A First-Timer’s Guide to an RV Road Trip

My grandmother turned 95 this year, and my husband and I wanted to take our two daughters, ages 5 and 7, to see her in Southern California (and sneak in a visit to Disneyland at the same time!). But after pricing out airfare, car rental, and hotels from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles I had a crazy idea: what if we drove and saved the cost of airfare? Even better, what if we drove something we could also sleep in? Neither one of us had ever driven anything larger than an SUV, and the longest stretch of time that we’d all spend in the car together was three hours, but the promise of a new adventure was too much for us to resist.

You can now rent an RV through sites like RVshare—an Airbnb-like platform where owners rent out their RVs—for about the same cost as a decent family hotel. There are four main categories, or classes, of recreational vehicles. Class As are the biggest. They’re those huge buslike rigs you see barreling down the road, the ones that have more in common with a 2-bedroom condo than they do a car. Class Bs are the smallest RVs, basically a large van with a kitchenette and a small bed pallet (and/or loft). Class Cs are what RVshare calls the "Goldilocks Rig" of motorhomes, not too big, not too small. Then there are trailers, which my husband and I knew we didn’t want to deal with—even RV pros admit that it can be tough to get the hang of hauling a trailer. We went with the smallest Class C we could find, a late-model 25-footer with a clean, streamlined interior that other renters reviewed as easy to drive.

As a first-timer there will be a learning curve when you get behind the wheel of a motorhome—even a relatively small one like the Winnebago View we rented. The height requires extra mindfulness when it comes to tree branches (lest there be scrapes); the weight means it takes longer to brake; and the length necessitates wider turns. The rental process at RVshare includes a face-to-face training and test-drive with the owner, and my husband and I spent more than two hours with the person we rented from, including about 15 minutes each behind the wheel. We also planned an easy three-hour freeway drive for our first day, so we could get even more comfortable behind the wheel.

Most owners on RVshare stock their rentals with basics like RV-safe toilet paper and basic kitchen utensils. Our Winnie also came with towels, bedding and even a small charcoal grill, so all we had to bring were our clothes, food and toiletries. There were a few extra items that made our trip more comfortable: Dramamine (at highway speeds, the back of a motorhome can sway like a boat); ear plugs (in case of snoring family members or loud neighbors); and air freshener—even a newer RV like the one we drove, the bathroom can generate funky smells after you flush or when the waste tanks get full. We also fell in love with a pair of Vaya Drynk travel mugs that literally kept our coffees hot for six to eight hours—having hot java at our fingertips was an unexpected luxury.