Motorhome Rentals

The first post on this blog shows that the idea of holidaying in a "house with wheels" struck us as being a good idea many years ago. That wasn't the only time that we rented or borrowed a motorhome prior to the recent purchase of our own. We have tried quite a few and I'll try to summarise them here and in upcoming posts to this blog, as the experience of each of them led ultimately to our decision to but our own.

One of the first times we rented a motorhome with our children was Easter 2000. It was a 6 berth monster of a van and we drove it to Salcombe in Devon, staying for a few nights at Higher Rew Campsite - http://www.higherrew.co.uk/ . It is a good job that I don't remember where we rented the van from, because it wasn't good. The weather that Easter was still clinging on to the idea that it was winter and during heavy rain on at least one night we discovered that the van leaked in a few places. Our children seemed oblivious to this and the noise that torrential rain makes on the roof of a hollow metal box.

I also remember that it was one of the motorhomes you see with a huge overhang at the rear. The overhang in itself is not a problem, but with a front wheel drive chassis and all the accoutrements that a family of five take with them on their first motorhome adventure, it would have been wise to ensure that as much weight was at the front of the motorhome as possible. That was illustrated quite plainly when tackling one of Salcombe's narrow, steep and twisty lanes, when our delightful leaky motorhome was losing traction on a hairpin with a significant drop to our rear, causing some fairly loud shrieking from my fellow occupants. Everyone leaning to the front did enough to regain our grip on the road, but I was much more careful about where I threw bags etc in future trips. I have also learned to double check everything outside before leaving a site following the incident of leaving a power lead plugged in and gleefully driving away. Fortunately I did recognise in time that the people shouting and waving in my rear view mirror weren't just saying goodbye and I stopped before the lead reached stretching point. I am sure that seasoned motorhomers are already thinking that the author of this blog is a dreadful amateur!

The first Arran trip - on the shores at Lochranza

We borrowed a friend's motorhome a couple of times; an Autosleeper in 2005 and a Bessacar 745 in 2011. On both occasions we headed to our favourite part of the world - the Isle of Arran. We stopped at two campsites and have been back to the same sites many times since. In the North there is a campsite at Lochranza, tucked in below the mountains and beside a small golf course on which the biggest hazard isn't bunkers, it is Red Dear grazing the fairways. http://www.arran-campsite.com/ Lochranza is also home to my favourite restaurant - The Stag Pavillion. https://www.stagspavilion.com/ .  There will be more on the Stag Pavilion in future Blogs, but if you get a chance you should visit.  Rino and Valerie run a wonderful restaurant - so wonderful that we chose it as the destination for our Silver Wedding celebration.  It is a real gem.

The second site is in the South of the Island at Kildonan.  It is quite a contrast to the mountainous backdrop of Lochranza. https://www.campingarran.com/ The campsite is right on the shore overlooking Pladda and Ailsa Craig.  The latter is a volcanic remnant half way between Ireland and Scotland nicknamed Paddy's milestone.  I have been viewing it from various angles all my life, having spent my early family holidays with relatives in Ayrshire and I will never tire of watching it's mood change as cloud builds and dissipates over it's peak.  Lochranza is climbing and walking and searching the mountain tops with binoculars for eagles.  Kildonan is seals, seabirds and the beach.  It always feels like we should visit them in that order, because Kildonan always feels more relaxed somehow.

The second Arran trip - including tent - at Kildonan

I had become quite used to driving the larger vans by now and other than a few minor crockery breakages, I think we had got the hang of things.  I had a notion though to recreate the freedom that we felt back in 1991 when we parked the first of our rentals on a loch shore and had the place to ourselves.  It's not easy finding a place to quietly park one of these bigger lumps and they are hardly subdued in their shiny white paint schemes.  More importantly though, it is sometimes easy to turn off the road and park on a grassy spot for a night or two, but it is invariably much harder to get yourself off the grass and back on the road again.  We have had a couple of close shaves when overnight rain has turned beautiful turf into slippy mud, but whilst I might be tempting fate, thus far we have not been completely stuck.

Our last trip with the whole family and last with a large motorhome was 2013 when we ventured across the channel to France.  We rented from Just Go Motorhome Hire https://www.justgo.uk.com/  and the rigour that they went through with paperwork, van checkout and van tour was interesting, as was reading the hire contract, specifically the penalty charges for any damage.  Over the years I have seen quite a few motorhome hire companies vanish and the fact that JustGo still exist may be down this rigour.  It made for a nervous check in when we returned whilst they decided whether a stone mark on the windscreen might constitute chargeable damage (it luckily didn't).

We were headed for my sister's house in Provence on this occasion and I had in my head that we would get there as quickly as possible and then travel back slowly.  I have no idea what the van make was, but it was a Fiat Ducato-based thing that you certainly couldn't describe as quiet, especially when it was urged to meet my journey time aspirations with 5 of us on board.  We were frazzled when we got there, but a few days of sun and my sister's hospitality set us up nicely for the rest of the trip.

We made our way slowly north with a couple of places in our minds to stop on the way.  The first couple of nights we stayed at a campsite that was conveniently positioned right in the centre of Avignon.  It was busy and dusty, but was directly across the bridge from the Palais des Papes  http://www.campingbagatelle.com/camping-avignon/ - an amazing place to soak up a bit of French 14th century history.  Next was Annecy and a campsite that sits right beside the cycle path that in turn takes you right around the lake. https://www.campingaucoeurdulac.com/fr/m_1_au-coeur-du-lac-camping-3-etoile-annecy-haute-savoie.php. We loved the site and made full use of the cycle track to explore.  Annecy can be a bit busy, as it is only a short hop from Geneva, but that Spring it was relatively quiet and we all relaxed and enjoyed the change of pace that camping often delivers.

Annecy Campsite

Last stop was Reims, which is a place that I am sure many people use as a last stop en-route home to the UK as it is only around 150 miles from Calais.  The cathedral is magnificent and worth breaking your dash home to see.  We found a campsite to the north of the city in a village called Guignicourt https://camping-aisne-picardie.fr/  The staff there are great and pitches down by the river were quiet at that time of year so we had plenty of space.  It is also only a short walk to the station in the village, where frequent trains take you into the centre of Reims.

The scene that sticks in my mind from that trip and that last site was when I had nipped out of the van to answer the call of nature late on the last evening.  All I could hear when walking back to the van was howls of laughter from it's occupants.  We were watching "The Intouchables", a French film, on the modest little flatscreen TV that was fitted to the van and it proved to be a big hit (watch the original French version if you can - it is a fantastic film).  My children by then were all in their late teens and other than a couple of "moments", we all squished into the JustGo and got along fine.  It was as much of an enjoyable adventure as any other time we had "motorhomed" and whilst compared to many seasoned vanners we have just dabbled, it had been enough of a dabble to make us want to keep dabbling.