This thesis analyzes the countercultural community known as VanLife. Foster Huntington coined the term VanLife in 2011, when he decided to leave his comfortable job at Ralph Lauren and detach from society. Foster and many other individuals have moved into their vans to gain more freedom and live simply. For this thesis I studied the stories about life on the road, written by VanLife participants. I examined their blogs, photographs, and Instagram accounts. I did a literary analysis of Kerouac’s famous Beat novel, On The Road, as well as Steinbeck’s travel memoir, Travels with Charley. I wanted to understand the common threads between the people who engage in this unique way of life known as VanLife. Also, I wanted find the motivation and inspiration for the community as a whole. Finally, I was fascinated in the role of social media, and how it could be problematic for a group that was determined to detach from mainstream society. I learned that the desire to connect with nature, explore unseen places, detach from societal pressures, and tell stories, are all important values to people in the VanLife community. Story telling is at the heart of their experiences, and it appears in many forms: photography, blogs, and websites. Social media can present problems for the group, but overall it is a tool that is positively utilized to connect with other like-minded individuals. The growth of VanLife illustrates the increasing desire for individuals to detach from the pressures of society and regain connection to simpler times and activities.

This study aims to generate increased understanding for, and to portray, the mobile lifestyle vanlife by examining motives, obstacles and potential consequences of this particular lifestyle.  The study was conducted using qualitative method. The selection of study participants was aimed towards people who own or have owned a mobile home and lives or have lived in it periodically at the least. The selection was interviewed through semi structured interviews, and the empiric material was analyzed using thematic analysis.  The results show that vanlife can be seen as a form of voluntary simplicity because it’s a minimalistic lifestyle both in terms of resource- and energy consumption and because of the simpler dwelling. Vanlife can also be seen as a form of lifestyle migration because of the great importance of the destination to people within vanlife, but also because they can move to these places whenever they feel due to the flexible mobility of their homes.  The strongest motive is freedom in various aspects – such as freedom to travel but also financial freedom. Another strong motive is the feeling of belonging to a community. The opinions about the environmental impact of the lifestyle are divided among the participants, but some testify of negative impacts on local environments. Cold weather and safety concerns are some of the obstacles to vanlife, and a feeling of not belonging anywhere are one of the consequences. Additionally, vanlifers don’t want to be confused with people living at traditional camping grounds.