My wife and I recently sold our diesel pusher motor home while we could still get some money for it. Our intention was to take some of the money and buy a brand new Montana fifthwheel. Now that the transaction is done, we are second guessing our next step. We usually only use our camper for three, one week trips a year and it's usually within five hours from home. We do love traveling with our two Boston Terriers and that is the main reason we continued to camp. Years ago, we camped with a whole bunch of families but one by one they have dropped out of camping. For the last five years, we have been solo. It use to be so much more when we had a whole crew so now the question remains, should we go ahead and buy the fifthwheel or should we look into pet friendly hotels? Has anyone stay in a pet friendly ? How are they? I know in the end it is ultimately our decision but the input would be appreciated.

It's a no brainer. You don't use the RV enough to justify the cost. Try either renting an RV or renting cabins in your favorite campground.

I do not think anyone but you can really answer your question.Having said that, if it we us, with the short trips close to homethat you enjoy 3 times a year, I would not buy again. Before our last puppy died, at age 18, we had verygood luck with hotel/motels. Sometimes and extra $10.00 but that was it.It all depends on how much you will miss the RV.Either way ypu can still enjoy your trips.

Hedgehog wrote:My wife and I recently sold our diesel pusher motor home while we could still get some money for it. Our intention was to take some of the money and buy a brand new Montana fifthwheel. Now that the transaction is done, we are second guessing our next step. We usually only use our camper for three, one week trips a year and it's usually within five hours from home. We do love traveling with our two Boston Terriers and that is the main reason we continued to camp. Years ago, we camped with a whole bunch of families but one by one they have dropped out of camping. For the last five years, we have been solo. It use to be so much more when we had a whole crew so now the question remains, should we go ahead and buy the fifthwheel or should we look into pet friendly hotels? Has anyone stay in a pet friendly ? How are they? I know in the end it is ultimately our decision but the input would be appreciated.I haven't actually stayed at any, but I do know that many (most) hotels charge xtra for a pet, $25 per pet per night. We don't travel with others, so going by our selves is the norm for us, but we still love to Camp/RV, Hotels are used more out of necessity ,I don't know of anyone that goes to a hotel to have fun, unless it's a Casino/Resort type, and many areas we go to don't even have a hotel. I would get the 5'er and go camping/RV'ing, if going with friends is important, perhaps find some new friends, join a club?

When I travel with my best friend, we stay at Red Roof Inns, which do not charge extra for pets. He is happy, I'm comfortable, and they have free wifi! All of that for about $50 a night, depending on location. If you don't plan on using an RV a lot, I would not invest the bucks, which you won't get back.

Hedgehog wrote:My wife and I recently sold our diesel pusher motor home while we could still get some money for it. Our intention was to take some of the money and buy a brand new Montana fifthwheel. Now that the transaction is done, we are second guessing our next step. We usually only use our camper for three, one week trips a year and it's usually within five hours from home. We do love traveling with our two Boston Terriers and that is the main reason we continued to camp. Years ago, we camped with a whole bunch of families but one by one they have dropped out of camping. For the last five years, we have been solo. It use to be so much more when we had a whole crew so now the question remains, should we go ahead and buy the fifthwheel or should we look into pet friendly hotels? Has anyone stay in a pet friendly ? How are they? I know in the end it is ultimately our decision but the input would be appreciated.Since you seem to have enjoyed your camping more when doing it with friends, have you considered joining a local or regional RV group and finding new 'friends' to camp with? Here in our tiny community we have several .... our local Elks club, for one, has a great friendly group that does several local/regional campouts each year.

Continue camping or pet friendly hotels | Good Sam Community

lynndiwagon
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
Hey, you're not camping solo, you've got those Boston Terrier's. I've got three of the little devils. Personally, I can't stand those nasty motels. I can carry my own stuff so that it is just like home, and that includes the BT's. Is it economical, probably not, but I'm darned comfortable in any RV park. I would look into traveling a little bit more and seeing some of this wonderful country....while you can. Good luck with your decision.
samhain7
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
You ever see one of those shows put a blacklight over the beds that you sleep in, in a motel/hotel?
I'll stick with my trailer....
Crowe
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
I'm pretty sure we are gonna buy our fifthwheel.

It's funny how one experience can help when wrestling with a decision such as this. When we lost our bloodhound Toby I was devastated and swore once our other dog was gone there would be no more. One trip to the kennel to board our remaining dog that entailed a trip through the doggie daycare area to see GSD puppies and that was it. Hello Jesse and Jake!

We're still wavering between a cabin and another RV. I'm hoping something will happen that will sway us one way or the other. Congrats and good luck!
BubbaChris
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
Hedgehog wrote:
I'm pretty sure we are gonna buy our fifthwheel. The wife and I talked about it and since our dogs are our kids, they must come with us. its funny, over the weekend, I went to a local campground to show the new owner of our motor home how to set everything up. As soon as I turned into the campground, it was like, I can't give up this lifestyle. Then I was greeted by one of the park attendants and I told her why I was here. She said, your gonna get another one, right? We missed you guys last year! I guess it's off to the RV dealership.

Good for you!
dcmac214
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
FWIW, there's at least one cell phone app that lists pet friendly hotels. DW has it on her phone, I don't, so I apologize for not being able to tell you what it is. Should be easy to find in the free app list.

We've used pet friendly hotels for years and have never had a problem. Campgrounds too for that matter. Sometimes there's an additional fee for keeping pets in the room, don't think we've ever paid more than $10. Typically, about 3:30/4:00 DW starts looking thru the app to see what's available in the towns ahead of us.
missourijan
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
I was going to say the same thing OKSixpack said. Why does it have to be a new RV? There are lots of used rv's out there that are in really great shape. If you are only going to use it a few times a year I would not want to take the depreciation hit. But it's your $$$!!!
Hedgehog
Explorer
Jun 02, 2015
I'm pretty sure we are gonna buy our fifthwheel. The wife and I talked about it and since our dogs are our kids, they must come with us. its funny, over the weekend, I went to a local campground to show the new owner of our motor home how to set everything up. As soon as I turned into the campground, it was like, I can't give up this lifestyle. Then I was greeted by one of the park attendants and I told her why I was here. She said, your gonna get another one, right? We missed you guys last year! I guess it's off to the RV dealership.
davosfam
Explorer
Jun 01, 2015
Between the membership dues for our camping lot and the payments on our 5th wheel, we could take a couple of nice vacations a year. We still take a nice vacation every year but we choose to spend the majority of our entertainment dollars camping. It's what we love and worth every penny.

Only you can answer if the cost of camping is worth it for you.
BubbaChris
Explorer
Jun 01, 2015
10-years ago we made taking our dogs on vacation a priority. We used VRBO for most our week-long trips and motels/hotels for other ones. We crate-trained our dogs from the start and it made a world of difference (even when staying at VRBO homes/cabins).

We moved 3 years ago and this part of the country is pretty sparse for dog-friendly home/cabin rentals. That's part of what led us to buying a TT last year.

Since you have smaller, short-haired dogs, I'd suggest going the rental/motel route for a year or two. If you can get your dogs to be reliable and quiet in a (non-fabric) crate while you go to dinner, many hotels are OK with that.

One of our priorities is bringing and making our own meals, so we were always biased towards homes/cabins when given the option.
JAXFL
Explorer
Jun 01, 2015
Click here..

For some info on this subject.