We fell in love with traveling in a campervan in New Zealand. We loved the adventure and freedom it gave us and we wished we could have traveled more like this, but it was tough on our budget… Tough until, upon a random google search, we came across campervan relocations. The deals looked almost too good to be true, but we decided to give it a try. And thanks to this we traveled from Brisbane to Sydney in a campervan for 1 AUD (for 3 days) and in a car from Adelaide to Melbourne for 1 AUD (for 4 days)! We had great experience and wish we discovered relocations earlier. If you’d like to find out how to rent a campervan or a car nearly for free thanks to relocation, read on!

Relocations

First things first: what are relocations?

Many vehicle rental companies have offices in different cities all over the world and they allow people to rent their cars to travel one way. Let’s take Australia as an example. Someone rents a campervan in Sydney’s office, but drops it off in Brisbane’s office. Eventually, the Sydney office needs to get the campervan back. The van will need to be relocated. And that’s why they will give you the van for free- just so you get it back to their office within a certain period of time. It’s that simple!

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How does relocation work?

There are a few relocation websites where you can find the available cars and vans. The biggest one is Imoova and Transfercar who has separate websites for rentals in Australia and New Zealand.

We used the latter one and had amazing experience.

Look for the destinations and dates that work for you. See which vans (or cars) are available and if you find the ones that work for you, send requests. You will receive an answer within a few hours.

↬ Read : Everything you need to know about renting a Campervan

IMPORTANT

Read the detailed informations about the rental and the company. Is the gasoline payed for? If you have to take the ferry- will it be refunded? Do you have to pay the bond? And most importantly- look how many stars (reviews) the company has. We suggest you not to rent with a company that has less than 4 starts. You don’t want to risk getting a faulty car or have to deal with unfriendly customer service.

Where can I use the service?

The countries with the biggest amount of cars and campervan relocation are Australia and New Zealand. However, on Imoova you can find also offers from USA and Europe (even if it’s rare).

You can find relocation offers between most of Australian and New Zealand cities. The popular routes are : Brisbane – Sydney, Sydney – Melbourne, Cairns – Sydney, Adelaide – Perth and Queenstown – Auckland, Christchurch – Queenstown. But there are many, many more.

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Relocation companies

Almost all of the best campervan and car rental companies use the relocation service. We relocated a campervan with Britz and an SUV with Avis. We got accepted for relocation with Jucy, but had to cancel due to changes in our work schedule.

↬ Note : The relocation websites will give you the name of the company you relocate with only AFTER the relocation is confirmed. That’s why reading the reviews is so important.

Our relocation with Britz from Brisbane to Sydney

The whole process and rental was perfectly smooth. There are amazing and helpful people working in Britz that walked us through the relocation process as it was our first time.

We filled in basic forms on an Ipad – driving licence details, address etc. We read carefully the agreement, issued a 1000 AUD bond (which was returned to us immediately at the end of the trip) and were soon on our way.

↬ Note : The bond is required in regular rentals as well.

The van was in perfect conditions, well equipped and we enjoyed the the 4 days trip.

Relocation with Avis from Adelaide to Melbourne

There were no more campervans available for our dates, therefore we decided to relocate an SUV. The rental process with Avis was the same as any other car rental. We payed … 1 AUD for 4 days of SUV rental and within 10 min were on our way. We actually ended up sleeping in the car for 3 nights and loved the experience. But that’s a different story 😜

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Where is the catch?

The only thing to remember is that you will have a limited time within which you have to return the van or a car. Although most of the companies allow you to purchase additional days for extra fee (which is still lower than regular rental). For example on a route from Brisbane to Sydney we got a campervan for 3 days for 1 AUD and bought an extra day for 75 AUD.

Except of this driving a relocation van or car is the same as the rental. But it’s (almost) free!

If you found this article on campervan relocation helpful or have any questions regarding relocations, leave us a comment down below and we will be happy to help!