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Are you looking for Jucy campervan reviews? When it comes to budget campervan rentals, you really can’t go past Jucy! We share with you our Jucy Condo campervan review and how we found Jucy campervans for our family of 4!
If you are road-tripping around Australia, there’s no doubt you will spot the signature green and purple vehicles from Jucy.
We decided to try them out and hired a Jucy Condo campervan for a 5-day road trip from Brisbane to Northern New South Wales and share our experience with a Jucy campervan rental for a family of four.
Jucy Condo Campervan
Jucy Campervan Review: Everything You Need To Know About Hiring A Jucy Van In Australia
If you’ve ever done a road trip in Australia or New Zealand, you will know the Jucy vehicles from a mile away. And you will also know they come in a variety of sizes.
Jucy vans are known as being a budget-friendly campervan and car rental option. But are Jucy campervans suitable for family travel?
In our Jucy Condo campervan review, we will share our complete experience with the Jucy van, travelling as a family of four with two adults and two kids for 5 whole days.
Who Are Jucy?
First up, let’s go for a brief history of Jucy group. The company was founded in Auckland, New Zealand back in 2001. Hence why they are everywhere… and we mean everywhere, in New Zealand!
They now operate a campervan and rental car agency in both New Zealand and Australia, as well as in the United States.
But it’s not just vehicles these days. You can also stay at Jucy Hotels in Christchurch, Queenstown and Auckland. These budget hotels are located close to the airport and offer basic rooms and essentials.
We stayed in the Christchurch Jucy Hotel and found the experience pleasant.
Plus they operate a Milford Sound day cruise in New Zealand. Again, we can say from experience, that this cruise was fantastic and the price was unbeatable at the time! The staff were amazing and the cruise ship itself was really modern and comfortable.
So with great experiences in both their hotel and on the Milford Sound cruise, we were more than ready to give the Jucy rentals a try!
The Check-In Experience
The check-in and pick up experience at Jucy Brisbane was brief but easy. We finalised the paperwork and were given a brief tour of the campervan by a staff member.
Compared to the extensive check-in process provided during our luxury New Zealand campervan hire, it was certainly much quicker and possibly skipped over a few things.
Thankfully, with past motorhome hire experience, we felt confident enough to get on the road and work things out along the way.
We loaded up the van and hit the road from Brisbane to Woolgoolga, NSW.
Jucy Condo Campervan Review
We hired the largest Jucy campervan in their Australian fleet, the Jucy Condo. This van is suited to 4 people, with one bed in the roof and a second that folds out across the backseat space.
On first impressions, the van was older and a little worn but not in any concerning ways. It was clean and reasonably comfortable for driving.
It was also a lot smaller than our previous campervan experience, essentially the size of a tall van.
The Basics
Here’s what you get with a Jucy Condo campervan rental:
- Sleeps 4
- Fully self-contained (if you opt for the portable toilet)
- Curtains on all windows
- Ceramic Cooktop or Portable Gas Cooker
- Fresh and grey water tanks
- 80-litre fridge
- Duvet, pillows, and sheets
- 24/7 roadside assistance
- Unlimited kilometres for your road trip
- Bucket and cleaning equipment
- Kitchen equipment and utensils
- All cutlery and dinnerware
- Towels and tea towel
Jucy Van Accessories
You get all the bedding and cookware you need for your trip so you only need to bring your personal belongings. This was a much easier option for us than tent camping.
The 80-litre refrigerator was a good size for our needs. We kept it full without struggling to fit what we needed, making a supermarket stop if needed.
We did not use the portable gas cooker that was included with the van. Instead, since it was only 4 nights, we made no-cook lunches and dined out for dinner the first two nights. Our last 2 nights were spent with extended family with dinner provided.
If you do use your campervan cooktop, there is a pull-out table at the rear of the van to make this easier and so you don’t have to cook inside your van.
Fully Self-Contained
By definition, to be fully self-contained, your vehicle requires a toilet. We did not request the portable toilet with our van hire. It was a last-minute decision, considering one of our original reasons for booking was to have this option available.
However, we were staying in a holiday park for 2 nights and with friends and family on the last 2 nights and knew we would always have a toilet available.
The portable toilets are available if you want though!
Storage
One of the biggest challenges we experienced as a family of four travelling in the Jucy Condo is the lack of storage space.
As we opted for the VIP insurance, we were provided complimentary camping chairs and table which took up the large majority of the storage space under the rear bench.
There are pockets around the roof of the RV, but these are quite small and suit food or toiletry items you want quick access to, rather than clothing.
We shoved most of our packing cubes down under the bench seat but everything else moved between the top bed storage while driving and the kitchen countertop when parked up, which was a bit of a pain!
We packed relatively light, but four people means more gear than just two!
