Big Lap Questions: Answered – A practical road trip guide
Words and pics Amelia Mansell
Anyone who has ever toyed with the idea of doing a Big Lap knows the feeling. The excitement hits first, then all the unknowns. Where do you start? Can you afford it? How long will it take? Can you bring the dog? Should you sell the house? Is this a brilliant idea or complete madness?
Big Lap Questions: Answered recognises exactly how overwhelming those early stages can be, and it exists for one simple reason: those questions are normal and you’re far from the only one asking them.
If the front cover looks familiar, that’s because this book forms part of the Road Ready Series created by the team behind The Big Lap Bible. Where The Big Lap Bible is about destinations and routes, Big Lap Questions: Answered focuses squarely on the planning, decision-making and day-to-day realities of long-term travel. As the creator and founder Rose Foster explains:
“Hundreds of travellers helped shape this book. We asked the Big Lap community to share the questions they wrestled with before hitting the road and the honest answers they wish they’d had. Inside, you’ll find clear, practical responses to real-world questions about the Big Lap. No fluffy Pinterest inspo. No condescending advice from people who’ve never actually done it.”
This sets the tone for the entire book. This isn’t an aspirational coffee-table guide filled with vague encouragement. It’s an authentic, experience-driven companion designed to help travellers make informed decisions, bring dream Big Lap expectations back to earth and have a clearer sense of what life on the road for months can actually involve.
The purpose of Big Lap Questions: Answered
As mentioned, Big Lap Questions: Answered is the trustworthy sidekick to The Big Lap Bible and looks at how to approach every stage of the journey. Spread across 290 full-colour pages, it answers more than 300 common questions sourced directly from travellers currently on the road or who have completed a Big Lap in recent years.
Its aim isn’t to tell readers exactly what to do. Rather, it offers the information and context needed to work out things such as whether a Big Lap is right for them, how to create the right caravan and/or 4WD setup, how to set a realistic budget and so on.
The spiral-bound layout (185mm x 248mm) is built for flicking through while planning or for keeping close in the car for a pick-me-up of realistic advice when the going gets rough.
What's inside the guide
The book is divided into nine colour-coded chapters that move logically through the stages of getting ready for a Big Lap.
Pre-Lap — What to do before your Big Lap
Planning — What your Big Lap looks like
Setup — Getting your caravan and/or 4WD ready
Gear — What you need for a Big Lap
Camps — What to know and how to find campsites
Budget — How much a Big Lap will cost and how to budget
Vanlife — What life on the road is really like
For kids — How to do the Big Lap with kids
For dogs — What a Big Lap with pets looks like
Each chapter features multiple key questions, each posed and answered across a two-page spread with quick-view responses, deeper explanations, comments from lappers and related follow-up questions (with answers). This layout makes it easy to take in the key information at a glance.
After every few questions, travellers share their stories. These features introduce different kinds of lappers, their setups and the lessons they learned on the road. They’re honest, refreshing and sometimes brutally relatable.
The heart of the book: Real travellers, real experiences
It’s this sense of lived experience that really makes this book stand out. Each chapter has been built around interviews with travellers from all walks of life. Young families, grey nomads, off-grid wanderers and solo explorers all share what actually happened when they packed up their lives and hit the road on a Big Lap.
The result feels something like sitting around a campfire with your mates, swapping stories, advice and the occasional hard truth.
Kelly and Ryan (@financialfreedombyforty), a Kiwi family currently deep into a 12-month Big Lap, put it plainly: “We did so much planning before we left — we thought we were totally prepared. But what we didn’t realise was how much ongoing planning you need to do every single day just to keep things running.”
This blend of planning and improvisation flows throughout the book. Ryan and Monique from @endlessadventureseekers share advice many potential travellers need to hear: “You’re never going to have the perfect rig. Or the perfect amount of money. Or the perfect weather. So just do it. The adventure starts when you stop making excuses.”
Practical advice for first-time lappers
The book covers all the expected topics like essential gear, tow vehicle considerations and how to find iconic campsites. But it also digs into areas travellers often overlook in the early dreaming stages.
For example, the chapter on budgeting discusses the hidden costs that many first-time lappers miss. Lana and Jason from @travel.with.jason.and.lana explain:
“Packing up our house into a storage container was a massive job, and a bigger cost than expected. We didn’t realise how much it would cost to store one car and belongings. The logistics of selling things, finding a storage solution and physically packing up your life is a whole process, and a big expense you don’t always think about.”
This chapter on Big Lap costs is one of the sections we think newcomers and experienced travellers alike will find helpful. We’ve all seen the rough budget breakdowns and advice to figure out your travel style to set your weekly budget, but the stories and specific experiences shared by lappers in this book help demonstrate what can be realistically possible depending on your travel style, highlighting what they spent their money on and why, what gear or attractions were worth a splurge and how they kept costs down.
And as the guide points out, balance is often the key. “A $25 pub meal once a week is a treat; $25 every day becomes a problem.”
Final thoughts
Big Lap Questions: Answered is naturally suited to first-time travellers, but it also offers plenty to seasoned adventurers wanting to refine their approach or learn from others’ experiences. The mix of storytelling, practical guidance and real-world examples makes it useful no matter how far along you are in the planning process.
There’s no single ‘right way’ to do a Big Lap, but this book helps answer some of the biggest questions so you can plan a trip that suits your travel style and avoid common pitfalls — so you don’t get 2000km down the road and start wondering why no one warned you what it would be like.
If you’re planning a Big Lap or know someone who is, this guide is a very useful companion to keep in the glovebox or gift to a future lapper. It won’t make all the decisions for you, but it will give you the clarity, perspective and main answers you need to start your journey with your eyes wide open.
No Big Lap is identical, but this guide aims to help ensure you’re as prepared as possible and ready for the highs, lows and all the wonders in between.
Big Lap Questions: Answered is available to purchase via the Hema Maps store for $49.95 RRP.
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