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| - Rented a 25' class C in Vegas, and drove it cross country to Orlando over the course of 3 weeks in Jan-Feb 2017.
Neither I nor my friend had ever driven or rented a motorhome before, but the staff and instructional videos made it super easy. I did most of the driving (~4200 miles of it; we took a lot of back roads) and it was very easy to maneuver.
A couple notes: renting an RV is not like renting a kitchenette motel room -- no bedding, linens or cookware is provided whatsoever!! You have to supply your own towels, sheets, pillows, blankets, toilet paper, dish soap, coffee maker...as well as your own coffee mugs, pots, pans, dishes, knives, forks, etc. El Monte will rent you these items for an ADDITIONAL fee...but we were already spending $3500 on the rental, so our budget was maxed out. They did throw in a coffee maker rental ($10 value -- woo hoo) for free, but we had to buy or bring everything else....which was kind of a pain in the ass with a one-way rental. (I managed to stuff most of it into a duffel bag and fly it back that way, as a free checked bag on Southwest...but we did have to just throw away/donate a lot of it).
Other than that minor quibble (and a few cupboard doors that wouldn't stay shut, requiring us to bungee them closed while driving), this was a great experience! We had no mechanical issues over the entire 4500 miles of our journey; the unit we rented had around 75,000 miles on it, and drove like new. The electrical and propane systems took some initial figuring out, but the videos and onboard instruction manual were very easy to follow and understand.
Returning the rig in Orlando was also very easy; they come in, do a quick check of the interior and exterior to make sure you didn't break anything, and you're on your way.
If renting an RV again I would definitely look to El Monte first...but that being said, I'm not sure I ever will do this again. If the whole point of your trip is to rent an RV, then fine....but as a road-tripping vehicle, I'm not sure it's a value. The rental itself was $3500, but the GASOLINE is what really killed us -- we spent around $1100 on gas, and this was with $2/gallon gas prices! PLUS we had to pay $20-$30 for campsites with hookups along the way. If you crunch the numbers, it would be cheaper to rent a Prius or something, and just drive cross country in that, staying in motels along the way.
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