3 RV trips are behind us, so here are some recommendations…
Unique to RV experience
Shoe box – it is important to take off shoes at the entrance to the caravan especially when it is raining… It is better to put a plastic box at the entrance and keep all the shoes there (personally, I walked around in the caravan with slippers and not with socks, I feel much more comfortable….)
Water bottle bucket / container – There is no place to put cup / water bottles in the back of the RV. If you leave them on the table – they are tossed in all directions. Place a bucket with water bottles on the stairs or behind the driver’s seat.
Toothbrush organizer – on the previous trips we bought a small bucket but this time I bought a cutlery organizer and it worked great. You can put it in the cabinet or connect it with tape to the sink so it will not move
A bucket of shampoo / soap that you put in the shower – so the bottles don’t roam around when driving
Cleaning supplies
Hand soap for the kitchen and bathroom
Dish soap
2 Fridgee -and-Freezer baking soda (because the refrigirstor is always stinky…)
Paper Towel
Scott toilet paper suitable for caravans (dissolves quickly)
Toilet Cleaning Tablets
Chlorex Wipes
Baby wipes
Swiffer floor cleaning cloths (you get a broom, but after a day or so, the floor is already dirty and sticky, so you stand on all fours and wash the floor 🤨)
aning tablets
Bed linen and towels
Bring towels from Home Vs. Rental: a mistake on my behalf caused Zeevik to order towels while I was brought bathrobes from homr. It turned out that we had 8 packs of towels that we did not need… although it helped especially when it rained outside and we needed towels to wipe hands, feet and even place a shoe mat at the entrance to the RV. Still, personally, I prefer our bathrobes
Bedlinens: when we were on previous trips, we brought our blankets and pillows from home. This time, we ordered bed linens etc’ from the rental company. We got wool blankets, such as those found in hotels, and are placed between two sheets – one of the things I hate the most in the United States. And the sheets – all uniform size – for King size bed….
If I had my brains on the days before the trip, I would have told Zeevik not to rent the linens. The rental cost is $ 40 per person. It’s better to go to Ross/Marshals/TJ Maxx, pay a little more and buy normal duvets, and sheets that fit the size of the bed and do not stretch all over the floor…at the end of the trip you can find a shelter or a near by church who would be happy to take all of those and donate it to someone who needs it
(BTW, when I organized all the bags before we left Alaska, I found bed sheets I packed at home for Kfir and our beds with matching pillow cases - probably somewhere at the back of my brain, in the days of craziness, there was some kind of responsible thought, but only one that did not crystallize into an organized sequence
Towel racks – there are not enough racks for drying towels, you can buy towel racks that stick on any surface and stick it to.the bathroom.door, or the kind that clings on top of the door
Leisure time in the RV
We always bring games with us, including board games, cards, etc’. My recommendation – there is no need for board games. It is not really possible to play board games while traveling and at the end of the day no one has the desire to play a long game…. On the other hand, card games work better. Most of the cards are held in your hand and one hand can be placed on the stack during the rounds. We brought 3 card games – and it would have been better if we had brought 10
Portable speaker – If your children are like our children, like to listen to audio books – it is better to bring a portable speaker and not use the RV’s sound system. For them to hear well at the back of the RV, you need to increase the volume to the maximum and then the people sitting in the front really suffers from the load volume….
Books – it’s up to you… Yoav brought 2 books of 1000 pages each. Finished and asked for more
If you are a fan of tablets, phones, laptops – bring many LONG cables ans chargers. There are plenty of places to connect USB cables in the RV, but sometimes they are located under seats or up in the ceiling
If your trip to Alaska, some must-haves
Bear spray / bear bell or 4 kids making a lot of noise
Mosquito spray
Sunglasses (especially if traveling to glaciers,)
Sun Hats
Warm Hats
Sun screen
Rain jackets
Pass it along
A family who returned their RV the day we collected our gave us 2 camping chairs and a bean bag toss game. We did not use the chairs because of the mosquitoes and the bad weather (we did not make smores even once! And I brought especially Israeli marshmallows !!!) so we passed them on to a family which came in the rental agency when we left (along with cleaning supplies, gallons of water, firewoods and more)
Your good deed for the day
There is always, always left over food when traveling in an RV. There is nothing to do with the open containers-food, but if you have closed-boxes dry food left (pasta, cans, etc.) there are Food Bank places that will be happy to accept your food donation. We did a Google search for “Food Bank donations near me” and found a few within a few minutes drive.