Altervan means alternative van: another way to travel. It did not start as a business. It started as an idea, and we want as many people as possible to see it.
A trip with friends to Brussels, and somewhere along the way the idea: “shall we rent a van?”. Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Rotterdam. We have not stopped since.
The more trips we organised, the harder it got for our friends to keep up. For years Altervan was notes in a notebook. Until the day we suddenly lost a very close friend.
The first trip was announced publicly: the Balkans, open to anyone who wanted to come. Two vans filled up with strangers. That is where it all began.
Life is short. Do what you want to do, now.
We wake up early and are on the road before the crowds arrive. Some days at four, for a sunrise you will not see again. At midday we do not lose two hours at a table: we grab something on the way and keep going. The table comes in the evening, all together. We want every day to give us everything it has.
In the van there is no “I paid, so serve me”. There is a crew that travels together and looks out for each other. A traveller is happy with a toastie by a river and does not hunt for the trendiest restaurant. If you do not mind roughing it a little, you are in the right place. If you want all inclusive, others do it better than we do.
It gets into cities, takes gravel roads and reaches places coaches cannot. Inside there is music, conversations that do not happen anywhere else, and the jokes you will still be telling years later.
Behind every trip there is serious planning, with a plan B and a plan C. The stress of organising stays with us. If we see something on the way, we stop. And when something goes wrong, it usually becomes the story you remember most.
Three in four come solo. For the first hour nobody knows anybody, then the ice breaks. Friendships have lasted years, and couples who met in the van have got married.
A true traveller does not count the places they stood, but the moments that changed them.Anastasis, founder of Altervan
This is what we want to grow. More people travelling with their eyes open, with a crew they did not know that morning and stories that do not fit in a photo.