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. 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.

From the archive

• How I Rented a Campervan for $1/day in Australia

  Relocation deals. The single biggest saving in van travel, and most people have never heard of them.

• Camper-Vanning New Zealand

  The country the whole idea was invented for.

• Road Tripping Europe in a Self-Built Campervan

  Building one rather than renting, and what that actually costs.

• RV Road Trip Considerations

  Bigger vehicle, different trip. Where an RV stops making sense.

• 3 Australian Road Trips to Plan Your Trip Around

  Routes that suit a van, with the distances made honest.

• The Best South Island Road Trip Destinations

  Where to point it once you have the keys.

• The Ultimate Guide to Extreme Global Road Tripping

  For when the van is the entire trip rather than part of one.

• Driving on the “Wrong” Side of the Road

  Worth reading before day one, not after.

• 10 Safety Tips for Driving in a Foreign Country

  Paperwork, police stops, and the rules nobody writes down.

If the van is one leg of something longer, the flights are where a multi-stop trip either works or quietly costs you a thousand dollars. AirTreks plans those.