American’s First Impressions of Europe – After 4 Months of Van Life

We shipped our van to Europe and after 4 months on the road, there’s a lot to talk about… After doing van life in our home country of the United States, we couldn’t get enough so we came up with a crazy plan. Ship our van to Europe for 2 years and go on the ultimate road trip. There was so much to figure out as Americans… Car Insurance, Schengen Zone, Border Control, Safety, and so much more. I think you will be surprised on how well it went!

🚗*Car Insurance For Europe:*https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1uI7c
🚢 *How We Shipped Our Van to Europe:* https://youtu.be/dn5hbRzMRSQ

👉🏼 *Instagram:* https://www.instagram.com/ian.and.ana/?hl=en
📩 *Email:* hello@ianandana.com

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📊The tool we use for youtube research & stats:
https://vidiq.com/#_l_22d

📕The book that will get you started on Youtube:
https://amzn.to/2kCUZlj

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Hey guys we’re Ian and Anna and we shipped our van from the US all the way to Europe and in today’s video we want to just talk about what it’s been like the past 4 months for us so let’s just jump right In so I feel like our first impressions talking about Europe are going to have some comparisons to the US just naturally cuz that’s the only other place we’ve done van life first and foremost the most surprising thing is how doable van life is and what welcoming it is in Europe I didn’t

Realize I thought it was going to be more difficult but this continent is really built for Van life and you will see that when you’re here there’s so many rvers so many van lifers I think we thought it was going to be much more difficult Americans coming over to

Europe to do van life but it’s built for especially with apps now we use park for night app to find either wild camping so free campsites or paid for campsites and I will say we’ve been staying at majority of the time paid for campsites and they have been priced from 10 USD

All the way up to 50 USD so it just depends which countries you’re growing in of course Portugal was a little bit cheaper and then we went to Switzerland and it was around $45 a night but it’s worth it for that country that’s for sure I also think we should mention that

In the US we had a very small van and we didn’t have any income and we were like trying to build this YouTube dream and now things are a lot different you know we see staying at campsites as an investment for our comfort so we can

Produce videos for you guys to be honest with you of course because we’ve been staying at campsites we have shot hours dishes you don’t have to worry so much about the little things in the van that being said we’ve definitely enjoyed European van life much more I think

Getting the taste of the cheaper campsites in Portugal made us be like all right we’re probably going to mostly stay at paid for campsites unless we’re doing something very adventurous yes but there are countries like Switzerland where you can’t free park anywhere but you can get away with paying for parking

Overnight in parking lots and sleeping there you will not have access to water showers bathrooms though if you do it that way that’s called stealth camping you kind of just stay in your vehicle no one’s going to bother you like police won’t even knock on your doors but you

Do need to pay for the night super cheap they’re like eight bucks they have apps everything is so easy nowadays the best thing for Americans or anyone coming to Europe to really enjoy a country to the fullest you could rent a camper van from a lot of different companies I know

Indie campers has Vans roads surfer.com has Vans and it sometimes comes out to be cheaper cuz you can go with your friends and you could even have some tents for your friends outside your van and then also have a bed inside so there’s a lot of opportunities there for

Everyone next thing let’s talk about roads and driving from country to Country there’s a few things about the roads they have a standard for their highways and to be in the EU you need to have these nice roads yes so if you’re in the EU everything is very nice easy

However you need to pay to maintain these roads so when we drove through the entirety of France just the tolls alone were $150 from north to south which is like crazy it’s just something to keep in mind we’re currently in Serbia my family’s Village this is Archie one of

My uncle’s dogs so when we crossed into Serbia they have really great highways here however in the back countries the roads are awful you will come across bad roads in the Eastern Europe countries for sure it’s not like a big deal I just get worried about flat tires and then

Everything is always shaking in the van so it can be like I hope nothing breaks the second thing I want to talk about with roads this is more for American so many people message me on Instagram and they’re like how is it driving on the

Wrong side of the road now I don’t want to sound ignorant and say that every country in Europe drives on the right side of the road but let’s just say the majority like at least 90% And finally every single person was so nervous for us to drive in small streets and there

Has been four incidences where I’ve had to get out of the car and make sure Ian can get through a side street in a city however when you’re doing van life you’re really spending a lot of time in nature like you’re not trying to go to

Rome with your van and Camp even in Porto we went to a campsite 30 minutes away and just took Ubers into the city if we’re going to keep doing that like going into cities will’ll probably just leave the van outside the city and get airbnbs inside it’s not worth it it’s

Really hard to maintain in a city so it’s really not something to think about at all because you’re going to be spending more time in nature where Van life is more compatible the first time we entered Serbia is the only time we had to go to border control Fortland

Switzerland and Serbia were border control they kind of just look at your documentation of the van make sure you have insurance for the van and we’ll get into that a little bit later but those countries of course they’re outside the EU for example we dropped off our van in

Antor Belgium and we went through France Spain Portugal Italy all throughout these countries you just go through the borders no questions asked it’s exactly like the United States where you go from state to state which was amazing and I didn’t realize that until we shipped our

Van over here I think that the EU the European Union is really trying to make the United States of Europe really that’s like essentially what it is so you can go from country to Country and have the same groceries there’s little Aldi like common Maxis throughout all of

These countries another thing I like about the EU for us at least is that it goes with the Euro so you just have one currency throughout all these countries but when you go to Switzerland you got Swiss Fran and then when you come to Serbia you got darar so that’s different

Types of currencies of course the Americans like travel through the EU cuz we’re so lazy we’re not that lazy it’s just no who doesn’t like that I don’t I don’t know if Europeans like the EU or whatnot yeah we’re not getting into like politic side of it yeah comments you