Sleeping
The Jucy Condo campervan has two double beds. The top bed in the roof pulls out to make an extra-long bed. Originally we thought this might be the bed we used, however with a bad back, and no space to lay on his side, this wasn’t an option for Simon.
I did sleep in the top bed on the first night as our eldest was unwell and needed quick access out the door. Just one of those fun parts of travelling with kids…
I think I slept better on the top bed despite the very low roof. It feels like sleeping in a pod and isn’t a great option if you are claustrophobic, however, the kids loved their top bunk.
The bottom bed pulls out from the bench seat behind the front seats. It folds out into a mattress with the passenger seats becoming part of the bed.
This means if you are tall… or a normal-sized adult for that matter, your feet will end up on the passenger seats with a gap in the middle. I didn’t love this idea for cooler weather, but we survived.
The bedding is very warm and comfortable to make up for the basic beds at least.
We slept 4 nights in our Jucy Camper – 2 nights in Woolgoolga and 2 nights in Yamba.
Extra Features
There is a radio and a CD player built into the dashboard with an auxiliary cable. We listened to the local radio stations at times or used our Bluetooth UE Boom speaker instead.
We also discovered that we had a DVD player built into the rear roof. I’m not sure this is in all the vehicles as it was not mentioned anywhere. We of course didn’t have any DVDs, but it would be great if you have small kids to keep them entertained.
We took iPads with downloaded Netflix shows so we could watch without needing wifi.
There are 2 USB ports in the rear for charging and 2 power sockets. The power sockets only work when you are plugged into a powered campsite though.
Drivability
We had no issues with the drivability of the van. It drove the distances without issue. Everything was fairly easy to find, with the exception of the fuel cap switch which took us a good 10 minutes to figure out when we went to fuel up.
The instructions provided in the van are very basic, but what tricked us was more that the cap was sticking. When we turned it into a 2 person job, it thankfully opened so we could refuel!
There were no other issues otherwise.
Excess Reduction Cover
We opted for the Stress-Free Plus insurance option, which is the highest level of cover offered. This meant zero excess and pretty much zero stress.
It also came with a few extra perks like free GPS hire (even if it’s a bit outdated and got us lost once), as well as camp chairs and a camp table.
This is not essential but for peace of mind, we usually always do it just because you never know.
And we did have a few incidents when doing our New Zealand South Island road trip by motorhome, with a cracked windscreen and a crack in the rear bumper. Sometimes these things happen.
On this trip, we had no incidents at all but even with the extra insurance, it was still a really affordable campervan hire! We paid just over $500 AU for 5 days hire.
Is The Jucy Condo Campervan Child-Friendly?
This is our second motorhome trip with kids and it is becoming one of our favourite ways to travel as a family!
We love the fact that you can jump in and drive to where you want to go, stop randomly to explore something that catches your eye and sleep in some pretty amazing spots.
And the kids have been obsessed with Jucy campers since seeing them all over New Zealand! So they were over the moon to have a Jucy road trip experience.
They loved their top bunk and had plenty of space in their chairs while driving.
In fact, they had about a metre between their chairs which was probably great for us too… less getting in each other’s personal space and bickering!
They had room beside each of their seats to store their road trip activities and snacks.
While there wasn’t a huge amount of room, we managed fine since the van is really just the means of transport and a place to sleep. The best parts are what happens outside the van!
Check out these awesome RV and camping gift ideas for your outdoors and full time travelling friends.
Star RV Motorhomes: Jucy’s Luxury Alternative
If you are planning a longer road trip or have a larger family or simply want something with a little more space and luxury, Jucy has recently added Star RV Motorhomes to their family of vehicles.
This new addition means they have the Polaris 6, which sleeps up to 6 people.
It also has a kitchen, 150L fridge, a bathroom with a toilet and shower and is completely self-contained!
This is quite similar to the luxury motorhome we had when we did our 2 week NZ South Island road trip and it’s certainly a great option if you want a little extra comfort, with the same great Jucy service!
You can read our full review on the Star RV Polaris 6 motorhome.
The Final Verdict: Our Jucy Condo Review
We had a great time on our NSW North Coast road trip from Brisbane and were extremely happy with the price of hiring the Jucy Australia van.
With the total coming in just over $500 AU for Jucy Condo with stress-free, zero excess insurance added on, it was a budget campervan option while still providing basic comforts.
The Jucy Condo was suitable for a family of four with smaller kids. If taking a road trip with teenagers or four adults, it would be a bit of a squeeze at times though. But so long as you’re spending most of your time outdoors, it’s totally doable!
The biggest challenge was limited storage space in the Jucy campervan and the beds weren’t overly comfortable.
A Jucy van is the perfect budget campervan rental for a short road trip, especially if you want an easier option than tent camping or if you’re heading to a new destination and want to save on accommodation costs!
Would we hire another Jucy van? Absolutely!
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