AT 35, I GAVE UP MY CORPORATE JOB TO LIVE IN MY VW VAN IN DEVON – I HAVE NO REGRETS

Suzy Greenwood, 39, left life in London for the South Hams in Devon. She had fallen out of love with the city life, lavish dinners and globetrotting she used to adore, and hatched a plan to convert a bed and breakfast into a guesthouse so that she could run it alongside her corporate job. She now lives in an annex on the side of the property, which she also rents out to pay the bills; spending the summer living and working from her campervan.

With her simpler existence by the sea, Suzy has built a community of diverse friends, picked up a whole host of new hobbies and interests and says she is far happier than she was in London. Interview by Kelly Washington

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It was summer 2020. I was 35 and had just spent four months living in Devon with my family during lockdown before returning to my flat in Shepherd’s Bush. It was then that I realised I’d fallen out of love with the capital.

It had been great in my 20s, but life had changed so much: all my friends were married, had kids and moved out of the city. I was still happily single – and had spent 15 years building a successful PR career, working my way up the corporate ladder – but I was no longer doing the things I loved London for, and spent most of my weekends escaping to the coast to sail.

My parents had converted my grandparents’ bungalow in the South Hams in Devon into a B&B. That was where I’d spent lockdown – a planned few weeks turned into four months – and I’d fallen in love with that lifestyle. The South Hams is beautiful. With its crystal clear waters, rolling coastline and wild beaches, it is far away from the touristy parts of Devon, which makes it much quieter.

Around that time my parents started talking about retiring and selling up. I felt I couldn’t let them sell this beautiful property – it was part of our family and right by the water. My gut was telling me to buy it. My parents laughed at me when I told them, but I was serious – I put the plans in motion right away.

It wasn’t a straight forward journey and I rolled some pretty big dice to make it happen. I took a lot of calculated risks, which was scary at times. We spoke to an accountant and worked out a way for me to sell my two-bedroom flat and buy the business. What followed was a slightly strange two years, where I lived in the annex on the side of the main property.

At the same time I negotiated a remote role with my company so that I could relocate, settling into Devon life. When the time was finally right for my parents to retire, I took on the challenge of renovating the B&B into a guesthouse, Seaflowers, which I modelled on the best places I’d stayed over the years. I added two hot tubs, revamped the boathouse with stand-up paddleboards and installed an office and gym in the garden for my own use. It took a lot of hard work while doing my corporate job remotely to cover the costs.

I’d put my life savings and everything I had into the project and needed another way to bring in money to cover the reno. I decided to buy a van so I could also let out my home, the annexe. The VW Caddy I bought has modifications like a shower and a laptop table. It cost £15k, which I paid for with the annexe rental and a bank loan (I paid it off within four months). It worked so well I ended up renting out the annexe on AirBnB most weekends and all summer for eight weeks.

The van itself is tiny, which is great because I can park up anywhere. It looks like a workman’s van, so I can sleep in a lay-by, or at beautiful spots overlooking the sea. One downside is that sometimes I’m in fairly sketchy areas alone but nothing terrible has happened. I’ve gotten used to living a bit more… feral: I’m always on the hunt for surfer showers so I can have an outdoor shower. I can pack up my home and be out in the van and have it ready to go anytime.

I’ve been on so many adventures in the caddy. I’ve hiked the whole of the South West Coast Path, and got really into sea swimming and even fishing. My finances have dramatically changed due to this lifestyle shift. Where I once spent maybe £200 on a fancy dinner, I can now spend £10 on a whole weekend and be having the time of my life. The life I live now really doesn’t cost very much at all.

I love to garden, keep chickens and I trade seedlings and vegetables that we’ve grown with friends – the exact opposite of how I imagined my future would look. My local beach is an eight-minute drive away, and sits on a large bay that is calm like a pool one day, with crashing waves the next. I feel very lucky.

The thing I was most worried about when I moved was making friends. I thought that it would be quite lonely and it would be hard to find like-minded people – I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I lived in London, my friends were really similar. They’d been to university, got a job, were in the same age bracket, had similar life experiences and shared an outlook. But in Devon, I’ve met a diverse group of people of all ages and walks of life through shared interests.

I have a range of friends from early 20s to late 60s who I’ve met in yoga classes, hiking, even, literally, swimming in the sea. It’s the shared interests that bring people together. Everyone’s from different backgrounds, ages and incomes, but it doesn’t matter at all because we’re all connected through a love of nature.

I’m very independent. I do date and enjoy dating, but I’m happy by myself. What has changed is that I’ve met other like-minded people so that’s been really freeing and gratifying – to know that there are people who are living life differently, too – it’s not just me.

Now I often connect with old friends who say: “You’re really happy. You have this amazing life.” And it’s true, I get to do all the things I want to do. If I’m honest, I don’t think people realise there’s another way of doing life from the standard 9-5 and family life you’re told to want.

I’m glad I had my corporate life and I am grateful for it, but I now feel like a completely different person. One of the really lovely surprises about this move is that I have a much closer relationship with my parents. They live in the same village still, and I have a really wonderful relationship with them, whereas before, if I’m completely honest, we didn’t really know each other. Now I’m the one that’s going to be there to look after them when they’re older, and I’m so glad I’m able to do that since my sisters have children and one lives in Australia.

The best thing about running the guesthouse is seeing people enjoying the space and experiences I’ve worked so hard to create – it’s very rewarding. The worst thing is probably the breakages – there’s rarely a booking that goes by without some form of damage to an item in the property. But I know accidents happen when people are having fun – it’s all part of running a business.

I turn 40 in February. Just days before my 40th birthday I will be free from the corporate job completely, running Seaflowers full-time and doing some freelancing on the side, finally fully transitioning into my Devon life.

I think the biggest difference is that before I was living to work. I sacrificed so much for my career, and I don’t regret it, because I loved it and it enabled me to have the life I have now. But now I work to live.

I knew that I was done with London and I wanted a new life, but if you’d have told me that it was going to work out like this – that I would have this fantastic community of people, all of these new hobbies and a successful business – I would not have believed it. To anyone else thinking of taking a similar leap, I’d say don’t be afraid of change, because life can happen in ways you’d never expect.

2026-01-05T12:34:06Z