Road-tripping around the US and Canada – Cozycampers camper van review
When one of my good friends, who’s been living in Canada for the past year, told me she wanted to do a road trip in the US in a camper van I jumped at the chance! It sounded like so much fun and doing this trip in a camper van seemed to be the best way to go.
We searched the internet for hours trying to decide which camper van we wanted to be our home for a month and in the end, made the call to go with Cozy Campers. One of my favourite things about this van, was not only the bright blue paint but the fact that the wooden interior reminded me of our families Lockwood house back home. It was also reasonably priced compared to some of the other companies we looked at!
We travelled throughout the month of April which means we were just able to sneak into the low season price bracket. April onwards the price doubles but I’ll have to admit, there is plenty more to see in Canada when the weather warms up a bit! I thought it was beautiful but I will most definitely be back at some stage during the summer so I can see the unfrozen lakes. As we were spending most of our trip in the US, we weren’t too worried about it still being the off season in Canada.
As for the van, aka the Spruce Caboose, we absolutely loved it!! It was perfect for what we needed which was a compact, easy way to get around with just the essentials. It’s a custom converted Sprinter van (a model which I later learnt was extremely popular!) that fits into a standard parking space. This was something that sold me the most when reading about this van and wow did it make a difference not having to hunt around for a park that would be big enough. Yes in the cities sometimes it was a struggle but most of the time, it was simple.
The Spruce Caboose is completely fitted out with a sink, tap, kitchen area, ceiling fan and of course a large queen sized bed which converts into a table and chairs. The chairs have additional storage underneath which is a bonus! The van also comes with a propane stove which can either be used on the bench in the kitchen area or moved outside which was awesome when we wanted to cook outside in the fresh air. When cooking inside the van is equipped with a fan which can be used for ventilation, super handy. The fan was also great for keeping us cool on the nights where we were in the dessert. I’m talking 30 degree heat, whew. But when it was cold, the linen that is provided is amazing and kept us so warm. At one point we were in -13 degrees eeek! – we really did experience everything on this trip haha. Also there is an outdoor shower at the back which comes in handy when freedom camping or ‘wild camping’ as the Americans called it.
Speaking of freedom camping. another amazing thing about this van was the solar power system it comes with. We got super lucky with the weather and had sun most days which allowed us to freedom camp pretty much our entire journey. In fact the solar power didn’t run out once. This helped keep costs pretty low which was ideal cause Canada and America are not cheap!
The engine of the car is diesel meaning it’s pretty reliable and we didn’t have any issues with it which was awesome. We only had to top up the coolant every now and then which was a great learning experience since my car knowledge is next to zero haha. If anything did happen, we had RVezy roadside assistance which gave us great peace of mind.
Overall I really recommend Cozy Campers, the van is great and Chris and Justin were so lovely to deal with. If you ever decide to rent with them say hi from me!
