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Getting down to details
By ARLINE and SAM BLEECKER Before renting an RV, a key consideration is where you want to pick up your rig: close to home or nearer your vacation destination. Renting an RV near home offers the convenience of being able to take with you what you want and (almost) as much as you want. If you choose to fly to a destination and have an RV waiting for you, you'll have to plan more carefully, because you can't stuff items for every contingency in your luggage. Also keep in mind that, for a nominal fee, most large RV rental companies provide "housekeeping" packages (dishes, pots, pans, etc.). Whichever method you select, be sure to check with your car insurance carrier to see if your policy covers a rented RV. If not, or if coverage is not adequate, you may need to purchase additional insurance from the RV rental agency. The Internet offers many choices for finding an RV to rent. Search for "RV rental" and the city or state you're interested in, then prepare to peruse dozens. One nationwide source is Cruise America (toll-free 1-800-327-7799), which has 162 rental centers in the United States and Canada. The company's Web site, www.cruiseamerica.com, offers guidance on RVing and pricing. For example, renting an RV in Florida for seven nights costs from $875 to $1,065 in low season to between $1,095 and $1,355 in high season, excluding taxes. Included in the fee are 1,000 free miles; each additional mile costs 29 cents. The company lists two outlets in the Tampa Bay area: RV Mobile Medic Inc. in Tampa at (813) 884-6625 and RV Mobile Medic Inc. II in Clearwater, (727) 466-9622. Another Web site, www.gorving.com, notes that more than 460 outlets and local dealerships rent RVs; it provides an easy search feature for finding one. Many rental companies offer state-of-the-art, late-model units, and a growing number of campgrounds offer on-site rentals. The per diem cost at campgrounds we stayed at varied, and depending on whether we opted for full hookups (electricity, water, sewage), rates ranged from a low of about $20 per night to a high of about $42. Also, be prepared to pay highway tolls that run about twice what they do for a car. And then there's the gas! The fuel tank in our 32-foot Winnebago Brave held a whopping 75 gallons that, even at 9 or so miles per gallon, would take us about 675 miles. We couldn't bear to fill up the tank in one shot (but also didn't want to risk running out of gas, especially if we relied on generator power for our utilities). So we avoided sticker shock by topping off the tank only roughly every few days, which kept fuel outlays to between $30 and $40 per fillup. Even with the option to provision, there are some things we didn't have that we wish we had. Our cats, for one thing. But that's another story. Aside from that, the female half in our party missed a toaster most. Also, a length of simple cord would have been great for rigging up a clothesline to dry out the everyday stuff, such as towels. A portable vacuum would've been a blessing; no matter how scrupulous we were about trying not to track dirt inside, it was a losing battle that a broom just doesn't master. Every campsite had a fire pit, but not all had a grill rack. Eventually, we bought a rack for a universal fit. But because barbecuing is as endemic to RVing as mosquitoes are to Florida, next time we'll take a George Foreman grill. Some things we schlepped that we wish we hadn't: far too much clothing. Our RV stored all of it more than adequately, but fashionistas need not apply for this ultracasual vacation, and the storage space devoted to never-worn clothing could have been better used for other things. Finally, some items we took turned out to be lifesavers, including a clipboard for holding the piles of maps and loose papers that pile up when you're navigating an RV. Plus, you never can have too many plastic storage bags. As frequent cruisers of the seagoing kind, most of our previous summer vacations were spent abroad. This year, like many Americans, we decided to focus closer to home. The RV allowed us a domestic dalliance we couldn't have enjoyed any other way.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Travel page
From the AP |
