Full-time international vanlife with Hayley & Jake

My YouTube feed primarily consists of videos in one category…travel by RV and van. And if you’re creating videos about road tripping in Mexico and beyond, chances are high I’m going to watch. Enter Hayley & Jake. These two Canadians, with spirits full of wanderlust, popped up in my YouTube feed last year. I was captivated immediately when I learned that they spent nearly a year exploring all that Mexico has to offer before deciding to continue south. Over the summer I emailed them with a question, not sure if I’d get a response, and was delighted when they wrote back. I was even more delighted when they agreed to share their story with us. Their travels are inspiring, to say the least. We hope you enjoy getting to know them as much as I have!

How long have you been on the road full-time?

Back in 2019, we spent six months road tripping through Canada and the US in our first camper van. The pandemic brought us home, so we used the time to build our current van, work, and save up money. We then left in October 2022 to road trip Mexico, and we’ve been on the road full time since!

What has full-time travel provided you that stationery living could not?

It’s provided us so many things! From a travel perspective, we get the chance to slowly explore and immerse ourselves in new places and cultures. Our only limits to how long we spend in a country are our interests and our tourist visa limits. 

From a personal perspective, we get to spend a lot of time with each other and our dog, Finnley. We get to do lots of activities we enjoy, such as hiking, trying new food, and generally just exploring new places. Each day is different when you live on the road, so we’re making a lot of memories together that one day we can look back on.

What has surprised you about living on the road full-time?

We’ve spent over a year in Latin America (mostly Mexico and Central America) a region of the world that unfortunately doesn’t have the greatest image in regards to safety. Road tripping through these countries means we spend a lot of our time in remote, non-touristy places. We’ve had an incredible time visiting these countries, and we have had only positive experiences with the people living there. Most people we meet are extremely kind and welcoming towards us, and want to help us with our journey. It’s also common for people to thank us for visiting their town. 

Another thing that has surprised us is how comfortable we are in our van. It’s a small space, but we managed to include everything we need to feel at home. We love being totally at home in remote, beautiful places! On the flip side to this, we have no redundancy systems in our van: when something stops working, we can get very uncomfortable quickly.

What are some valuable lessons you’ve learned (either about yourself, travel, or the world) since pursuing this way of life?

Learning a little bit of the local language goes a long way. When we started our trip we knew zero Spanish, but we’ve made an effort to learn a little more every day. Being able to somewhat communicate with locals has really opened up a lot of opportunities for amazing experiences. We’ve had nice conversations with friendly locals, we’ve been invited into peoples homes for dinner, and we’ve learned about a lot of cool places we would have otherwise driven by. 

We’ve also learned that in general, people are nice everywhere and are happy to help out travelers. 

What do you do for a living?  How do you fund your travels?

When working full-time we are both engineers. Before we left we worked hard to build our van ourselves, saved up, and sold all of our possessions to help fund our trip. We also share our travels and van build on YouTube and our website, which generates a small income that we can put back into our travels. 

Traveling slowly also helps stretch our travel funds, as gas is one of our biggest expenses. We try to eat locally produced foods, and it’s more common for us to stay at free/inexpensive places (beaches, free parks, gas stations) than at official campgrounds or hotels, which also helps keep costs down. 

How would you describe your travel style?

We consider ourselves to be adventurous, slow, budget travelers who like to seek out local experiences. We like to visit the known tourist destinations, but our favorite spots are usually the non-touristy places we stumble upon along the way. Traveling with our van gives us the flexibility to adapt our plans and spend longer in places that we really like, as well as to move on from places that don’t really speak to us. 

Our van is totally self-contained, so all we really need is a safe place to park for the night. It really opens up a lot of options in terms of the places we can visit and how long we can stay there. 

You deep dove into Mexico in a way we haven’t seen many people do, spending over 300 days exploring various regions around the country.  We get the impression you traveled really mindfully in order to remain safe as well as get the most from your time there.  Could you share some of your top trip planning tools & strategies for road-tripping around Mexico?

We spent 359 days in Mexico, and absolutely love the country!

