RV Park Fees

Am not full timing yet but some questions I know will come up?
What level of amenities are you in need of?
Staying in one location a month or more, or moving frequently?
In cities, or more remote small town/ranch locations?
With these questions answered folks can give you a better response.

Thanks for the response. I would say we will be looking to stay mostly outside of large cities. We will stay at least one month at most locations.We would need the usual amenities water, sewer, and electric. WiFi would be nice, but not required. Thanks again for the help.

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Am not full timing yet but some questions I know will come up?
What level of amenities are you in need of?
Staying in one location a month or more, or moving frequently?
In cities, or more remote small town/ranch locations?
With these questions answered folks can give you a better response.

If I throw out one number for a month I'd say plan on $500. You can find stuff as cheap as $600 for a YEAR at places like coyote howls or upper end places at $600. I never stay by the month and just about always boondock but $350 to $400/$450 would probably be common

I would budget at least $400 per month with the understanding that some months may be much higher. Some months we have spent as much as $900 for the month (not a monthly rate), but other months we have spent as little as $100. The great thing about full timing is if you start going over budget all you have to do is stop moving for a while. Campground fees and Fuel budgets go hand and hand as a full timer. Campground fees and fuel budgets can both be brought back in line by sitting for a little while.

Think about the location of the campground. If you are a ways out of town and like to see the sights and day trips you may be using extra fuel to do so. On a few occasions my fuel costs on a daily basis exceeded the cost of the campground.

Join Thousand Trails, purchase the membership and and pay $585 a year and stay every night in an RV park at no additional cost.

I'm not a Thousand Trails member but I've read a ton about it. When we go full time I'll be a Thousand Trails member.

Depending on how often you stay in the TT parks your daily costs will be in the $3-$5 range.

Info from Oregon Coast.

Ft. Stevens State Park...full hook ups $38 per night during peek season
Directly across the street is a KOA. $70+ per night.

phoenixbound wrote:
My wife are in the planning stages of becoming ful time RV'ers. How much should be realistically budgeted for monthly RV Park fees for camping mostly in the Southwest?

Great question. Before we started full time RVing, one Winter myself and an Excel spreadsheet did some Virtual RVing . . . that is, planning a trip or season start to finish using the prices of campgrounds where we might stay. This should give you a realistic picture of what to expect.

Longer campground stays are typically less costly than paying day by day, but some parks, especially in peak season, just use daily rates.

BTW, many times on forums you'll get a "race to the bottom" on cost questions like yours -- posters attempting to impress by how little they supposedly spent/spend.

Go to www.rv-dream.com they post their monthly expenses while fulltiming for the past 14 years. This will give a great idea of what all expenses will be while fulltiming.

I live in the SW and fees vary by day,week, month, month being cheapest per day. Many will have a monthly rate + electric,the monthly for a decent park is 500-600. Electric is per kilo watt hours about .18 in most parks. I'm not full time only about 3/4 time.