A woman who had her holiday request turned down by her boss quit her job and bought a £25,000 campervan to live and work in while travelling around the world. Kate and Steve Kennedy, 30 and 45, fell in love with RV holidays after their first road trip saw them embark on a one-week journey from London to Rome.
The couple first bought a £5,000 campervan and went on multiple holidays during annual leave but when Kate's two week holiday request from her events management job was declined for unknown reasons, it was the 'straw that broke the camel's back'. Kate and Steve then spent years saving up for a luxurious £25,000 trailer which would be complete with everything they needed to live in it full time, Wales Online reports.
In 2017, the pair both quit their jobs and left behind their rental home in Leeds, West Yorkshire to pursue their dreams of travelling the world. Kate previously worked as a wedding planner and Steve as a small business owner and now they both live life on their own terms, often starting work at 4am and working their own hours while visiting countries such as Turkey, Greece, Italy and Slovenia.
Kate said: “Ever since I was little, I hated the idea of doing work full-time and only taking a couple of weeks a year to travel. Being able to travel was a key part of growing up for me - friends joked that I was always on holiday.
"I knew I wanted more than just an office job, so when I found myself working in the confines of four walls, at a desk, I hated it.”
She recalls the 'straw that broke the camel's back' in February 2017 when her annual leave request was denied and she knew she wasn't living the life she wanted.
She added: "But not being able to go on holiday was the tipping point for me. I saw myself working in a boring office job until I was 60 - before retiring and spending the last few decades of my life seeing everything I’d wanted to see since I was in my twenties.
"I didn’t want that. I wanted to live my life in the here and now. From there, I knew I had to take charge of my own time and my own life.
"I wanted to start a wedding planning business, work flexible hours and, most importantly, spend my time travelling.”
Kate and Steve met in a bar in 2011 and six months into their relationship they flew out to Rome for their first campervan road trip.
At the time they rented the vehicle for just £1 and drove the distance from Rome to London, seeing sights like Lake Garda, the Stelvio Pass ad Lake Annecy along the way. After returning home, they both decided they wanted to buy a campervan of their own so they could travel around Europe while on annual leave.
Steve, founder of Roamer Batteries, said: “We couldn’t wait - we went straight to Inverness and bought our first campervan for £5,000. We definitely didn’t play our cards close to our chest or try to haggle - we bought it straight away, and we’ve been on the road ever since.”
Steve, who’s owned his own business since December 2020, already worked flexible hours but Kate who was an events manager at the time found her job 'rigid, boring' and says she was 'on the grind constantly'. The travel lovers would spend their summer and winter holidays in their £5k campervans for six-to-eight weeks at a time, only paying for food, leisure and the 'occasional ferry ride'.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the couple decided to rent out their van to staycationers in the UK. They were not able to travel in it at all throughout the pandemic until December 2021.
During this time, they bought an upgraded campervan for £25,000 and after renovations, the couple estimate their van is now worth around £60,000. The couple now work entirely remote from their van, which was entirely unheard of before the pandemic struck.
Kate said: "We love living in the van - it’s small so incredibly easy to tidy, cheap to heat and we can go wherever we want. We tend to go to tiny, off-grid resorts in places like Kos, Santorini and St Mauritz - and we love our snow sports in the winter.
“Our van isn’t just a vehicle to get from one place to the next - it’s our home. We’ve invested in it just like anyone would invest in a house. Our lives are here.”
Steve and Kate are currently planning their next trip to North Africa in the van where they are hoping to visit places like Morrocco.
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