need your opinions: rv or hotel?
We are retired, very young ages 58 & 64, two small dogs and getting ready to hit the road, but have not been able to decide on mode of travel. Additional facts: we want to take the dogs as much as pos...
Forum Discussion
What is your primary concern? If the issue is the cost then it will depend upon how many miles you travel and if you move each day. With fuel prices as they are it does not take a lot of travel to burn up enough fuel to equal the cost of a motel for the night. We are currently out traveling with a small travel trailer and by only traveling about 200 mi/day, our fuel costs are right at $50/day. With a motorized RV it would probably be at least $60/day and if you double the distance per day, you also double the cost of fuel.
On the other hand, we have now been on the road for a week and we have thus far only traveled 500 miles towing the RV and then sight seeing without it. Our total fuel cost to date is just under $200. You do have to add to this the price of your campgrounds. We spent the first two nights in TX state parks for a cost of $26/night and since that on private property where we just took the owners out for dinner. If you travel by RV and always stop in campgrounds, you will probably average at least $30/day for those.
You can make up some of that cost in meals that you prepare, rather than eating out as it is probably going to cost you at least $50/day to eat out and probably more. RV travels have never been really cheap, but there are major advantages to it.
With an RV you sleep in your own bed each night and you do not have to live from a suitcase. You also are able to take more personal & hobby items along than would usually be the case with motel travel. Then when you add in the fact that with the RV you can actually stay in many of the parks and the kind of people that most RV folks are, we very much prefer RV travel.
The thing to keep in mind is that you will not save money by traveling in an RV. Living full-time in one is cost effective because you carry all of your possessions and you travel from one new experience to the next, with no return home involved and most of us do so very slowly. But few people today save money by RV travel for a couple, we do so because we love the lifestyle.
On the other hand, we have now been on the road for a week and we have thus far only traveled 500 miles towing the RV and then sight seeing without it. Our total fuel cost to date is just under $200. You do have to add to this the price of your campgrounds. We spent the first two nights in TX state parks for a cost of $26/night and since that on private property where we just took the owners out for dinner. If you travel by RV and always stop in campgrounds, you will probably average at least $30/day for those.
You can make up some of that cost in meals that you prepare, rather than eating out as it is probably going to cost you at least $50/day to eat out and probably more. RV travels have never been really cheap, but there are major advantages to it.
With an RV you sleep in your own bed each night and you do not have to live from a suitcase. You also are able to take more personal & hobby items along than would usually be the case with motel travel. Then when you add in the fact that with the RV you can actually stay in many of the parks and the kind of people that most RV folks are, we very much prefer RV travel.
The thing to keep in mind is that you will not save money by traveling in an RV. Living full-time in one is cost effective because you carry all of your possessions and you travel from one new experience to the next, with no return home involved and most of us do so very slowly. But few people today save money by RV travel for a couple, we do so because we love the lifestyle.
