Fishing Trip RV Rental Review: Outdoorsy Makes Cross-Country Travel Easy

One solo fishing road trip, one RV rental from Outdoorsy.com, and I've found a completely new way to plan my fishing trips

I used Outdoorsy to rent a Dodge RAM Promaster 2500 and complete a solo cross-country fishing trip. Here’s my review of Outdoorsy and how it has changed my thoughts about fishing travel. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek and Envato | blkspace | ETWBCC3

Why I Rented an RV for My Fishing Trip

I recently completed a two-week, cross-country, multiple destination, fishing trip vacation. A couple months ago, during the planning phase, it seemed obvious that an RV would be perfect for such a trip, but I didn’t own one. Wait, I just said I completed that trip! But, how?

I simply created an outdoorsy.com account and found the perfect RV for my trip. In this case, I would be logging the miles on my own, then meeting up with friends to fish at various locations. I didn’t need a ton of space, just something big enough for me and my fishing gear. Plus, since I was going to be covering a lot of miles, I didn’t need to be burning a lot of extra fuel.

Finding the Right Camper on Outdoorsy

I had a specific list of needs for my RV—room for my fishing gear, easy to drive, and a comfy place to sleep—and this van was perfect. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

The Outdoorsy app is very intuitive. It gathers the details of your trip and presents a wide range of vehicle options. Once you’ve found the perfect vehicle, you reach out to the owner for confirmation. Just like that, you’re going RV-ing!

The Outdoorsy app makes finding an RV easy. | outdoosry.com

I ended up booking a 2023 Dodge RAM Promaster 2500, known on Outdoorsy as the "Meandering MiniVan" owned by Alycia. Alycia was super responsive, friendly and really easy to work with. As an option on her listing, she even offered to deliver the RV to my house the day before I left and pick it up the day after I got back home. So easy!

This RV really was a great way to see the country and fish wherever you want to stop and fish. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

My Experience Driving and Living in the Meandering MiniVan

This RV was perfect! It was really easy to drive, very dependable, spacious enough to carry all my fishing gear, and was rigged with all of features I needed for many easy miles on the road and many comfy nights of sleep.

I spent several nights in KOAs, a couple nights in WalMart parking lots, and most nights parked in the yard at my brother's house in northern Wisconsin. In every case, this RV served me very well.

Like I said, I had a pretty specific list of needs for my trip, but I also found hundreds of other RV listings—bigger, smaller, more features, less features—that would have been perfect for almost any set of circumstances.

Again, there are thousands of RVs with thousands of combinations of elements, but this is the inside of my temporary home on the road. Pretty cozy! | outdoorsy.com

What is Outdoorsy.com?

I’m not certain how Outdoorsy feels about the comparison, but I’ve found that the easiest way to describe the site and the process is to tell people, “picture Airbnb, but mobile”.

The founders of outdoorsy.com started this company because they reached a point in their otherwise successful corporate executive careers where they just knew they needed to be doing something different. They weren’t sure what they needed to be doing but they agreed it had to involve the outdoors and authentic experiences. Over time, they refined that initial concept to the fully formed idea of connecting people with outdoor travel and Outdoorsy was born.

The fact is there are over 17 million RVs in North America sitting unused 350 days a year. And there are lots of outdoors enthusiasts who don’t own an RV and may not be in a financial position to buy an RV (like me), but would love access to one occasionally. And for many of those 17 million RV owners, they'd probably be glad to defer some of the cost of ownership during those times they aren’t RV-ing.

It's truly amazing how much more you see when you take the time to stop and look around while crossing the country. I definitely wouldn't have seen this from an airplane. I took this photo at Norris Dam State Park in Tennessee. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

Would I recommend Outdoorsy to anglers?

Absolutely, one hundred percent! Honestly, that’s what this whole article is. If I hadn’t enjoyed the experience, you wouldn’t be reading about it. I would advise that you carefully consider your specific needs before booking an RV—off-road capability, storage space needed, off-grid capability, tow hitch, pet-friendly, number of beds, etc.—but with as many choices as I found, you're likely to find the perfect fit for you.

Will I use Outdoorsy in the future?

Again, absolutely! This resource got me thinking about a whole new list of trips I’d like to start planning. In fact, I enjoyed my experience so much, the idea of becoming an RV owner and creating my own listing on outdoorsy.com in order to afford ownership, is currently being discussed. Either, or both ways, I'll be on Outdoorsy.com again.

It seemed appropriate to share at least one photo of the great fishing I experienced thanks to this RV road trip. | Photo by Shane Beisner

Transparency Note: The gear reviewed in this article has been provided to me at no cost for evaluation. The views and assessments presented are entirely my own.