Renting before buying is the sensible way into RV travel, and retirement is when a lot of people first seriously consider it. A hire trip answers the question that matters: whether you actually enjoy this, as opposed to liking the idea.
Hire before you buy, genuinely
RVs depreciate steeply and are expensive to store and maintain. A hire trip costs a fraction of a single year of ownership and tells you what you need to know.
Two weeks is more informative than a weekend. The novelty carries you through three days; the reality shows up in the second week.
What size
The commonest mistake is going large.
Class B and small campervans are easy to drive and park, fit in ordinary spaces, and are cramped for two people in bad weather.
Class C is the usual compromise — a proper bed, a real bathroom, manageable to drive.
Class A and large fifth-wheels are comfortable to live in and genuinely demanding to drive and park. Plenty of sites cannot take them.
For a first trip, take less than you think. You can always hire bigger next time, and a vehicle you are frightened to park will keep you off the roads worth driving.
What a first trip should look like
Short distances. Two or three hours of driving a day, maximum. The temptation is to cover ground; the pleasure is in not having to.
Few stops. Two or three campgrounds in two weeks, not eight. Setting up and breaking camp is the tiring part.
Book the sites. Popular campgrounds fill months ahead, and arriving without a reservation in season is stressful.
Full hook-ups for the first trip. Water, power and sewer at the pitch removes most of the learning curve.
The costs people miss
Fuel, which is substantial and worse than you expect. Campground fees, which vary from nominal to hotel-like. Mileage charges, which many hire agreements include. Insurance excess. Generator hours, often billed separately. And the one-way fee if you do not return to the same depot.
Ask for the total including all of it before comparing quotes.
The practical bit
Do the handover walkthrough properly and film it. Emptying tanks, connecting hook-ups, working the water heater — you will not remember, and the video will be there when you need it.
Practise reversing somewhere empty before you need to do it with an audience.
