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Has anyone taken a road trip with an RV/camper van before?
My south island New Zealand trip that's been changed around no fewer than 35 times has changed again. One of H's colleagues told him that the thing to do is rent a camper van and drive around so that is what we're now doing.
I do not foresee this ending well. Camping is not my idea of a good time and I'm starting to get a bit worried. Are there any tips you can give to make a trip where you're driving for 8 days relaxing and worthwhile?
We're spending 3 nights at a B&B in Marlborough, but the rest will be driving wherever we feel like going with the camper.
Re: Has anyone taken a road trip with an RV/camper van before?
I'm assuming your talking about one of these http://www.wickedcampers.com.au/
Yes, that is the thing to do. I also can't think of any worse vacation to take. What were your other original 35 plans? Anyway you can go back to those?
My biggest concern would be bedbugs, lice, fleas and ticks, etc. The people you see tooling around my part of Australia in these are the "eco tourists" (hippie backpackers). And well, these things don't come with showers.
HA, my H knows better than to even suggest it. Now, if it was one we owned, I might be a bit more open to the idea, but I would never be able to sleep at night in one of the rental camper vans.
Oh and for the next argument of "but they clean them out..." yeah, they hire cheap backpacker labour to clean them. So unless I am seeing it stripped bare and bug bombs being set off ...
Camping in an RV is FUN - and this is coming from a girl who only likes to stay in four+ star hotels. That said, I've only camped in the US. I grew up camping in an RV, and we took trips driving from Georgia as far as the Grand Canyon.
The key is doing your research on the campgrounds and being sure to find nice ones. A nice campground will have clean and comfortable bathrooms (assuming you are not renting a camper with it's own bathroom), pretty landscape, and nice, level campsites.
Campers are small and easy to clean. If you are concerned about the cleanliness, then just know that you can easily clean the entire thing yourself in about five minutes if it will make you feel better. You will put sheets on the bed, so it's not like you are laying on something dirty. You can also vacuum the mattress if you are worried about it. Chances are, you will see the RV and decide that it's not so bad.
Embrace the camping experience! Be sure to have a couple of chairs that you can set up outside the camper. Have a few citronella candles to burn to keep away the bugs (and the flickering candles just adds to the experience). Plan to make smores and look into some other fun camping recipes - like chicken and vegetables that you wrap up in foil and cook on the embers of the campfire. Allrecipes.com has an entire section on camping recipes. Here is a link: http://tinyurl.com/85y3mj8. Bring some fun games - yahtzee, checkers, scrabble, etc for evenings in the camper, and while driving around the passenger can even ask the driver trivial pursuit questions. Just relax and you will have a good time!
Next week my husband, son and I are taking my parent's RV camping for a week. My husband is reluctant, but I know he's going to end up loving it. Camping does not have to mean roughing it. I'll be packing my Keurig, flat iron, and travel steamer - I do not rough it. The camper has a stove, fridge, running water, a/c and heat, electricity, etc. The camp sites even have cable tv and wireless internet. I'm more excited about this trip than I've been about a vacation in a long time since it's been quite some time since I've been camping.
I can't wait to hear about it when you get back, so be sure to post and let us know how it went!
OMG, I just checked out the website and am CRACKING UP! OP, if this is the type of thing your H wants to rent, talk him out of it!! When you said camper van, I was thinking like a nice, big motor home. We camp in a pop up camper, but even that is nice. I had no idea that there were literally vans that are also campers, and it's from a hippy type place like the above website, no way would I sleep in that as I'd be worried about lice and such.
I think I'd much rather just rent a car and bring a nice tent and camping gear. A tent, air mattress, and bedding would most likely be just as comfortable as this van, and at least be clean. I guess the drawback is that you have to actually set up and tear down with each overnight stop, but I'd just find a tent that is really easy to set up and go with that instead of one of these crazy hippy vans.
OMG. I did not actually look at that link the first time around. I've seen pictures of what he rented and it's basically what Europeans rent to go on massive camper van trips of the American west. It's also from a serious car rental company.
We're leaving Friday and I suppose it's too late to change plans. I'm just getting nervous because I don't really camp and I'm married to a man who took one look at the reasonable 3-star local hotel his sister booked for us in Vietnam and went and checked himself into the Hilton.
I would advise you NOT do the campervan. We just got back from a South Island NZ tour and saw SO many of these and every time I saw one, I thought, "I am so glad that is not us" They were a mess, no room to do anything, food, clothes.bedding all strewn on top of each other. And the thought of having to get up, and go outside to walk to a facility to shower/pee, especially in the middle of the night, or in the RAIN was enough to make me never consider that. And for the record, for a brief moment in time, we considered it. But we worked out the cost of lodging/rental car vs. campervan and they were about equal when it was all said and done.
Also, the roads in NZ are very windy. I would not want to drive them on the roads there, especially driving on the other side of the road.
Good luck! New Zealand is amazing.
See I hate to say it, but those Wicked vans are all over Australia. They are the most popular way to do camper vans. I don't think you can even rent a real RV here. Fuel cost would kill you. Jucy is also a very popular company.
http://www.jucy.co.nz/?gclid=CMa83bv9064CFWNKpgodt3YydA
Your husband sounds ultra pretentious and impressionable.
If camping isn't your thing then why would you guys do this rather than admitting it to yourself and moving on?
New Zealand is outdoorsy and having a camper is an easy and practical way to get around, but there's a difference between being high and mighty complaining about a "serious" camper and seriously camping.
I guarantee that camper is going to be a waste of your money and you guys will check into a nicer hotel or get into a bitter fight along the way, although probably both.