THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020 D 3RECREATIONAL VEHICLE RENTAL
companies are reporting huge
increases in summer bookings
after the industry virtually shut
down because of pandemic-relat-
ed travel restrictions. Airstream,
the retro trailer brand, had retail
sales climb 11 percent in May
compared with last year. RVshare,
an R.V. sharing service, said the
number of days booked via its site
had more than doubled year to
date compared with last year.
“When you rent an R.V., you’re
getting a rental car, hotel and
more direct access to where you
want to go,” said Jon Gray,
RVshare’s chief executive.
You also usually get a private
bathroom, which is helping drive
interest in R.V.s, according to a
survey of 4,500 North American
households by the private camp-
ground company Kampgrounds of
America (KOA). About half of
respondents said having a private
bathroom in a cabin or R.V. was
very important.
Predicting traffic is tricky.
Pre-pandemic, about 40 percent of
bookings at Cruise America, the
largest R.V. rental company on the
continent, with nearly 5,000 vehi-
cles, was international, largely
from Europe.
Business remains down be-
cause of international falloff, but if
present trends continue, the com-
pany expects to sell out of its R.V.
rentals by the end of summer.
“Domestic demand is through
the roof,” said Randall Smalley II,
the assistant vice president for
global marketing and business
development at Cruise America.
“We’re fortunate to provide vehi-
cles that offer control of your
vacation.”
Rent a vehicle or share one.
Since buying an R.V. can set you
back $10,000 to $300,000, it makes
sense to rent. Rental options
range from companies that own
their rooms on wheels, like Cruise
America, or marketplace plat-
forms like RVshare and Outdoorsy
where you can find someone else’s
R.V. to rent.
“RVshare brings together two
groups that make sense: people
who want to go on an R.V. trip but
don’t own one, and people who
have one parked in their driveway
50 weeks a year,” Mr. Gray said.
“In a world where social distanc-
ing is at a premium, the ability to
take your bathroom and sleeping
arrangements with you positions
R.V.s very nicely.”
At Outdoorsy, the owners of the
roughly 200,000 vehicles on the
site offer local travel advice.
“They are bringing great rec-
ommendations to the table,” said
Jen Young, the co-founder of
Outdoorsy. “That’s going to be-
come important as people focus on
in-state and local travel to have
that expertise spread across the
country.”
Like booking through Airbnb or
other peer-to-peer sites, the plat-
forms work as marketplaces for
renters to meet owners, and they
don’t oversee the cleaning of the
vehicles. To address the hygiene
issue associated with the sharing
economy — borrowing a vehicle
with someone else’s germs —
Outdoorsy is encouraging owners
to let their vehicles sit empty for
48 hours between rentals.
RVshare recommends its owners
follow cleaning guidelines estab-
lished by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and has a
partnership with TaskRabbit
through which owners can find
cleaning services (with additional
fees included in the rental agree-
ment).
Cruise America disinfects each
vehicle between uses, and the
company says it exceeds C.D.C.
guidelines.
Whether you rent from Cruise
America or via a marketplace,
vehicle rates are often just the
base of the bill. Pricing R.V.s
follows “the old car-rental model,”
said Mr. Smalley, noting charges
for mileage and not emptying
sewage.
Cruise America vehicles typi-
cally cost $60 to $160 a night de-
pending on size and season before
gas, which can be a major expense
even in these times of low fuel
prices (the R.V.s get 6 to 10 miles
per gallon). Bedding ($60) and
cookware ($110) are additional.
RVshare said its average rental
was less than $1,000 for a week,
excluding gas. Outdoorsy’s aver-
age rate is $135 a night.Nervous about driving?
If you’re nervous about driving a
25-foot-or-longer vehicle, you
have a few options. RVshare and
Outdoorsy offer remote delivery,
in which the owner drives the
vehicle to and from a campsite for
a fee, usually $30 to $150 (fees and
distance limits vary and are set by
the vehicle owner).
At some of its 525 private camp-
grounds, KOA offers “glamping
accommodations” — or furnished
lodgings, from train cabooses to
Airstream trailers — at a few of its
properties from Maine to Califor-
nia.
