Have you ever thought of renting an RV? We did an RV Rental a few years ago through RVShare and it turned out to be a great trip so we have always toyed with the idea of doing it again. My husband is a pilot for a major airline and doesn’t get time off in the summer, but then COVID-19 came and the airlines were cutting back on flights. We had a week to go on a mini-vacation and decided the RV rental was a good option for us. We usually fly somewhere but we fly stand-by and that’s really difficult now since they cut back on flights the planes are full.

I searched all over RVShare and couldn’t get anyone to respond to my requests to book. So I went to Outdoorsy and found a great RV with availability when we needed. This RV was owned by a family and very loved, I wanted to rent from a person instead of a company because I think they would be more invested in keeping the RV in perfect running shape.

We picked up the RV and drove it home packed it up and were on the road in 2 hours. We brought our own bedding, pillows, coffee pot, some utencils, paper plates, BBQ and movies! We brought a cooler for our drinks and that really helped with the small refrigerator. I brought my Dream Dinners frozen and put them directly in the RV freezer, then when I wanted to defrost I would put it in the sink that day and it would be defrosted by dinner. It was so easy to hand my husband the meat and he would BBQ! We brought all of our food so we wouldn’t have to stop and get food.

Before we left home we plotted our trip and my husband only wanted to drive 4 hours a day. I looked for KOAs because they were open, due to COVID-19 the National Parks were not open. We have found that KOAs are nice and clean so we booked our spots are were ready to go.

While driving we took turns in the co-pilot seat entertaining the driver, playing games, reading and maybe a quick nap.

Our first night was in Flagstaff Arizona. It was a 4 hour drive from our home in Tucson and at least 30 degrees cooler! I was happy to  walk around the Flagstaff KOA without breaking into a sweat. My boys had fun riding scooters, skateboards and bikes. My husband was happy to have a beer and relax.

 

Then next day we were off again. We left Arizona and drove to Bryce Canyon Utah it was a beautiful drive but a little longer then we thought it would be. We were all ready to get out of the RV when we arrived. The campsite was not as nice as Flagstaff KOA but it was good for 2 nights. We were able to have a fire and make smores so the boys were happy.

Last time we rented an RV my husband didn’t enjoy unplugging everything then driving it through the National Park and re-plugging everything in when we got back. This time he  found an app called TURO where you can rent a car from an owner, like VRBO for a car. He found a car near us and they owner dropped it off at the KOA camp sight and then picked it up the next day.

Bryce Canyon was beautiful! We drove to the end of the canyon and did a small hike, had a picnic then stopped at the sights on the way back.

We left the next day for Zion National Park Utah, this was a very short drive and the KOA we stayed at was much better. They had a pool, small putt putt golf course, and a nice road the boys could ride skateboards and scooters.

Again we used the TURO app and found a car for 3 days. It was great to have a small car to get to Zion National Park. The park was very busy with cars and the roads, tunnels and parking would have been difficult with the RV. We had a great day driving through Zion and took a couple of hikes. The first was on a wall of  sandstone the second hike was after our picnic lunch we hiked down to a river. It was a very hot day so the water was really refreshing.

The boys were begging for a water day after driving by a beautiful lake near the campsite. We did some research and my husband found Sand Hollow State Park Lake with cliff jumping and wave runner rentals. We took the car to the lake and My older son and I rented a wave runner while my husband took the car to the other side of the lake for some fun cliff diving with the crazy younger boy! We all had a fun day and enjoyed lunch at the lake restaurant.

 

After all the fun we had in Utah it was time to go home. We stopped again in Flagstaff because it was half way and unfortunately the road to the Grand Canyon was closed. I really wanted to stop at the Grand Canyon since we haven’t been there in several years, but we decided we were ready to get home and we would go there on our next trip.

All of the driving, hiking, camping, and together time was fun. We were really happy that we went on this little adventure but it is always nice to go home. We would definitively rent an RV again.