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| - Had a long trip through a hot Utah hitting all the National Parks + Mesa Verde in Colorado. The van worked great. According the to the van gas mileage was 18+ and there were no issues with this 2012 Caravan with about 75K miles. There were 4 of us on the trip (me, wife, 13 and 15 yr old boys) and the kids slept up top while wife and I slept in the van. We didn't camp in the van every night but for the nights we did things went well.
The staff in Las Vegas was great. Friendly folks who helped out with ways to save us money. Already having a good guess on the mileage for our trip, they suggested the 100 mile a day play instead of unlimited and that saved us quite a bit of money and was the right choice for the trip. They did a good job going over the van before we left. The return was smooth, no issues.
A few points...
Having 4 in the van meant luggage was tight. There were three "carry on" luggage bags and one "check in" bag plus about 4 odds and ends shoulder bags. Because it's a minivan there was the "Stow and Go" storage which held two of carry on bags and some of the shoulder bags. The other luggage was stored on the "center island" in the van. Not to worry, there is room for it all, but just takes a bit to set up and tear down when travelling.
The Penthouse up top can't hold luggage, unless it's real skinny. But it can hold the sheets/blankets/pillows/towels Jucy gives you for the trip. BTW the linens come as a set in a plastic bag, one set per person. Items we go were clean and perfect for the trip.
Sleeping in the Penthouse worked well for the kids, the big bonus up there was that there is a cigarette lighter outlet up there for charging things and an exhaust fan to help cool things off. So the kids were loving it up there. While we didn't encounter any rain it looked like that if it would have rained they would have been dry. The window screens kept the bugs out too.
Sleeping in the van was a bit challenging because of our trip. Utah in mid-summer is hot and there are no real heat exhaust options for the van. You can run the Van AC but you have to turn it off eventually. There are no screens for any of the windows either, so the only option is to sleep with the windows open. This probably only an issue based on where you are camping. Where we were it was even too hot for the bugs :-) The bedding was comfortable and it worked fine, it was just a bit hot.
The van had a few cigarette lighter outlets in it so charging phones and such was simple enough. I would suggest to anyone using a van like this that if you bring a laptop, get a DC to AC inverter so you can charge those in the van. There are no 110V outlets in the van. We had one and it worked out great for us. Probably want an inverter that is 200 to 400 watts to cover charging a laptop or two.
Since you will likely be in the dark at some point, take a flashlight. The van doesn't come with one (but inside the van and penthouse there are ample lighting options). So that walk to the bathroom may be a bit dark if you don't have a light.
The back of the van has a small refrigerated drawer which worked great. At most we held about 3 1.5L bottles of water, ~5 16 ounce cans, a few yogurts and various other snacks and they fit, but there wasn't much room left. The van comes with some pots and pans, glasses, plates, utensils which are thoughtfully stowed in the back. There were two camping stoves which came with the butane. One stove can come out of the van and go on a table or something and the other is fixed/attached to the van.
If I remember right the van held ~6 gallons of water. It comes out into a small sink via a hand pump. Grey water tank drain in the van worked fine and was simple enough to drain at our last campground dump station. FYI... for our trip, the water coming out of the pump was pretty warm... swimming pool warm. All the places we were at ran between 80 and 100 degrees so that's what the water warmed up to. Because of the warmth of the water I don't know if I would have trusted it for anything but cleaning stuff. Warm water in a "tank" just doesn't give me a good feeling.
The van also came with 4 folding camping chairs. There is a table that fits in the middle of the van as well. Even with our luggage this all fit well in the van. It was tight, but it all fit. On the outside the van had a table that pulled out of a storage spot between the van body and the Penthouse.
Overall it was a great trip. We had this van for about 2 weeks and it worked great holding everything we put in it. There were no issues, the staff was great and you bet we'd rent this van again and again.
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