Hi all, My family and I will be relocating from the east coast (upstate NY) to the west coast (Boise, ID) for work related reasons, but we are currently overseas until next spring. We are in the process of thinking about how to easily visit family on the east coast once we have returned to the US and are living on the west coast. My wife and I have 4 kids ranging in age from 8-16. We love road trips and so we had thought that the best thing to do might be to get some type of camper that we can take back and forth rather than flying each time. This would give us a place to stay at each family member's house since most of them don't really have room for all of us to sleep comfortably. It would also allow us to see the country. The cost of travel (gas, food, etc) would maybe be about the same as flying six of us round trip and paying for hotels while we visit. Maybe?We have a few options as far as I see it:1) Do nothing and just fly back and forth whenever we go to visit and either stay in hotels or sleep on the floor at our relatives' houses.2) Purchase a travel trailer and a vehicle to tow it with. Our only family vehicle at this time is a 2010 Honda Odyssey and I know this wouldn't tow much of anything. We would need a tow vehicle that could fit the six of us comfortably and have enough towing capacity. From my research so far the best option looks like a 12 passenger Chevy Express van. Anything that we purchase would need to be used as our budget isn't huge. 3) Purchase a Class C motor home and tow our Odyssey. I like this option but my wife doesn't like it as much. Craigs List looks like it has decently priced used RVs, but I really have no idea what is good, what has the capacity to tow another vehicle, etc.4) Travel in the Odyssey and tent camp :-)I have lots of time to think about this since we are overseas until next April, but I will need to be ready to move on this pretty quickly after we return because we will be making a return from trip Idaho to upstate NY shortly after we get back in the country. I am the type who likes to do lots of research and planning, so that is why I am starting early, and also why I am reaching out to the experts on this forum for ideas, suggestions, and reality checks!Thanks in advance!

5th option, find a house near family, live in it when you are around (fly or drive the Honda) rent it on airBnB when you are not there to recoup cost. An RV is a huge cost and requires constant maintenance. If you want to get into it for the sake of RV'ing then great. I love it. If you think this is a cheaper/easier way to visit family across the country. I promise its not.

I like option 1. To drive across country for each visit will decrease the desire to visit.Somebody mentioned renting a Class C to drive across the country. I would modify that by stating to fly across the country and rent a Class C when you get to your destination.

Jebby14 wrote:5th option, find a house near family, live in it when you are around (fly or drive the Honda) rent it on airBnB when you are not there to recoup cost. An RV is a huge cost and requires constant maintenance. If you want to get into it for the sake of RV'ing then great. I love it. If you think this is a cheaper/easier way to visit family across the country. I promise its not.Lol and a house isn't? I guess if a person has the finances and desire to take on a rental thousands of miles away....had enough of those to realize that is not a fun time.

If the only use of the TT would be for the annual family trek, then it is not the way to go. Additional fuel cost, driving time as well as the cost of the TT and a proper tow vehicle would make the cost higher than travelling in a typical minivan and renting a cabin, house, apt or whatever. In many areas there are extended stay suite motels which can be rented for $350 to $700 a week. That would provide a comfortable stay for the annual trip, and it doesnt require maintenance, Monthly payments, Additional driving time, or additional fuel cost. If you want to take up camping because of moving to a great area for it, and think it interest you for that as well, that totally changes the dynamic. I'd suggest then that you wait until you are out in Boise, and rent a camper a couple of times to see if that is an avenue you wish to pursue.

