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Original poster

Motorhome rental- Anyone done it?

11 replies

MorocconOil · 30/12/2007 15:33

We are thinking of renting a motorhome for 2 weeks in the summer to tour Scotland with the 3 DC.
Has anybody done this, and if so where did you hire the motorhome from and would you recommend it as a family holiday?

TIA

OP posts:
yurt1 · 30/12/2007 15:38

yes twice. hired from 2 different places. The first was a bit dodgy the second very professional (and they dropped the motorhome off to us and picked it up). Both opposite end of the country than Scotland though. It's very expensive tbh but the kids liked it. What ages are your children? We had 3 the second time we did it. If ds1 wasn't severely autistic we'd probably do it again, but it got to the stage where his autism was preventing it working (which is a shame as he loved it more than anyone and cried when we arrived home!)

yurt1 · 30/12/2007 15:42

oh the first time we went at easter and it was lovely and toasty inside despite being freezing outside. the second time we went in the summer- and had to be more organised and book campsites in advance.

Original poster
MorocconOil · 30/12/2007 15:53

Yurt, the dc are 8,6 and 2. I'm interested in what you say about being organised. Part of the attraction of it for us was that it gives some flexibility in that you can move on if you don't like somewhere. Would this be problematic?

Why did your son's autism prevent you going again?

Do you think our fearless 2 year old could make things difficult? She often wanders off. However it is no different to camping, and we've managed that.

Which company was it?

OP posts:
yurt1 · 30/12/2007 16:30

Can't remember the name of the first one, but the professional company was albatross. We had to be organised because we wanted electrical hook up and as we were in Devon everything was getting booked up. If you're slightly off the tourist trail it probably won't be a problem. I'd love to do the north coast of Scotland- eg around tongue in a campervan.

DS1 has become much more unmanageable generally when out. I've noticed that when school take him out and about now (which they do weekly) whenever we see photos he appears to have 2 adults gripping onto him- which I think is a reflection of his increasing feral-ness. At campsites he would want to walk round and round in circles looking at washing machines and fans etc - which meant that one of us would be doing that whilst the other would be trying to cook with a 3 year old and an 8 month old in tow. DS1 (now 8, 5 and 6 when we did the holidays) can't be left to play outside as he would run off, he needs full time 1:1 with an adult as soon as he steps outside the campervan so it just got to be hopeless and unworkable. He also has no concept of pitches so would try and get into peoples tents etc .

The first time we went ds2 was 2, the second time 3. He was a doddle both times

yurt1 · 30/12/2007 16:32

albatross

yurt1 · 30/12/2007 16:32

I think that's them, they appear to have moved- they were in Bude when we hired from them.

yurt1 · 30/12/2007 16:34

oh yes that is them as they were Rimor dealers, they've just moved. We hired the 6 berth. If you hire it and find a chess piece (a black pawn I think) can you send it back?

Original poster
MorocconOil · 30/12/2007 22:22

Oh thanks for all that info Yurt.

It sounds like you have really got a lot on with DS1.

I am a bit worried about the unpredictableness of the weather but we went to SW France last year and got rain and wind so part of me is thinking 'hey ho what will be will be'. I went to Scotland on my hols as child and have some fondish memeories and think my DC would like the same. Who knows?

Checked out albatross and we are in the North West but can use as a benchmark so thank-you v. v, much.

OP posts:
yurt1 · 30/12/2007 23:09

It was quite rainy for both our holidays and was fine. We tended to try and stay in some campsites with indoor pools etc.

I'd love to be able to campervan (is that a verb? ) with ds1 as in many ways it was a perfect holiday. I have thought that when the younger 2 have left home and are off clubbing in Ibiza or whatever we'll buy a campervan and take ds1 all over the place. 2:1 would be manageable I think. He loves moor walking so I Scotland would be ideal. There are some threads form a couple of years ago about our campervanning as we thought about buying one (glad we didn't now) but godknows what name I was using then. Baka maybe or Jimjams. Not sure.

Albertross were very good. So definitely base your choice on them. There are a number around the Lake District I think.

nuttynoel · 03/01/2008 22:02

Did you tow a little car along?
I would love to tour in a larger motorhome than the VW campers we have, but I worry about parking when visiting attractions, or stocking up at supermarket.
We have been around Ontario in a 28-footer, but everything, including parking spaces, are bigger there (except for those in one little town near Algonquin where the police moved us on ).

Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 16:44

I thought if we take bikes then we can cycle to places. The supermarket could be a pain though.

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