We recently spent two weeks in a campervan with our two young kids. It was a great trip but there are definitely things I would do second time around to make life easier.

So if you are planning a van trip read on:

• Pack all your gear into soft bags. I cannot stress this enough. We bought a Rip Curl F-Light Transit Bag before we left and it was great, large enough to carry all our clothes but it squashed down flat so we could store it in one of the camper cupboards. Most campers will have a cavity underneath the living area for suitcases but it is usually small and if you are travelling with a pram this will take up most of the space.
• Pack everyone’s clothes into packing cubes. Most camper vans have small cupboards for unpacking your clothes and gear into. Everyone had a cube and their own cupboard. This made things super easy for dressing time and packing washing away.
• Pack half the clothes you think you need and twice the bug spray. We had no trouble finding laundromats but we did struggle to find mosquito coils when we were in small towns.
• Pack a USB with movies or some DVD’s. We didn’t read the small print and assumed because we hired a van with a TV we would have TV reception.  The TV in our van worked for DVD’s and USB only. It was nice to not have TV on all the time but it would have been handy to be able to pop a show on for the kids when we were setting up or when we got snowed in.
• For those of travelling to NZ: Phone and Internet connectivity are limited outside of towns so if you want to stay connected go to a Vodafone store or the Vodafone stand in airport duty free when you land and get a travel sim. They come with 10MG for a fairly reasonable price, it can be topped up via text and offers good coverage. I bought other sims and ended up with this one, so in future, I would just get one as soon as we land.
• Some camper van branches have a donation cupboard where other travellers have left items they no longer needed. It is a great place to pick up some basics you might need and helps to reduce waste. Not all offices have these though so maybe best to call in advance (before you stock up!) and check
• Sign up to a local supermarket so you can do Click and Collect orders on the road, it saves you dragging cranky kids into the shops.

I hope you have a great time on your own Campervan adventures.

Got some tips? Please share them below.