Motorhomes and campervans are a serious investment. They aren’t cheap, so before you jump right in and buy one, should you consider hiring a motorhome or campervan first?

If you decide hiring a motorhome is best for you, we’ve a few hints and tips to help you do just that.

Should You Hire or Buy Your First Motorhome?

There are lots of motorhome and campervan hire companies out there. They make it easy to try out this style of travel without committing your money to buying a van.

Here are a few reasons why you might want to hire rather than buy your first motorhome:

1. You want a one-off holiday in one. Then it makes a lot of sense to rent. Especially so if you’re touring a distant destination like Norway, New Zealand or Iceland and will be travelling for just a few weeks.
2. You want to try motorhome life before you buy to see if it’s right for you.
3. You’re not sure what make and model you want to buy, renting allows you to get a feel for what it’s like for you personally to drive, park and live in a particular size, weight and internal layout of camper. Buying and re-selling a motorhome can be expensive, as dealers will generally offer you less than the price you paid (that’s how they make a living).
4. You don’t plan to use the van for more than a few weeks a year. Motorhomes are fantastic vehicles, but they’re not cheap. Having one sat around doing nothing for 48 weeks of the year is an expensive way to holiday. Before committing to buy, we’d get a calculator out and add up costs for finance, insurance, road tax, MOT, servicing, consumables, repairs and depreciation. Suddenly rental costs don’t look quite so high.

On the flip side, you may want to buy rather than hire, as you prefer the flexibility to head out whenever you want. You might want the freedom to modify the van, adding more locks, lights, different upholstery, decals, curtains, anything really. It is, of course, completely up to you whether you decide to hire or buy – whichever you choose to do, have fun folks!

Advice for Hiring a Motorhome or Camper

Let’s have a look at some general advice for picking the right vehicle and hire company for you.

Rough Costs for Motorhome Hire

You can easily get a rough idea for how much it will cost to hire your motorhome or camper. Search Google for ‘motorhome hire’ or ‘campervan hire’ and you’ll find a ton of websites offering this service.

Mcrent.eu are Europe’s largest motorhome hire company. We’re not specifically recommending them, but you can very quickly get a quote from their website for hiring a van in the UK or in several other countries.

For example, we just pulled up a quote for a four-berth, four-seat 3500Kg motorhome (which anyone with a UK car license can drive), on a week’s hire in early August 2021 at roughly £2,000. Outside school holidays in early September that dropped to £1,300.

On top of that Mcrent.eu will charge you for ‘extras’ such as additional drivers, insurance if you plan to drive to continental Europe or Ireland and airport transfers. For one additional driver, bedding and towels for four, outdoor table and chairs, and insurance for Europe Mcrent.eu charged an additional £530 on the example hire we tried.

Searching local to us here in Nottingham, www.yescapa.co.uk listed a week’s UK hire of a 2-berth panel van from a private owner in September at £580. The van looked large enough for a couple to comfortably tour for a week or two. Camptoo.co.uk also list privately-owned vehicles, with a two-week summer school holiday hire of four-berth C class motorhome costing £1,500.

How to Choose What Type of Motorhome to Hire

Here are a few hints and tips for deciding which type of van to hire:

• Nip to a dealer before you hire and sit in a few vans to get a feel for them.
• Find out the weight of the van, if it weighs more than 3500Kg, check your driving licence to ensure you can legally drive it.
• Ensure there are enough belted seats for all of your party, and that all places you want to put a child seat have three-point seatbelts.
• Unless you’re used to driving larger vehicles, panel vans tend to be easier to drive and park than A and C class.
• A and C class vans are more spacious when the weather is poor though!
• Some campsites have no toilet or shower block. If your van doesn’t have a bathroom, you may need a toilet tent and a Porta Potti.
• If you plan to take bikes or a kayak, check the van has carriers fitted.

Motorhome Hire Nitty Gritty

Here are a few little details to consider which will hopefully make your hiring experience easier.

• If you have a cat, dog or if you smoke, check they’re allowed on the hire policy.
• Check the small print for mileage limits, breakdowns and insurance.
• Read reviews for the company or owner before you pay a deposit.
• Make no assumptions about what’s included: bedding, towels, satnav, bike rack, child seats, kitchenware, outdoor table & chairs might all cost extra.
• Ask about pick up and drop off times and locations, you might need to add an extra day to your hire to ensure you can get the van back in time.
• When you pick the van up, get a run-down on how to use everything before you drive away. Video it on your phone if you can, so you can watch it again when you’re less excited.
• Think carefully about what you need to take. All vans have limited storage. Take soft bags rather than suitcases. Limit your shoes and clothes – we produced a packing list of everything we had in our motorhome on a year long tour of Europe – you won’t need half of this but it might help your come up with some ideas.
• Pack some staple foodstuffs: tea, coffee, pasta, oil, sauces, rice, vegetables and so on.
• Avoid driving at peak times if you can (and factor in traffic for when you need to collect and drop off)
• Plan your trips carefully, take A roads and motorways when possible.
• Don’t rely on your satnav (they love shortcuts on narrow lanes), and check the route on a paper map for low bridges etc.
• When parking or reversing, one of you should ideally jump out and keep an eye out for hazards.

One final tip, and perhaps the most important one: take your time doing everything: planning, driving, parking, cooking, leaving site, everything! It’s much more relaxing that way.

You might also want to check out our 5 Top Tips for a Motorhome Staycation, as we discuss hiring a motorhome and finding places to go as well as tips for when you set off to drive and park your motorhome.

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