1. Did you buy or hire the camper. We would only be interested in hiring?
yes we hired - cruise america
2. What size RV and how much was the hire price? Any hidden costs (traps) in the rental agreement?.
we had the smallest available through Cruise - 19ft from memory. was perfect for the two of us. be aware of costs around heaters (they are usually installed but charge a per day or per litre for the diesel from memory; the usual one way drop off costs .. I think from memory it was around the $100-120 per day (the price does become cheaper when you hire for more than 4 weeks)
3. Did you use recognised camping grounds or 'free camp'?
we did both, we did do more recognised campgrounds than free, and a lot of those were national parks and state parks
4. Are camping grounds 'good' and in sensible locations.?
I think like here they all differ in terms how much maintenance and the facilities at each. the national/state parks are similar to ours very basic or with facilities. what did differ is the manner in which they deal with arrivals. we didn't book in advance much at all, and quite frequently arrived well after dark, they nearly all have a notice board at the office with picture of the park layout, envelopes marked for the different size rigs on spots that are available, you take the site that suits you, place your money in the envelope and put it wherever they tell you too, go to your site hookup, leave whenever you want/need too. worked so brilliantly.
5. Did you use
http://www.passportamerica.com/ or other similar discount clubs to reduce costs?
I don't recall us using passport, however cruise are connected with KOA or good sam and you did get a discount, I think Big 4 is connected to one or the other (KOA or Good Sam) and you also got a discount there
6. Compared to hotel/motel and hire car, is the campervan method cheaper and more importantly better?
this is where it sometimes comes down to what you want to do and how long.
if you are visiting larger cities or the main cities, I wouldn't really recommend it. quite a few of the larger cities we visited had rules about where RVs can and cannot park, so you would sometimes be on the edge of the city (scooters or bicycles would have been handy), and it can be difficult to find parking particularly in the larger vans (the 19ft could just squeeze into a 'normal' car park if you could hang the front or back over the edge if you get what I mean which did make it a bit easier. having said that the shopping centres and RV friendly towns are super well equipped for the RV lifestyle
however, if you plan on spending a lot of time in parks and 'country' areas I would definitely recommend it
Time wise - in our planning and comparisons we found that unless you were doing at least 2 weeks or more (3 weeks preferable) you will prob still pay more for the RV than hotels, hire car etc. where you save your money is a) a few nights free camping b) being able to have things like soft drink, alcohol, snacks in the van with you all the time c) trying to have at least one meal a day in the van even if its only breaky.
Convenience: a) not having to find food ALL the time. we have also done the hire car/hotel and the food side of things becomes a 3 times a day hassle. b) you can eat 'better' if you choose to do so in the RV c) if you are in the parks a large number of them will have camp sites inside the park giving you more time to explore, not having to worry about getting to the hotel or town in time to find something to eat or leaving the park to eat and come back again if they don't have café like facilities in the park itself d) pull up/over whenever/wherever you like - if you feel tired stop, if not keep driving to the next park
7. Would you do it again and/or recommend it to others?
with time having passed, yes we would. being upfront, we had HUGE issues with our van and at the time swore we would never use cruise America again because it did impact our trip, however, I do think that it probably wasn't the norm, and after being very firm and sticking to what we wanted and ensuring that we weren't fobbed off and getting a manager assigned to us, we did get a reasonable outcome from them. we ended up having to change vans 3 times (due to faulty grey and black water issues - so not the best reasons), and on the third we said no thanks refund the remaining time, plus extra and we got a hire car - which given that we were in DC and heading to NYC probably wasn't the worst thing, but it wasn't what we wanted.
I still do firmly believe that RVing is the way to go, but I guess we are now more aware of the things that can go wrong
Our experiences in 2014 (did some drive/motel touring) were expensive. On the surface viewing prices online things looked reasonable, however when taxes and tips etc were factored in, it became expensive in reality. yep and its hard to factor those costs in, in the RV you can really limit them
Another reason for considering a campervan/RV would be to have more control over what and when you eat. American food is tasty, however I feel it is not particularly healthy. - and they are generous on the portion sizes too
Be prepared, other questions may follow!
happy to keep answering questions here or via email
E.