For a high-end upgrade, the
luxury tour operator Abercrombie& Kent is offering custom road
trips — think Los Angeles through
the Southwest or Chicago to Mon-
tana — for which guests may opt
to travel by a guide-driven R.V.Cram in a van.
On the small end of the spectrum
of R.V. models, camper vans are
the tiny houses of the road, tricked
out to accommodate a bed, kitchen
and amenities like TVs. Most
camper vans lack bathrooms but
have cachet, as celebrated under
the hipster nomadic Instagram
hashtag #vanlife.
Before it was a social media
darling, it was a way of life in
Australia, where Omar Bendezú,
the owner of the 13-van rental
company Ondevan in Miami, got
the idea to bring the concept
stateside in 2017.
“I saw the opportunity here to
give people the means to explore
by themselves,” he said, noting
that up to 60 percent of his busi-
ness, pre-virus, was international,
primarily from European trav-
elers visiting the United States.
Ondevans cost about $100 a day.
Jucy camper vans, painted in
signature green and purple, are
ubiquitous in New Zealand, where
the company originated. Its North
American operations, based in
Oakland, Calif.; Las Vegas; and
Los Angeles, rent Dodge minivans
retrofitted with kitchenettes ac-
cessible from the hatchback and
often with a tent that pops up on
the roof. They run $20 to $150 a
night.
In Seattle, the start-up Cabana
offers 10 Ford Transit vans ret-
rofitted with queen-size memory
foam mattresses, toilets, TVs,
mini-refrigerators and showers
supplied by onboard water tanks.
“I love getting dirty hiking in
the mountains, and I also love
taking a hot shower and sleeping
in a comfortable bed,” said Scott
Kubly, the chief executive and
founder of Cabana, who describes
the vans as “everything you would
get with a hotel but crammed into
a van using every cubic inch like a
game of Tetris.”
Costing $200 a night, rentals are
handled through an app, which
unlocks the vans parked on city
streets in Seattle. Cabana simpli-
fies pricing by including mileage
and not charging guests to pump
out the holding tanks.Dodge the crowds.
Most R.V. companies say the
biggest demand is around coastal
communities and national parks
in the Western United States,
though states like Michigan and
areas like New England surge in
summer.
Spontaneity and freedom are
key attractions to travel by R.V.
But this summer, potentially with
more vehicles on the road and
Covid-related capacity constraints
in parks, some advance planning
is required.
Since selling their home in Fort
Collins, Colo., in September 2018,
Tom and Mona Mesereau have
logged 18,000 miles through 30
states in their 32-foot Class A
recreational vehicle, running their
public relations business from the
road.
“Although Tom and I have
traveled quite a bit, making last-
minute park reservations depend-
ing on whim, this is not the year to
wing it,” Mona Mesereau wrote in
an email from New Mexico, where
regulations limited R.V. park
capacity to 25 percent occupancy
during the state’s reopening.
“Plan where you will stay each
evening.”
In addition to apps like AllStays,
the Mesereaus use Harvest Hosts,
a network of more than 1,000
wineries, breweries, attractions
and farms that allow R.V. parking
overnight (annual membership
costs $79). Members are encour-
aged to spend a minimum of $20
at the host business in exchange.
Extreme social-distancing
seekers may opt for boondocking,
or camping without power and
water hookups, which is often free
in national forests or Bureau of
Land Management areas. Sites
can be found using
Frugal-RV-Travel.com and
Ioverlander.com.
With batteries and water tanks,
“all R.V.s are built for some degree
of boondocking,” said Anna Maste,
the co-founder of Boondockers
Welcome, a website that lists R.V.
parking on private property ac-
cessible to members for a $50
annual fee. “The traditional term
meant a wilderness setting, but
R.V.ers are an inventive bunch. It
has come to mean any number of
things including Wallydocking, or
parking in a Walmart parking lot
overnight.”NADINE REDLICHWith restrictions loosening, travelers have been increasingly
drawn to the relative solitude that recreational vehicles offer.
BY ELAINE GLUSAC
Join the Crowd
And Rent an R.V.
