With decades of experience across continents — from military operations to remote mountain summits — David Hamilton-Jones now uses his hard-earned lessons to help others design lives of freedom and purpose through coaching and retreats.
His most memorable travel experiences were always self-supported and vehicle-based: climbing, mountaineering, surfing, and snowboarding trips. Following a deployment with US Special Forces, he seized the opportunity to live and work in the USA — during the early days of vanlife, before Sprinter conversions became mainstream. He bought a low-roof, short-wheelbase van and converted it with a pop-top. Living in the van while building it, he travelled the length of California, surfing in the mornings and working on the van in the afternoons, before eventually driving it cross-country to Washington DC.
Later, he embarked on a 4,000-mile winter road trip from Southern California to Revelstoke, Canada in a Sprinter, armed with a Mountain Collective Ski Pass that allowed days of snowboarding at almost every resort along the route.
While leading a training team in Kenya for two years, he took a pickup with a roof tent and a motocross bike on an overland trip across Kenya and Tanzania — experiences ranging from horseback safaris, hiking Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro, diving off East Africa’s coastlines, to riding along deserted beaches under palms.
An assignment in Norway allowed a campervan trip along Norway’s Wild Atlantic coast and through Sweden’s forests, exploring endless islands, fjords, waterfalls, and mountains — one of the few places where snow meets the sea. This was his first experience of working remotely from a van while studying for his MBA.
On leaving the Army, he wanted to avoid a life of meaningless work. Time spent with a coach during his transition proved transformative. Gaining clarity on his values, meant decision-making became simpler, and a new path — aligned to growth and helping others — unfolded.
After completing his MBA, he set out to build an unconventional life. To test the feasibility of remote working and long-term travel, he embarked on a dream four-month campervan journey through Spain, Andorra and the French Alps. Equipped with mountain bike, climbing gear, boards and his work setup, he lived a life of slow travel and adventure while building an online business venture with the aim of generating passive income.
A standout day involved a sunrise hike and splitboard descent in the Picos de Europa, surfing that afternoon, and working from a firelit camp as the sun set over the ocean. Most importantly, the trip proved that working from the road was viable.
Since then, he has continued combining remote work with campervan life, setting up systems to manage business development, marketing, accounts, podcast interviews, and online coaching — even securing a role for a TV company with an interview from his Scottish woodland base. His campervan now serves as a mobile HQ for delivering coaching to clients across the globe.
The values clarified through coaching — meaningful connections, health, growth, helping others, and caring for the environment — underpin his ventures. His work spans solo projects, consultancy, coaching, TV expeditions, and freelance writing. Together, they create multiple revenue streams to support a life of meaningful long-term travel.
His latest project — ‘Vanlife Startup School’ — draws together his passions for coaching and the campervan community. He offers others the tools to build their own unconventional journeys, blending passion, freedom, and work into a life lived in alignment with what is most valuable to them.
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