Camping has always been a favourite way to vacation in our family. Memories of tent-camping with my own parents and siblings meant there was no question that experience wouldn’t be part of my own children’s upbringing.
These days though, we’ve graduated to doing it more in style (some would say glamping) and, with no inclination to own our own RV, we now rent an RV whenever we get the opportunity to go camping.
When our two kids were younger, we’d rent a smaller RV – something like CanaDream’s SVC – but now they are teenagers, our preferred motorhome is the C-class MHA. Here’s why I think the MHA is a great choice for families with teenage kids.
There’s room to spread out. The kids love the overcab twin beds while we get privacy in a comfortable queen-sized bed at the back – the sleeping separation is great.
To me, teenage kids take up a lot of space. They’re restless and all over the place, at least my kids are! With the slide room extended, the RV converts to a spacious (in RV terms) living area with enough room for us all to claim our own space without tripping over each other.
Having space to turn around in the bathroom is important to us all. OK, so it’s not as big as our bathroom at home but it does have a decent sized stand-up shower and room to dry off. Long showers though are out but we find we can get two hot showers done before we need to wait for the tank to reheat.
The RV has a TV (and some have a DVD player) and, while we use it very little, it’s handy to have. Noted though is CanaDream’s advice that they don’t promote TVs in their RVs and cannot provide any on-road technical support for TV related issues. More often than not, the TVs work but sometimes they don't. Not a biggy - we find playing card and board games as a family connects us more.
Charging our electronic devices – especially important for the kids to keep in touch with friends – is well-catered for with USB outlets in the cab and at the dinette seats.
Outside storage is massive. There’s room for everything we like to take on our camping trips and in winter (yes, we also RV in winter!), it accommodates all our ski gear, meaning we get to keep the inside space in the RV free of clutter.
Some things to note:
The awnings on all of CanaDream’s vehicles are not for Guest use – reason explained on their website. We take a screened shade tent with us when we travel in the summer.
Overall, the MHA is a good choice for families with growing kids. Couples without kids however may prefer their TCA or DVC models – not nearly as roomy but easier to park. For now, however, we’ll stick with the MHA.