Campervans and Motorhomes provide a gateway to a wonderfully relaxing holiday lifestyle. The freedom to stay at short notice in idyllic locations, far away from the day-to-day hassles of regular daily routines. It is an enticing holiday option.
But this lifestyle may not necessarily be ‘idyllic’ for everyone…..
Do you enjoy camping?
If you are not already a regular camper, your first step on the RV Journey should be to carefully consider if purchasing a Campervan or Motorhome is the best option for your holidays.
At the end of the day, even though your shiny, new Recreational Vehicle (RV) surrounds you with plenty of modern conveniences, you are still camping.
We purchased our first Campervan – a VW Kombi with a pop-top roof – in the late 1970s. Prior to that (and many times since then) we regularly enjoyed tent camping, or camping out of the back of a hatchback car.
Moving from holidaying in tents to holidaying in a Campervan was a refreshing ‘upgrade’ …… the opportunity to store our perishables in a refrigerator, rather than an ice-box, and being cozy and warm inside solid walls on wild rainy nights, the most memorable experiences of the transition.
Thanks to our previous camping experiences, the move to a Campervan was relatively seamless.
Camping (and Campervaning) has enabled us to enjoy long relaxing holidays up and down the coast, and in many out-of-the-way places, without breaking the budget. And the Kombi van doubled as our suburban drive to work when we were at home. (In fact, travelling to work in the Kombi almost felt like a mini holiday trip each day!)
Camping embraces a particular holiday ‘lifestyle’ – and we very much enjoy that lifestyle. We are happy making use of the shared amenities in van parks, chatting with fellow travellers in camp kitchens, connecting a hose and filter to top up our water supply when required, regularly emptying and cleaning our toilet waste tank at dump points, washing clothes in shared amenities buildings, sweeping sand out of the van each day, rationing our consumption of water and 12V electricity, cooking meals using the LPG cooktop, Weber oven, or camp kitchen, and making the best of sharing confined indoor spaces in cold or rainy weather.
It’s all part of the fun – and, for us, is very relaxing and very psychologically ‘cleansing’!
Explore the RV options
If your holiday experiences have embraced a different lifestyle – maybe renting serviced apartments, or enjoying accommodation in 5 star hotels, or travelling on escorted tours with catering services, then hiring a Campervan or Motorhome for a couple of weeks might be a great way to evaluate the RV lifestyle before taking the purchase plunge. (Mind you, from what I have seen, renting a Motorhome might cost about the same as staying in a 5 star hotel!)
Even though the sales pitch from Motorhome vendors extols the ‘luxury’ aspect of the vehicle, there is more to an RV holiday than ‘the vehicle’.
To better appreciate the realities of daily life in a Campervan or Motorhome, why not rent a vehicle for a week or two and sample the whole RV experience?
Try staying in both formal van parks and free-camping sites next to rivers and beaches, hopefully in various weather conditions. Travel on highways, backroads and suburban streets. Try parking the van in your residential parking space, or navigating and parking in the local shopping centre.
Hiring a Campervan isn’t without cost – but it is way less expensive that buying a van and then discovering that camping isn’t really your thing. Or that you might prefer a different size van.
If the whole camping lifestyle sits well with you, and you have decided to venture down the Campervan / Motorhome path, the next decision to make is what size van will best suit your needs >>>