Campervans

We were lovers of VanLife well before it became a hashtag: in 2001 we bought a 1971 Volkswagen Kombi for $500, painted it, and drove it up and down the west coast for two years.

The pitch for a campervan is that transport and accommodation become the same bill. Yum Yum. That is true, and it is why New Zealand, Australia, USA, and EU are full of them. It stops being true faster than people expect.

Do the sum before you book if you are thinking of saving money

A van has to beat a rental car plus rooms, and the comparison people run is rarely honest. Add the campsite fees, which are not zero in most of Europe or New Zealand. Add fuel, because a van drinks roughly half again what a small car does. Add the one-way drop fee, which is often the largest single line and never appears in the headline rate.

On a two week trip with a partner, the van usually wins. Alone, or on anything under a week, it usually doesn't: you pay van prices for a lot of nights you spend parked in the same place.

Relocation deals are something to be aware of

Rental fleets drift. Everyone drives Auckland to Queenstown and nobody drives back, so companies need vans returned north and will hand you one for a nominal daily rate, sometimes with the fuel covered. The catch is that you take their route on their dates.

If your trip is flexible, this is the cheapest vehicle travel that exists anywhere. One dollar a day in Australia is not a headline, it is what the piece describes.

Where you sleep is a legal question, sometimes.

Freedom camping rules changed in most of the countries this works best in, and they now hinge on whether the van is self-contained: a fixed toilet and grey water tank. A van without that certification is restricted to paid sites in much of New Zealand, which removes most of the saving you did the sum for. Ugh, it used to be so fun. Not anymore in many places.

Of course, it is possible and legal to park somewhere at 9 pm, and wake at 6 or 7 and be on the road and no one knows and off you go too. Lots of ways to the land of milk and honey.