experiences travelling in a campervan

P

pennyk

We're thinking of doing a 7-10 day holiday in the Top End (Darwin, Litchfield, Kakadu etc). 2 adults, 2 teenagers. We'd be flying up and then looking at hiring a car.
Its so expensive up there though... hotels/ travelling around/car hire etc. We're not camping types, and from a health etc point of view, its not something we'd be able to manage.
It seemed that one of the most economical ways to travel would be to hire a campervan. We'd probably be getting a 6 berth to give us plenty of room and make sure the kids had separate beds.
I'm wondering if anyone has experience (good and bad) you could share of having a campervan holiday? Are they difficult to drive? Any tips or tricks?
 
We have done NZ twice in a campervan, and loved it.
We were touring around quite a bit, and the thing I liked about it most was not having to re-pack everything into the suitcases/car each day out of a hotel room.
We had one of the large ones with the bed above the drivers area, so we could leave our bed set up all of the time (there was just the two of us).
Other positives were we saved a lot of money on food, as we could cook dinners and have lunch from the fridge during the day rather than having to eat out all of the time (also loved having a cold beer ready for me when we arrived at our destination, at bottle shop prices rather than cafe or pub prices).
Not sure what it would be like with kids.
They are a little bit slower and not as easy to drive as a car, but I didn't have any trouble getting where we wanted to go.
 
Hi Penny

We have driven a campervan around Tasmania and the only negative was it was difficult driving in the high winds on the north coast, but we have no experience driving in the top end. We would definitely hire a campervan to do the same trip you are planning, for all the reasons stated so far.

It was just the two of us, I haven't taken our kids in a campervan although they have been fine with camping in the past. If you travel in the dry season, the family will be able to get outside when you are stopped so you wont be crowded indoors.

Have a great trip
 
Hi Penny,

I haven't driven a camper van but have driven lots of vans and small trucks and they are quite easy to drive now. If you are used to auto gears in your car just be sure to get an automatic campervan to make life less stressful.

The roads to the places you have listed are all sealed and quite good so you should have no troubles accessing them in a van.

I have toured a Lot around Oz and stayed in cabins in parks so have been around and in quite a few vans, I would go for a generous sized one if possible.

Some folk do seem a bit too squeezy in the smaller ones, especially with teenagers who always seem to take up lots of space just to fit all their energy in :)
 
I used to go on holidays all the time in my grandparent's campervan. However, you're clearly talking a different kind of campervan - theirs is a green version of the one in the Telstra ad to that horrid 'I've been everywhere' song :)

Same benefits though, they used to stop everywhere and fold out tables and stuff from the sides and make a cuppa. Their bed was the back seats of the van folded down into a bed, mine was a crazy fold-out thing in the pop-up section. Fun times!
 
Something like the below

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or

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We've used a winnebago type a couple of times now, great to be able to make a coffee or a meal as/when you want to. The kids have had an absolute ball as well.

There's a lot of good maps available with regards to camping sites with the plethora of grey nomads doing these type of trips on an ongoing basis; they are also a wealth of info'

We used a wireless reversing camera to assist get into tight spots or avoid low branches...interesting as you drive through small towns and pick up some of the wireless cctv broadcasts also :D

Litchfield was a great trip when i was last up there and we'd planned a sunrise flight over Kakadu, however there had been a big bushfire that year and we'd been told not to bother..so no Kakadu yet
 
We have hired heaps of cars (but not campervans) but a few points:

You will not be covered by insurance if you drive off bitumen roads (unless you hire a specific 4WD vehicle). Any place accessible by dirt or gravel roads will be out. This should not be a problem for the usual Darwin/Kakadu/Litchfield/Katherine areas which you can easily cover in 10 days.

Check the standard insurance excess. Unless you pay extra, you will be up for an excess of thousands of dollars. Either pay the extra to the hire company to reduce the excess or take out travel insurance that covers the excess.

Do NOT pick up the hire vehicle from the airport unless it is for a short period. Airport pickups have a 10% surcharge on the entire hire cost which is charged by the airport. Depending on the city, it is usually economical to get a taxi to the city hire car depot. You can return to the airport without extra cost.
Marg
 
twobobsworth said:
Wouldn't it be annoying when you set up camp, then decide you want to go somewhere have to pack everything up again?
Click to expand...

Yes, thats why you see a lot of two rigs, especially in USA.

Rig 1: A campervan towing a small 4cyl car or small SUV.

Rig 2: A V8 pickup towing a goosneck trailer.

I guess a caravan is the equivalent in Aus. I suppose that the trade off is between on road manouverabilty, ease of driving (campervan) and convenience when you are stopped (caravan). If you were staying in one place for a two nights or more a caravan would be more convenient.
 
