Your guide to getting outdoors during the fuel crisis: how Camplify travellers are making it work

Petrol at $2.50. Mortgage going up. Groceries costing more every week. And somewhere between all of that, you're supposed to just... not need a break?

Of course you do. Everyone does.

The fuel situation is real. Stations running dry, prices that make you wince, and nobody quite sure when it'll ease up. But across tens of thousands of Camplify trips, the top reasons people book haven't changed: escape, family time, a reset. What's changed is how people are pulling it off. Shorter distances. Trains instead of highways. RVs delivered to campsites instead of towed from home. Local owners instead of long drives.

This guide pulls together what's actually working right now. Three approaches, real options, and links to the detailed route guides for each one.

Option 1: don't drive at all – get an RV delivered to your campsite

This is the zero-fuel option. You catch a train from the city to a campsite town. A local Camplify owner delivers an RV to the campground. You walk off the platform and the RV is set up and waiting. Nobody drives from the city. The owner burns minimal fuel because they're already nearby.

In NSW, the train network lines up well with camping spots in the Blue Mountains, Kiama, and Newcastle. A Kiama-based owner delivering to Surf Beach Holiday Park is driving five minutes. Even from Wollongong, it's a 25-minute trip. That's a fraction of the fuel cost compared to towing from Sydney.

In Victoria, all public transport is completely free until the end of April – including V/Line regional trains to Geelong, the Grampians, and the Goldfields. That means your transport cost to the campsite is literally zero.

One Camplify hirer put it simply when asked about a $500 delivery fee for a family trip: "That's understandable. It's an easy and convenient option for me travelling with the family." When you factor in the fuel, the towing stress, and the servos that might be dry along the way, delivery starts to look like the smart move.

Read the full guides: car-free camping in NSW with delivery and free trains and delivery in Victoria.

Option 2: catch a train, pick up a campervan, explore your backyard

If you want the freedom to drive but not the cost of driving from the city, this is the sweet spot. Train to a regional town, pick up a campervan or motorhome from a local Camplify owner near the station, and explore within a couple of hours' drive.

Sydney to Newcastle, Sydney to Kiama, Melbourne to Geelong (free train right now), Brisbane to the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast – all of these put you in a regional town with strong Camplify owner communities and genuinely impressive countryside within easy reach. Port Stephens, the Hunter Valley, the Great Ocean Road, Noosa, the Gold Coast hinterland – none of them require a long highway slog from the city.

There's a community angle here too. When you pick up from a regional owner, that money goes directly to someone in that town. The campsite fees, the cafe lunch, the fuel you do buy – it all stays local. Regional communities are being hit hard by the fuel crisis, and your trip is one way to keep things moving.

Read the full guide: five train-to-campervan regional road trips.

Option 3: fly north, skip the crisis entirely

Here's something most people don't realise: the fuel crisis is mostly a southern and regional distribution problem. Queensland has zero reported outages. The Northern Territory's metro areas are fully stocked. Fuel prices in Cairns are actually lower than in Sydney.

If you can afford a flight (and flights are often cheaper than the fuel you'd burn driving from Melbourne to Cairns), flying north and picking up a Camplify campervan at the airport genuinely sidesteps the whole problem. You're in the tropics by lunchtime, the RV is waiting, and your fuel budget goes entirely on exploring – not on the highway.

Cairns, Townsville, Airlie Beach, Darwin, Brisbane – all have Camplify owners ready for airport pickups or delivery. The dry season up north (May to October) is the best time to visit, which means this approach only gets better through winter.

Read the full guide: fly north, pick up a campervan, escape the cold.

Fuel-smart tips for any trip

However you travel, these tips from the Camplify community will help stretch your fuel further:

• Choose a smaller campervan. Campervans based on Toyota HiAce or Ford Transit platforms use around 10 to 11 litres per 100km. That's significantly less than a large motorhome or a car towing a heavy caravan.

• Slow down. Driving at 90 to 100km/h instead of 110 can cut fuel consumption by 15 to 20 percent. On a weekend trip, that's real money.

• Check fuel availability before you leave. Use FuelRadar or CheckPetrol to see which stations along your route are open and stocked. This is updated throughout the day.

• Go shorter, stay longer. Some of the best camping in Australia is within two hours of every major city. Spend less on driving, more on being there.

• Consider diesel for longer trips. Diesel engines are more fuel-efficient on highways, though check availability in your area before committing.

For the full list of fuel-saving tips, read our smart camping guide.

Supporting the community when it matters most

The fuel crisis isn't just hitting travellers. Regional communities that depend on tourism are feeling it too. Farming towns are paying above $3 a litre for diesel. Caravan parks in quieter areas are seeing fewer bookings as people pull back on driving.

Camplify owners are part of those communities. When you hire from a regional owner, you're putting money directly into a local household and a local economy. The campsite you stay at, the cafe you eat at, the fuel you do buy along the way – it all stays in the region.

Owners are adapting too. Many are offering shorter delivery runs to nearby campgrounds rather than long highway hauls. Some are adjusting pricing for longer hires. The community spirit that makes Camplify different from fleet hire companies is showing up in exactly the right way during a tough time.

The world is uncertain. Your backyard isn't.

Nobody knows how long the fuel situation will last. The geopolitics are complicated. The economic outlook is uncertain. But the Blue Mountains are still there. The Great Ocean Road is still there. Port Douglas is still there. The campfire is still there.

Autumn is actually a beautiful time to be out. The crowds have gone, many campgrounds now allow fires, the water is still warm up north, and the light turns golden. You don't need to go far. You just need to go.

The Camplify community – owners and hirers – has been through droughts, floods, bushfires, and a pandemic. The RV community looks after each other, and it'll get through this too.