we rented an RV to drive through alaska for a number of reasons including: how fun is it to rent an RV? we wanted the freedom to stop wherever we wanted instead of relying on hotels and we didn't want to rent camping gear plus rent a car. so the RV it was. and there are lots of RV places to rent from in Alaska in addition to the fact that every third vehicle on the highway is an RV. we went with great alaskan holidays because they have been in business for a long time, have a great web site and had decent rates. we got a 25 footer which supposedly sleeps 6 but i would say that four would be a tight squeeze and you'd better like the other three people A LOT. it has a stove and sink, a microwave (which we never used), a fridge that was bigger than anything i had in new york, tv with DVD player, heating and air conditioning (never used) and the tiniest shower & bathroom. really, i'm surprised that RVs are such a hit with retirees because the bathroom is tiny. but i guess that's the trade-off of not having to use public cans (plus, the retirees we saw were driving those huge tour-bus RVs that probably have hot tubs in them).
if you can look past it getting about 10 miles to the gallon which is soul crushing, the RV is acutally very efficient. you use very little water since you're so aware of your dwindling supply (you can check the levels of propane, water, grey water and black water via a little control panel) and neat features like a dial on the showerhead that lets you rinse and then turn off the water at the showerhead, soap up and then turn the water back on to rinse down. also, the toilet runs on very little water and i don't understand why this concept hasn't been applied to house toilets. you press a little foot pedal to fill the commode with some water, do your bidness and then press the foot pedal again to flush. there you go. of course, the downside is that you're carrying your poo around with you and eventually you have to dispose of it down a hole in the ground at an RV park or campground and it's just...ew.
we stayed in regular campgrounds for the most part but the last night we stayed in a big RV park where there were 200 other RVs and at night we walked around just gawking at some of them. the tour bus ones are just amazing - they have regular-sized armchairs in them! plus, half these people were pulling $30k vehicles as well. i think i like the little van campers the best, like the VW eurovan rialta which seems like a good trade-off between camping but not camping.
so that is the story of how we got around the great state of alaska.
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