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On this put up, I share our sincere expertise doing a one-way RV rental in Europe. We weren’t requested to write down this put up by the corporate we rented from, nor are we being paid to take action.
When individuals consider visiting Europe, RVing most likely isn’t the very first thing that involves thoughts.
Hopping trains or buses or different public transport? Undoubtedly.
Motorhomes? Not a lot.
And whereas RVing is simply as widespread for Europeans as it’s for Americas—if no more!—you don’t usually hear of People “motorhoming” overseas. Nonetheless, we simply accomplished our second prolonged RV journey throughout Europe and it was the most effective experiences!
On this weblog, I need to share a few of what we’ve realized about renting an RV in Europe.
What I’ll cowl on this weblog:
- Why Hire an RV in Europe?
- What It’s Like Driving an RV in Europe
- Why We Determined to Do a One-Method RV Rental
- What Does it Price to Hire an RV in Europe?
- In what International locations Can You Do a One-Method Rental?
- What Occurs If the RV Breaks Down?
Why Hire an RV in Europe?
Why would I need to drive an RV on tiny European roads?
This was one among my first ideas when Alyssa introduced up the thought of RVing in Europe. Additionally, whereas I’ve obtained you right here I’ll allow you to in on a not-so-little secret: no one really says RVing in Europe. It’s also known as motorhoming or hiring a campervan, however by no means RVing. Nonetheless, when you’re from the States then you definately’re most likely used to the time period RVing. Similar idea, totally different use of phrases.
Shifting on. 🚐
So, why lease an RV in Europe? The norm when visiting main cities in Europe is to remain in an Airbnb or resort. This makes complete sense when you’re solely visiting for a couple of days. Nonetheless, when you’re planning an prolonged journey overseas (two weeks or extra) and need to spend a while meandering via smaller villages and backroads, renting an RV is a superb choice.
For us, we choose to remain in walkable Airbnbs in main cities after which lease an RV for visiting the countryside. 2019 was the primary time we’d rented an RV in Europe and the expertise hooked us a lot in order that we went again once more and for twice as lengthy.
Listed here are a couple of explanation why we’ve beloved renting an RV in Europe:
1. How else would we discover hidden gems?
One of many first days of our Italian RV journey, we have been driving over a mountain cross and stumbled upon probably the most epic gondola. We had no thought it was there. If left to our personal planning, we’d by no means have seen it. Touring by RV provides us an opportunity to randomly bump into gems like this (you’ll be able to see our reactions under within the video).
2. We choose sleeping in the identical mattress each evening—particularly with children!
Motorhome leases are small, however they’ve all of the conveniences of a house (besides air con) and even with the tiny European roads, we will drive virtually wherever and all the time have all the things we want. Touring with children who nonetheless take naps on daily basis, having a mattress with us always is priceless. Plus we all the time have snacks + a rest room + a kitchen + a bathe for when somebody inevitably will get lined in mud and filth.
We stayed in Airbnbs whereas in Europe and used public transport as properly, which is one of the simplest ways to see European cities for certain. However when you’re trying to actually discover a rustic outdoors of simply the vacationer stops, you’ll need a car. We choose the motorhome as a result of it lets us see extra locations and nonetheless have the consolation of sleeping in the identical mattress each evening.
3. Howdy million greenback views that price $0 😍
One of the best a part of RVing is all the time the attractive locations it takes you—like tenting on the sting of a mountain within the Pyrenees watching the dawn.
We’ve camped on mountainsides, on seashores, in nationwide parks, and in a number of the most stunning components of southern Europe due to our motorhome rental. In distant locations particularly, you don’t have the choice of accommodations or Airbnbs, making campsites just like the one above accessible just for RVers.
4. You get to truly go to a rustic.
Hear me out.
