We recently enjoyed our first campervan experience, hiring a Britz HiTop for a short holiday journeying from Darwin to Cairns. At either end of the trip we stayed in motels, but for the outback sections we slept in the vehicle. We learnt a number of things which we hadn't considered previously.We arrived at Britz in Darwin reeling from the shock of the 30°C temperature and high humidity, coming from a dry near-freezing Perth morning. The Britz parking area was packed with vans, many seeming to be dirt-covered recent returns, and the benches on the veranda were occupied by lazing backpackers. On entering we were served promptly, but told that the HiTop we had ordered many months previously was not available, and that we had been upgraded. We were then shown a Britz Venturer, which did indeed seem much better than what we had expected. In addition to the HiTop's features it had toilet, shower, television and rear air-conditioning. However, it also looked much larger, and as we would be needing to drive, and more particularly park, in urban areas such as central Darwin, we insisted on getting a HiTop. The manager was called, and we waited.
I have since looked up the details of the Venturer, and at 7m it is substantially longer than the 5m HiTop, which would have presented significant difficulties had we taken it. However, I also see that for a 2 week rental the Venturer would have cost $2500 instead of the HiTop's $1500, so it would have been a very generous upgrade.
Two hours after arriving at Britz we left in our desired HiTop. I suspect that time was mostly taken up with Britz hurriedly preparing the vehicle for us. Because of that hurrying our van came with a bonus picnic table and two picnic chairs, which normally cost $61. We initially thought we were lucky getting these, but we did not end up using them at all, and as they were not standard features they did not have good places to stow them, so the table especially ended up loose in the back, and was always in the way or rattling when driving.
For such a large vehicle the van was surprisingly sprightly. It had a 2.4 litre petrol engine and an automatic gearbox. You can't specify manual or automatic, so we were lucky to get the automatic, as it made the city driving much easier. However, it probably also contributed to the poor fuel economy. The website indicates it should use about 12 litres per 100 kilometres, but we usually used about 18 litres. This meant that its entire 70 litre tank only took us 400 kilometres, and that cost $100. Actually, this figure improved a bit when we weren't travelling at the Northern Territory speed limit of 130 km/h. On windy days the height and unstreamlined nature of the van led to quite a lot of buffeting, restricting our speed to a more sedate 90 km/h.
Not having driven a van before it took a few days to get used to the driving position. Although the van was not substantially longer than most cars, the driver does sit at the extreme front. I never did get confident about reversing, but was quite able at parking forwards. The van was also no wider than an average car, so it did easily fit into standard parking spots. When driving we did encounter a small blind spot on the driver's side, but the passenger could see that area through the rear side window, so they were called upon when changing into a right lane around town.
We used the LPG cooking facilities twice, for perhaps fifteen minutes total cooking time. You can pre-pay Britz $18 for the gas, but we decided to get it refilled ourselves, for which we were charged $12 at a camp ground. Although we only used a little gas, it seemed that the refilling process is quite imprecise and so we were charged as though the bottle was empty. It didn't look like they could tell how much filling it needed, so it seemed fair. However, for the small saving over the Britz price it possibly wasn't worth the trouble, as it took about 20 minutes of our time.
Although quite a lot of road and wind noise came into the cabin, especially at high speed, the sound system seemed to cope quite well. It had auxillary (3.5mm) and USB sockets, so we spent many an hour listening to podcasts and music, and charging our various techie devices.
All of the "personal" items in the van, the items which are changed for each hire, such as the cutlery, sleeping bags, and pillows, were hygienically cling-wrapped, which seemed odd but worked very well in practice. The whole layout of the van was very cleverly done, and it was immaculately clean when we picked it up. It was slightly less clean when we dropped it off, at the lovely efficient Cairns offices of Britz.
All in all, I highly recommend the Britz HiTop campervan. It performed well around town and in the bush, and was excellent value for money.