Everything you need to know before you book

Nothing we hire is over 3,500kg, so an ordinary category B car licence covers all of it, the Grand California included. There is no need for a C1 entitlement and no need to have driven anything like it before.

The main driver must be between 25 and 75 and must have held a full licence for at least 2 years. We check this at booking rather than at the counter, because turning someone away on the day helps nobody.

Bring the plastic photocard and a DVLA check code generated within the last 21 days. Up to six points is fine. More than that, or any DD, DR or IN conviction, and we need to speak to the insurer first, so call before you book.

Insurance is fully comprehensive for one named driver, with a £1,500 excess. A second driver needs the same licence history as the first, so ring us and we will put it to the insurer before you book.

150 miles a night, pooled across the hire, so a week long trip gives you 1,050 miles to use as you like. Past that it is 30p a mile, read off the odometer and settled when you get back.

Also included: comprehensive insurance for one driver, UK wide breakdown cover with roadside, recovery and homestart, a full tank of fuel, a full gas bottle for cooking, a full water tank, and the kitchen kit. That means pans, plates, bowls, mugs, glasses, cutlery, a kettle, a chopping board, a sharp knife, a washing up bowl and a tea towel.

The van leaves us with a full tank and we need it back full. If it is not, we fill it and charge you what the pump charged us that day. No handling fee and no inflated rate, just the receipt.

We do not provide bedding. No duvets, no pillows, no sheets. Every van has mattress toppers, so bring your own bedding or a sleeping bag each.

Also not included: food, campsite fees, toll and ferry charges. A first aid kit is in every van but you should check it suits you.

All of these are added during booking and can be changed up to a week before you collect.

• European travel£100.00 per hireExtends the insurance and the breakdown cover to the EU, and gets you the VE103 certificate the ferry and the border will ask for. Tell us at least two weeks ahead.
• Blow up awning£60.00 per hireInflatable, so it goes up in minutes with no poles to thread, and it stays put when you take the van out for the day. Medium and small available; tell us which when you book.
• Bike rack, two bikes£50.00 per hireTowball mounted, fitted before you collect.
• Bike rack, four bikes£50.00 per hireThe bigger towball rack, for when the whole party is riding.
• Travelling with a pet£50.00 per hireCovers the deep clean afterwards. Includes a boot liner and a water bowl.
• Toilet hire£35.00 per hireA chemical toilet and the fluid for it, which is what makes a night somewhere without facilities workable. Not offered on Ruby, who has her own.

Collection is 3pm to 6pm and return is 9am to 11am, both from Unit 4, Blackthorn Business Park, Norwich NR6 6BA. That gap in the middle of the day is when we clean, check and refill the van between hires, which is why we hold it firmly in the summer and can be flexible in the winter.

Handover takes about half an hour. We walk you through the gas, water, heating, electrics, the bed and the awning, and you drive it round the block with one of us in the passenger seat if you would like to. Every van has its own printed manual in the glovebox, written for that van rather than for vans in general, so nothing you were shown at handover is lost by the second night. Leave your car in the yard for the length of the hire. Parking is free and the yard is secure, but take anything genuinely valuable with you all the same.

Bring it back with a full tank and the toilet cassette emptied. If either is not done we charge what it costs us plus £25.00, which is roughly the half hour it takes.

A booking deposit of £100 is taken by card when you book. It is the same whatever you book and for however long, it comes off the total, and it is not refundable. The balance falls due 21 days before you collect, and we email a payment link a week before that date. If you book inside 21 days, the whole amount is taken at once.

Separately, a refundable security deposit of £500 is taken when you collect the van, and returned within 5 working days of it coming back undamaged. Nothing comes out of it without a photograph and an explanation first.

Card payments are handled by Stripe. Card numbers never reach our servers and we cannot see them.

Minimum hire is 3 nights most of the year and 5 nights in late June to early September.

Moving your dates is free more than 21 days out, subject to the van being free, and we will carry the deposit across. Inside that window we will still try, but it depends on whether we can re-let the dates.

Cancelling more than 21 days out costs you the £100 booking deposit and nothing more. Inside that window the balance has already been taken, and we refund whatever we manage to re-let the dates for, less the booking deposit. We would much rather move your booking than keep your money, so talk to us before you cancel.

If we have to cancel because a van is off the road and we cannot substitute another, you get everything back, the booking deposit included, within three working days.