Roadsurfer Review 2025 | Camper Van Hire

As a family who struggles to stay still, the van life has always appealed to us. We spend lots of time looking at van conversions online and dreaming of this free and flexible travel life. But will it actually be as dreamy as we image?! We decided it was time to find out and camper van hire was the way to go before spending a fortune on our own! We found the company Roadsurfer and decided to give them a try.

In this post we will discuss the practicalities of renting a van through Roadsurfer, the prices involved and we have even negotiated you a great discount! 

How much does it cost to hire a camper van?

We noticed prices ranged between £55 – £155 per night. There are then extras to consider like bedding packs and insurance (you can see these on our invoice below). We spent a lot of time exploring different rental companies and decided Roadsurfer would be the best company for us. The prices were reasonable, they had lots of pick up locations and there was a huge choice of van type. We contacted them to see if they would like to work with us and they kindly agreed to gift us a van. I will share the complete price for the time we travelled.

Is it better to hire or buy a camper van?

It depends how often you plan to use it. Buying a camper van is a huge cost, the one we rented is around £60k, which most of us don’t have lying around! As we have never done this sort of trip before, renting was a great way to see if the camper life is for us. You can buy much cheaper vans and convert them yourself, but for the occasional use, rental is likely the best way to go.

What we wanted from our Roadsurfer camper van

• Something compact, so went for a sprinter style converted van over a motor home.
• Enough space for 4 of us to sleep comfortably with a fixed bed.
• A roof box room to give our son a bit of space away from us.
• We wanted there to be a toilet / bathroom for our son (me..) to use the toilet at night.
• A kitchenette and seating area to save money on eating out.

The Road house was perfect for us.

Check out the link below to compare the different vans on offer at Roadsurfer.

Read our experience in Germany using a Family Finca van

The Price of Camper Van Hire with Roadsurfer

I have attached the invoice below so you can see exactly what the price was for the two weeks we had our van in October. All of the additional costs are on there too. You could save a lot of money on these costs by taking your own car seat and getting one of the lower insurance packages (we had the full one which added €406 onto the price). We also picked it up early and dropped it off late which added to the cost. You can save nearly €100 on the below cost by picking up and dropping off within their set times.

Minimal rental period for Camper Van Hire?

There is a minimum 3 night rental period. Our 10% discount code works on bookings 5 nights and over.

How old do I have to be for Roadsurfer Camper Van Hire?

• United Kingdom: Drivers must be at least 25 years old and have two years of licensed driving experience (driver´s licence class 3 or class B)
• USA, Canada, and Ireland: Drivers must be at least 21 years old and have one year of licensed driving experience (driver´s licence class 3 or class B)
• Europe (not including Ireland): Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have one year of licensed driving experience (driver´s licence class 3 or class B)

Can you take a dog in a camper van hire?

Roadsurfer rentals can be booked as dog friendly rentals. Once you have chosen your vehicle, simply add the one-off dog fee of £89 in Europe and £115 in North Americato your booking.

Do I have to leave a deposit for my Roadsurfer Camper Van Rental?

Yes. This can be held on a credit card. The money isn’t taken, it is just held incase of damage that isn’t covered by the insurance policy you choose. Deposit amounts vary by country:

• UK (£): £650
• Europe (€): 800€
• USA (USD $): $850
• Switzerland (CHF): 850 CHF
• Sweden (SEK): 8.300 SEK
• Canada (CAD $): $1.200
• Norway (NOK): 10.000 NOK

What insurance cover should I get?

Roadsurfer offer basic, advanced and complete insurance packages. The below image summarise the cost and what is included.

What is included in the basic price of the camper van hire?

• Navigation system
• Air conditioning
• Stationary heater
• Awning or sun shade sail (in Europe)
• 1 outdoor camping table
• 2 outdoor camping chairs
• roadsurfer kitchen box
• Gas bottle(s) (in Europe)
• Dustpan & brush, power cord & adapter (20m), water canister
• Levelling ramps (in Europe)

Our Experience with Road Surfer

The booking process was super easy, you can look at video tours of each van when deciding which to get. Have a look at this page with information on the Roadhouse which is the van we got. The videos go into a LOT of detail which seems irrelevant at the time of booking, but once you have your van and you haven’t got a clue what to do with it, the video is really useful!

How does picking up the camper van work?

Once we arrived at the pick up location, we entered the reception and were met by a staff member. We sat down and he collected the details from my drivers license, passport and took the security deposit. My husband Joao was on the booking as a second driver but didn’t need to show any of his documents.

I signed a document and then we were led to our van. The pick up area had an area for kids to play, a place to get water or coffee and a section where previous campers had left items they hadn’t used. We collected toilet roll, kitchen roll, some cleaning products and food items from here.

They told us to watch the video tour and make sure we were comfortable with everything. We spent a while making sure we knew how the roof box worked, where the gas was stored, how to turn it on and off, how the water worked… there is quite a lot to it! After around an hour or so we had the van packed and ready to go!

What happens if there are problems with the Camper Van?

There is a great troubleshooting page on their website for functionality issues. You are also given numbers to call for help in case of breakdown or accident.

How did you find the whole experience?

We had a variety of emotions over the trip ranging from “This is awful” to “Let’s move into a van full time!”. You can read more about the details of this on our Spanish Road Trip blog. Renting with Roadsurfer was a dream. Yes they gifted us the van so you may be thinking she has to say that… but we would never recommend anything to you if we didn’t think it was brilliant. We are already planning our next road trip with Roadsurfer for 2025! (Update: We have now completed this trip and you can read about it here!)

Our Spanish Road Trip Itinerary

This itinerary wasn’t planned ahead of time. We took each day as it came and moved between places we wanted to visit at a relaxed pace. Andalusia is a beautiful part of Spain and we had a long list of places we wanted to see. The trip was in no way rushed, quite the opposite. This itinerary is great for a family who want to see a lot over a two week period. You could pick out a few of the below destinations to do over a one week trip. You could maybe even squeeze it all into a week at a rush. We slept in late most mornings, had a leisurely breakfast, and usually headed out for the day around 11am. With earlier starts and later finishes, we could have covered a lot more. 

We visited the following places in this order:

Tell me more about your trip!

I have covered the trip in detail on our Spanish Road Trip blog post. I’ve linked places we camped, restaurants we ate at and activities we did. Head over and read that once you have finished here. We have a highlight on instagram called RoadTrip🇪🇸  which has lots of information about our trip in video form!

The links in this blog post are not affiliate links. Aside from the gifting of the van, we have not received any cash payment for writing this blog post. All opinions are honest and our own.