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My friend calls me crazy!

Mick9064
Explorer
Explorer
My friend calls me crazy for spending 70K for a motorhome. He makes the case that hotels and restaurants are a much cheaper way to vacation. I average 30 nights a year. Initial cost is 2 times more than a car. Gas 4 times more.

What is your thoughts?

Thanks,
Mick
47 REPLIES 47

Mick9064
Explorer
Explorer
Thanks for all your support. Looks like I'm not alone in preferring my RV.

Mick

burlmart
Explorer
Explorer
winnietrey wrote:
Something not mentioned is, if you tend to be an introvert. Where being around people drains you. As opposed to time alone with family. An RV can provide a way to have much less people interaction. Than a hotel or motel, and provide more space for one to just get away from people, and the noise.

To me this aspect of an RV is extremely important. And well worth the cost.


good point. being dog people much more than people people, we realized the necessity of an RV to be able to travel and spend quality nature time in state/fed parks.

tried the good sam club social camaraderie, but found the experience less desirable than spending the time w/ mutts
2005 Trail Lite 213 B-Plus w/ 6.0 Chevy

winnietrey
Explorer
Explorer
burlmart wrote:
a more enlightening take on the term 'value' is that money in and of itself has no actual value - it only offers the potential for people to realize worthwhile experiences. like, "it was the most awe-inspiring week of our lives touring around the Rockies, even though its value was a mere outlay of $900."

this is the 'fallacy of misplaced concreteness,' where value is mistaken to be the cost, but it is actually the awesomeness of the experience.


Very much agree. Something not mentioned is, if you tend to be an introvert. Where being around people drains you. As opposed to time alone with family. An RV can provide a way to have much less people interaction. Than a hotel or motel, and provide more space for one to just get away from people, and the noise.

To me this aspect of an RV is extremely important. And well worth the cost.

Olddud
Explorer
Explorer
jarata1 wrote:
Not to mention bodily fluids on hotel beds


The above is my main reason for not staying in motels/hotels. Rugs and bedspreads are full of vomit, boogers, toe jam, and other much more disgusting castoffs. Yeh, the same thing exists in my MH, but they are all mine or my significant others, and I am proud of them.

burlmart
Explorer
Explorer
a more enlightening take on the term 'value' is that money in and of itself has no actual value - it only offers the potential for people to realize worthwhile experiences. like, "it was the most awe-inspiring week of our lives touring around the Rockies, even though its value was a mere outlay of $900."

this is the 'fallacy of misplaced concreteness,' where value is mistaken to be the cost, but it is actually the awesomeness of the experience.
2005 Trail Lite 213 B-Plus w/ 6.0 Chevy

Matt_Colie
Explorer II
Explorer II
Apart from the intangibles that very literally cannot be valued, there are other things that can be valued. I have been forced to live this end of my life at the bottom right corner of a spreadsheet. Everything gets careful evaluation. Our coach is saving us on the travel we do get to do even though it is forced to be less than we would like.

We have done a mess of traveling (and I would tell you exactly why we are not doing more now, but that might be decried as a political statement even though it is truth) and have done so by all means. Sailboat and anchoring out is the least expensive, but the upfront cost is a gotcha. It is also very restricted in places you can go without running aground.

We have a special case, but it is not that special. Yes, we have an antique coach, but that does not make it inexpensive. With my all in cost at close to 30K$ (some of which is sweat equity and is all paid off), an annual maintenance budget of about 1.5K that is all for about 12K miles of fuel and a typical 50+ road days a year with us and 2 dogs. We manage.

If you are going to travel on land to strange places, an RV does have a decent ROI. But if you don't include that you are eating for the same cost as at home, and you can save the left overs. You only make a reservation when you have to (like at a popular national park). You can have a place to eat and sleep at a remote location like a different music festival or a bison round up. Suddenly it starts to make sense. We do usually attend a music festival that is 5$ for the festival and 15$ (rip-off) for flatspot dry camping, but the nearest lodging is 30 miles and they know about the event (boy - don't they).

The real eye opener was last year. SIL does not like to fly. The have a tiny car and at that time had a newborn daughter. His parents live about 1K miles away. That meant three road days (two nights underway). Though they usually ate dinner with us, they did get a "breakfast" at the hotels that we dropped them at for the night. (I did not mind the as much as 30 mile diversion.) We did this both ways. The cheapest hotel was 80$. For a bedroom and a breakfast that was a roll and coffee? If going by car, they would have spent about 30 to our 100 on the day's fuel, 40$ for dinner, 20$ for lunch that would have required a stop and frequent other stops to take care of the kids needs. When I look at how we travel and out cash out of pocket expenses, I think it is looking pretty good.

I can prove that we are doing OK on all values.

Now, if you buy a new coach at XE5$, you are not dealing with the same equation. But then, you don't have to. You can travel the 200 mile days and stay at KOAs. But I would bet that even still that bottom right corner does not look too bad.