After spending two months in Tuscany this yr, we spent two nights at a resort in Florence earlier than flying to London. Strolling round Florence we noticed stunning historic buildings, ate scrumptious pizza, and savored one remaining gelato. However we additionally a) didn’t speak to any precise Italian individuals, b) didn’t want to talk any Italian as a result of everybody spoke English flawlessly, and c) have been surrounded by vacationers the entire time.
Florence is one among our favourite cities on the earth—however after exploring extra of the nation of Italy, being within the metropolis didn’t actually really feel like Italy anymore. It was extra industrial and catered to People like us.
To essentially expertise a rustic—see the individuals, expertise the tradition, eat the meals—you’ll must get out of the cities one way or the other. For us, a motorhome is one of the simplest ways to try this.
What It’s Like Driving an RV in Europe
Nearly all of automobiles in Europe are handbook transmissions. And my first day of driving ANY handbook car was our RV rental in Italy.
I’d practiced for all of ten minutes earlier than departing to Italy and determined I’d gotten the grasp of it (most likely not my greatest thought). To say I used to be nervous was an understatement. My actual phrases whereas driving within the Italian Dolomites have been “I’m going to crap my pants”.
However, after that extremely tense first day, I obtained the grasp of driving a stick. Sure, the roads are small — nevertheless, extra stress really got here from my lack of expertise driving a handbook than the roads themselves.
Flash ahead to in the present day, I’ve pushed a motorhome in Switzerland, France, Andorra, Italy, and Spain. Listed here are my two cents.
Are the roads considerably smaller than what I’m used to within the US? Sure.
Do they often seem like I’m driving on a golf cart path? Sure.
Nevertheless it’s actually not been that dangerous. For one, the motorhomes and vans are a lot smaller in Europe. Second, you one way or the other alter to the roads. Just like the film Santa Clause the place Tim Allen contorts a chimney to enter a home and ship presents.
Okay, so the RV doesn’t get smaller however you do change into accustomed to smaller roads.
Plus, solely as soon as did we run right into a street that was actually too slender for us to navigate.
We have been heading to a campground in Italy and the street abruptly obtained slender proper in entrance of us. I needed to again up 100 yards and make an 846-point u-turn whereas my spouse strategically moved the world’s largest assortment of garbage bins—all of which have been chained to the fence and solely moved a couple of inches in both path.
Towards all odds, we escaped unscathed (and promptly walked one block over and dove into the Mediterranean).
A serious cause I don’t stress an excessive amount of over driving in Europe is that we use an app referred to as Park4Night. It not solely lists out free campsites however top and size restrictions. Earlier than longer drive days or visiting a brand new city, I’ll analysis to search out the perfect locations to park or drive our motorhome. If there’s going to be some form of restriction on parking or roads, we usually find out about it prematurely. Park4Night is $30 for an annual membership and 100% paid for itself throughout our monthlong journey.
Why We Determined to Do a One-Method RV Rental
There are fairly a couple of choices for renting an RV in Europe. We’ve opted for a one-way RV rental on each of our journeys to provide us the flexibleness to cowl extra floor versus having to loop again to the identical drop-off level.
Our first RV journey in Europe was just a little over two weeks from Venice to Rome.
The second rental was from Paris to Barcelona and we rented for 30 days. With the one-way rental, we have been in a position to discover six totally different nations throughout this journey!
What RV Rental Firm We Used
Each of our RV journeys in Europe we used the identical firm, Anyplace Campers.
They’re one of many few RV rental corporations that do one-way RV leases in Europe and embrace sheets. They’ve 4.9 stars on Google critiques and most of their RVs are lower than one yr outdated.
We had a terrific expertise (that I’ll discuss extra under) on our first journey, so we opted to lease from them once more on our final RV journey.
Just a few highlights for why we’ve loved utilizing Anyplace Campers:
- They do one-way leases.
- Easy reserving course of. The Anyplace Campers employees we spoke to have been skilled and straightforward to speak with, even with time variations and language obstacles.
