveling edition)

This is a story about one of the most beautiful places I've visited yet. It kicked off our 'tradition' of exploring Europe little by little every time we fly to see my family, stole our heart and left us speechless.
And did all of that in under 3 days.

The Zoological Museum or how I began to admire Peter the Great (crazy travelling edition)

St. Petersburg was our last stop before leaving Russia. 3 days for exploration and waaaay too many amazing places to see. The schedule was tough, but all the best things in life come with challenges!
Unfortunately, the little one started having a fever in the middle of day #1, so the rest of the time we spent at home, hoping that she gets better.

However, we did manage to check a few things off of our list before this happened, and this is the post about that.
St. Petersburg truly is the most beautiful and historical place in Russia. It is full of breathtaking architecture, palaces of nearly every King or Queen this country has ever seen, museums, art and inspiration. It has been the home of every other Russian writer and you can almost feel that history has happened there. I adore that place. And all my rant is not giving it justice.