Hi Penny,
Not sure where your starting point is, but we came via South Australia up to Tennant Creek, NT in early November.
The road is great, and usually 200kms between fuel stations.

We are coming into the wet season (even though here, it has been really nice) The roads were closed for 2-3 days due to washouts going into/ out of Darwin.


Make sure you book ahead for the campervan, because some places have a sign "no more rentals available for 10 days" when we were driving thru.

Don't drive after dark. Two kangaroos committed suicide within 30 minutes, the one evening we thought we would drive further. Awful experience !!!
 
Haven't done up north, but did do Margaret River/Busso area in a campervan a couple of years ago. Was brilliant. We even had our mountain bikes with us (which fit in the van as well). It was great having lunch and dinner supplies in the fridge ready to go, find a nice lookout, stop and have a meal. Or go for a ride/run/walk/surf/swim and be able to have lunch in the fridge ready at the end as well as clean clothes etc.
We're looking to go again, but start in Broome and head down to Perth this time. We'll look at hiring through rental standbys or rental relocs to get it cheaper (not sure of availability of these up north however)
 
This reminded me of friends who hired a vehicle in Melbourne. Luckily he took photos of each panel of the vehicle because when they took it back, the hire company tried to blame them for some scratches. The excess was a couple of thousand.

He told them he had photos showing every panel with the scratches already there at the start of the hire and they backed down very quickly.

I've heard this is a common thing the some hire vehicle companies try on unsuspecting bunnies, and I'll make sure I take photos if I ever hire a car or anything else.
 
wylie said:
This reminded me of friends who hired a vehicle in Melbourne. Luckily he took photos of each panel of the vehicle because when they took it back, the hire company tried to blame them for some scratches. The excess was a couple of thousand.

He told them he had photos showing every panel with the scratches already there at the start of the hire and they backed down very quickly.

I've heard this is a common thing the some hire vehicle companies try on unsuspecting bunnies, and I'll make sure I take photos if I ever hire a car or anything else.
Click to expand...


When you pick up a hire car, you are given a copy of the condition report with the request that we check that it is accurate. I always go over the car with a fine tooth comb and get the company to note every little scratch. The hirer gets a copy of this to take with them.

We've never had any trouble. Then again, we've always gone through the big companies. We had one minor accident, paid the $350 excess. Got a phone call a few weeks later to say they had done the repairs for less than that so were refunding the difference. We got around $150 back.
Marg
 
I'm guessing that many people don't read the fine print as closely and perhaps my friends didn't make a point of doing so. I don't know. I'm imagining this hire place perhaps thought they would get the car fixed of a few little things and pin it on the youngish family who they thought might not be clued up.

I don't really know, but it made me aware that photos (or a detailed report that you actually read and make comments on about existing damage) are very important.
 
I would suggest to be sure to check the windscreen for chips and cracks. Small chips are hard to see so be sure to mark them on the report when you pick up the vehicle.

I copped a big stone chip when in NZ so I got it welded/fixed and all was well but there were quite a few smaller chips that I didn't notice when I picked the car up that technically, they could have blamed on me.

Stone chips on windscreens are not classified as wear and tear, which I think is ridiculous as it is not anyones fault if you get one. Not like we go around looking for flying rocks to drive into is it :confused:
 
Have a bunch of hire-campers come through the roadhouse
get the larger truck conversion winnebago, our van is just for two
petrol no thanks, diesel is hugely cheaper to run, even though dearer to buy per L

grab bunch of POI sets for your GPSs, from http://www.poidb.com/ only aus, may make your trip easier
lots of Northern Locations
 
I did Perth to Broome in a campervan the year before last, Penny.

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64145

Great trip. the kids are keen to do Broome to Darwin next.

There were two families. We used Britz campervans. There would be cheaper ones out there, but Britz were great - I didn't want to take a punt and save a few dollars only to have problems somewhere.

Go and check out the vans in person before you settle on a configuration. My kids are young - 10 and 8 at the time. Teenagers seem to sprawl abd take up a disproportionate amount of space, so you'll need a decent sized one. The Britz Sydney depot is on Gardeners Road at Alexandria. Or is it Mascot? It's diagonally opposite Bunnings. They'll let you have a look at whatever campervans are there.

Scott
 
depreciator said:
Go and check out the vans in person before you settle on a configuration. My kids are young - 10 and 8 at the time. Teenagers seem to sprawl abd take up a disproportionate amount of space, so you'll need a decent sized one. The Britz Sydney depot is on Gardeners Road at Alexandria. Or is it Mascot? It's diagonally opposite Bunnings. They'll let you have a look at whatever campervans are there.

Scott
Click to expand...

Great idea to check it out first before booking.. thanks for the info.
 
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