The Life Nomadic

The Life Nomadic

Overlanding Resources

A collection of various things we’ve found on the internet that have been quite helpful in the planning (and hopefully execution) of our trip.

Useful sites

  • Drive the Americas – the “go to” site. Full of useful information, forums with a buy/sell vehicle section
  • Expedition Portal – Expedition Portal is a community of adventure travelers, where the primary means of exploration is by 4wd and motorcycle. Forums, gear reviews, etc. More commercial than Drive the Americas for sure, but handy nonetheless.
  • Life Remotely – blog/information site. Some really good general information. They offer a free ebook that gives an excellent (if somewhat dated) country specific information for the Americas. They have also published an overlander’s cookbook with recipes that utilize common ingredients that can be found all over Latin America and can be cooked in camp.
  • WikiOverland – A wiki specific to overlanding. Provides detailed, country specific information.
  • Overland Sphere – Forums dedicated to overlanding and related topics. Not terribly active.
  • iOverlander – A site and an iPhone app with user contributed map waypoints – extremely handy!
  • Trusted Housesitters – Want or need a break from living in your vehicle but not keen to spend money on lodging? Give this a shot.
  • Help Exchange – Trade labor for accommodation – wide array of opportunities.
  • Prepaid Data SIM Card Wiki – Information about prepaid (or PAYG) mobile phone plans from all over the world. Not just any plans though, they must include good data rates, perfect for smartphone travellers, as well as tablet or mobile modem users.

Blogs

  • When Sparks Fly – We hosted this family and they house sat for us while they were overlanding through Panamá. They’ve got a fair bit of experience, to say the least.

  • shakes2patagonia – A guy in his Element drove from California to Patagonia.

  • Project Roam – Danny and Shannon roadtrip around South America in a 1990 VW Kombi
  • B & K Explore – A journey from Texas to Ushuaia

Vehicle Related

  • edmunds – useful for researching various makes/models. I found the availability of detailed specifications to be of great value.
  • Kelley Blue Book – get an idea of what prices should be for whatever vehicle you are looking for.
  • Titan Talk – Kind of a fan club – I came across this after I decided that the Nissan Titan was a good choice for our trip vehicle. It’s probably safe to assume that these types of make/model specific communities exist for a wide array of vehicles. Great way to find out common issues and prepare accordingly.
  • Auto Trader – Buy/Sell vehicles with lots of handy search filters. My favorite thing about this site is that vehicles often have links to free carfax reports on the vehicle listed for sale.
  • CARFAX – Enter a VIN get a useful report with service history, ownership and usage history, etc. Can also provide some general broad-range data about common failures on specific model of vehicle.

Staying Connected

Maps!!!