Van Clan launched in April 2017 as a Facebook page with its pure aim of building a community of campervan lovers and travel addicts. We want to show our fans all kinds of vans from across the globe, ranging from luxury VW buses to DIY projects that were found in forgotten forests. Van Clan has quickly taken off and gained tens of thousands of members within its first week, and now we are the No.1 source for all things van life related. Do you need help converting your camper? Want to know the best gear to buy for your road exploration or even how to take a number 2 off grid? We’re here to help.
Our team has chased the mountains of New Zealand, cruised the Jurassic Coast of England, ventured through the brutal outback of Australia, and we now we want to help and inspire you to travel the world on four wheels with your new home.
Want to write for us or have a story you want to share? Get in touch, let’s talk.
Head Of Written Content –
Seb Santabarbara
From the age of 16, Seb has worked in the music industry both as a touring musician and later as a marketing professional for one of the biggest names in concert venue management. In 2017 he bought a Vauxhall Movano Maxi Roof panel van and converted it with his partner, Rose, leaving the rat-race behind and embarking on an alternative living journey that allowed him to pursue a more relaxed way of life. His main passion has always been writing, compiling short stories since the age of 10 and working on multiple novels throughout his adult life. After submitting a sample article on ‘Vanlife in the UK’, Seb joined the Van Clan team as a writer and has since progressed on to heading up all of the brand’s written content and communication. He has had an active role in pushing the reach and social presence of the Van Clan brand and helping it to become one of the fastest-growing, informative, and most trusted alternative living platforms on the internet.
Seb’s full-time van life journey has seen him travel throughout mainland Europe and to the United States on multiple occasions to find out more about the van life movement and to meet like-minded vandwellers who share his passion of a self-sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle. In 2019, Seb joined the Thunder Niche brand and put his knowledge of retro gaming products to use writing for Retro Dodo. Combining his love of all things Nintendo with the written word, Seb continues to create engaging content on both platforms while working alongside brand-partners to push Thunder Niche to greater heights. Follow Seb’s adventures @vincentvanlife
Writer – Rose Andrews
Rose has always had a passion for the arts, creating original items of furniture, clothing, and home apparel for herself and others from a very early age. After leaving a job in ticketing at one of the biggest names in concert venue management, Rose put her passion and skills to the test by designing and converting a Vauxhall Movano Maxi Roof panel van with her partner Seb, a project that was soon to become her full-time home. Her tiny house has featured in notable magazine publications in Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and her skill and knowledge in van conversions make her a key member of the Van Clan brand and writing team. Rose poured this knowledge into the How To Build A Camper e-book currently on sale on the Van Clan e-shop and regularly writes engaging content to inspire other self-conversion enthusiasts with their van life adventures.
In 2019 Rose travelled to the United States to work closely with key brand partners and continues to learn more about the van life movement while travelling full time in her rolling home. She has recently joined the Thunder Niche team and added her love of retro toys and products to the Retro Dodo brand. Follow Rose’s adventures @vincentvanlife
Working With Brands
Van Clan dedicates itself to working with brands that fit our audiences needs. In our two years of producing content and growing the brand we have worked with a wide number of companies from around the world in order to educate and entertain the Van Clan community. Not only do we we work with brands we also decline a lot of sponsorships, we’ve missed out on thousands of dollars to keep our content within our niche, and this is what makes us special, we only work with the best of the best.
We have worked with the likes of: TomTom, Four Wheel Campers, Jackery, Scrubba, Passenger Clothing, Earthroamer, Ridgemonkey and more.
The Future Of Van Clan
The future of Van Clan is exciting. The van life niche is forever growing; younger explorers are wanting to buy a van to explore the world instead of going into college/university debt. They don’t want to put a deposit on a tiny house in an awful location, they want to buy an already converted van to take their home with them wherever they go.
The Van Clan team want to insure that the people that are interested in doing this are well educated and are continuously learning about the lifestyle. For those that aren’t into learning about the van life they can come to use to learn about new off road rigs and large exhibition vehicle to go off the grid. We assist the new, and welcome the veterans with content that fits the whole community.
Van Clan plans to become the biggest van life community around. In 2020 we plan to create the UK’s first official Van Life meet up, a yearly even that brings together the nations road explorers to celebrate the peaceful and free lifestyle. This is just one of the many things we plan to do, but you can bet yourself we’ll be producing the freshest content around, in written, video and audio form. We want to become the Top Gear of van life.
Featured In
Van Clan has been featured in a wide number of places around the web, from conversion sites to mainstream news. We pride ourselves in high quality, reliable content, and this shows through our features, collaborations and recommendations from some of the biggest names on the internet.
27/10/2019
“Brandon Saltalamacchia, founder of Van Clan, a website offering advice and inspiration to aspiring van lifers. we recommend hiring different models by the day before you buy, and trying them out see how they drive and whether the size is right”.
29/6/2019
“Founder of ‘Van Clan’, – an online community and content page for van conversion lovers and travel addicts – Brandon, told Bored Panda that the first allure of Van life is the freedom it gives, “People want freedom to escape the ever daunting bills, stress, and constraints of “real life”.
26/5/2019
We were one of their main sources for facts and information about the van dweller lifestyle.
