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If your desire is exclusively to travel for as little money as possible, it depends on how much you travel. If you want to travel for 6 months out of the year (retiree) good luck affording hotel stays every night for six months. Unless you really love Motel 6. And even then I'm not sure. If you're only going to travel two weeks per year, an RV is going to be a huge waste.
With that said, staying at hotels is not analogous to staying in an RV. There are a lot of differences in the lifestyle / experience which may or may not matter to you. Sure you can cook in a hotel room that has a kitchen. Oops those are called "suites" and can be >50% more expensive than an equivalent "regular" hotel room. I don't know how much experience you have staying in suites, but many of them don't have the best cookware, or the right kind of cookware at all. Now if you're serious about saving money on food you have to lug pots/pans plus your food/spices/etc in and out of the hotel each time you move. With an RV you can pull off the road for lunch and whip something up in the RV. What are your options for a hot meal on the road if you're just staying in hotels? Fast food? Restaurant? $$$ and fat.
You don't have to empty a black tank at your hotel room, however, nor do you have to do much cleaning at all. There's not another vehicle to maintain, etc as was already mentioned.
It's all about trade-offs and finding what works best for your family's schedule, budget, and desired lifestyle.
I think people should look more closely at high mileage car + hotels vs
...
RV adds to your life:
-you have to spend a lot of time researching and then buying it right
-you have to spend time learning how to use it and maintain it
-you have to store it
-it depreciates
Yep. Former owners paid >$20k; we paid $9k for it used, in perfect condition.
-you have an an additional set of wheels, brakes, interior components to maintain
-you have to take time to find the right person to fix it when it breaks and schedule all that
-probability of an accident and stress driving is higher then just driving a car to hotels
-lots more pre-planning has to be done before trips (high winds?)
-you may need to buy a expensive additional tow vehicle you wouldn't ordinarily own
-you may need additional insurance
-higher gas costs
-RV-ing is getting more popular with large numbers of boomers making it harder to easily get sites at RV parks, state parks, etc....yeah you can boondock, but that often takes driving major additional miles off your planned route, and can be a crap shoot as to getting your RV into it and even finding it...not always reliable
...
People who really love the outdoors, use it a ton and for a long time, and like to park their RV in the wilderness, it can definitely make sense. There is also a social component to RV-ing you don't get in hotels. You can RV with friends. You can meet people at RV parks....Just taking a evening walk at dusk around a RV park I have met and talked to other RV owners, and even been invited over to share a beer....not likely to happen in a hotel. Many RV-ers can be friendly and love to talk.
A lot of truth in the above (not everything, but enough), so purchasing one needs to be thought out. Most people over-buy on the size of their rig, and don't like the outcome. We like < 25' max, for ease of towing, finding spots, and boondocking. Not mentioned in the above is the convenience of a trailer when special accommodations are required. My wife took a seminar last year, and rather than send her off to a hotel, we went camping instead, and I got to go!!.
Also, this year, we are building our retirement home in a remote area 190mi north of our current house, and our trailer is a perfect place for us to stay as we build our home. It is now parked on our new property and we camp there when up swinging hammers. The only downside so far is we wake up to Turkeys peering into the windows in the mornings...
I think people glean over the preparation that goes into planning for a trip, no matter how you intend to get there. It's never as simple as "throw a bag in the car and take off".
Never say never. I have done that many times. Except sometimes I do not bother throwing a bag in the car. If it is just a weekend (one night), you really do not have to bring anything. A change of underwear is good to have though. Of course you can always just stop on the way and buy a pair of underwear. Doesn't cost much.
Drives my wife crazy: "We are going away for the weekend, lets go"
"where are we going?"
"How about North?"
"Just north, that is it?"
"Ok then we can go East"
"Where will we sleep?"
"Where we are when we get tired"
"Where will we eat?
"Wherever we are when we get hungry"
"What will we do?"
