RV/MOTORHOME RENTAL

Yes but not since 2009 I'm afraid. It was a 32 foot or so, with 2 slide outs from memory. We did a tour of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

It was a good experience for us by and large. The handover wasn't great so I had to learn 'on the hoof'. The first thing we did when we picked it up was to head to a Walmart to get towels and a BBQ and to stock up on food. The RV did not come with a cable to hook up to TV points in the campsites we stayed at. Not a great issue for Mrs G and myself but we had our young lad with us. In the end we borrowed one off a nice couple and then posted it back to them when we got back to the UK.

One thing I'd take with me next time would be a small toolkit as it was a sod putting the BBQ together.

We found that most campsites did not have restaurants so we tended to eat our main meal at lunchtime if we wanted to dine out. Aside from that it was BBQ's mostly.
 
Not in Orlando but from Toronto Canada, never had a problem there but the vehicles are basic and they come with basically nothing that you would have over here.
 
It will cost a lot more than staying in motels/hotels, by the time you pay for rv hire and campsites.
 
One warning I read about. A chap reserved an RV and when he got to the depot he was pretty shocked at the state it was in. Being a cautious chap he fitted a new memory card in his camera and went round it taking photos of every dent, scratch and broken plastic. He then did the same with a second memory card. He gave one to the hiring company and insisted they put it in an envelope and sign a receipt and he did the same with one that he kept. When he returned the vehicle the renter didn't remember this and started saying he would be charging $5,000 for the damage. When the renter pointed out that the damage he was referring to was already there and they each had a memory card showing the photographs the hiring company bloke had to back down. The hirer came to the conclusion that they had this old banger and it was making more money for them than the shiny new ones that were more expensive to hire.

When I was in Orlando naturally I went to the Harley Davidson showroom with my son in law, as you do, and we hired a couple of bikes for two days. We rode up to Jacksonville - what a dump - and back. Over the road from the dealership was a RV hire company so I went and asked. Basically they take a $20,000 deposit, and the insurance does not cover any damage to the front, rear, sides, roof or underside of the vehicle. When you return it, they examine it with a microscope and keep what they think is the value of the damage.

Hiring the Harley Davidsons on the other hand was a great hoot. We rode off up north towards Jacksonville. Surprised, we found we were passing the Daytona Raceway and could hear the roar of American race cars. We stopped, parked our bikes in amongst some cars that were parked against the kerb and went to see if we could see any racing through a hole in the fence, Bart Simpson-like. We couldn't. When we returned we found we had a couple of parking tickets. Very ornate they are, big red things. Reading the payment method, we realised that we could not pay the fine. They would only accept a check (an American cheque because they can't spell proper) drawn on an American bank. No cash, no credit card. We returned the bikes to the dealer, told them we had a great time and weren't they nice bikes. Didn't say anything about the parking tickets. Later that week we saw the dealership guy that we had hired the bikes from in a Hard Rock Cafe. We told him we had parking tickets and what should we do? We can't pay. He laughed and said don't worry. We know you will get one or two so the cost is built in to the hire fee. We pay them, and in any case we get so many that the local ticket office gives us a discount.

At that time there was $1.98 to the UK £ so everything seemed reasonably priced. Except the hire rates of RVs which made me wince. I bought a fabulous Hard Rock Cafe leather jacket, it is my pride and joy to wear it so I keep it for special occasions. The leather is so soft and supple it is gorgeous. We also bought a Bose HiFi system, and a couple of Breitling watches - 25th wedding anniversaty presents to us. Everything was half the price it would be in the UK. But it's not like that now. I read somewhere that a basic McDonalds burger is $5 which in real money is £5.
I won't be going back. Too many 14 year olds driving cars, too many idiots firing off guns at anyone they fancy, too expensive generally. And look who's running (or should that be ruining) the place. Canada on the other hand - I would go there. What a lovely country that is . . . . . .
 
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Last place we hired from was Cruise America and where treated just fine, but that was in Vegas. Canadian hire company tried to rip us off, but we had photos of all damage when we started hire, including some photos with the hire rep standing next to van.
 
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