We’re off on a touring holiday (in Australia) in a few weeks for a few weeks. We will be in convey with some friends in a hired campervan and ideally we would hire one too. ToYoungToBeWorking is 14 months, so we need a seat to mount his child seat and ideally somewhere to set up the portacot.

Anyone had any experience doing something similar with a hired camper from britz etc. Which model and How did it go?

Any options apart from the portacot?

Do any of the usual rental companies offer bike racks?

my other option is to load our car to the gunnels or hire a people carrier or similar and stay in apartments at the same campsites as our friends, which seems to me to be a bit of a logistical challenge.

Can’t help you with the kiddy bit but we’ve hired a couple of vans in Aus. Most of the small vans are two seater only and quite a lot of the four seater ones have the second row of seats right at the back which isn’t very social. Sounds like you want three seats in the front so make sure you specify that. Book as much in advance as you can for a good deal, don’t just wander in when you get there.

We only hired two berths so can’t really help too much but I’ll pass on what I know. Wicked Campers, aimed squarely at the backpacker market, pretty relaxed company to deal with, not fussed about the odd dink and scratch, but have pretty tired looking vans to match. Hippie Campers, part of Apollo Campers, much better quality vans but a complete bunch of charlatans to deal with. They do everything they can to extract cash out of you and took a couple of unauthorised payments from us.

Depends where you are going but the freedom you get from having a van is way better than any other option. Where are you heading (just being nosey/planning to get jealous)

Ditch the portacot, those things weigh a tonne. We have had a sucession of ‘mini’ tents instead. Little life do them amongst others. Thin decathlon pop up style. You can just out them on the floor, or on beds etc, but I guess at 14 months, he/she can move around a bit so make sure to weigh the corners down. Micro mugsy (mini mugsy was ok) was reguarly capsizing hers as she would stand up and lean on the top to roll it.. No harm done though if it’s on the floor. Our current one isn’t great as the poles aren’t very strong despite them being thicker dia than tent poles and have now bust (but that was due to Micro vs mini incident….) We also ditched the matress and use a decathlon 1/2 length thermarest copy as it’s much lighter, more comfy and packs down better.

Have fun, sounds like a nice relaxing but on the right side kind of trip.

Dan

Actually, if you’re froneds are gonig to be in campsites…why don’t you just camp? I guess you have reasons.

Cheers

Dan

We spent a month touring NZ last February with our son , who was then 15 months, in a camper van. We had a 4 berth van based on a Mitsubishi Canter from Alpha. It had 3 seats up front which was why we chose it. The little one was in the middle and could see out easily so he really felt part of the action rather than being stuck in the back.

We’re planning on doing Aus shortly and will definitely go the camper van route again. From our experience I would say its a lot easier than a loaded car. Everything’s with you all the time and its never far away. Its like the ultimate changing bag complete with kitchen sink!

Thanks all, the mini tent idea sounds good. Three seats up front sounds useful too, but I can’t find anything that style here in Perth.

The trip we are doing is from Perth (where we live) down south taking in Margaret river, Denmark, albany, esperance. Should be good.

Have a look in the forums over at UKCampsite.co.uk loads of helpful advice in there