In terms of route planning, the locals know their country the best. In our experience, Mexican people are very welcoming and very proud of their country, and they want visitors to have a positive experience. Everyday there is an opportunity to talk with locals, so we frequently practiced our Spanish by asking someone for advice. Locals know which roads to take to get to the next town, the best spots for lunch, or any cool places that we should visit. 

Before we left on our trip we also very diligently researched the Canadian Travel Advisories. We used these as the starting point to plan our route and continuously updated it with local recommendations as we went. We’ve continued to do this before entering each country on our journey south. 

Have you faced any difficulties traveling in other countries with your dog Finnley?

Logistically it takes effort to travel with Finnley, but it’s not difficult. Every border crossing requires extra work to import him into the next country, and every process is a little different. It usually involves a vet visit to verify he’s up to date with his vaccines, some paperwork, and an inspection at the border from the agricultural authorities. The vets are knowledgeable about the border crossing rules, and there’s lots of helpful information on the iOverlander app.

Costa Rica was challenging to visit with Finnley. Most of the country is either a national park or private reserves, which aren’t pet friendly. We still had a great time in Costa Rica, and the beaches are all dog friendly. 

There are also many benefits of traveling with Finnley. He’s one of the main reasons why we started traveling this way in the first place, and we love how much time we get to spend with him! He also attracts a lot of attention from locals (especially while wearing his shoes). It’s very rare for two tourists to be walking around with a large dog, and it helps us to talk to a lot of locals on our travels. 

After your time in Mexico you continued south.  How far south will you go?  Are there any specific travel goals you’re working towards with this trip?

We’ve been taking our travels one stage at a time. When we first left on our trip, we wanted to spend the winter in Baja and then continue in the general direction of Cancun. 

One year later we reached the Yucatan Peninsula (the region home to Cancun). We were still enjoying our travels and we wanted to keep exploring, so we decided that the second phase of our trip would be traveling through Central American to Panama. Traveling in Central America is different than in Mexico in a lot of ways. It’s logistically much more complicated, with border crossings, visa lengths, vehicle import permits, and the requirements for Finnley. 

When we reached Panama we weren’t ready to stop so we decided to continue on to South America (it’s still super surreal to say that)! Since shipping to South America is a big commitment, we now have the goal of driving all the way to the bottom of Argentina, exploring each of the countries along the way. We’re expecting it to take us around two more years. 

What is some advice you would give someone dreaming of full-time vehicle-based travel but is nervous to take the leap?

You don’t need to immediately flip your life upside down. Take baby steps in the general direction and ease into the lifestyle. We always recommend that people try out van travel by renting a van and then going on a road trip to see if they like this style of travel. It’s usually cheaper than renting a car and booking accommodations, so it can be a fun way to visit a new place! Our first introduction to van life was a two week road trip around Iceland in a tiny rented camper van. We had an amazing trip, and that experience is what fueled our decision to buy our own van. 

Top 3 favourite pieces of gear or tech that you couldn’t live without?

We’ve downsized our lives so much that there are very few things that we need to be comfortable. That being said, we would be very sad if we didn’t have our camera gear to document our travels, we would be very lost without the app iOverlander, and we also really enjoy having an espresso machine in our van (a somewhat recent addition, and a real luxury when travelling through coffee growing regions).

For someone new to your YouTube channel, where should they start?  Do you have a favorite video you’d like to share?

For those interested in our van, we have a van tour showing our finished build, as well as an entire van build series.

If you’re interested in van life travel content in Mexico (and eventually Central and South America), we have a Canada to Cancun playlist with over 40 (and counting) videos sharing our journey.

What are you most excited about for the future?

We just got to South America, and we plan to spend 1-2 years traveling down here. It’s very different from Mexico and Central America, and we are very excited to explore this new continent. 

So many thanks to Hayley & Jake for taking the time to share their story and photos with us. We’re so inspired by their journey and slow travel style and can’t wait to see what they discover in South America. If you want to follow along you can subscribe to their YouTube channel here and you can find trip planning resources and more at www.hayleyandjake.com