Road Trip Security Tips From Experienced Van-Lifers For When You Can't Leave Valuables At Home

A camper van can be a fantastic way to take a road trip, especially if you're traveling with a large group of friends, your family, or your beloved dog. A lot of campgrounds will even let you use your camper van at a tent site, so you can wake up and already be at your destination, without having to actually sleep on the ground or worry about what to do if it rains. If you're planning to take a working vacation, though, you might be concerned about leaving your laptop in the van while you're exploring. What about your nice camera to capture the scenery around you? Even if you're going to disconnect from technology, you're probably going to need your wallet to pay for gas along the way. So how can you keep your valuables safe during a road trip?

To find out, Islands spoke to a pair of experienced van-lifers to see just how much of a problem security is when you're traveling by camper van and what you can do to secure your items on your next road trip. Kristin Hanes, a blogger at The Wayward Home who has been living in vans since 2018, assured us that in her seven years of traveling, she hasn't had an issue with things being stolen from inside or outside the vehicle, and, as far as she knows, no one has ever even tried. Lisa Jansen, who spent five full years embracing the van life and now inspires others to find themselves on the road through her book Life Done Differently, gave us some handy tips to keep your valuables safe from opportunistic thieves, even if they do happen to get into your camper.

Whether it's your engagement ring or your cellphone, it makes sense that there are some valuable items that you want to bring with you on a road trip, even if they might theoretically be safer in a drawer at home. While it might seem like the next best spot to keep your valuables would be inside your locked van, Lisa Jansen suggests that sometimes it's actually better to bring them with you when you leave your van behind to go on a hike or explore a town. Even if theft is unlikely at the trailhead parking lot, keeping your most important things close can give you peace of mind — assuming you won't lose your belongings on vacation.

Obviously, you're not going to carry your laptop to stand in the spray of a majestic waterfall during your Vermont road trip or drag your luggage up a mountain if you decide to fit a scramble in while you're exploring some of the Northwest's prettiest peaks, lakes, and island views along the Cascade Loop. When it comes to smaller items, however, there's no reason to let them out of your sight. Jansen tells Islands, "I often take things like money, credit cards, phone, and my passport even when I know I won't need them just because I feel they are safer with me than left behind in the van."

Whether you're trying to snag one of the few spaces by a trailhead on a beautiful summer morning or remembering how to parallel park at McCarren Park in Brooklyn, parking can be extremely difficult if you're visiting a tourist hotspot. After driving around looking for a spot long enough, it may be tempting to leave your camper van anywhere that it can legally stay without being towed. However, van-lifer Kristin Hanes says that roadtrippers should use common sense and think twice about where they leave their vehicle, even if it's just for a few hours. Hanes tells us, "We only sleep in places that feel safe."

A lot of different factors go into determining if a spot seems like a safe one for your camper van, and travelers may have different gut feelings about where they feel comfortable leaving their things behind. Instead of parking in secluded areas, Hanes shares that she parks it "on a street with a lot of visibility with pedestrian and vehicle traffic."

You might feel like the point of a roadtrip is to drive your car to different destinations and then get out and spend the day at each spot. If you're worried about security, though, the best thing you can do is to stay close to your camper van so that you can easily check on it and make sure nobody is messing with your vehicle or your valuables inside. Hanes almost never leaves her van unattended.

That doesn't mean that you have to stay inside your vehicle all day and all night, but if you're worried, you might want to prioritize destinations where you can bring your van and hang out around it rather than thinking of it as a way to get to activities. There are a lot of breathtakingly beautiful van camping spots where you can easily spend a relaxing weekend in nature alongside crystal clear Canadian lakes or hidden in California's Mojave Desert, without straying far from your van.

"When we eat at a restaurant or go to a brewery, we'll typically park the van where we can keep an eye on it," Hanes shares. In situations where you have to go inside and leave your van behind, choose a parking spot that you can see from the window or door so you can check in on it periodically.

Keeping your valuables out of sight is always a good way to avoid becoming a target of theft. When it comes to things that you store on the outside of your van, Hanes suggests using sturdy locks, parking in a direction that makes your gear less visible from the street, or simply taking it off and stashing it inside the van if you're going to be away from it for a while. While less obvious, your things on the inside might be visible, too. You probably think a lot about the view outside your windows, but what about the view inside?

While some people may be determined to get into your vehicle despite the risk that you have nothing of value inside, it's a lot riskier if potential thieves can see something really tempting in the van. Jansen reminds us that anyone who is taking an interest in your camper van can approach and see in the windows. With that in mind, putting valuables away in an area that you won't immediately see if you peek in is a good strategy. If your valuables are too large for that, Hanes offers a simple solution: use blackout shades on the windows so nobody can look in.

If someone does break into your camper van, they are probably going to end up stealing some things from you, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to succeed in making off with your most valuable or important possessions. You could definitely invest in a travel safe or put a lock on the bag that you intend to use while traveling, but Jansen reminds us that deterring opportunistic thieves may not be that difficult, saying, "Anyone who breaks into a van likely won't want to spend a lot of time going through every corner and shelf."

If something in your camper van is really important to you or worth a lot of money and you have to leave it in your unattended vehicle, it may be worth the extra time and hassle to hide it, or at least put it somewhere unexpected. Jansen says you can stash valuables with your clothes or under the seats, where they would be less likely to be spotted immediately by thieves with limited time to get in and out undetected.