- The RVs come absolutely stocked with what we would have liked, together with linens, espresso maker, towels, bikes, grill, roadside help package, and so on.
- The floorplan of the motorhomes might match our household of 4 simply.
- Automobile seats! I didn’t should haul a automobile seat via airports and prepare stations as a result of our rental included them.
- They’ve taken care of us when small service points have popped up.
As a bonus, Anyplace Campers has lately added computerized motorhomes to their fleet! Yay for People like me who can possibly drive a handbook, however really feel 100% extra assured with out having to recollect how the clutch works.
What Does It Price to Hire an RV in Europe?
In 2019 we rented a motorhome in Italy for 16 days and paid roughly $162 USD per day. In 2022 our RV rental was 30 days and we paid $158/day. Anyplace Campers consists of the entire add-ons and there are not any further charges for mileage. We traveled in September and October for each leases, which is shoulder season for RVing. Leases can be costlier throughout peak summer time months.
Exterior of anticipated journey prices, campground charges are very affordable (particularly within the low season) and a minimum of in France, Spain, and Italy we discovered loads of free tenting choices. Our most costly campsite price $45/evening in Andorra, however most campgrounds charged $30 max per evening for a household of 4.
One of many greatest surprising bills we bumped into in France was the toll roads. We break up our time between the quicker toll roads and the winding nation roads and nonetheless spent properly over $300 in tolls over the course of a month. In the event you aren’t on a good timeframe, avoiding these will prevent a lot of cash. Plus, you’ll see some wonderful French villages you’d probably miss on the freeway. (The largest offender was a $60 toll tunnel connecting France and Italy within the Alps…however it was that or a three-hour mountain terrain detour via Switzerland!)
What International locations in Europe Can You Do a One-Method Rental?
Anyplace Campers particularly covers 35 nations they usually function year-round.
(However you’ll be able to see a extra complete checklist of which nations supply RVing right here.)
What if the RV breaks down?
Whereas there are positively cheaper options to Anyplace Campers, a significant consideration for us was assist for service points. RVs break. We full-time RVed for years and that’s one fixed we’ve all the time skilled. RVs break.
We needed peace of thoughts to know we might have assist if we broke down someplace in Europe.
On our first two-week journey via Italy, we had a problem with our AdBlue sensor. Though we’d added extra AdBlue within the diesel engine, it wasn’t registering. We had a message on our dashboard that stated in 50KM we might not be capable of activate the engine. We went forwards and backwards with Anyplace Campers to assist us discover a service station that might assist however to no avail.
In the end, Anyplace Campers allowed us to go away the RV parked at a campground a couple of hours from our drop-off level the place they got here to retrieve it (fortunately, this was on our final day of the journey and we have been in a position to carpool in our good friend’s RV rental).
Right here’s a video that exhibits our expertise trying to find a service station whereas speaking with Anyplace Campers.
On our most up-to-date journey, our mates skilled a problem with their RV brakes. Anyplace Campers made an appointment for them they usually have been out and in in a few hours.
A serious cause we’ve loved renting with Anyplace Campers is their responsiveness to those issues once they pop up. Along with being obtainable for assist, they supplied us with three emergency numbers in case of a breakdown (fortunately by no means wanted them). In the event you’re going to spend the money and time to ebook a world street journey, it’s good to know the corporate you’re renting from will maintain you.
Renting an RV In Europe
If we hadn’t began RVing in America, we most likely by no means would’ve realized about RVing in Europe. However now it’s our de facto mode of journey after we go overseas. We’ve obtained 4 extra nations we’re hoping to RV throughout throughout 2023 (throughout three continents!).
There are plenty of questions relating to renting a motorhome overseas and hopefully this weblog put up answered a couple of of them. For extra data on RVing in Europe, see under 🙂
Writer’s Observe: In the event you’re desirous about taking a visit with Anyplace Campers, allow them to know we despatched you and we’ll get a couple of {dollars} in direction of our subsequent RV journey overseas.
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