You’ve read his story before, but here he is again: Federico. He kindly accepted to write a blog story for us about his personal travel experience and recommendations. So we can get all the details we didn’t get before:

“Few countries in the world are as appealing to travelers as the land down under, where stories of the harsh outback, enigmatic Uluru, aggressive wildlife, cosy koalas and great beaches inspire the imagination of the most seasoned of them. The only drawback about Australia is its size- it’s huge. 90 % of it is uninhabited because of the mostly arid climate, and thus populations have established themselves along the coast, mostly the southwest and along the eastern side; these have become the most common tourist destinations.

With such long distances to be covered motorized transportation becomes a necessity, and even though the public bus system is quite efficient, Australia is one of the few countries in the world that seems to have been designed with campervans in mind: there are free public toilets and showers everywhere (particularly in beach towns), free electrical barbecues everywhere too, plenty of secluded (and sometimes not) areas where to park overnight for free (in theory overnight camping is illegal, but as long as you’re not too obvious you’ll be fine) and rental prices are quite fair- maybe even cheap during winter.

As part of our 2009 10 month trip we had planned on driving from Cairns to Melbourne along the East coast, but this is a huge distance to cover and hence settled with Brisbane to Melbourne. We were there during spring time, the weather being very pleasant in NSW and surprisingly, extremely hot in Victoria.

During our trip we had the opportunity to use two kinds of campervans: the cheapest and most basic in the market (Wicked Campers) and a hi-top campervan from Travellers Auto Barn (TAB). It is true that there is a price difference between them, but also in their comfort, particularly during rainy days.

In simple vans like those owned by Wicked Campers you have to spend most of the time outside (unless driving) even if it isn’t raining because setting up the table after undoing the bed is not as practical as you’d like. You cannot stand up inside either, having to remain crouched all the time. Cooking is done in a camping gas which is no big deal as long as it doesn’t rain, and if you have to pee during the night you’ll have to slide the door open and take care of business outside. So what’s good about these? I say they have three advantages:

1) Price. They are the cheapest in the market

2) They use less petrol because they weigh less

3) Unlike hi-tops, height (duh) is not a problem and you can drive and park them anywhere.

What advantages do hi-tops have? I’d say only one, comfort, but it means many things:

1) You cook inside

2) If you get a portable toilet you’ll be OK during the night

3) You can stand up

4) There’s space to move around and space for your backpacks

5) Driving and living areas are connected in most models (important when it’s raining)

6) You can set up a foldable table just by opening the sliding door.

7) I’m sure you’ll come up with more

We spent four weeks in Australia out of which 17 days we slept in a campervan: 9 in a hi-top, 8 in a Wicked Camper (I must say that we were lucky because we only had to pay for 3 of all those days) and we had the time of our lives. This said, at zero cost, the hi-top from TAB was much better and enough to convince us and pay a little extra and rent a hi-top in New Zealand, our destination after Australia.

Most campervan companies have very good service, with toll free 1800 numbers that will provide all the info you need. I would recommend you check the drop-off locations (some are not very easy to find like the Wicked Camper in Sydney) and ask for free extras when getting a quote (portable toilets are fantastic in a hi-top). Even though our experiences were good with both WC and TAB, TAB went beyond what was expected with the free BBQ event they hosted at their place, the sparkling wine they gave us for our anniversary, and well thought drop-off locations (WC were under investigation because of safety reasons as we were leaving but apparently they are still available).

If you want to learn more about our campervan experiences along Australia’s East coast read:

http://www.maitravelsite.com/australia-and-new-zealand/australia-road-trip-sydney-melbourne/ or any of the posts about Australia. And no matter what you choose, enjoy the land down under! “