Could respond about that yeah the next thing we want to talk about is the shangan zone so we’re comparing the EU a lot to the US but there’s this Zone it’s very crazy and you can be in the EU and be in the zone but you can also not be

In the EU and be in the shangan zone so you actually have to go on Google and look up which countries are shangan Zone countries for example Switzerland is not in the EU but it is in this shangan Zone as American we only have 90 days to be

In the zone and then you actually have to leave for 90 days so in 180 days you can only spend 90 in the Shang in zone that’s one of the reasons we’re here in Serbia taking a break right now because this is not in the zone so we were so

Fine to leave and post up in Serbia where my family is and take a proper break you know we’re just really tired and we need to catch up on videos we’ve also had a lot of people make fun of us like I can’t believe you’re taking that

Seriously no one can really check but the thing is if you get caught you’re like banned from Europe banned from shangan own countries which it’s 27 countries you don’t want to be banned from those countries let’s talk about car insurance and travel insurance so for travel insurance for like health

Problems or if we get in a wreck and we get a broken arm or something we use safety Wing we’ve used them all over the world you just put your country in it’s really affordable and then for car insurance we use a third- party liability that’s what you need to have

If you want to bring a vehicle or drive throughout Europe in general I will have that link down below the company we use only some of them will do American Vehicles it just depends that’s why I’ll just link the one we use for the past 4

Months over here but when we come to places like Eastern Europe a lot of those car insurance companies don’t cover this region because of high crime so you do need to get your own car insurance within this country luckily enough my cousin works for a car

Insurance company so we were able to get it for the van for a month and yeah worked out for us only third party it’s not comprehensive to get comprehensive you have to pay a ton and I think I’m going to look into that more but thankfully we didn’t get in a crash so

Third part only takes care of the other person’s vehicle in a crash if you get in a crash your vehicle is not covered the repairs and itself but for comprehensive that would take care of the other person’s vehicle and your vehicle so another first impression in

Europe is the freaking gas now we knew it was going to be bad but we didn’t get a diesel van because diesel in the US is much more expensive than petrol but in Europe it’s the other way around so we were laughing at ourselves like God

Bless it on average the gas has been 750 a gallon to put it into perspective in Charlotte North Carolina yeah $65 to fill up our gas here in Europe it’s been $180 so it’s pretty much triple it’s aggressive when we have to uh fill up the gas tank but that’s our biggest

Expense while campsites over in Europe have been cheaper than they are in the US the next thing we want to talk about is safety thank God no one has broken into the van yet we have seen one other van lifer do van life in Europe and they

Got broken into now I remember watching their YouTube video about it and they said they left all their things out charging Ian and I have never left our van with our things out we kind of take all of our expensive stuff out of the van like camera gear when we’re

Traveling anyway since we’re filming so I just want you guys to know if you leave your van definitely put everything away theft is the only thing we’ve been worried about in Europe you get worried about that stuff in the US too like sanco of course but we have never felt

More safe doing van life over here the campsites are so secure even wild camping you just feel like you’re the only one in the world on like the port pcal coast and it doesn’t feel like anyone’s watching you no one wants to hurt you even in these ban countries I

Think Eastern Europe has a little bit more Gruff representation in media but we’ve never been treated more kindly locals love seeing American Van rolling through and it’s just been a great experience overall yeah and I think that something that’s huge is just not having guns because that fear always came into

My head in the middle of the night when we were in the US there’s not guns here so well actually something we learned in Ser does have guns okay the other European impression is getting experience culture one of the best things about Europe is the food and driving from country to Country we

Started with like French bagets we had Belgium waffles oh my God wait I forgot about that like our road trip snack was a baguette with fresh jam and meats and cheese it’s like a chuter board and the gas station baguettes in salami are the highest quality it’s crazy and then you

Can go down to Portugal and get some of the best food and over to Spain and then now we’re in Serbia which which the vcan food is my favorite our favorite it’s the best most underrated food in the world so it’s just the food the people

The cultures and The Vibes are all there it’s exactly like in the US you don’t really know what you have until you go out there and explore you have so much it’s like saying oh the US the New York City Miami no there’s like all these little Hallmark towns and there’s so

Much to it and that’s exactly how Europe is it’s an onion there’s layers and layers and layers and layers I like that truck yes it is an I want to talk to you guys a little bit about our plans going forward so after Serbia right now we’re

Going to take the van through Croatia Slovenia and then do dolomites and a little bit of Italy and then in November mid November we’re going to drive back here and leave it in the village while we go back and celebrate Thanksgiving back in the US Christmas sorry if I’m

Like zoning out you’re tired because why oh I’m tired because we found three kittens and we also found their dead mom and we took it upon ourselves to take care of them because people in the village have enough going on they’re probably four to 5 weeks old we’re not

Sure yet which means they need a lot more care since their mom’s gone you have to feed them every 4 hours and give them water so we wake up in the middle of the night but this is why you should definitely follow us on Instagram because you would see like the updates

Of the live action of what’s going on in our lives also with you guys following this entire journey I want you guys to be down in the comments giving tips helping others that want to live this lifestyle or do van life in Europe and also telling us where you want us to is

It I know we’re doing Norway next year which is very exciting it’s some place we’ve dreamed of doing van lifee but if there’s any countries or places you would want to show us we love having local show us around it’s definitely the best way to travel so let us know down

There and also you could always message us on Instagram we got to get back to Belgrade because we’re actually going to take the kitties to a vet in valo and get them some supplies at the pet store and then we are going to go to Belgrade

And just nurse them till we get back here yes and his brother is coming in a cple in a week yeah great that be so fun well uh keep tring to catch you up on things we like to make these videos to help others and make sure to subscribe

Like comment always it really helps our videos get pushed out thanks for supporting us yeah see You