MDB, you're not like any family I know if you have 4 kids a full time job and have time to drive x country multiple times a year to visit family. We drive ALOT and the few trips back to the midwest (shorter than your proposed trips by probably 500 miles) are 2 days of driving basically straight through, 3 long days in the car or 4 days of "normal" drive 500-600 miles a day. Your proposal is to spend basically a week in transit to go back to visit for how long? Driving slower and exercising more caution, more things to go wrong, $1000 extra in fuel, extra wear n tear on the truck, 6 bodies packed into a vehicle for basically 25% longer than if running bobtail....Yes, $ for $ you could do it cheaper that way than buying 6 plane tickets, rental car a week's worth of hotels in NY (2 rooms?), but dayum.....Think about the cost of the RV, how many times you'll make the trip, how much time you have to spend behind the wheel and pencil it out.And if your kids are 8-16 years old or whatever you said, how many times will you have the time to take 2-3 weeks and not interrupt any of the 6 family members' schedules? And will this be your family vacations or do you actually have more time to take family vacations on top of these trips?Our kids are 13 and 16 this year and thus far, there's been less than 10 weekends total in the last 12 months that there aren't multiple kid or parent commitments. Think you'll come to the realization that this plan will not yield alot of trips back east. And if those folks wanted to see you that bad, they could come to you. Quite likely some/many of them can travel lighter/easier/cheaper than you with 4 kids and if they're like my family they can't afford it or won't/can't take the time anyways. The cheapest option is for you to pay to fly both sets of grandparents out to see YOU when needed, honestly. JMO, because we are in the same situation as you for the last 20 years and kinda been there done that.

Best fit for family of six? | Good Sam Community

19 Replies

DrewE
Explorer II
Aug 15, 2019
RV travel is not especially inexpensive. RV upkeep can be a bit spendy and/or time consuming; less money and more time the more you do yourself. I've generally found that travel with my motorhome is at best a wash compared with driving a car and staying in motels and eating in (not fancy) restaurants; admittedly I do have a fairly fuel efficient car. If spending a good length of time at a destination the motorhome does better than if only traveling for a quick trip. The overall experience is different, of course, so it's not really
a pure financial decision one way or the other often.

For the motorhome option, if you're traveling mainly to visit relatives and friends (who presumably have one or more vehicles), you could perhaps get by without towing another vehicle without too much difficulty. It's not too hard to stop for groceries and such along the way with a motorhome. It's a bigger pain to break camp and pack things up to go out for dinner one night while staying at a campground. Bicycles are sometimes a reasonable transportation alternative to a car or van, and less of a pain to carry with you (though I'm not aware offhand of any six bike racks suited for use on an RV; four bike racks do exist, the Yakima RoadTrip for one example).

For a travel trailer, a full size van can make a quite fine tow vehicle. I would not limit it to just Chevy/GMC vans; to me, the Nissan NV looks like a very nice possibility, and appears to have more comfortable seating than the Chevy or Ford E series vans (perhaps on par with the Ford Transits). I haven't done a thorough study on the matter, though; that's just first impressions.

A decent sized popup trailer might be another possibility, maybe in combination with a tent. They're easily more comfortable than a plain tent, but doesn't require a lot of tow vehicle and is comparatively inexpensive to maintain.

If you have time available, there are some good deals to be had traveling by rail, particularly with the multi-day USA rail passes. For under $500 a person (for the 15 day, 8 segment one) you can go coast to coast and back. Unfortunately, the trains don't go very close to Boise....
the_bear_II
Explorer
Aug 15, 2019
Our family of 6 traveled back to Kentucky/Ohio area each summer to visit relatives as I was growing up. We used suburbans and tents for several years, then a delivery van converted to a motorhome, then a suburban and travel trailer for the remaining years. The best choice was the travel trailer and suburban.

During the trips to and from we visited many of the historic and tourist sites across the country. My parents would have us research the areas we would travel and the places we visited. It helped to gives us a leg up in school because we had seen first hand many of the places teachers would discuss in history and geography. It is a part of my life that I still value. During these trips we visited all of the states in the Continental US plus most of the National Parks.
Tyler0215
Explorer
Aug 15, 2019
When you get settled and are ready to visit back east, rent a class c for the trip. if you like it, then you can think about buying. If you don't like RV travel you are only out the rent.
catkins
Explorer II
Aug 15, 2019
RVing is a wonderful way to travel as you see the country. It is NOT an inexpensive way to travel. There is annual maintenance, tire replacement, overnight costs, insurance and more. Towing slows down the speed at which you can safely/legally travel whether a towed car or Trailer. That many people in one RV will allow for little to no privacy for anyone. Storage for clothing and more would need to be carefully looked at in any RV/trailer you might consider.