MAKING AN ALCOHOL-FREEcocktail can be as simple
as opening a can of Bloody Mary mix, but with a little
more ambition, the home bartender can create tasty,
refreshing and intriguing drinks.
In recent years, a number of companies have
introduced alcohol-free “spirits,” like Seedlip, an
English brand of botanical and spice concoctions.
From Australia, Lyre’s is a new brand of stand-ins for
malt whiskey, rum, gin, Italian-style aperitifs and
more in fancy bottles (named for that country’s
lyrebird). Spiritless, an alcohol-free “bourbon” from
Kentucky, is scheduled to hit the market any day. All
of these are distinguished by being distilled, suppos-
edly making them closer to the real thing.
But without investing in these “impossible boozes,”
there are many ways to create sophisticated mock-
tails. Some, like the unspiked cosmopolitan that
follows, can be made by the pitcher to serve over ice
and enhance anyone’s summer picnic, including
children’s. (You can always offer vodka on the side.)
The one relatively uncommon item that is worth
investing in is verjus, the alcohol-free juice of unripe
green grapes, usually made by wineries. In the
kitchen, it is a milder stand-in for vinegar (wine
vinegars do have a little alcohol). But in a glass
topped with soda or good tonic water and a spritz of
lime, it becomes an easy party drink. It can replace
the rum in a “mojito” or the cachaça in a “caipiriña.”
An excellent verjus is made by Wölffer Estate Vine-
yard in Sagaponack, N.Y.
Verjus contributes acidity, a critical component in a
well-made drink. Lemons, limes and other citrus, and
unsweetened pineapple juice also provide appealing
acid. Bitter flavors and the puckery tannins that
you’ll find in many black and some green teas and in
fruits like blackberries, cherries and cranberries are
important, too. They help tame the sweetness of
many mocktails.
Drinks usually calling for vodka are the easiest to
make nonalcoholic, since that spirit adds little or no
flavor to begin with. A mute Moscow mule, for exam-
ple, is simply ginger beer and lime served over ice; it
takes on cocktail party allure if served in traditional
copper mugs. Using proper glassware enhances any
drink, and be generous with the garnishes.COS-MOCK
TIME 15 MINUTES
YIELD: 2 SERVINGS
¼cup Seville (bitter) orange marmalade
Juice of 1 lime
½cup cranberry juice
Lemon twists for garnish- Place the marmalade in a strainer over a small bowl.
Gradually add 2 tablespoons boiling water as you force
the jelly, not the peels, through the strainer. This is your
marmalade syrup. You should have 4 tablespoons. Stir. - Place marmalade syrup in a mixing glass. Add lime
juice, cranberry juice and ice. Stir well. - Strain into two chilled stemmed cocktail glasses and
garnish with twists. If desired, the drink can be served on
the rocks in large wine goblets.
FAKIR
TIME 10 MINUTES
YIELD: 4 SERVINGS
½pint fresh blackberries and/or raspberries
16 oz. ginger ale, well chilled- Set aside 8 of the best berries for garnish. Force the
rest through a sieve to remove the seeds. You should
have about a quarter cup of berry purée. - Slowly divide ginger ale among 4 champagne flutes.
Add a tablespoon of berry purée to each without stirring.
Garnish each drink with a couple of whole berries on a
toothpick or wooden skewer and serve.
SOUCHONG SOUR
TIME: 10 MINUTES
YIELD: 1 SERVING
¼cup strong brewed Lapsang souchong tea
cooled to room temperature
4 teaspoons maple syrup
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon egg white, organic, pasteurized
or reconstituted
½slice orange
Maraschino cherry, preferably good quality
not marinated in alcohol- Combine the tea, maple syrup, pepper and lemon
juice in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake. Add the egg
white and shake again, vigorously. - Place a couple of inch-square ice cubes, or one very
large one in an old-fashioned glass and strain the cock-
tail over the ice. Garnish with orange slice and cherry.
Serve Some
Mocktails
Sophisticated drinks don’t have
to include alcohol. For your next
round, mix up a pitcher.
BY FLORENCE FABRICANTJULIA GARTLAND FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES (PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING)Lauren Sloss contributed reporting.