What’s the best campervan shower?

Imagine returning to your van after a long day on the trails. You’re caked in dust and sweat, and ready for a warm shower. What shower setup do you want to have in your van?

Whether or not to have a shower is one of the more contested choices in a campervan conversion. Some people can’t imagine life without a full cubicle; others are perfectly happy with a sink and a wet cloth.

So what are your options, and which one suits how you actually travel?

We build four shower solutions, and each of our vans is designed around one of them:

1. A fixed internal shower — the Arête and the Mesa
2. A pop-up internal shower — the Summit
3. An outdoor shower — on every van we build
4. No internal shower at all — the Outpost

Which one is right for your adventure van?

Fixed internal shower

Many people opt for a permanent fixed internal shower, as it gives the most privacy and the most “at-home” experience. With this option you’re dedicating a full space in the van to the shower.

This is how we build the Arête and the Mesa. Both have a permanent enclosed shower room, finished to the same standard as the rest of the van — powder-coated aluminium walls, a stainless steel tap and mixer, and a removable composting toilet. There’s no setup: you open the door and use it.

Pros

• A dedicated space means you can shut the door and shower in privacy, much like being at home
• It gives you a permanent wet room — good for hanging wet kit after a day in the sea or the rain
• It doubles as a toilet room, giving you privacy inside the van

Cons

• Space. A comfortable shower needs to be at least 700mm x 700mm, and even that is a fairly small cubicle. Do you want to give up that much of the van for something you use for five minutes a day?

Who is this for?

• Long wheelbase vans
• Full-time van lifers
• Anyone who regularly has wet kit to deal with

Pop-up internal shower

This means having a permanent shower tray and shower point inside the van, hidden in a bench or a cupboard. You have a full-sized shower in about a minute when you want it, and the rest of the time it’s a bench.

This is how we build the Summit, our medium wheelbase two-berth. The cubicle pops up with a composting toilet and folds away completely, so the van stays open when you’re not using it.

Pros

• No permanent cubicle means far more usable space day to day — and if you’re not going to use the shower on a trip, it’s extra storage
• It’s still an internal shower, so you can wash anywhere, in privacy

Cons

• Some setup required, though ours takes about a minute
• No good hanging space for wet kit
• No separate room for the toilet

Who is this for?

• Medium wheelbase vans
• People who want an open layout but still want the option of a private shower

External shower

An outdoor shower point built into the van, usually in the garage area, with hot and cold supply.

We fit this to every van we build, whichever of the other options you choose. It doubles as a dog wash and a kit wash — and there’s a lot to be said for a shower with a view.

Pros

• Very simple, nothing to set up
• Nothing draining inside the van
• Doubles as a dog or kit wash

Cons

• Not much privacy
• Weather dependent — less appealing in February

Who is this for?

• Everyone. An outdoor shower point is a good addition to any van
• People who’ll usually be on a campsite with facilities
• Anyone happy with a sink wash when the weather isn’t playing

No internal shower

This is a real option, and we think an underrated one. Plenty of people would rather not add the plumbing, and there are good portable showers you can carry. If you’re often on campsites, why give up the space?

This is the thinking behind the Outpost. It has no internal shower room, and that’s the point — the space goes into storage and living instead, which is what the whole van is built around. It keeps the outdoor rear connection for rinsing kit, dogs and boots, and campsite facilities cover the rest, the way they would on any trip outdoors.

For a lot of people it’s the right choice, and we build a van around it.

Pros

• Simpler plumbing
• No interior space given over to a shower
• The space goes somewhere you use every day rather than for five minutes

Cons

• No indoor shower, so you’re relying on campsites, an outdoor rinse, or a sponge wash

Who is this for?

• Anyone staying on campsites, or happy to manage without an indoor shower
• People who’d rather have the storage

So which campervan shower is best?

There’s no wrong answer, but it is worth thinking about how you’ll actually use the van rather than how you picture using it.

If interior space is your priority, an outdoor shower on its own goes further than people expect. If you want the creature comforts, a fixed shower room is the way. If you want both, a pop-up is the compromise that costs you least.

Here’s how that maps across our range:

And if none of those is quite right, Hors Catégorie commissions are built around whatever the brief actually needs.

Want to see how the different options look? There’s a gallery of finished vans. And when you’re ready, book a discovery call — a relaxed conversation about how you travel, and which van fits it.