It’s 2020 and the entire American nation (and world) is in the midst of a global pandemic. Borders are closed all over the globe, leaving quarantine-weary Americans with little choice but to hit the road. And what better way to do that than with a campervan hire!
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I hope you’re reading this in a better time than was the massive dumpster fire that was 2020. But right now, Americans are taking to road trips like white girls to pumpkin spice lattes. What better way to social distance, we figured, than driving out to the middle of nowhere and sleeping in a van??
While I didn’t exactly drive to nowhere (2 US National Parks), I did partner with Aussie-based Travellers Autobarn to hire a campervan and jump on the #vanlife craze.
They have rental hubs in the western part of the US, so if you’re dying to visit any of the beautiful National Parks or beaches out in that direction, Travellers Autobarn has got you covered with convenient locations in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
We took the Travellers Autobarn Kuga campervan for 12 days, where we drove over 3000 miles from California to Wyoming and back.
We tested the van out in the mountains, around wildlife, in the cold (and rain and even snow!), and then drove it back down through the desert, and I’m here to review our experience!
The Van
Our Kuga campervan was a 2012 Chevy 2500 panel van that Travellers Autobarn converted into a campervan. The top was removed and replaced with a hightop, making it possible for us to stand and walk inside the van.
It sits and sleeps 3, although it was just myself and my husband, Kevin. The sleeping arrangements are a dinette set that converted into a queen bed, and storage overhead that could be pulled out to make a single bed above.
The small kitchen has everything you need, with a fridge, 2-burner stove, a sink, and a microwave! A solar panel mounted on the roof powers the fridge and sink pump (as well as the lights). If you want to use the microwave, you have to be plugged in to a campsite with RV power.
No bedding or kitchen supplies come included, so if you need or want that you have to add on the living equipment bundle for an extra $45 USD.
What We Liked
Since it was our first time doing campervan hire, it was interesting to find out what worked for us and what was a little challenging.
We definitely liked the high top design, I really think being able to fully stand in the van made for a more comfortable experience.
It was awesome not to have to worry about powering our fridge or sink pump. If those hadn’t worked without the solar, it would have been quite a pain.
The bed was quite large, it was more than enough room for both of us. Kevin is 5’11” and he had a couple inches of vertical room. The mattress was a little too firm for me, which I expected so I slept on top of a blanket.
It was nice to have the overhead storage where the extra bed was stored. If we had had luggage for another person and needed a place to put all of it to pull out that bed, I expect that would have been really difficult.
The rental came with unlimited miles. This was great because we took it over 3k miles and didn’t have to worry about extra costs.
The ‘living equipment’ bundle pretty much gave us everything we needed. We replaced a few things with our own stuff to make ourselves more comfortable, but we were able to do that because we took the van home before we set out on the road. The bundle is perfect for anyone who had just flown in and doesn’t have kitchen equipment with them.
What We Didn’t Like
We tried hard to remember that this van was a converted used van, and it wasn’t made expressly with camping in mind. That being said, there are a few things Kevin and I noted that were slightly inconvenient and we wouldn’t want in a van we bought or converted ourselves.
My chief complaint was that the solar didn’t work with the outlets that were in the van. The only reason this really bugged me was because we took the van to the mountains in the fall and it was too cold for me to sleep without a heater (it even snowed one day!).
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There wasn’t a heater in the back of the van, only the one up front for when you were driving. We had a small space heater that could be plugged in, but only when we were hooked up to shore power.
We stayed in a few campsites with RV hookups (solving the problem), but those sites are more expensive and drove up costs.
The doors and windows weren’t powered. Only a slight annoyance as we had to manually lock/unlock every door every time we left or returned to the van.
We couldn’t access the back of the van from the driving/passenger seats. It wasn’t a big deal for the 12 days that we had it, but if it was longer-term I think I would have gotten tired of it.
That was pretty much it! And as I said, those are only things that we made note of that we might change in our own van, as a rental on a short-term trip none of them were dealbreakers.
Overall
Overall we had a great experience with our Travellers Autobarn campervan hire and would definitely recommend them!
Our pickup and dropoff experience with Richard at the Los Angeles office was fairly seamless, and would have gone very quickly had I known to do the online check-in before picking the van up. It’s a real time-saver, I definitely recommend doing that.
Once we were ready to return our campervan, I received an email with instructions to fill up the petrol and propane, and to clean it inside and out. They even gave me the address of places nearest the LA office where I could get these things done.
We really don’t think the whole process of campervan hire could have been any easier, and we’re very grateful to Travellers Autobarn for facilitating our trip!
Have you ever traveled in a campervan before? I’d love to hear about your experiences!
The Camera Gear We Use!
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