Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series that tells the story of Stella and Flore, two twenty-something sisters who embarked on an epic, van-powered journey from California to Canada.
Stella and Flore were first time renters from Belgium who rented their Class B RV on Outdoorsy in the fall of 2015. After their trip, they shared some of the RV advice they gathered along the way. In Part II of their story, they shared one key piece of advice: Make sure you have a valid visa (or passport) and an authorization from the RV owner you’re renting from if you’re crossing into Canada.
Another is that it’s possible to go against the norm, but you need to find a special owner who will work with you. In their case, they wanted to make theirs a one-way trip. They felt could do as much as possible with the amount of time they had in California and Canada — no backtracking required.
The process turned out to be simpler than they anticipated. All they had to do was seek out the right rental fit.“We were worried, but the Outdoorsy team helped make it easy for us,” Stella says. “We were thankful it all came together. We didn’t have to do the same route twice and we could see twice as much!”
Their biggest piece of advice? The overall experience, from signing up for insurance to last-minute trip planning to returning the van, was much easier than either of them had expected.
“It was a piece of cake,” Stella says. The Outdoorsy team was “incredibly patient, kind and responsive. I honestly felt I was the one not being on top (planning the trip), due to the the last-minute decisions I took, etc. It all came through, thanks to the team being so flexible and patient.”
The sisters are eager to do another van trip again in the future, and they will return to the open road more confident and more experienced the next time around.
A final word of RV advice from Stella and Flore for others planning to rent an RV:
“It is very safe and easy. I would recommend having at least two drivers, though, and a well-planned list of places you want to check out. While it was great to decide as the day went on where we would go, I felt it would have been good to have better documentation and knowledge about the areas we were visiting to make the most of it. We also found parking in cities a more complicated than anticipated.”
Part 1: Two Girls, One Sweet Class B RV
Part II: Two Girls, One Sweet Class B RV and International Borders
