Complete Newbie Seeking Guidance
Hello everyone. I'm delighted to have found this forum and look forward to chatting with all of you. In a nutshell, here's my story (with a few questions at the end).
I'm 35, married, live in Northern California (wine country) and have two very young children. My son is 2 yrs 9 months, and my daughter is all of 1 month old.
I've always loved road trips, but for whatever reason the idea of vacationing via some kind of RV never occurred to me until about a week ago. Every night on my long commute home (a commute I've been doing for six years), I pass by a giant Camping World RV center that's right off the interstate. I caught myself looking at all the motor homes neatly lined up on the lot and then it sort of just slapped me in the face that something like that might be a perfect thing for my family.
The neat thing about living where we do is that we're just about 3 hours away from a lot of really cool, different places: 3 hours to Yellowstone, 3 hours to Lake Tahoe, 2 hours to the Pacific Ocean, 3 hours to the Monterey peninsula, 3 hours to the coastal Redwoods, 4 hours to the Mount Shasta/Lassen area. With some kind of RV rig, there would be a ton of options for long weekend getaways.
However, with a newborn I don't think RV'ing is right around the corner. But I want to start doing some serious research now to get a plan in place (save up for the right model, etc).
Also, another reason I want to start thinking about it now as opposed to later is that we're probably going to trade in at least one of our cars in the next 3 to 6 months. Currently we have an '09 Honda CR-V and my old '06 Civic which I use just for commuting. Obviously neither of these are good options for towing. Now that we have 2 kids we're looking at swapping the CR-V for something larger. I'm kind of leaning toward a minivan (Sienna or Odyssey) but may also look at larger SUVs (Pilot, Highlander). I'd like the next car to be one that's fit to tow the trailer.
With all that unnecessary backstory out of the way, here are a few things I'm wondering:
1) I'm leaning toward travel trailers rather than RVs primarily because of the cost factor. RVs are so much more and it seems like overkill since we won't be using it full time. Is that reasonable logic or should I open myself up to something other than a travel trailer?
2) CARS - How do the Siennas and Odysseys of the world do towing a trailer? Are there other cars I should consider?
3) Which brands and models are good intro units? I'd want something on the smaller side. It wouldn't necessarily need to comfortably sleep 4 adults. My guess is we'll end up using the car, the travel trailer, and a tent collectively to set up a traveling home.
4) What's the scoop on Aliners? I see a lot of them around the neighborhoods where we live.
5) What should I be reading up on and studying so that I can familiarize myself with how to own and operate a travel trailer? I've never used a tow hitch or anything like that before, and although I'm fairly handy around the house I don't know much about cars.
I really appreciate any information that anyone shares. Thanks!!!
I'm 35, married, live in Northern California (wine country) and have two very young children. My son is 2 yrs 9 months, and my daughter is all of 1 month old.
I've always loved road trips, but for whatever reason the idea of vacationing via some kind of RV never occurred to me until about a week ago. Every night on my long commute home (a commute I've been doing for six years), I pass by a giant Camping World RV center that's right off the interstate. I caught myself looking at all the motor homes neatly lined up on the lot and then it sort of just slapped me in the face that something like that might be a perfect thing for my family.
The neat thing about living where we do is that we're just about 3 hours away from a lot of really cool, different places: 3 hours to Yellowstone, 3 hours to Lake Tahoe, 2 hours to the Pacific Ocean, 3 hours to the Monterey peninsula, 3 hours to the coastal Redwoods, 4 hours to the Mount Shasta/Lassen area. With some kind of RV rig, there would be a ton of options for long weekend getaways.
However, with a newborn I don't think RV'ing is right around the corner. But I want to start doing some serious research now to get a plan in place (save up for the right model, etc).
Also, another reason I want to start thinking about it now as opposed to later is that we're probably going to trade in at least one of our cars in the next 3 to 6 months. Currently we have an '09 Honda CR-V and my old '06 Civic which I use just for commuting. Obviously neither of these are good options for towing. Now that we have 2 kids we're looking at swapping the CR-V for something larger. I'm kind of leaning toward a minivan (Sienna or Odyssey) but may also look at larger SUVs (Pilot, Highlander). I'd like the next car to be one that's fit to tow the trailer.
With all that unnecessary backstory out of the way, here are a few things I'm wondering:
1) I'm leaning toward travel trailers rather than RVs primarily because of the cost factor. RVs are so much more and it seems like overkill since we won't be using it full time. Is that reasonable logic or should I open myself up to something other than a travel trailer?
2) CARS - How do the Siennas and Odysseys of the world do towing a trailer? Are there other cars I should consider?
3) Which brands and models are good intro units? I'd want something on the smaller side. It wouldn't necessarily need to comfortably sleep 4 adults. My guess is we'll end up using the car, the travel trailer, and a tent collectively to set up a traveling home.
4) What's the scoop on Aliners? I see a lot of them around the neighborhoods where we live.
5) What should I be reading up on and studying so that I can familiarize myself with how to own and operate a travel trailer? I've never used a tow hitch or anything like that before, and although I'm fairly handy around the house I don't know much about cars.
I really appreciate any information that anyone shares. Thanks!!!
