[poorman]

As someone who's been doing van life for the past year, things like finding water, and places to camp are usually top of mind. Especially if you try to stay on the East Coast of the United States for a while. Might have to try Japan!

[shortcake27]

You could also try New Zealand. You’re probably never more than 30 minutes drive away from a campsite. And if you get a self-contained vehicle it’s even better as you can park up virtually anywhere.

[fennecfoxy]

As a Kiwi, free-camping is restricted in NZ and for good reason, people need to make sure they're allowed to be there.

But also tourists make an absolute mess of the place a lot of the time. Other countries don't have the "tidy kiwi" mentality that we get growing up. I live in the UK now and the percentage of people that will just throw rubbish on the ground is extraordinarily high; I'll hold onto my rubbish until I find a bin, I have never once in my life thrown something on the ground.

[shortcake27]

Yeah, that’s why I mentioned getting a self-contained vehicle for freedom camping. The laws around self-contained vehicles are designed to solve the problems you discussed.

I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting freedom camping in a non self-contained vehicle, nor littering or other anti-environmental or illegal behaviour.

But anyone with a self-contained vehicle is well within their rights to freedom camp on council or public conservation land except where camping is explicitly prohibited. Alternatively, if you have a non self-contained vehicle, you’re never far from a legit campsite anyway.

I agree about the UK though, it’s next level. I was up in the lakes one time, can’t remember exactly where, but on the path from the carpark to the lake (maybe 500m) I noticed an insane amount of rubbish (some of it very old), so I grabbed every plastic bag I had and started collecting it. I received extremely dirty looks, people started handing me their rubbish (???), and an old man asked me what crime I had committed to be forced to do community service.

I struggle to understand the mentality of people who visit national parks for their beauty then ruin them by littering.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

East coast, or more generally, east of the Mississippi, is definitely much harder than the west. Here in New Mexico, you can sleep overnight pretty much anywhere you want ... nobody will care unless you stay for more than 3-4 nights. Water can still be challenging out here, although when we've been in our van for a long time out east, we generally abandon our in-vehicle tanks and just buy those 2.5 or 5 gallon jugs from a store. I hope you're using iOverlander to help locate both of the things you've mentioned.