Stay at a park a month or more then move on and do it again?

Like was said, be sure to check out the parks. Sometimes, the parks that have monthly rates that are super low, cater to transient workers and may not have the amenities or be as nice as others.

I've done the monthly rate exercise and it worked "ok", but it does have its drawbacks. Monthly rates seldom include electricity and parks all use their own formula to calculate the cost. Electricity isn't much of an issue during mild weather, but in the heat of summer be prepared for a healthy extra cost from air conditioner use.

The suggestion from a earlier post to join Escapees RV Club is excellent!

On our winter trip, we stayed a week or 2 at each place. Most CGs have a weekly rate that saves you a little. We were on the road for 6 months and not in a hurry.

This trip is a bit more aggressive on the goal (Puget Sound and back in 10 weeks), so we're only doing 2-4 nights on each stop.

Be careful when selecting a campground for a month based solely on price. You may find yourself in a position of staying to keep your fee or leaving because it's terrible and losing the rent. RV Park Reviews is your friend. We never stay at a place with less than a 7 rating.

I’ve been doing that for years. I stay for anywhere from 1 to 3 months at a lot of State, County and Municipal parks along or near I-10 from late Fall to early Spring. Many are not very busy that time of year so they are happy to have any cash flow they can get to help pay their utility bills.

That said, don’t expect everything to be cheap or free. Rates can vary wildly. The RV lifestyle is expensive if you avoid the real dumps.

Hi—our favorite saying as RVers is “everybody does it differently”. Or as Burger King would say “have it your way”. 26 years of full timing has taught us that you do what works for you. To that end, we find that sitting for a long time before moving again works well for us as we “age out”. We spend summers in a cool place and winters in a warm place and move/travel in between. Do what makes you happy. Hope you have a blast!

You can see the country and do it cheaply without staying in RV parks.

I fulltimed for 2 years and averaged $7 per night for camping fees. That was several years ago so current costs are more like $10 per night average. That also includes half priced senior camping access for national parks.

Sitting in an RV park is not my idea of seeing the country. There will often be long drives to access and tour national parks and other scenic areas. I rarely stayed more than a few days in any location.

A lot of parks have even lower rates if you take it for three or more months.

Yes, people struggle changing from vacation mode to full time.

Yes, you can save a ton by paying for a monthly site.
- $250: While there are some...there aren't many and there often is a reason for it. I would plan on the $400-600 range.
- Often even if you are only staying 2-3 weeks, it may be cheaper to pay for a month and not use it all.

Passport America is a great deal for full timers. It's a big discount over nightly rates but there are typically a lot of limitations (1-2 nights only, weekdays only, etc...different by park). For a weekend camper, it doesn't usually work to well but if you are moving between areas and just need to stop for a night or two, it's easy to plan it into the schedule working around the limitations.

Yes, it could be done but it's going to take a long time to see the country.

You will not see the whole state by staying one month in it and each state and each area in the state has different terrain and different attractions.

If you move to another part of that state you still won't see it by day trips. OK... move to another part for a month and call that state quits. Now you've used 3 months and you want to full-time for only a year? You also need to think about temperatures. You don't want to be in the southern states in summer and not in the northern states in winter.

If your goal is to see the country you'll have to move more often or else plan on full-timing a longer period of time in order to see it all. If you need to cut down on cost then learn how to dry camp (no hookups) and use public lands to do so. Stay in a RV park every so often to do a thorough cleaning, long hot unlimited showers and regroup.

Join the Escapees RV Club and use their home parks and co-ops. At the present time monthly fees can be as low as $265 and the highest $450/m. Weekly would be $90 - $166; some including electric.

We full-timed for 16 years, traveling constantly - including a full summer in Alaska, and still didn't see it all. Typically we'd choose a state or two for a season and thoroughly cover those states, moving every week or so. We loved boondocking (dry camping). This is not to be confused with pavement overnighting such as on WalMart's asphalt. We stayed in very scenic areas with rivers, mountains and lakes - in the boonies.

Good luck with your plans!

We FTd for 7 yrs....after 2 weeks in one spot we got 'itchy feet' syndrome and had to move on.

Daily rates---highest
Weekly rates...better deal
Monthly rates...best deal

Check out PassPort America....Discount camping program
50% discount on daily rates at participating CGs. Cost $44/yr

We used a variety of methods to control nightly fees
Boondocking, State/National Parks, COE (Corp of Engineers) CGs (really good places), City Parks, Fairgrounds, PassPort America and 'membership' that we purchased CHEAP via RESALE

Staying in one place monthly is a reasonable means of stretching the 'rent money' IF one is so inclined.