Hiring a camper van in europe?

youcancallmeal

Hey,

Just wondering if anyone has ever done this or heard of somebody doing this. The plan is that me and 3 friends are going to rent out a camper van for 2 weeks during the summer and drive around europe. We are willing to start from anywhere and rent a camper van in any country. We're all around 23 years old but only one of us has a full licence and the rest of us have provisionals. So these are my questions and if any can be answered it would be seriously appreciated

- What conditions in general will have to be met to rent a camper van(i.e. will there have to be more than one fully licensed driver, be over a certain age etc)
- Would there be conditions that camper van must not leave country hired in?
- What would happen if a foreign police force stopped us driving a camper van and the driver only had a irish provisional(would they even know what it was?)
- What prices are we looking at for hiring a camper van to sleep 4?
- Would there be insurance costs?
- Got any links?

Ok thats all the questions. Sorry if i sound a bit clueless but were not too sure where to start and we really want to get this idea off the ground. Its all about planning ahead as they say

Any advice appreciated,
Cheers
al

John R

A few of my mates were looking at this a while ago, apparently Germany is much cheaper than most countries.

If you (or more importantly the only licenced driver in your group) is under 21 then forget it. Most hire companies will also require the licence to have been held for at least a year.

A provisional is NOT a licence, it is a learners permit. In most countries their own citizens are not allowed free reign with one and they certainly do not allow the use of foreign ones. Unless you were faced with a clueless and complacent cop, if caught driving without a licence it is bad news. You could very well end up in the clink with the vehicle impounded.

All hire policies include third party insurance and damage (to the hire vehicle) waivers. They are usually itemised on the bill and there is often several different choices. Be very careful to check the Excess or Overage as this is the amount of any claim or damage to the vehicle (by you or anyone else) that you are responsible for.


Link

Unless you can get at least one other qualified driver or your mate REALLY likes driving and staying sober while his friends get sozzled I would not reccomend it

youcancallmeal

Yea we've done a good bit of research now and its definitely looking possible. So far we've now got two fully licenced drivers who've had them for over a year and i'll be getting my full licence during the summer(I'm confident about passing the test ). Not too sure if i'd be safe driving though because I wont be able to put my name on the insurance. Altogehter though the rental prices are reasonable and overage is pretty much standard as far as rental companies go. It'll still be handy to talk to someone who has done this before(learning from other peoples mistakes and all that )

fattax

hey al,

yes i did this around this time last year, 6 mates and myself headed off for four weeks. just to give you a short speil, we flew cork to amsterdam and rented the camper there. we then headed off and hit (amongst other places) prague, munich, lake garda, salou, and barcelona.

the dude (and a dude is what he was!!) picked us up from the airport, gave us a quick tutorial and then we were off. we had the van booked quite a bit in advance, maybe february or march.

to get to some of your queries, i was 22 at the time and was the main driver along with another mate. the dude took copies of our licences but that was as far as the administration went i think. i have a full licence as did the other guy. the rest of the lads either had a provisional or none at all, so it was just me and the otheer fully licesced driver doing the driving.

they didnt mind where we went, i mean we did stick to eu countries and there was no hassle going over borders, and in two weeks i dont think ye will get anywhere outside the eu. had absolutely no experience of police so i couldnt comment. the closest we came was border patrol going from germany to the czech republic.

as for costs, we paid about 600 each (7 of us) in total, rental, insurance and other titting around csts. obviously there was the cost of flying over to the dam and spending (drinking) money. all in all, for a 4 week holiday, i spend almost 3gand, which i am still paying off.

alll in all, it was by far and away the best holiday i have ever been on, and i'd go in the morning if i could!! stoopid work.

i remembered the link of the place we rented from, the guy is dead on and knows whats what. its www.campanje.nl

ill check back to see if you have any other questions!

enjoy!

youcancallmeal

Yea i was lookin at www.campanje.nl also looking at this site, both seem reputable enough and the second one has depots all around europe. I like the way campanje will pick up from the airport which is definitely handy. Do campanje require that you hold a full licence for more than a year, there website doesnt say anything about you having to?

So if there was 7 of youse then what kind of van did you get, I presume it was under 3500kg? Did any of your unlicensed friends 'help' with the driving. Seems like an awful lot of driving for just two people.

fattax

yeah the van was under 3500, it was basically a mercedes van chassis, it was quite comfortable, both to drive and to live in. i would certainly recommend campanje. the guy is a bit off the wall but is dead on.

yeah, we had a few overnighters, two of the lads who had provisionals did a few hundred k's between them while me and the other driver got a bit of kip. it was all drivin on the motorway and was no hassle.

re the length of having the license, i have mine since 2000, as did the other guy so it wasnt an issue. i dont recall anything being said about it tho.
have a cd full of pics, i think i can dig out a pic of the van itself if youre interested.

as i said, i can recommend that crowd, we paid a deposit upopn arrival and got it all back at the end, bar the cost of a window. long story.

and being picked up from the airport is a godsend!!

youcancallmeal

Yea a pic would be great if you have one, we were looking at something along the lines of this ourselves.

fattax wrote:

yeah, we had a few overnighters, two of the lads who had provisionals did a few hundred k's between them while me and the other driver got a bit of kip. it was all drivin on the motorway and was no hassle.

We'll probably end having to do something like this aswell, its only fair on the guys who get stung driving for the whole trip. As far as broken windows go its defintely the sign of a good trip

fattax

i'll dig one out and pm it to you (once i figure that minefield out!!) had a look at your site and the group 6 one is pretty much along the lines of what we got.

as regards the driving, it was great to have the lads to do some driving, albeit a small portion. i meam we left barcelona and got to amsterdam, which is a pretty long distance in about 18 or 20 hours no stop driving. i laft barcelona, drove, went to bed, got up and drove into amsterdam!!

any other questions let me know, ill try pm ing you a pic or two of the van!!

edit : tried that but to no avail. if you like, send me your email and ill sent a few pics on.