Nervous about renting an RV or Campervan?
Campervans vs Motorhomes
Campervans
Campervans are usually smaller than motorhomes. They are usually vans, or in our case it was a jeep wrangler, that have a bed in the back with some cooking equipment. Some campervans have toilets and showers but ours was basically a bed with all the necessary equipment underneath. This required being outside to cook and clean, and using gas station toilets along the way. There are a few different ways to do your campervan trip, take all your cooking equipment and burners, sleeping bags and pillows or you can do like us and rent everything from the company, we have managed to rent from the company again for our Yukon road trip. This is perfect if you are like us and don’t have any of your own camping equipment.
Motorhomes
These seem so luxurious compared to our bed in the back seat campervan! They tend to have toilets and showers, cooking facilities inside the motorhome and even dining areas that convert to beds… pure luxury! Our motorhome for our Yukon road trip has all of this! Again, all the bedding etc is provided by the company but you can opt to bring your own as well.
Booking Your Campervan Road Trip
When you are looking to book your trip, you will definitely need to browse a few companies to find the best rates. Also check review sites like TripAdvisor so you know that the company is reputable and highly recommended. Most small campervans are perfect for couples. When you go through the booking process for your campervan you will notice that prices are usually a bit higher than renting a normal car, keep in mind that you are booking your transport and accommodation with a campervan! Also you are getting freedom to explore at your own pace, and that is kind of awesome.
Most rental companies have camping packages with campervans, these usually include bedding, so sheets, blankets, and pillows. Our campervan in Iceland included all camping cooking equipment as well such as a burner, pots, pans, gas tanks, plates, cups, coffee maker and we even had a cooler. They have loads of other things that you can add on to make your trip more comfortable like, tables and chairs. Most booking usually give you a certain amount of mileage per day which can be upgraded to unlimited on booking. We tend to try and cover a lot of ground when we road trip so we opt for the unlimited mileage.
Make sure to check and clarify drop off and pick up times before your trip. You don’t want to arrive and realize that you can’t get your car for another 2 hours!
Campervan Essentials for a Epic Road trip
So we are going to cover all the stuff to take on your campervan vacation, from absolute necessities to luxury items, from comfy clothes to cooking gear if you opt to bring your own. Since we travel with backpacks only we are going to make sure we keep everything as lightweight and small as possible so here we go:
Campervan Essentials
1. License
You won’t be going very far without it. Make sure your driver has their license and make sure you have checked that nothing else is required.
2. Passport and wallet
Again, you wont be going very far without either of these!
3. Music Playlists/ Podcasts
Depends what you prefer! We love listening to music, and we download our music on Deezer or Spotify.
4. USB Car Charger
Total necessity! This is great for charging a few things while you are driving!
5. Google Maps
One of favourite apps for traveling, you can read all about using Google Maps for travel in this blog post!
6. Snacks
We always opt for something filling for snacks so protein bars are awesome! We survived off protein bars and skyrr yogurt in Iceland for 3 days because of the terrible weather!
7. Solar Power Pack
This one is similar to what we use. The solar panel actually works, and the light is super bright and handy to have!
8. USB cables for devices
…because you can never have too many usb cables.
9. Camera & Batteries
We will have to do a post sharing all of our camera gear, but for now, our favourite camera is Jason’s sony a6500.
10 Extra SD cards & External Hard drive
Always bring extra SD cards!If you have an external hard drive you can move stuff over each evening if you prefer.
11. Tablet for night time movie watching.
Total necessity for a campervan! We love snuggling up and watching movies together in the camper at night and star gazing!
12. A Small torch light
You can also use your phone!
13. Small Speaker for the evenings
When we are not watching movies, we are jamming to some music while cooking dinner!
14. Small foldable backpack for day trips
This is one of my most useful items. You dont want to carry your big backpack for short hikes etc, so opt for something like this:
15. First Aid Kit
It is always handy to have a small first aid kit!
Campervan Essentials: Clothing & Other Personal Items
1. Comfy Sweater
We are a little bias but we do love this casual sweater!
2. Comfortable pants or leggings (most of our clothing follows our cold weather packing list)
3. Turkish Towels for when we actually find a shower or hot spring
4. Water Bottles
We have started travelling with our own reusable water bottles so that we don’t need to buy any water bottles!
5. Foldable Coffee Cups
We’ve been carrying these with us as well to use at coffee shops enroute and even for our morning coffees to take for the drive!
6. Wine/ Beer Opener (Necessity for us for evenings)
This is a must have for us that we usually forget to pack!
7. Sunglasses
8. Hats
This is our favourite hat!
Campervan Essentials: Toiletries
1. Toothbrushes
Opt for a more eco-friendly option!
2. Toothpaste
We are opting for natural alternatives, so this is our toothpaste of choice:
3. Shampoo Bar or small bottle of Shampoo and Conditioner
Shampoo bars are my new favourite thing! Since I like to DIY my travel toiletries I make my own shampoo bar. If shampoo bars don’t work for you then opt for some silicone travel tubes for your shampoo and conditioner instead of using hotel sized toiletries!
4. Soap
Bar soap always last so much longer! Opt for something eco-friendly and get some castile soap!
5. Razor
We love a safety razor! Carry it without a blade and just grab a pack when you arrive in your destination!
6. Deoderant
All natural is the way to go! You can find a recipe here or you can buy this:
7. Purell
Total essential.
8. Hair Bands
Because they always go missing!
9. Perfume
Get one of these refillable perfume containers! They are amazing, fill it with your favourite perfume and hit the road!
10. Menstrual Cup & Cloth pads
These are the best things to travel with! Cloth pads are also super handy to have.
11. Antihistamines
You just never know! So pack some just to be safe!
12. Imodium
Hopefully you wont need these!
13. Panadol
For all those body aches after hiking every day!
14. Plasters
Just in case all that hiking gives you blisters!
15. Toilet Paper
Make sure you get proper RV toilet paper!
We hope this list of items helps you pack for your RV adventure! This is just our campervan essentials packing list, so if we missed anything then leave a comment!
