Getting expensive

When gas jumped several years ago I checked on ALL possibilities of places for us to take summer vacations: the seashore beach house, the mountain chalet, cruises on the ocean & rivers, resort hotels, etc. NONE of them came close to being less costly than ANY trip in the MH. Makes the final decision easy every year.

Diesel fuel is now much cheaper than in many years. Woohoo!
We shop around for cheaper campgrounds, stay a week or a month to take advantage of weekly or monthly rates. We use Good Sam, Passport America and America the Beautiful passes to get discounts. We save money other ways to be able to enjoy our lifestyle. We found in the northeast campgrounds were much more expensive and also more expensive in California. We still were able to find bargains. Many state parks are still well below average in many parts of the country.

Do a budget. I've worked with one for years and it allows me to calculate what I can afford. As previous posts indicate, there are ways to reduce camping costs if you need to. I fill in my trips with free nights at friends or relatives, WM, CB, etc and this doesn't detract from the fun at all. I see a lot of folks in modest rigs having the time of their lives - self included. Maintenance and repair are the biggest unknowns and hard to control when driving an older rig.

ccbb088 wrote:
Do you think the overall price of camping is starting to get to high? The price of campgrounds, diesel to get it there, camper payment if you have one. Etc. Just wanted to get some thoughts and opinions.

Compared to WHAT?? ... IMO it's a bargain when compared to the equivalent cost of a motel and meals out for the same time frame at the same general location. Yes a tad more in fuel, but I would guess that in general the total outlay of camping vs. the motel/eating out costs would be around 50 to 75%.

Of course it costs more than sitting at home like a couch potato, but that is not a comparision, but a completely different lifestyle/scenario.


Larry

Dupe

sure general prices that effect camping has gone up over the years. along with every single other thing out there.

Is it worth it? well on this RV site you sure aren't going to get many NOs :)

If you are not a diehard fan of rving then I guess you could seriously start to think about not camping and 'saving' money on it.

It is a personal decision. either ya love it and will continue to throw money at it, or you get out and throw your money somewhere else.

ccbb088 wrote:
Do you think the overall price of camping is starting to get to high? The price of campgrounds, diesel to get it there, camper payment if you have one. Etc. Just wanted to get some thoughts and opinions.

Yes, for us it seemed like it. When a campground is charging $30/night and I can get a nice hotel for $55/night and in the morning walk away from all the liability ??????

When I can drive my Highlander and get 24mpg vs my Class A at 6-10 mpg ??????

The only time my Class A made sense in traveling was when I turned the key off and stayed in one location for more then 4 days before moving onto the next location. Then an RV made sense for us as a means of traveling the country.

ccbb088 wrote:
True but is it still worth it?

As someone else said, only you can make that call.

Sitting around a campfire, watching the northern lights in the distance, a hot cup of coffee (or the beverage du jour) and the company of someone you love. Absolutely priceless.

I was talking with a friend about going to Alaska a few years ago. It was something on my 'bucket list' after I retired. The price of fuel was going up and I was starting to question if I should go or not. I was estimating the trip was going to be 12- 13 thousand miles (turned out to be about 13,500 miles). I averaged just under 10 miles per gallon. So, a little over 1300 gallons. Friend said, if the price of fuel goes up $1/gallon and your getting close to 10 miles per gallon, are you not going to go, because your spending $1300 more? This was something that my wife and I really wanted to do and it was worth it for us. We spent less on other things and made it work.

Of course, it's getting more and more expensive. We would not be able to RV if we were making payments on something, and if we couldn't park in our own backyard, and if I couldn't do all maintenance and repairs, and if we didn't have a place to park at our favorite lake(in Lousiana), and if we didn't have our Golden Age Passport, and if we could not overnight at Walmarts,....etc.
The high cost of diesel is the one thing that really hurts the most.