Need some advice

rbaart wrote:
After some deliberation we have rented a Ford Explorer. We will stay in hotels, motels and camping sites. After all your help we think this is the most appropriate way of traveling. The car is around $2000 for 32 days.

Oh, that is very unfortunate this forum talked you out of it. In my opinion, the only good way to see our county's national parks and monuments is camping, and doing so in a tiny motor home is ideal for a couple from another country. Scanning through all the replies, I worried you would be talked out of it. They frightened you away from taking the right kind of trip.

Renting a motor home from a rental company like Cruise America is done all the time by Europeans, and THEY LOVE IT. The rental companies deal with foreigners all the time and are setup appropriately, including matters of insurance. Renting a tiny motor home like THIS ONE will be not be a challenge to maneuver around. You will reduce your chances of a minor altercation by 95% compared to a standard size motor home, and you will increase you chances for a parking spot by 3000%.....that is not a typo. It's tiny size helps anyone, but especially a foreigner get around with confidence.

You mentioned traveling with another couple. I think that would be exceptional for each couple to have their own tiny rig to have independence and privacy. Maybe you will want to separate for a short period now and then. The only matter with two rigs is that everywhere you stay will require one camp site per motor home. In the summertime, getting adjacent sites will be uncommon, but you mentioned going in May so maybe you will do better. Going before school lets out here in the USA is very smart. Once the USA families get out and travel, the parks are busting and the best camp grounds in ideal locations will be near impossible to stay in. This applies mostly to the popular parks.

For my wife and I, traveling in a car and staying in motel rooms handling luggage is serious torture. Just shoot me by the end of week 3. Keep in-mind that a big part of the national park experience is staying in or adjacent to the parks, waking up in the morning, stepping outside with a cup of coffee and look around in awe. It is priceless. Staying in a motel outside the parks changes the dynamics of the experience. You could stay in the park lodges, but they are extremely expensive and require reservations years in advance. With reservations, you are on a very strict schedule which also takes from the experience. We exclusively travel to the national parks and monuments, and we NEVER EVER get reservations for camp sites. We always take our chances and always come up with a campsite. about 50% of the time we end up in a national forest or BLM just outside the park boundary, but are still where we want to be.

Don't forget that you can park your motor home overnight in 24 hour Walmart parking lots when traveling between parks. We do that too which offers a different flavor to the RVing experience.

You and your friends will make time-long memories together, especially doing it together, each in your own tiny motor home.