10 things I wish I knew about van life before spending a weekend in a camper van

I booked my camper van trip for a weekend in January, but I started planning my trip back in December. I was surprised by how much research and planning went into a simple three-day trip.

At first, it was difficult to settle on a destination. With practically the entire country at my disposal, it was difficult to narrow it down to a simple and quick road trip. Vanlifers I've spoken to said they know this struggle well and even call it "decision fatigue" — or the exhaustion from having to constantly decide where to go next.

Once I decided I wanted to go to Philadelphia, it took even more time to find parking for those three nights. I had to do a ton of research to find a campsite that was open near my destination in the middle of winter and that had available parking. I also had to reach out to dozens of Walmarts and Cracker Barrels to get permission to park there overnight.

I couldn't imagine having to worry about where I was going to park my house every single night if I lived this lifestyle full time.

Van life influencers love to focus on the freedom of the lifestyle. They post pictures of their vans parked on seaside cliffs or on the beach. Every post is in a new, beautiful location.

I found the reality — at least my experience — to be far more restricting. It's not legal to park wherever you want — especially on a beach — so many end up staying overnight in big parking lots. Walmart and Cracker Barrel are said to be the most friendly to overnight RVers.

I decided to stay at a Cracker Barrel outside of Philadelphia. They had three parking spots for large RVs, and I slept there mostly without incident for one night.

The van I rented was 24 feet long and over nine feet high, which is obviously much larger than a typical vehicle. The friend I enlisted to drive was surprised to find how difficult it was to maneuver the massive van. We couldn't stop short if necessary because it was so heavy. At times, the van would swerve all over the road because it felt so top-heavy.

Of course, driving the van might have gotten easier over time with practice, but I was still shocked to find the van wasn't exactly beginner-friendly.

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When we parked the camper van at a campground outside of Philadelphia, we decided to leave the van and take an Uber into the city. We figured it would be too difficult to maneuver the vehicle through the city streets and even more difficult to find parking for it.

Vanlifers pride themselves on their freedom, but I was surprised to learn how limited that freedom can be, especially in terms of places you could go with the van.

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On our way down to Philadelphia, we hit bumper to bumper traffic that delayed us for a full hour. For me, the constant stop and go in the large vehicle was more jarring and dizzying than in a regular vehicle.

Additionally, when you get stuck in traffic, you usually relish the moment you finally get to your destination and can finally leave the vehicle. When I was stuck in traffic and finally arrived at my destination, I was still stuck in the camper van because that was my home for the night. It felt like there was no solace or reprieve.

Much like a traditional house, I somewhat ignorantly didn't put much thought into what makes the electricity run, the water pump, and the heat to turn on in a camper van. To my surprise, I needed to know and understand all of this to spend just three days in a camper van.

The owner of the van gave me a full 30-minute tour of all the van's many systems. He explained how to turn on the power, how to turn on the water, how to turn on the outlets. He explained how one button turned on the water pressure, and how another turned on hot water. It was a lot to take in, and it was overwhelming to comprehend.

Throughout the weekend, the van's outlets and heat stopped working. The owner and I had to FaceTime so he could walk me through a troubleshoot to get the outlets to work again. During the process, I had to open up a cupboard under the bench that unveiled a tightly packed compartment of very important machines, wires, and systems that kept the van running like a home.

I realized all of these systems would be something I had to understand on my own if I lived in this camper van full time.

The camper van I rented had two benches that converted into a bed. To do so, I had to remove the massive pillows, find a place for them in the small space, flip a board over, and then replace the cushions. It seemed like an easy task until I had to do it once and realized how difficult it was in such a small space.

It was so difficult that I refused to undo the bed in the day time. Instead, we kept the bed folded out all weekend long because it was too difficult to convert every night. As a result, we lost a great deal of space in the van.

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It seems obvious that the van I rented wasn't soundproof, but it wasn't something I even thought about until a dumpster truck came barreling through the Cracker Barrel parking lot we were sleeping in for the night. The truck loudly came to pick up garbage in the middle of the night, startling me awake.

Throughout the weekend, I could hear everything going on outside the van, including voices from nearby RVers at the campground.

Not every camper van has a bathroom, so when I saw the model I was renting had one, I got very excited. When I saw it in person, however, I was instantly disappointed.

For starters, the bathroom itself was smaller than any closet I have been in. I could not stand up in it fully and my arms stuck out of the bathroom door because the full width of my body did not fit inside.

The toilet itself was a composting toilet and sat directly below the showerhead. This, too, was so small that when I sat down on it, it felt like I was giant sitting in a little child's chair. After using the toilet, the van always smelled bad. Every time, it took a few minutes for the van to not smell like a public bathroom.

Plus, the composting toilet needed a lot of upkeep. Every now and then, I had to place a pod in so that it would help the composting process and help eliminate some smells. At the end of the trip, I also to break apart the toilet and empty out its contents in a public bathroom, which was as complicated as it sounds.

I stayed at the Philadelphia South / Clarksboro KOA campground in Clarksboro, New Jersey, for $60 per night, which I thought was expensive, considering it was the off-season, and it wasn't near any great destinations. If I had to stay at that campground all month long, it would have cost $1,800 — significantly higher than my New York City rent.