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Has anyone rented a van in USA for sleeping in? If so where? Not a camper just a basic van with enough room to lie down in?
Not quite - I've bought an old beater for 4 months and rented an RV and loved both options. For renting a van though, have you looked at standard car rental companies (Avis etc)? Alternatively, a couple of mates swear by Rent-a-Wreck, which may or may not be what you're looking for...
How come you don't want an RV? and how many of you will there be?
Yes. I rented a Ford E150 from Enterprise for 3 months a few years ago. The E150 is roughly equivalent to a Transit and there was enough room in the back to sleep alongside a fully-assembled bike. From memory, I believe the van was cheaper than any car that could have carried a bike and it saved taking, buying or hiring a tent. I didn't have any problems at campsites.
IMO not worth it. Camping in the USA is easy and cheap, and 2 man tents are cheap as chips.
Cheers guys - reason is we’re planning on heading back to Yosemite next summer but on the cheap! We went a couple of years ago, stayed in a nice lodge, did lots of hiking but was expensive.
Only 2 of us and following our wedding this year we’re skint!
We like the idea of camping on the valley floor for a week to feel a bit more immersed in the place. We’ll be having a couple of overnight hikes, Clouds Rest, summit late in the day, stay the evening and be up there for sunrise - Half Dome, stop and camp half way at sunshine meadows rather than do it all in one day so yes we will have a small 2 man tent but as we’d be hiring a car anyway we just wondered about a van instead, gives us a bit more room when we’re back in the valley.
I’ll have a look at Enterprise and Rent and Wreck!
You might find downtown locations have a better selection of commercial vehicles than airport spots. U-haul exclusively hire vans/pickups, but I would also consider a full-size minivan - Honda oddessey or similar - they're a chunk bigger than a galaxy and plenty big enough if you just want some room to kip
If there's two of you, a tent would suffice - you could pick up a 4-man tent in Walmart for $60 or so when you land and it'll have plenty of space.
Another thought occurred to me last night though: from your usual car rental place, check out the minivans. Many of them have rear seats that fold into the floor, so you end up with a flat load space that you can sleep in. They'll be more widely available from car rental companies - just check the specs of the model you're renting (IIRC, the Dodge Grand Caravan has them as standard; and I think others in the space from Kia, Honda etc have the same)
ETA: just seen the reply above mine, saying the same thing. Doh!
https://sherrychrysler.com/dodge-grand-caravan-how-to-fold-the-rear-seats/
Three of us did a two week riding trip in Colorado using a rented U-Haul box van. Three seats in the cab - bikes and sleeping in the back. The Americans are really funny about wild camping, but we just parked up and slept in the back - much less obvious (that someone is sleeping there) than a tent. If we had been asked to move on (thankfully we never were) we would have just jumped in the front and driven on to a new spot (much less hassle than packing up a tent). Super cheap between three of us too. Such a good trip, so many memories.