Why Rent a Motorhome?

We have rented a motorhome twice in our career. Once at the start, just to see what it was all about, and later for a trip to Alaska.. Both trips were fantastic, and renting a camper was the most efficient way to have a great time. Use the search engine below to select your rental from an array of quality campers throughout the world.

A few good reasons to consider renting a Motorhome or RV include:
Herb and boys by rental Coachman in Hatteras - 1998

• You don’t have or want a motorhome and/or the distance from your home base makes a rental an economical alternative. (We rented for our two weeks in Alaska and saved a lot of time and gas money)
• You like the idea of “camping” in the great outdoors, with access to some of the most beautiful parks in the country, but would like a little more comfort than a tent, and a little more economy than checking in and out of lodging and eating all meals in a restaurant.
• You’re thinking about maybe purchasing an RV and would like to get some first hand experience. (We did this for our first trip with the boys, and it worked out great). We calculated that a purchase usually only makes sense if you will use the RV at least 6 weeks a year, but your mileage may vary,, and not all purchases need to stand the test of economic justification. :-)

How to Rent a Motorhome

That’s easy, just use the widget to dial into the best model for your needs, and get out the credit card. But seriously, you should consider a few things first to help make the “best” choice.
Rainbow over rental Winnebago with boys in Alaska - 2006

• If possible, visit an RV show, or try to check out a friends rig. If camping, ask your fellow campers about why they made the choices they did when they purchased their rig.
• Think about how you will use it. Most often, people will rent for a week or two, and try to cram as much excitement into the trip as time allows. Imagine the daily activities and how people and stuff will fit.
• How comfortable are you driving a bigger vehicle than you probably drive at home? All other things equal, I would opt for the smallest rig that will do the job. It’s less stressful to drive, easier to park into tight campground sites, gets better gas mileage, and will be cheaper to rent as well.
• Read the reviews! You can usually get a pretty good idea of what issues you need to prepare for to have a sucessful trip
• Continue your education with books and the internet. Both to research how to operate the systems and how to realistically plan a trip. It’s easy to turn a family vacation into a “forced march” where you may lose track of the original objective, which should be to have a great time, and not necessarily see “everything”. Some of our best days were the “chill days”, where we just had some down time to relax.
• Pay attention during the checkout. When you rent a rig, they will usually go over how everything works and give you some hints for safe operation. The more ears the better, and I would suggest photographing or even videotaping the orientation. Also photograph the rig to make sure that any pre-existing damage is documented to your mutual satisfaction. Make sure there is an operations manual that you can consult for any questions that occur on route, and get a phone number for on-the-road support.
• Go easy on the first day. You might be jet lagged, and will need to go through the check-out process before driving away. Find out where the best local place is to food shop and then stock up.. (But be sure you see how much refrigeration space you have first) RV refrigerators don’t cool down as fast as your home unit, so keep door open time to a minimum. Find a relatively local campground to spend your first night so you can get organized, enjoy a tall drink, and get a good nights sleep prior to starting your trip

We have partnered with the folks at Motorhome & RV Travel, to bring you a search engine to find the best RV or Motorhome for your own travel adventure. You get a great choice of available motorhomes at highly competitive prices, and we get a few dollars to add to our own travel kitty.

Have a great trip, and please comment and let us know how it went!