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Did you know a job exists where you don’t have to clock in at a certain time, you basically get paid to live outdoors, and you can create your own schedule?!
Drum roll… Camp hosting, the best van life job, and the greatest job we never knew existed.. or rather existed at our age!
No-one was more surprised than us when we answered the question, “Do you want to come back next year” with a yes! I mean, yes, our boss was super surprised too… because you know, “hashtag van life”.. but shoot, camp hosting was the dream job we never knew we wanted/needed.
We literally love camp hosting.
You may be thinking that cleaning the bathrooms is gross, but honestly, even cleaning the bathrooms is a satisfying part of the job. While there are things about camp hosting that aren’t great cough enforcing rules cough we knew without a shadow of a doubt we needed to return for another season after wrapping up last September. It truly is the perfect van life job!
What Makes Camp Hosting The Perfect Van Life Job | Logistics
1. Knowing where we are sleeping every night.
Honestly, we didn’t realize how much of a stress relief it was knowing exactly where we were sleeping every single night for 2.5 months. The only question was if we were going to sleep in the van or in our little pop-up tent.
I’ve never considered finding a place to stay to be super stressful.. especially with van life apps like these. However, once we weren’t on the look every day, I realized how much relief came off my shoulders.
2. Never running out of water.
Just like knowing where we would sleep each night, we also have an abundance of water. With a spigot right at our hosting site, we knew we had as much water as we could ever need. This leads us to our next point…
3. Having a shower!!
Jay and I had both had surgery the week we started our first camp hosting gig, so having a shower was an absolute must. And with our main shower building being only a mile away, we were having hot, indoor showers every day for the first two weeks of work.
When we moved into our permanent camp hosting site, Jay built an outdoor shower.. and shoot, it was heavenly! We have since installed this propane-on-demand water heater to the outdoor shower setup to bring it to the next level!
4. Weekly free laundry time slot.. yes, please!
Oh my goodness, as I’m writing this we’re coming up on ten days in the van with no laundry done. And while it’s manageable and not even close to the longest we’ve gone without doing laundry, it reminds me of the weekly laundry we had guaranteed with camp hosting.
Obviously, this isn’t a perk that all camp hosting jobs have. However, it was a major perk to ours… especially considering the place we host is 40+ minutes away from the nearest town.
Every Saturday, we’re up around 5:45 and have our laundry done by 8:00 AM. During the first year of hosting, we would ride our bikes to our central office, do our laundry, take a hot shower, and then ride back to our site to hang dry our clothes. By the end of the day, everything would be dry and ready to be folded and put away!
This year, we’ve taken more advantage of the laundry slot, and use it as a time to also sit and format posts on the website or edit photos. It’s basically like working at a normal laundry mat on the road or a coffee shop — but you also get in a shower too!
After years of living on the road, we’ve come up with some great solutions to doing laundry in the van, however, a laundry machine at work was a dream!
5. Ice, ice baby!
Okay, this may be a luxury of only our hosting gig, but we had an ice machine at our central office. Hello, iced coffee and margaritas! It was also nice because we could have a cooler with drinks keeping cold without taking away extra space from our fridge!
Perks of Camp Hosting | Mental Health
6. Having friends again
One of the hardest parts of being on the road is having friends. Creating friendships and nurturing them with time hanging out isn’t really possible on the road. Camp hosting allowed us to build friendships and enjoy things like meals together and outdoor fun with others!
7. An instant community of like-minded people
In addition to having friends again, most of our coworkers had the same mindset of living life freely. Our coworkers understood us. They understand the things we give up to live this lifestyle, so we can connect on those things.
They also understand the benefits of living this lifestyle and the freedom that having less stuff, not being busy all the time, and simply living brings.
We were also instantly surrounded by people who didn’t judge, look down upon, or question our lifestyle.. and shoot it felt good!
8. Building communication skills
As someone in their thirties, I’d never think that I’d say this.. but shoot.. being a camp host significantly increased my communication skills. Or rather, maybe I should say it brought them back.
Being really just Jay and I for the last 9 years of travel, moving abroad, living in our van in Scotland, health issues that kept us home, and then living in a van again in the States we’ve lost our communication skills.
Before camp hosting, I was at this weird point in my life, nervous about talking to people. I would stumble over my words, overthink every conversation, and then be worn out mentally after talking with people. In fact, I would get anxious when thinking about having to be around people and be “on”.
Camp hosting took away that anxiety for me. It built my confidence in holding conversations with more people than just Jay, and has just overall improved my communication skills.
9. Pinch me moments with our guests
We can’t tell you how many of our campers made comments about how we’re living the dream. And shoot, it was such a great reminder that we really are.
Talking with campers about life choices, both ours and theirs, really upped our appreciation for the life we’re living and the amazing partner we’ve found in each other.
Why Camp Hosting Is A Great Van Life Job Financially
10. A guaranteed bi-monthly paycheck?!.. For both of us?!
As crazy as it sounds, this camp host job has been our biggest source of income we’ve ever earned consistently from one job!
When we first got married, we both worked like seven jobs. When in grad-school we didn’t have “real jobs” with paychecks we could count on. And then even with ArboursAbroad, it’s never the same income month after month.
Having a job where were knew exactly what we were making and getting paid every two weeks has been something we’re still not used to! Hello, building up our savings and paying off some student loan debt while having a killer job!
11. Less driving = less gas
For 2.5 months we were pretty stationary. The most driving we did was to top off our batteries before we installed our lithium batteries and it was cloudy for a week!
This current season, we’re here for double the amount of time as the first season, so I’m super interested to see how it affects our gas bill for the year!
12. Not paying for the extra amenities
Usually, we have to pay for laundry, pay for showers every now and then, and have to pay for coffee or a beer to be able to have good internet.
We didn’t have to pay for any of those things for 2.5 months. And while that savings isn’t huge, it did save us probably around $50.. so double that for the longer season next year, and we’ll be saving upwards of $100 just in amenities for the year.
Camp Hosting | Physical Benefits
13. Walking, then walking some more!
When we were camp hosting, we were averaging 13,000-20,000 steps a day! It was insane! Sure we had a Gator to drive around, but we preferred walking! And boy, it added up!
Walking from site to site, checking in with guests, picking up trash along the trails, cleaning bathrooms and sites.. you name it.. steps were there! All day every day! And we loved it!
14. Outdoor activities at our fingertips!
Along with walking just for the job in general, we were always on our bikes, on the water paddling, swimming, or trail running! Having access to beautiful trails (and a shower after) really upped our workout game!
15. Living at elevation strengthens our lungs.
Not all camp hosting jobs are at elevation, but ours was. And without knowing it, being outdoors working, sleeping, and working out at elevation really prepared our bodies to hike in Glacier.
It also made running and working out at lower elevations seem so much easier! Living at elevation was the biggest surprise benefit of the job — especially once we got to Glacier National Park and hiked trails like Grinnell Glacier with a breeze!
So Is Camp Hosting The Best Van Life Job For You?
As you can imagine, with all the good a job can bring, there are some not-so-great parts too. And we’d take the not-so-great parts of being a camp host over having to work a traditional 9-5 any day!
We truly love camp hosting. We weren’t looking for a job like this, and certainly weren’t in the market to be in one place for a long time. But when the Lord continually makes something pop up on our radar, we know that’s His nudging to take on that thing.
This nudge happened to be becoming camp host in Oregon. And after a short season hosting, we’re excited to say we’ll be heading back. This time, camp hosting will be from the beginning of May – mid-September.
We’re excited for what’s to come out of our second season camp hosting, and are eager to get back our camp hosting family… Who wants to come visit?
