Road Trip Routes & Information
Growing up holidays mainly consisted of camping at seaside resorts with my parents & their extended family. These holidays were largely in Cornwall in the south of England.
However as a teenager the opportunity to travel further afield was suddenly an option. A coach trip through several countries in Europe & a flight to Spain opened up the concept that travel was possible.
Road Trips
However travelling solo at that stage was still not really something that seemed possible. As a student nurse more coach trips to European destinations became available. The first trip to the USA was in the 1980’s.
I travelled with my husband on Greyhound buses from the East Coast from Florida to Boston. The picture above is one of the hire cars we had at the time & drove on Daytona beach.
Trying out Van life
In 2018 I was fortunate to be able to undertake two 3,000 mile road trips in the USA. To be able to travel the route we wanted & to have control of where we stayed the most practical option was to hire a small camper van.
Our plans included attending a music festival so the camper van was ideal. This came from Escape Camper vans based in Los Angeles.
They offer small uniquely painted vans at a competitive price if you are planning do travel less than an average of a 100km/day. It’s important to factor in the costs of RV sites into the overall price as these vans do not have bathroom facilities on board.
There is a small kitchenette at the rear which is only practical to use if the weather is dry.
Escape Camper vans only have depots in certain locations so it can influence the route particularly if you want to travel longer distances. As out route was circular it was ideal as we flew in to Los Angeles & returned the van to the same depot.
From Small Vans to RV’s
The second trip in 2018 & the next in 2019 called for a slightly larger type of van. This meant moving up to the C19 from Cruise America. Cruise America are a much larger firm & have significantly more depots to choose from.
However it is worth noting that certain types of vans can be in short supply at peak times & this may affect where your trip starts & finishes. My road trip buddy & I started one trip from Seattle & the other from Las Vegas.
One advantage of this hire was that an ‘unlimited milage’ package was available which was particularly useful if your route is likely to change. Most of the trips have been circular & around the 3,000 km long. However having the freedom to alter the route due to unforeseen bad weather saved us from incurring potentially extra costs for exceeding a daily milage rate.
These vans are set up with on board generators & small bathroom facilities which proved useful when camping in the more basic camp sites. It enabled us to take advantage of the many sites in places of outstanding natural beauty.
The down side is that they are wider & care needs to be taken when parking In forests & by lakes were the facilities were basic or non existent.
A Van In Between
2020 saw a five week long trip to Asia being cancelled, me only just getting back to the UK from the USA before the first lockdown and since then travel has been really non existent. The next big trip wasn’t to happen until 2022 when the opportunity to fly again presented itself.
This trip was potentially the most ambitious of them all as the plan was to set off from Las Vegas to Virginia & back agin. Essentially a trip of two halves with the first with my daughter as co- driver & then back with my husband.
The C19’s were potentially too big & in short supply which meant looking around for an alternative. This came in the form of a ‘high top’ van from the Travellers Autobarn company.
This had the advantage of being small but the kitchen was inside due to the high top which meant you could stand up. It still lacked on board facilities but it was a good compromise.
The company are smaller & the number of depots limited but what they do offer is unlimited milage & the opportunity to travel more widely compared to the Escape van. The kitchen inside made a huge difference & the vehicle was small enough to park in normal parking lots.
The only thing to be mindful of was the height as there were the odd bridge or car park that could have presented issues for being too low.
The Best Yet
To celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary we decided to venture to Canada. It was a ‘no brainer’ to hire a van & the model we had was possibly the best to date. We booked this van with a company called Four Seasons via Motovana. It was the newest of all the vans & came very highly equipped.
< Below are links to the camper van hire companies we have used href=”https://www.escapecampervans.com”>https://www.escapecampervans.com
https://www.travellers-autobarnrv.com
I am not affiliated to any of the camper van companies in any way & have included the links for information to readers of the blog. Its recommended that anyone planning a trip carry out their own checks about a company before making a booking.