Possibly sizing up a trip to BC in September and would like to hire a camper for the purpose. Has anyone done this? Any recommendations?

We (family) did this a few years back.

Van was from Alldrive. We picked it up and dropped it off in Vancouver, but they do one-way hire too (with an added cost). I’d easily go to them again.

3 of us, so we went for the smallest “5th wheel” type. That’s basically a big pickup with an articulated trailer on the back. The advantage is that you can drop off the trailer at a site, then use the pickup for gadding about. With the campervan types, you have to pack everything away every time you want to travel somewhere. Fine if you’re constantly on the move, but we’d spend 2/3 days in each place, getting to know it a bit better, then move on.

You also end up with a massive pickup truck – think 6 Litre Turbodiesel with huuuuuge torque 🙂

Get aircon in the trailer. We didn’t and cooked all the way from Banff back to Vancouver.

Fuel is cheap(er) but consumption is higher. I worked it out around 15 mpg. Overall cost per mile was about the same as the UK (at that time – it might have changed).

Fantastic holiday. We all want to go back, but need to save up a bit of cash.

Anything else? Let me know here or PM me

Oh – here’s a random photo

Nice, thanks for the info.. Have been before (hence wanting to go back) but not in a campervan.

You might be OK in September, but some of the sites may need to be pre-booked. OTOH some you just need to turn up early (and don’t allow pre-booking). Worst we had was Lake Louise, where you had to be there around 10am to get in. Think about it… if you have to be there around 10am, where are you gonna leave from? We have to get up around 6am one morning for the drive there.

All the sites we went to had fire pits. Some sites charged you a nominal fee for wood, others it was free. Some strange folk would have a fire on at 7am – I could never work that out (given daily temperatures were reaching 35C). We had Caribou sniffing at the van windows when eating breakfast. Never saw any bears though.