Motorhome/RV hire in the USA

[BigJanette]

Has anyone done this?
We would love to do this, down the West Coast.
Is it feasible?
Any companies you'd recommend?
Plus any tips would be wonderful.
TIA MNs.

Cruise America.
Fly in. Stay 1st night in a hote - you don’t want drive an RV straight off a 8 hr flight.
Pick up RV next day. Drove to nearest Walmart. Buy all the stuff you need including bikes for kids etc. Factor into cost of trip.
Drive to 1st camp site. Pick somewhere v close for 1st night in RV to use it as a practice night to understand how to work everything.
Note you used to be able to camp over night in some Walmart parking lots. Can be very useful.
Pretty sure you could only pick up RV after 2pm/had to return before 12. So factor that in.
The RV is very noisy and ratterly you get used to it.

Our friends had their pinched outside a Walmart. Lost everything. Take your passports into the shops with you!

Goodness me! Park at Walmart overnight? Just no.

They can be very large and cumbersome. They don’t go everywhere and you need to plan your route carefully. The west coast is vast! From San Diego to Seattle! Plan which bit. There’s loads of RVs around and many are new! Hand pick your camping sites and decide what you want to see and if the RV will get you there!

My friends were only shopping, can’t imagine ‘camping’ there!

Well shopping is normal. Parking up isn’t.

@Weekmindedfool I will look into Cruise America.
How long was your trip for?

Thank you all, lots to research ahead!

Most Walmarts now prohibit overnight parking. They want to discourage littering, longstanding encampments, theft of electricity, vice and other criminal activity on their property. The municipalities where they are located are fully on board with the ban, and enforcement is vigorous.

If you rent an RV you'll need to do detailed planning of your itinerary and make sure you have reservations for your planned stops. There will be lots of homework involved.

You might be better off getting a larger SUV and staying in a string of Vrbo or Air BnB rentals along your route.

People - including truckers - used to be able to park and sleep in their vehicles overnight. It was handy in areas far from any other accommodation; the US is vast and there are many states where towns are very few and far between, and towns with a motel or any other accommodation are even more scarce.

It wouldn't be your traditional 'camping'. Just sleeping overnight in your vehicle and then heading to a gas station to use the loo in the morning and buy some breakfast food and coffee.

We were going to do this but DH refused so we hired a car and drove instead. San Francisco, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, St Louis Opisbo, back up to San Fran. 3 weeks in total. Accommodation pre booked for San Francisco each end, GC and Vegas. All other stops booked as we travelled. We had an amazing time, no problem finding nice hotels for reasonable prices, no limitation on where we could drive to with a great big motor home. If I recall, it would have cost around £2K more if we had done a motor home trip instead.

We preferred a campervan as a bit more manoeuvrable. Escape campervans allowed one way rentals. For the national parks if you want to pre-book camping spots - you need to book. as soon as booking opens - you can check the websites for dates. Some of the NP also have drive-up only campsites.

Exactly. No one is suggesting you plan a night at Walmart, the point is it can help you out in a pinch.

We did when we were living in Texas. Drive up through New Mexico, Sante Fe, Vales Caldera, Colorado, Mesa Verde, Arizona, Monument Valley, Utah and Arches National Park, Colorado and back down via Denver.

I've toyed with renting an RV/campervan several times - and then have always been dissuaded, mainly due to:

1. Watching Travelling Robert in YouTube - whilst I love his programs, the majority of the campsites he goes to (and he goes to a lot, so I think its a representative sample) always look pretty grim/souless/functional, and not a patch on those you would see in continental Europe.

1. The campsites are usually well out of town, so once you've "hooked up" to all the amenities (water, electricity) you're pretty much stuck there - unless there's a good bus network, or you dont mind long walks home from a restaurant/shops etc. I guess this is why so many US L

locals using RVs tow small cars.

1. They're so, so slow - as you'll know once you get stuck behind one in a national park.

We've always ended up sticking with an SUV and using hotels/motels

Thanks for all your contributions, I think we have a LOT of research and thinking to do, but personally, I am kind of going off the idea!

Sorry but this is mostly rubbish.
All the campsites we’ve been to in the US were great. We’ve camped in the shores of lakes, by clear blue rivers, in deserts where where you can sled down dunes, in sites with swimming pools an and restaurants. One put on a fantastic astronomy talk under some of the darkest skys you’ll ever see.
All the sites are set up specifically for RVs with all the hooks up, bbqs and tables and large wide spaces. Couldn’t be further from the farmers field set up you get in the UK for example.
As for being in the middle of nowhere- well yes it’s camping. Where do you expect campsites to be? The idea is you stock up at the aforementioned Walmart or grocery store in the way to your campground for the evening and then have yourself a bbq.
It is a valid point about the RV being your only form of transport though and you do have to take that into account and plan accordingly.
So for example if your primary objective is to see as many sights as possible including in cities you might find renting a car and doing a road trip is more in line with what you want/need. I wouldn’t want to be driving an RV around LA or San Fransisco for example.

@BigJanette We’ve seen loads of huge nuisance RVs in Yellowstone recently. Not sure where they parked but they clog up roads big time. I guess it’s more a way of life in the USA. There are some grotty trailer parks but others will be lovely. I’ve seen some great ones in Canada. There are not Walmarts everywhere by the way.

We have never been tempted to hire one but only the big ones tow cars. For us, a decent car and lodges was best. I’m totally off the idea of driving a huge lorry around for several weeks.

We did this a few years ago and are planning on doing it again.
If you want to stay in national parks you need to make reservations very early. You need to plan everything these days especially if you are going in school holidays, it will be crowded. It’s a shame because part of the charm of RV traveling could be that you are flexible and sleep anywhere but in reality that’s not the case.

It takes some time to get used to everything. It takes more time to get on the road and get everything in position. The watertanks, electricity, no loose stuff hanging around everything must be put away tight or it will rattle all the way and get launched through the vehicle when you need to make an emergency break.