"Whatever we see that looks interesting"
My favorite kind of vacation. Sometimes I will toss a tent and some sleeping bags in the truck in case it is rural when we get tired. there is always something to see and do in every direction. There are always places to eat. In a pinch, I carry water and snack bars in the truck all the time anyway. Sleeping? Well that is just a question of closing your eyes when you get tired. Can be in a hotel, tent, in the truck under a tree, whatever. The unexpected surprise is always the best thing to see/do. You would never plan to stop on a whim to see Pompey's points, or the worlds largest wind chime or the statute of Mike the headless chicken. You certainly would not plan to get invited to a local barbecue by the pizza hut waitress and have an amazing time yucking it up with the small town natives. Planned trips never live up to your expectations, unplanned trips are always filled with cool surprises.
The best, most memorable trips we have had are spontaneous trips with no planning and usually when you have little or no money. Sometimes we compromise and have some planning, like on a long road trip (say two weeks).
If I am on vacation, the last thing I want is a schedule. I we have to be here at X O clock and there by Y O'clock. I am not interested in going. May as well stay home and go to work.
We have always tent camped, but we had a little wooden trailer we kept loaded and ready to go. All we had to do was stop for some meat, fresh veggies and ice and away we would go. We could take off for a three or four day weekend with about twenty minutes notice.
The one issue is going directly East. That is Canada so you do have to track down your passports.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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^^This is how I usually travel^^^
"then came Bronson" style. Napsack or duffle bag, and head out! Where ? how long? which route ?
Often leave from work (after night shift).
I always made it a point to get home JUST in time to get to work (+/- 5 minutes or so) ! (was really nice while on night shift or swing shift), especially in Europe (where you can get a sleeper train / pass from 10pm until midnight the following day)
Interesting, cuz many people (including my ex boss) always schedule a 'rest day' when returning from vacation and going back to work!
Rest? That's what WORK is for... Rest up and earn some more vacation!
Fortunately, I don't need a passport to go to Canada or Mexico (EDL) I have ventured in 'unexpectedly' on several occasions. (happen to be near, so Why Not!)
a 'Camper' will work fine for this. My favorite was a 1949 Dodge pickup ( bought for $55) with a plywood conestoga type camper. got me through a tough yr as a senior in HS (not living at home) spent most nights in the camper (after my 3rd job each day (sweeping up a Dog Track Betting grandstand)1AM until 5AM, then go to HS parking lot and sleep till school started.
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 05-15-2018 at 12:27 PM..
There is also a social component to RV-ing you don't get in hotels. You can RV with friends. You can meet people at RV parks....Just taking a evening walk at dusk around a RV park I have met and talked to other RV owners, and even been invited over to share a beer....not likely to happen in a hotel. Many RV-ers can be friendly and love to talk.
When I go camping, I prefer to make it strictly family time and be away form other people. I like other people, but it is not polite to my family to take them camping and then stay up all night drinking with a new found neighbor friend and sleep all day.
I see RVing as different. It is not camping to me. It is neither better nor worse, just different. I am looking forward to the shared camaraderie that comes with living three feet away from your neighbors at times. When we move about in a 5th wheel or motor home, i will make every effort to mix with people near us who are open to it, rather than try to get as far from them as possible.
We are planning for retirement in 10 to 15 years. Our plan is to sell the house, buy a really fancy 5th wheel and truck and a very small house on a large lot someplace where one of our kids settles into. We will just live in the 5th wheel and sometimes come back to the house to visit, make repairs, change out summer for winter stuff, etc. Our kid can live in the house and pay some minimal rent to cover some of the costs. If one of us gets super sick or has to recover from surgery, we can stay at the house for a while. This will allow us to spend some months near each of our kids and also travel a lot. If we ever have grand-kids we can stay near them for a semester at a time, or even a year. Or take them with us for a month.
The more I explore this possibility, the more excited I become about it.
However I will keep the tent and we will still go camping on occasion, I expect. Camping is different and has its own value.
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