2 months trip on west coast / USA & Canada

[marcaurele]

Hello,

We are planning a 2 months trip starting in Vancouver or Seattle in september to see the national parks. We've been searching for a cheap price for our rental since those 2 months are part of a bigger trip of 1 year around the world. So we don't have a huge budget for the rental. Do you know any good mini camper van, or like, van conversion type rental agencies? It's for 2 people, and we plan to drive around 4000 miles during those 2 months.
Any advice/help will be very appreciated, thanks

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Where you'll get the best deal on a camper van depends a bit on what other people do and how anxious the rental company is to have their vehicles out on the road earning some money vs sitting on the lot earning nothing. It also depends on whether you plan to return the vehicle to the same place you pock it up or plan to drop it off somewhere else entirely. If this is to be a one-way rental, then your only option really is to go with one of the major national companies that has locations throughout the west such as Cruise America, El Monte RV, or a few others. If you plan to return it to the same location, then you can start looking into local rental firms, such as Seattle RV Center. While there may be mileage restrictions, and local firms may have smaller allowances than national firms, 4000 miles spread over 2 months is well under 100 miles a day and so you shouldn't bump up against the mileage restriction, whatever it is. One thing you absolutely won't be able to do is to rent an RV in Canada and leave it in the US (or vice versa).

AZBuck

[glc]

You are also going to have a hard time renting a "campervan" - about the smallest you will find is a 19 foot cabover RV on a truck chassis. There are some exceptions, but they are far from common.

[marcaurele]

Thank you both for your replies. We're going to return the vehicle at the same place we picked it up. I would say, we have time compared to money. So we don't mind driving 2-3 days extra to return the van. And most likely it will be in the US. We're free to start the trip wherever in the US, but we would like to be close to Canada if possible as we will start there to visit the parks before the big snow dumps.

We found two websites:
1 - campertravelusa
2 - camperpage

After some googling I found out that campertravelusa (1) doesn't seem to be reliable and might be a fake. Although I didn't find anything about the second one, camperpage. I mailed them but haven't got a reply so far. I'm wondering if the website has been updated as the request form only shows rental location in Canada and if I could trust them... The good thing on it was the different van conversion options which looked maybe "cheaper" than normal motorhome of 21' and more:

All of those are enough for us. Do you know if these kind of vehicles should be cheaper than a motorhome? If you think so, do you know any rental companies. Do the prices seem possible for their vans?

[Charlie H]

Just in the past couple days there was a thread I saw about some folks who did an extensive trip in a mini-van based camper. The name of the rental company was Escape. Unfortunately, I can't find my way back to the thread - maybe someone can help.

[Lifemagician]

You might also like to check out 'Escape Vans' and 'Adventures on Wheels'. I do not have experience with either, but have heard good reports about both.

Lifey

Edit! Charlie is referring to threads by member John.Waters, as was I.

[Charlie H]

Here is what I was thinking of:
Escape Camper Vans but I still can't find the thread.

Lifey - Thanks for the help!!

[marcaurele]

I know Escape and Wicked from my trips in NZ, and I checked them out, but didn't rent out at the end when I was there. I will see what they offer in the US.

I'll check Adventures on Wheels as well, I didn't find them before, thanks!

[Midwest Michael]

Neither of the companies you previously referenced are actually RV rental companies. They would appear to be 3rd party brokers, that likely rent RVs through Camping World or possibly another major RV rental company. As with any such company, be careful that you actually get what they promise, especially if they want a large deposit up front.

I'd also have some serious doubts that they would actually be able to provide the van-based camper you seem to be looking for, as again, they book through a major companies, typically those companies only rent the larger RVs that are more popular in the US.