Vibrant vanlife: Three Irish people on the highs and lows of campervan adventures
Martha Timlin arrives at Italy's Lake Como in her blue vintage VW campervan.
Long romanticised as a sun-soaked escape, van life makes us think of winding coastal roads, wild swimming at dawn, and coffee brewed with the back doors open to the sea. I spent three weeks in my tiny campervan last September, travelling down through France and into northern Spain before getting the ferry home from Bilbao.
While those moments do exist, and make it all worth it, the reality of life on the road is far more nuanced — shaped by family logistics, financial choices, fear, weather, work, and a surprising amount of washing up.
To give you a realistic picture of the highs and occasional lows of life on the open road, we spoke to three people who share their unique experiences: Martha Timlin, who travelled solo in a vintage VW campervan across Europe; Emma Finnigan, who travels with her family in a compact van; and Niamh Donoghue, who converted her camper and uses it as a base for remote work.
Martha Timlin’s blue vintage VW campervan is nostalgic, full of character, and somehow makes me feel like I could be a surfer.
Limerick-based Martha says: “I had always had a love for the iconic VW Beetles and campervans.” As soon as she spotted one on eBay in the UK, she enlisted a friend (who had one of his own) to check it for rust and mechanical issues. When he gave it the all-clear, Martha and her father drove it home from Essex that very afternoon — a freezing January day in a 45-year-old air-cooled van with no heating and a top speed of 45 miles an hour. “In hindsight, we were either very brave or very naive,” Martha reflects — but their gamble paid off.
Since then, Martha says she has motored across Europe in the van in every imaginable condition: “I got a graffiti artist to spray-paint it green before taking it to the Rugby World Cup in the UK; that trip was a lot of fun!
“We took it to France and Spain for our honeymoon — being able to park the VW right at Zurriola Beach in San Sebastian was amazing.”
One six-week trip before she turned 30 took her through France, Switzerland, Italy and back again, experiencing “all weathers from scorching sun to full snow storms”.
Martha is refreshingly honest about the realities of owning a vintage vehicle. She describes her van as something that has brought “some of the greatest joy in my life — but it has absolutely broken my heart so many times”. Maintenance is expensive, breakdowns are inevitable, and she’s clear that she wouldn’t necessarily recommend a vintage camper to everyone. “Converting a newer model to have comfort and affordable maintenance will ensure you continue to use it,” says Martha — though she is unlikely to go this route herself, giving credit to Irish supplier VW Spares for keeping her vintage vehicle on the road.
One of the most striking parts of Martha’s story is her honesty about fear. Looking at a sunlit photo, full of promise, of her, all packed up and heading for France, she’s smiling. But she says, “I have to admit I was so nervous. There were lots of breakdowns in the months before I headed off. I had never even camped by myself before!” What pushed her forward was a simple thought: “This is so many people’s dream bucket-list adventure — don’t let fear stop you”. She also imagined her 80-year-old self looking back, delighted she had gone anyway.
Martha’s top advice? “Keep your wits about you, reach out to people, and hope for the best.” Hope, she jokes, is the most important piece of equipment she never travels without (along with a good sleeping bag).
See Instagram @thatsalovelyvwcampervan
Heading off in a van as a family is a very different proposition, as Emma Finnigan has learned.
For them, van life represented freedom, flexibility, and a way to explore more deeply than flying in and out of tourist hotspots allows — without having to pitch a tent every night. “Most times it’s just as we hoped it would be when we were dreaming of cocktail hour, overlooking the sea, whilst the children played or chatted nicely together. Much like most travel — if it’s sunny and the kids aren’t fighting, it tends to be dreamy!” Emma also admits that “reality is sometimes very different to fantasy — the less we say about the rainy Norwegian adventure the better…”
Space is the obvious challenge when travelling with family, and Emma is candid about the learning curve. “Do not overpack,” says Emma. (Advice I wholeheartedly agree with — you really do not need much). “We each have packing cubes, and all our clothes go in these, and everything has its own place,” says Emma. As Emma and her family prepare to add a new dog into the mix, they’ve downsized other equipment, like camping chairs, to make room.
