The Family Selling Everything to Live in a Van

Some mornings on Phil In The Morning I meet guests with a nice story.

And then some mornings I meet Steve and Sian, who calmly tell me they’re 12 days from completion on their house sale, packing their whole life — including their six-year-old, Jago — into a Mercedes Sprinter camper van, and setting off to see the world.  No half measures.

I’ll be honest, there’s a lot to unpack there, so let’s do it bit by bit.

Why now?

Sian put it simply: life’s too short, and if you’ve got a dream, you go and live it. Steve works in a trade where he spends a lot of time with elderly people, and Sian has worked as a carer — between them they’ve seen enough people reach the end of the road with regrets to know they didn’t want to be one of them.

Add in the chance to pull Jago out of school, homeschool him on the road, and actually be present for every milestone rather than handing those moments over to someone else, and the decision made itself.

They’ve been quietly plotting this for around two years, ever since Jago started school — they wanted him to experience it first, just to see what they, and he, could learn from it.

Where are they actually going?

The plan had been to bolt straight for the sun, but with the weather picking up here they’re taking their time, aiming to head off around September.

The route: France, Switzerland, Italy, over towards Bulgaria and Albania — and then, at Jago’s request, Africa. As Steve said, there’s nothing stopping them, so why not?

Navigation-wise, Steve’s doing the driving, because — his words, not mine — nobody’s trusting Sian’s sense of direction.

The van itself

It’s a 2012 Mercedes Sprinter, previously converted by another van-lifer before Steve and Sian bought it around 18 months ago and ripped it right back to bare metal.

Paintwork, woodwork, plumbing, gas, electrics — all done themselves. It’s already fully off-grid, running on solar for the last four weeks with no issues. Two cabinets left to build and it’s officially habitable.

The bit that shocked me.

Here’s where the conversation turned. Their move to “Free In A Van” — sorry, “Three In A Van”, which makes rather more sense for a family of three — has picked up close to 12,000 followers already.

Most of it’s lovely. Some of it isn’t. Steve told me they’d been accused online of committing child abuse, simply for teaching their son to be brave enough to chase a dream. I said it live and I’ll say it again here: that genuinely shocked me.

To their enormous credit, they reply to every single comment, good or bad, rather than hide behind the screen.

What’s next

Jago’s already picking up French, Spanish and Welsh along the way (and apparently translating for the grown-ups when needed). The family are documenting everything on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and we’ll be following their journey here on MIX56 too.

Steve and Sian’s advice for anyone thinking about doing the same? Just get out there. Follow the van build, get yours sorted, and go and live your life.

As Sian said: “Follow them dreams.”

There’ll always be someone telling you not to. Steve and Sian’s answer is simple — go anyway.

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