But a group of LA-based designers and engineers are taking the idea of an exploration vehicle away from the traditional Winnebago-type RV and to a kind of souped-up ultimate vacation truck: the KiraVan.

In the third episode of our travel tech series Voyager, made possible by travel tool KAYAK.co.uk, we visit the team working on the van at Applied Minds, led by Bran Ferren. The van is clearly a pet project for Ferren, who named the truck after his daughter Kira, but it's also a testbed for the team's latest vehicle engineering ideas.

Nicknamed by some as a "Swiss army knife on wheels," the beast of an RV comes with all the mod cons you'd expect, and many you wouldn't—cameras, thermal engineers, and of course a special tented room for Kira. Oh, and there's a motorbike attached to the back too. Ferren imagines the KiraVan being configurable for a traveller's specific needs, be they a photographer or palaeontologist.