Unlike many families, they’ve resisted large awnings. The appeal of a van, for them, was escaping the ritual of pitching tents. But this does mean that when the weather turns, and everyone is inside, cooking and co-existing in a small space can be intense. “Sometimes you have to accept that although you’re somewhere amazing, your teenager will just want to be on his phone scrolling TikTok or chatting to his friends,” she notes.
And yet, the joys outweigh the challenges. Some of their favourite moments come from unexpected discoveries: A small campsite with a pool and bar, a village restaurant stumbled upon by chance, or impromptu meet-ups with friends who also travel by van. “The kids moan sometimes, but I bet they will force their own kids on van holidays in 30 years’ time,” says Emma. With these amazing experiences, in such a beautifully designed van, I bet they will too.
Emma’s advice to hesitant families is pragmatic and reassuring: “Van holidays can be quite hard work — you still need to do your own washing-up! But I think driving abroad is easy, especially with Google Maps, and you don’t have to travel far to enjoy van life.” In fact, some of their best family trips have been closer to home, in Ireland and the UK.
And, she reminds us: “If you are having a stressful time on holiday, or the rain won’t stop, you can always check into a hotel or book an Airbnb for a couple of days. The van offers flexibility and adventure, and I love that!”
See Instagram @orla_orange
For Niamh Donoghue, van life wasn’t a sudden leap but a slow evolution. Living in San Francisco in 2017, she watched while her housemate converted a camper and travelled up the west coast, working remotely. “I remember thinking ‘I wish I could do that, but I just never will be able to’ — but I think in hindsight it planted a seed,” says Niamh. At the time, she was working intense hours in tech and assumed that kind of freedom simply wasn’t possible for her.
Life had other ideas. Following a move to London where she continued working in tech, the pandemic ultimately brought her back to Ireland — and unexpectedly opened the door to freelancing. “A bunch of people started reaching out to me, trying to hire me to help them on how to position their products in the market. So instead of being employed by one of them, I offered to go freelance.”
With more freedom, the dream of working remotely while travelling grew, and she had her father help her build a campervan. “The transition from having the idea to actually making it a reality took five years... and to begin with, I never thought it would be possible!” says Niamh. “If you have this dream in the back of your mind, you really never know what life is going to give you.”
Niamh was deeply involved in the conversion process, alongside her father: “I designed the layout and all the interiors, Dad built the furniture, we installed the floor, and I painted the whole thing white three times — which took forever!” Some elements, like window installation and electrics, were outsourced for safety and practicality, and a generous neighbour made the curtains.
She travelled in the van for a month or so at a time, interspersed with stays in Airbnbs or returns to Ireland. For work, Niamh took most of her client calls from her van: “I was helping founders and entrepreneurs grow their businesses through the stories they tell, so as long as I had the internet to make calls, I used my phone’s hotspot and never had any issues with signal. I loved working from coffee shops with my headphones in.”
The hardest parts, she says, were practical — planning routes, cooking in limited space, conserving water; her van does not have hot water, which “was fine in Europe in the summer, but wasn’t feasible in Ireland”. The rewards, however, were transformative: “My favourite moments have always been parking up somewhere and watching the sunset, reading, writing, and I also love having friends visit.” Niamh designed the layout so the back doors could open fully: “If I see a good sunrise, I’d get up, open the doors, make a coffee, and it’s the best start to the morning.”
Niamh is based in Ireland for at least six months of the year, then works remotely and travels in the van around Europe for the remainder. The experience has taught her that “how you live and how you work don’t have to be separate projects”. She now works with entrepreneurs, artists, and tech founders who are building their own businesses that provide both financial viability and freedom to live similarly amazing lives.
Her advice to others is grounded and generous: “It’s going to take longer than you think, so give yourself some grace. You do need to be realistic about time and energy — the whole process has made me way more intentional with how I spend my time. There is so much information on the internet, and a million ways to do the same thing; don’t get too lost down rabbit holes, just take it one thing at a time — but it is so worth it!”
See Buildyourworldfirst.com or Instagram @neev_donowho
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