How I Remote Worked From a Campervan Along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way
In the summer of 2021, I took off in my newly purchased (yet very old) converted Ford Transit campervan. My goal was to travel the entire length of Ireland’s awe-inspiring west coast, the Wild Atlantic Way, without interruption to my work on Stora.
I’m pleased to say I managed it! Whilst there were bumps along the way, it’s totally possible. I’ll share all the little things I did to make it go (relatively) swimmingly in this guide.
Like many of us today, I predominantly work remotely, requiring nothing more than an internet connection, electricity, and a laptop. However, when I decided to try this journey, my camper had no solar installation, wi-fi, or desk. I won’t be getting into the specifics of installing solar in this guide; there are plenty of better solar set-up guides around the internet to help with that. What I can do is give you a few tips that helped me.
Electricity
Set your van up properly
I got by with one solar panel and leisure battery but you likely will want to consider additional panels and potentially a second battery to increase power reliability.
Definitely install a battery switch to charge from your van’s main battery while you drive—that was an absolute lifesaver for me—particularly when those pesky cloudy Irish skies reduced the charging capability of my solar set-up.
Get a campsite electric hookup lead
One bright spark I had before setting off was to get a cable that converts 16A campsite electric hookup into UK plug sockets. These are very cheap and come in handy if your battery has died and you can find a spot in a campsite (not actually that easy at last minute notice during the Irish summer). I’d recommend getting one at least 5m long.
Coffee shops are your friend
I worked from coffee shops quite a bit to give my leisure battery a break. There is no shortage of options now along the Wild Atlantic Way. Even the smallest villages usually have somewhere you can work. The perfect opportunity to discover a new place, charge your devices and over caffeinate yourself.
Working environment
First and foremost, you’re in a van. It’s unlikely you’re going to have the perfect ergonomic set-up. I made do with an adjustable rotating table and a camping chair. Sure it wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve been in my life, but it did the job.
I was also fortunate to have a table pulled out from my van’s side door at perfect standing desk height. I absolutely loved working at it, from the plentiful scenic spots of the Wild Atlantic Way’s coast.
Apart from that, I had a Roost laptop stand with me, which I used on my desk alongside a keyboard and mouse. You really don’t need much.
The internet
This is the most crucial bit of this guide and likely where you’ll find the most value. Today, it’s not straightforward to get a strong enough internet signal along most of the Wild Atlantic Way to conduct Zoom calls and work without issue. But it’s totally possible with a bit of planning. It’s worth saying that all that follows might be rendered mute in the near future thanks to services like Starlink, which will beam super-fast internet to you anywhere. Sadly I had no such capability.
Accessing the web remotely (today)
You have a solution already: It’s in your pocket (your phone). Unless you’re rockin’ a Nokia 3210 or similar, you can set up your personal hotspot, tether to your laptop and work happily enough. I seriously considered this as my primary internet set-up. But eventually decided it would be wiser to have a dedicated internet device. And it was the right decision.
In the end, I purchased a 4G portable hotspot from Three Ireland. Here’s why:
- Since I’m from N.Ireland, I needed an Irish sim, so I wasn’t hit with massive data usage bills whilst in Ireland
- From my research, Three seemed to have the best data coverage in the country
- Having it meant I always had two devices I could connect to. A backup definitely came in handy from time to time
- I anticipated needing to put it on top of my van sometimes to get a better signal. I was correct
I’d recommend following a similar approach. If a 5G hotspot device is available (which it wasn’t for me), get that. You could also go as far as to install an antenna on your van. It would certainly mean you wouldn’t need to set your hotspot on your roof as I had to, which means you won’t forget it’s up there, and drive a few hundred meters down the road before it falls off and smashes (I did that and it survived 🙏).
The goal: 4G or 5G at all times
You really can’t rely on anything below 4G to provide enough strength to do the typical remote daily workflow–particularly video calls. So how do you ensure, to the best of your ability, you have access to 4G?
Use data coverage maps to pick where to park.
Without network data coverage maps, I don’t think this trip would have been possible. You’d be searching for an internet connected-needle in a haystack otherwise.
