Sean & Tracy

Hi there
Would greatly appreciate any recommendations for RV rental companies. We are planning a reccie. trip out to BC next May to visit Vancouver Island and the Okanagan, and want to pick up an RV in Vancouver when we arrive. We have looked at a couple of RV rental sites on the web, which look fine, but would much rather use a company that someone else has recommended. We have just recently received our file number, which has encouraged us to get the ball rolling and plan our fact finding trip, before PR is granted. If we don't get accepted at least we will have had a wonderful holiday!
Thanks.

Padsnbon

My brother booked his through Canadian-affair.com. He did the whole thing though, the flight included....he said his was very good.

We've just booked our flight, car and hotel with Canadian affair and they were so helpful on the phone.

We looked at the RV rentals but it was NS so no use to you there I guess Have a great trip

Sean & Tracy

Thanks for the info.
In fact we have found the most competative flight prices through Canadian Affair, but didn't think about looking there for RV rental too- stupid or what!! Will take a look now.
Thanks.

joggerjo

Hi there!

Just watch for the extras, some companies don't include the pots and pans etc, that is an extra. Bed linen might be too! Also the mileage, if you go over a certain mileage/usage they charge more!

We found a local guy here who did it in Penticton and although he was the same price as the big guys he did not have the extras and so it worked out cheaper. RV was ok, did the job etc and was the same age as the ones from the other companies so I guess would be about the same standards etc.

He has a website www.allseasonsrvrental.com

JJ

tallperson

Looking on the canadian affair website one of the companies they use is canadream campers. Two years ago we booked direct with canadream campers and they were excellent, would definitely recommend them.

Have a good trip!

Sean & Tracy

Thanks JJ and Tallperson great info.
We are currently considering Canadream, they look good, even providing pick up from hotel.... however, we need a 6 berth RV and they look huge. We are used to driving a large people carrier back here in the UK, but the thought of getting used to the Canadian road systems in busy Vancouver in such a vehicle fills us with horror, also we are planning to spend a few days on Vancouver Island too, before motoring to the Okanagan, and need to manoevere onto a BC ferry!!!....so your option JJ might be better- we could fly from Vancouver to the Okanagan, pick up the RV there and get used to it over the 2 weeks we tour around the Okanagan at our leisure, before braving Vancouver and the BC ferries for our final week!!
Anyway just thinking aloud, any more advice would be gratefully received! and many thanks again.

Sean & Tracy

After further research I think we are just going to have to grit our teeth and go for hiring an RV in Vancouver, as the premiums for one way rental,(Kelowna to Vancouver) and the transfer flight to Kelowna take us way beyond our budget!

We would greatly appreciate any views/advice on driving a 28ft. RV in Vancouver and across to Vancouver Island, as we will be total novices to both RV driving and Canadian roads- a very steep learning curve!! Scary! Thank you in anticipation.

joggerjo

Hi

How would picking it up and dropping it off in Penticton work if you flew back down to Vancouver. You have to watch the prices but we have flown down and paid $69 each. Check out Air Canada and go to there internal flights.

JJ

oceanMDX

I own an RV and have just traveled around BC. No problem with the ferries whatsoever - just use the Tsawwassen terminal south of Vancouver rather than the Horseshoe Bay terminal to get to Vancouver Island. Driving into the interior of BC is not a real problem.

It makes the most sense to rent an RV out of the Vancouver area.

oceanMDX

Just outside of Vancouver (to the east) is the city of Langley where a large cluster of RV dealerships can be found along the "Langley bypass" road. Some of these RV places rent RVs out to people - lots of them come from Europe. Here's one of the places; I know the sales manager:

http://www.candan.com/

A Danish couple own this RV dealership; renting is their main business.

What some people do is rent an RV in Langley, go to Vancouver Island, then Kelowna, Shuswap Lake and many other places along the way to Calgary. Then drop the RV off in Calgary and fly back to Europe from there - or vice versa.

oceanMDX

The one no-no to avoid with an RV is don't take it into downtown Vancouver (the city proper), because the streets are very narrow and the traffic is heavy.

Vancouver is great, but rent a car or use public transit to see its downtown core.

retrobloke

Sean and Tracy,

I can thoroughly recommend Candan as we used them last year. The service was excellent and the RV superb. We have used Canadream in the past but their vehicle was not as good as Candan.
We picked up at Langley and it is no problem to drive to the ferry and across to the island. The roads are much better than the UK and the drivers are more courteous too.
As OceanMDX said, avoid downtown Vancouver roads and use public transport which is also excellent.

retrobloke.

Sean & Tracy

Wow!
Thanks all of you for the advice- feeling a lot happier now!
We have contacted Candan for a quote, and hope to make use of their transfers from airport hotels offer if we decide to use them. Then onto Vancouver Island, as first planned, for a few days, followed by the Okanagan for a fortnight, before returning the RV, and home... hopefully having made the decision about where to settle when PR finally arrives!

joggerjo

Hi me again!

In May we took a 2 week tour which was excellent as we saw so much, it went like this:

We started off in Penticton but you would start in Van. Went to the island - got off at Nanimo went North of there to Parksville, Comox, Courtney. Got the ferry across to Powell river and then through the sunshine coast and ferry back to Van.

From there went North through Whister, up as far as Dawson Creek. Onto Grande Praire and then dropped down to Edmonton and back through the Rockies, to Shuswap area (really liked that area) and came into the Okanagan from the North.

It was fairly hectic but we managed to stop more than one night in some places and we felt we saw soooo much. Some places we knew we would never need to go to again and others that we want to revisit. If this is a recky holiday at least you would be getting to see a lot of areas rather than just places and you could make a decision (hopefully) from there!

Jo

oceanMDX

That's good to know. I have a 35 ft motor home and tow an SUV behind it, so I was apprehensive about taking it over to the island on the ferry. Friends told me that there wouldn't be a problem, and they were right. The ferry was a breeze.

However, understand that Vancouver Island is very large. A few days isn't long enough to see anything but the city of Victoria. I spent a few weeks over there and it was awesome. At China Creek, I caught lots of sockeye salmon and bald eagles were plentiful there. Next year, I plan on spending a month on the island. If you want to know about some nice RV parks, let me know.

To see some photos that I took of Victoria, check this out:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=241672