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Community-sourced spots Submitted by van lifers, reviewed before listing
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No affiliate advertising No banner ads, no pay-to-rank operators
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Verified by van lifers Spots checked for legality and current status
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Updated 2026 Reviewed and refreshed this year, not recycled evergreen
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Ireland-specific Not a UK repurpose — Irish law, euro costs, Irish roads
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Honest about grey areas Tolerance-rated, not pretending everything is straightforward

Why we built it

When van life took off in Ireland around 2020–2021, the search results for "van life Ireland" were wall-to-wall UK content with Irish place names swapped in. "Can you wild camp in Ireland?" answered with Scottish law. "Best spots" that were actually caravan parks in the Cotswolds. Cost guides in sterling. Gear recommendations from Amazon UK with no Irish shipping.

The actual Irish-specific resources were scattered across Facebook groups, a few forum threads, and a handful of blog posts that hadn't been updated since before the pandemic. The IrishVanLife Facebook community had the real knowledge — people who knew that Malin Head in January requires a different kit list than the Wild Atlantic Way in June, that the Garda's attitude to overnight parking varies county by county, that Irish campervan hire is genuinely good value if you know which operators to compare.

Vanlife.ie is the attempt to get that community knowledge into a form a search engine can find and a newcomer can actually use. Plain English, euro figures, Irish law, real photographs from real locations — not stock images of Volkswagen California T5s at Californian cliffs.

We launched in 2024 with the core guides and the spot directory. The county pages, the cost breakdown, the conversion guide, and the weekly newsletter followed through 2025. We update the spot directory annually as a minimum, and sooner if a spot gets reported moved-on or closed.

Editorial principles

We only publish spots we believe are legal to park at, or where the tolerance situation is genuinely ambiguous and we say so clearly. We assign a "tolerance rating" — Low / Medium / High — based on the reports we've received, not based on optimism. A spot that's been moved-on repeatedly gets a Low even if there's technically no law against it.

Cost figures cite their sources: CSO, AA Ireland, ESB charging data, the Caravan and Motorhome Club of Ireland site fee surveys. We don't invent numbers, and we flag when figures are estimates. Everything on the site is reviewed at least once a year — the "updated" date on each page is when it was last checked, not when it was first written.

The gear page uses Amazon Associates links. The rentals page uses affiliate programmes. Both are clearly disclosed. The affiliate relationships don't affect what we recommend; we'd rather lose a commission than send someone to a rental company with bad customer service reviews. There are no display ads, no sponsored content styled as editorial, no pay-to-rank spots in the directory.

What we are not

  • Not a booking platform — we don't take reservations for any site or operator
  • Not affiliated with Tourism Ireland, Failte Ireland, or any tourism body
  • Not a campervan hire company — we compare operators but have no financial relationship with them except affiliate links, which are disclosed
  • Not a monetised affiliate site in the "top 10 best campervans" sense — we write guides first and add affiliate links where they're genuinely useful
  • Not a social media brand — no paid Instagram presence, no influencer partnerships

How spots get listed

Every spot in the overnight spots directory goes through the same process:

  1. Community submission via the submit a spot form, or picked up from reports in the IrishVanLife Facebook group and similar communities.
  2. Editor review — we check land ownership (where possible), any known planning or bye-law status, and whether the spot has been in active use recently.
  3. Tolerance rating assigned — based on accumulated reports and, where possible, direct enquiry with local Garda or council offices. Low/Medium/High is a genuine assessment, not a default "medium".
  4. Annual review — spots are re-checked once a year. If a spot has been reported moved-on, the entry is updated or removed. If a spot has improved (landowner now welcomes van lifers, a proper aire has been installed), the rating goes up.

We don't list spots on request where there's a commercial interest involved — a campervan park can't pay to appear in the "wild" section. Paid sites appear in the main campsite listings only.

Get in touch / contribute

To submit a new spot, use the submit a spot page — takes about two minutes.

For editorial questions, corrections, or to suggest a topic: hello@vanlife.ie. We read every email and respond to most within a few days.

The best community resource for real-time advice, meet-ups, and spot reports is the IrishVanLife Facebook group — worth joining if you're planning a trip or living on the road full-time.

If we've got something wrong — a spot that's been closed, a law that's changed, a cost figure that's out of date — please tell us. We'll correct it and note the date of the correction.

Analytics note: Vanlife.ie uses self-hosted Matomo analytics. Your browsing data is stored on our own server — it never goes to Google, Facebook, or any advertising network. We collect page views and approximate geography (country level) to understand which guides are most useful. You can opt out on the cookies page.

Start with the Ireland van life guide

Overnight spots directory · Submit a spot · Affiliate disclosure