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After eight years of travelling, we’ve learned that some of the best moments on the road are often the simplest.
You’ve arrived somewhere new, found a spot for the night and finally switched off the engine. The chairs come out, dinner can wait and there’s nothing left to do except sit back, take in the view and pour a drink.
We’ve enjoyed sundowners overlooking Moroccan deserts, beside deserted beaches, high in the mountains and in plenty of far less glamorous places where the company and conversation made up for the view.
It’s become one of our favourite little rituals of life on the road.
And when you live or travel in a motorhome or campervan, those small pleasures matter. Space is precious, everything needs to survive being rattled around on the move, and anything breakable requires careful consideration before being allowed through the door.
That doesn’t mean you have to drink your favourite whisky from a plastic camping cup.
Taking the Good Stuff With You
One of the compromises of travelling in a small space is deciding what you really need to carry.
Full-sized bottles take up valuable cupboard space, they’re heavy and glass bottles need protecting. If you enjoy having a choice of spirits, taking several bottles away for a weekend or road trip starts to feel slightly ridiculous.
That’s why we particularly like the idea behind Oak & Ember’s Flight Flask Traveller II.
Its four individual flight flasks mean you can decant a selection of your favourite spirits and take them with you in a compact, water-resistant protective case. You get the choice without having four full-sized bottles rolling around in the motorhome.
It also works rather nicely for the sundowner. Whisky one evening, rum the next, perhaps a favourite brandy after dinner, all without giving over half a cupboard to the drinks cabinet.
For shorter trips or anyone who only wants to take one favourite spirit, the Oak & Ember Flight Flask does the same job on a smaller scale.
A Proper Glass Makes a Difference
There are some things we’ll happily compromise on when we’re travelling. Glassware isn’t always one of them.
Oak & Ember’s Mini Glask Traveller pairs a Flight Flask with a miniature tasting glass and keeps both protected in their own travel case.
It’s a small thing, but there’s something much nicer about sitting outside at the end of the day and drinking a good whisky from a proper tasting glass rather than the nearest camping mug.
And that really sums up our approach to long-term travel. We don’t want to carry lots of stuff, but we do like the things we carry to earn their place.
When the Sundowner Is a Bottle of Wine
Of course, whisky isn’t everyone’s idea of a sundowner.
A cold bottle of white or rosé is considerably more appealing when you’re sitting outside on a warm evening somewhere in southern Europe.
Keeping it cold once it’s left the fridge is another matter.
The Oak & Ember Wine Cooler Sleeve II is designed to slip around a bottle and keep it chilled without needing a bulky ice bucket. That’s particularly useful in a motorhome or campervan, where storage space is always at a premium and nobody wants to find room for something they’ll use for an hour a day.
Pair it with one of Oak & Ember’s insulated stainless steel wine tumblers and you’ve also solved one of the perennial camping problems: broken glasses.
They’re much better suited to being carried outside, taken to the beach or packed away in a motorhome cupboard, and the insulation helps keep your wine at the temperature you actually wanted to drink it.
Ice Without the Melting Ice
If you prefer your whisky chilled, Oak & Ember’s whisky stones are another neat option for travelling.
Keep them cold and you can use them instead of ice cubes, cooling your drink without gradually diluting it as the ice melts.
They’re also reusable, compact and take up virtually no space, three qualities we appreciate in pretty much anything that comes into our motorhome.
And Then There’s the Morning After…
The sundowner might be our favourite end-of-day ritual, but there is another drink we take considerably more seriously on the road: tea.
Oak & Ember’s insulated range includes both tall and short travel mugs, which makes them useful well beyond the drinks-at-sunset theme.
A decent insulated mug is one of those pieces of kit that quickly becomes part of everyday van life. Tea while you’re packing up in the morning, something hot for a long driving day or a brew outside when it’s far too chilly to contemplate the wine tumblers.
Unlike something bought purely for occasional camping trips, it’s the sort of thing you’ll probably use every day.
Take the Ritual With You
One of the great pleasures of travelling by motorhome or campervan is that home comes with you.
Over the years we’ve become pretty ruthless about what deserves space in ours. We don’t want cupboards full of things we rarely use, and we’ve learned that clever, compact kit usually wins over anything bulky.
But we’ve also learned that travelling doesn’t have to mean giving up all the little luxuries you enjoy at home.
Sometimes it’s good coffee in the morning. Sometimes it’s a cold glass of wine outside the van. And sometimes it’s pouring a favourite whisky as the sun disappears behind a mountain and wondering how on earth this became normal life.
Oak & Ember’s tagline is “your favourite drink wherever you go”, and that feels particularly appropriate for motorhome and campervan travel.
Because the sundowner isn’t really about what you’re drinking.
It’s about stopping long enough to enjoy where you are.