These are available for all networks on websites like this. For my purposes, I stuck to Three’s official coverage map. They break down the coverage to show if it’s suitable for indoor (good, shown in purple) or outdoor (not as good, displayed in yellow). I endeavoured to always work from a purple, indoor 4G area.
As you can see, along the coast, the coverage is patchy at best. But 99% of the time, everything worked well when I worked from one of the better-covered areas. Sometimes the weather affects things, but there’s not much you can do about that.
OK, so now you know how to find where the best internet signal is. Now how do you actually find somewhere you can park that suits all the remaining criteria for a pleasant stay?
Working out your perfect Wild Atlantic Office
Here are my ideal criteria for a lovely remote van office location, in order of importance:
- Free - You really don’t need a campsite. I paid for one the entire trip
- Quiet - Somewhere I could sleep and work away from main roads
- Scenic - That’s the whole point of this, right??
- Close to amenities - Nature is gonna call and a shower from time to time is nice
- Strong data coverage - Work uninterrupted
- Close to cool local food and coffee - I’m hipster AF
Sometimes I would stay somewhere scenic with no internet coverage, but I’d always have an idea of where I could go close by to have the internet gods bathe me in their data glory.
You should work out your own criteria. Once you have it, you’ll likely wonder how you can find places that fit in a purple patch without having to drive around like a headless chicken.
Find park up spots with the Park4night app
Park4night is essentially a crowdsourced map of places van-folk have camped before. It’s an unbelievably useful resource that will help you work out things like:
- Are there toilets/showers?
- Is there a height barrier?
- Is it noisy?
- Is it flat?
- Is it gonna blow my mind with a sunrise view to die for?? 😍🌅
Best of all, it’s free! Big up to the community who have created something so invaluable. It took me to the most awesome lakes, cliffs and coasts and even found me overnight spots in cities like Cork and Dublin to stay without much issue.
The map data disconnect problem
Now you know how to find the internet, and you know where to find places to stay. However, there is a problem. These two data sources are not connected, and it’s a real pain in the arse. The good news is I’ve worked out a few solutions, so you don’t have to:
Solution 1: The map jumper
The quickest (and most frustrating solution) is to basically open up both your data coverage map and Park4night and eyeball them. First, you need to find an area along your route that looks like it’s internet-rich, then find a spot in Park4night that looks like it’s in that area.
This approach can work. In particular in areas with great wide-ranging coverage. The problem I found is often, the best parking spots are on the fringes of the stronger coverage. That can be the difference between a Zoom call where your colleagues are mind blown by your superhuman ability to chat shop with them from a van on a beach and your team cursing your buffering nomadic work quest beneath their breath.
Solution 2: My map in the middle
Preface: I’m a map nerd. I like making maps. I solved this problem (largely) by doing a bit of time-consuming upfront work creating my own Google My Map. On it, I roughly combined the data from both of these sources. Here’s how:
On my laptop, I opened both maps side-by-side. I then roughly drew shapes of the strong signalled areas on my Google My Map. I’d then open up the web pages of any Park4night spots that looked like they were in that area, copying their GPS coordinates (decimal degree version) into my Maps search field and hit enter to find its exact location. If it happened to land well within my marked area, I’d press “Add to Map” and colour it green (for strong signal). Sometimes there’d be spots on the fringes I’d be less confident in; I’d still save them and colour them yellow in case they were needed.
While this was a tedious process (which I’d do about once a week), it meant I wasn’t stressing every day about where I’d end up. I’d always have a pretty good idea. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to get by.
Before I left, I seriously considered working with a developer to figure out how to pull both data sources into one place. There’s definitely a problem worth solving here with a bit of tech. However, I think Elon has that one covered with Starlink.
Can you remote work from a van in Ireland? Yes.
It really is entirely possible to do this today. I had a fantastic 6-week journey along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way without any real impact on my work.
And when your workday is done, there are countless adventures to be had, sights to see, great people to meet and places to explore. I couldn’t recommend the experience enough.
I’ll leave you to work out how to solve the biggest problem of all when it comes to remote working along the Wild Atlantic Way…
“How can I sit in a van working when there are so many Wild Atlantic adventures outside my door waiting to be had?”
Sometimes the allure was too much for me to resist 😬🏊♂️
If you’ve any other questions about remote working from a van feel free to drop me an email.