If long distances are in your future, driving slower only increases the required time while towing/RVing dramatically increases fuel costs. Many class A Mhs get 8-10 mpg on a good day with no mountains to cross. We use 50MPH as out time estimator for our travel which includes short rest stops/quick lunch in our travel day.

My family loved our little trailers we had. I have such good memories of our adventures. Your family may also love joining the RVing world. Just think very carefully about why and how this would it work for you all. Go wander through some an envision how the space and seating would work for you when camped and when travelling. Good luck!!!
Grit_dog
Navigator II
Aug 15, 2019
MDB, you're not like any family I know if you have 4 kids a full time job and have time to drive x country multiple times a year to visit family.
We drive ALOT and the few trips back to the midwest (shorter than your proposed trips by probably 500 miles) are 2 days of driving basically straight through, 3 long days in the car or 4 days of "normal" drive 500-600 miles a day.
Your proposal is to spend basically a week in transit to go back to visit for how long?
Driving slower and exercising more caution, more things to go wrong, $1000 extra in fuel, extra wear n tear on the truck, 6 bodies packed into a vehicle for basically 25% longer than if running bobtail....
Yes, $ for $ you could do it cheaper that way than buying 6 plane tickets, rental car a week's worth of hotels in NY (2 rooms?), but dayum.....
Think about the cost of the RV, how many times you'll make the trip, how much time you have to spend behind the wheel and pencil it out.

And if your kids are 8-16 years old or whatever you said, how many times will you have the time to take 2-3 weeks and not interrupt any of the 6 family members' schedules? And will this be your family vacations or do you actually have more time to take family vacations on top of these trips?
Our kids are 13 and 16 this year and thus far, there's been less than 10 weekends total in the last 12 months that there aren't multiple kid or parent commitments.
Think you'll come to the realization that this plan will not yield alot of trips back east. And if those folks wanted to see you that bad, they could come to you. Quite likely some/many of them can travel lighter/easier/cheaper than you with 4 kids and if they're like my family they can't afford it or won't/can't take the time anyways.
The cheapest option is for you to pay to fly both sets of grandparents out to see YOU when needed, honestly.

JMO, because we are in the same situation as you for the last 20 years and kinda been there done that.
wanderingaimles
Explorer
Aug 15, 2019
If the only use of the TT would be for the annual family trek, then it is not the way to go. Additional fuel cost, driving time as well as the cost of the TT and a proper tow vehicle would make the cost higher than travelling in a typical minivan and renting a cabin, house, apt or whatever.
In many areas there are extended stay suite motels which can be rented for $350 to $700 a week. That would provide a comfortable stay for the annual trip, and it doesnt require maintenance, Monthly payments, Additional driving time, or additional fuel cost.
If you want to take up camping because of moving to a great area for it, and think it interest you for that as well, that totally changes the dynamic.
I'd suggest then that you wait until you are out in Boise, and rent a camper a couple of times to see if that is an avenue you wish to pursue.
Grit_dog
Navigator II
Aug 15, 2019
Jebby14 wrote:
5th option, find a house near family, live in it when you are around (fly or drive the Honda) rent it on airBnB when you are not there to recoup cost. An RV is a huge cost and requires constant maintenance. If you want to get into it for the sake of RV'ing then great. I love it. If you think this is a cheaper/easier way to visit family across the country. I promise its not.

Lol and a house isn't? I guess if a person has the finances and desire to take on a rental thousands of miles away....had enough of those to realize that is not a fun time.
Dick_B
Explorer
Aug 15, 2019
I like option 1. To drive across country for each visit will decrease the desire to visit.
Somebody mentioned renting a Class C to drive across the country. I would modify that by stating to fly across the country and rent a Class C when you get to your destination.
Jebby14
Explorer
Aug 15, 2019
5th option, find a house near family, live in it when you are around (fly or drive the Honda) rent it on airBnB when you are not there to recoup cost. An RV is a huge cost and requires constant maintenance. If you want to get into it for the sake of RV'ing then great. I love it. If you think this is a cheaper/easier way to visit family across the country. I promise its not.

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Best fit for family of six?

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