We chose Van Life mostly so that we could be in the great outdoors. But what is there to do on rainy days? Let us share with your our Rainy Day Survival Guide!
Always keep baking supplies well-stocked for a rainy day
Baking is a much loved activity in the ‘Hugo house hold’. The only activity that beats it is the eating of the baked goods! Janey and I always make sure that there is stock for a variety of dishes. Our favourite to bake are flapjacks filled with currents, cherries, and dark chocolate! But there is always stuff to make brownies and banana bread too. We even bake our own bread too from time to time!
Baking wouldn’t be possible in our van without our Omnia Oven. Hugo only has 2 hobs in him to cook on. So no main oven. The Omnia Oven is set of round dishes that assemble together on top of a hob to create an oven. Its super useful as we can use it to make anything in from potato wedges to shepherds pie to cakes. For our baking we have found the silicon mould insert to be invaluable. It stops the base of the bake burning and makes it far easier to remove the bake one done.
Always keep your leisure battery topped up!
Electricity is an essential on rainy days. The solar panel is likely to be less effective, plus you will be using more electric as you are stuck inside. If you are a ‘stealth camper’ or just like to be off-grid then you are not going to be looking for a hookup to use either. Planning ahead to make sure you batteries are topped off is a must. Here are some things you can do with all of that electricity!
Movies + Snacks
There is nothing better that Janey and I love than a good movie day! This links up with our baking idea above! Just imagine snuggling up in bed with a hot coco and cake on a cold wet day with a good film. Nothing better! Netflix and Amazon Prime are our go-to streaming services in the van. There is so much to choose from it gets hard to pick. Normally we don’t even watch a movie and end up binge watching Friends or The Office (our guilty pleasures). Whatever your into, after a couple hours your devices will go flat and will need a charge!
Work
Yes the dreaded word – Work! But it doesn’t have to be stuff you don’t enjoy. Janey and I love writing on our blog or editing photos of our latest adventures. These can take a bit of time and can wear the batteries down without us noticing. We’ve bought 12v chargers for our laptops and so we can just plug up any time. But we need the leisure to have a good charge if its going to keep us going all day!
Gaming
I don’t game all too much now, but back in the day I was an avid gamer. My favourites were Age of Empires 3 or Heroes of Might and Magic. I spent hours at a time on these games as a kid. I know some of your out there will be as keen as I used to be. But all that computer gaming will soon wear out the batteries. Make sure that they are charged!
I also had a fancy for Gameboys too. I even found my old Nintendo DS and brought it in the van with me. It keeps me entertained every now and then when I’m looking for something to do. This uses far less electric than a computer and so whenever I get the urge now I tend to jump back on the Nintendo DS. My favourite game has to be Mario Kart. But I’ve also got a fancy for Advanced Wars. Its strategy game fighting battles in a future apocalyptic setting. Its really addictive when your winning!
Always keep a well-stocked games drawer
We love rainy day games! Travel games are the best – cheap, easy to store, and loads of fun. We have a ‘Games Draw’ in our van full. Its got everything from a Nintendo DS to Dominoes to Monopoly Deal. Here is a quick list of our favourite rainy day games:
Bananagrams
This is brilliant game that Janey introduced me to. Its a bit like Scrabble but faster, funner and simpler. Basically, there is a pile of letters upside down. Everyone starts with the same number of letters and puts them all together to make words. Once someone has used all their letters they shout ‘Peel!’ and everyone has to take more letters. This continues until there are no letters left in the pile. The first person to use all their letters is crowned ‘Top Banana’. But if they have spelt something wrong they are proclaimed a ‘Rotten Banana’ and the game continues. Bananagrams highly addictive and one of our van life rainy day necessities.
Monopoly Deal
Another van life essential. Monopoly Deal is the classic Monopoly converted into a card game. This makes it smaller, easy to play, and much faster. It has everything you would expect from normal Monopoly – money, property, chance and chest cards, houses and hotels. But there is no jail. Instead this game has introduced action cards where you can swap or even steal properties from your opponents! They have no defence unless they chance upon the covered ‘Just Say No’ card. Monopoly Deal is great fun and a regular in our van on rainy days.
You always have to take the dog for a walk
Yes, even on rainy days you still have to take the dog for a walk (if you have one). Even when its pouring down and the dog doesn’t even want to go out, you have to go out. Its one of the very few downsides to owning a dog I find. But its still more than worth it. Besides, it gets us outside even on those rainy days and that’s why we got into van life in the first place. There are lots of benefits to dog walking on rainy days. The first being that the dog doesn’t rip up the van!
Vans are small spaces to live in. A dog needs a lot of space to run round and burn off their energy. If they end up doing that in the van then its not going to end well. We take Kali for good walks so that she is nice and chilled out when in the van. Janey and I love walking her, even when Kali doesn’t want to go out. On rainy days we just make sure that we have a good set of waterproofs so that we stay dry.
Always have a good book available
Janey and I love a good book. Janey is more into true crime with gruesome and disturbing murders. Whereas I am into fantasy with dragons, magic and heroes. If I find a good book I can’t put it down. I’ve just finished the Inheritance Cycle which I would highly recommend to everyone. You might remember the film ‘Eragon’. This was based on the first book but the film ended up being a massive flop and the rest of the films didn’t continue. The books did however and are far superior to the film. If you like fantasy then check them out! The downside to them in a van is that the books are quite large.
Janey has managed to balance this out by getting a Kindle for Christmas.The Kindle is a great device that is small, easy to store and gives you access to 1000s of great books. It is one of Janey’s essentials for a rainy day in a van. Janey is has just read The Snowman. This novel is written by a Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo. Although its a fictional crime, it has soon become one of Janey’s favorites. It is full of plot twists, lovers, and, of course, murder. Check it out!
And that’s it! Our van life rainy day survival guide. Life can get pretty boring if you are stuck inside all day. Especially inside a van where there is so little space. But as long as you have a survival plan in place then you should be good to go! There are so many things that could go in the survival plan that we have not covered in our list. Come up with your own survival plan. Comment below to let us know what you get up to on your van life rainy day.