If you are going to compare this to a sofa, a big screen and netflix, it will loose, but so will you. You won't have seen the 200 historical markers on the Natches Trace, the vistas of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the 600+ hot air balloons of Mass Ascension at Albuquerque, the recovered parts of the Monitor, Miles of original Route 66 or chased the tall ships that visited the great lakes and an untold number of fascinating little museums that dot this beatiful country.

We will keep it up as long as we can.
Matt & Mary Colie
A sailor, his bride and their black dogs (one dear dog is waiting for us at the bridge) going to see some dry places that have Geocaches in a coach made the year we married.

Sully2
Explorer
Explorer
There is always taking pic of bull moose in Grand Teton NP that are so close you can spit on them. ( Cant touch them though because my arms arent long enough) I mean within feet.

I stood under my main awning that was tipped to allow rain to run off ( It had rained the day before and the night before) and the awning was too low for them to get under with their huge antlers. I was within FEET of them as they grazed passed the wife and I.

Cant get that at Holiday Inn...!:B
presently.....Coachless!...
2002 Jeep Liberty
2016 Ford Escape

NCWriter
Explorer
Explorer
coolmom42 wrote:


You can take a RV lots of places where there are NO hotels. Lots of beautiful, amazing, places.

And besides that, I hate hotels. They are always stuffy and airless. You have to drag your stuff in and out every time you stay. Then there are the potential issues with bedbugs, foot fungus, allergies, etc that can be totally avoided when you stay in a RV.


So glad you mentioned the stuffy air quality in hotels. And the windows don't open!

Sure, RVing is not a cheap hobby. Some people buy a lot of small things instead of one big thing. Both of our mothers "collected" pricey stuff like Hummel and Royal Doulton figurines, Christmas plates, etc. which is mostly worth peanuts now. Some women friends of mine spend very big bucks on clothes, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics.

Many of the memorable experiences we've had camping can't be duplicated in a hotel. Spending the night by Ancestral Puebloan ruins in Chaco Canyon. Camping below the Cerro Pedernal Mesa (which Georgia O'Keefe painted often) in a COE site. Waking up to a herd of bison outside our window at Custer State Park.

I'm so thankful we have an RV and good enough health to use it. It's priceless to me.

rockhillmanor
Explorer
Explorer
pconroy328 wrote:
Mick9064 wrote:
My friend calls me crazy for spending 70K for a motorhome. He makes the case that hotels and restaurants are a much cheaper way to vacation. I average 30 nights a year. Initial cost is 2 times more than a car. Gas 4 times more.

What is your thoughts?

Thanks,
Mick


He's right.
Owning a motorhome makes no financial sense. Nor does owning a boat, a plane, a pool and a dozen other things.

That said - we're in ours for other reasons.
And we have no intention of every trying to make financial sense out of it. 🙂


X2

Ask your friend how much he spends on golf, hunting, ATV'ing, boating, the honkin truck he might have bought when a normal vehicle would have served the same purpose. etc etc etc etc.

Or perhaps your friend just sits in his house and does nothing else in life and just can't wrap his brain around others who have a hobby and/or go out and have fun with their family!:W

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Bordercollie
Explorer
Explorer
I think that people who try to make you feel dumb for spending big bucks on a motorhome are usually jealous that they don't have the money to do the same or can't afford some other non-essential like a motorcycle, a mountain or lake cabin, flying lessons, etc. These same people are likely to ask to "borrow your rig" and then get offended if you decline. They remind me of people who tell you that they could have got your new gadget for you at half what you paid for it. ( Not worthwhile friends)

garyemunson
Explorer
Explorer
RVs are the most cost-ineffective things out there. That said, we love our RV and being able to wander the country watching the IMAX view through the windshield. We are just thankful we are able to afford to do this. It's not for everyone... It has to be experienced to determine if it's for you. Rent the biggest thing you can find and give it a whirl. You'll either hate it or you'll be browsing RVTrader...

Jim_Shoe
Explorer
Explorer
I spent my working years traveling for the company and staying in highly rated hotels. And all I had to put up with was drunks in the hallway at 2AM, having to wear my shoes until bedtime so my socks didn't stick to the carpet, dealing with yesterday's top sheet being today's bottom sheet with a clean top sheet, a TV with 20 or more stations that were of no interest to me and eating food in the restaurant that may have died of old age.
No, thank you.
Retired and visiting as much of this beautiful country as I can.

nbking
Explorer
Explorer
I had a friend tell me the same thing. You can stay in luxury hotels and eat in 5 star restaurants for less money.

My answer was that I don't want to stay in luxury hotels or eat in any type of restaurant. I want a sandwich on the side of the road and a snooze in the back of my vehicle before continuing my trip.

toedtoes
Explorer III
Explorer III
Mick9064 wrote:
My friend calls me crazy for spending 70K for a motorhome. He makes the case that hotels and restaurants are a much cheaper way to vacation. I average 30 nights a year. Initial cost is 2 times more than a car. Gas 4 times more.

What is your thoughts?

Thanks,
Mick


Who cares. I'm sure there are things he does that cause you to think he's crazy. Just tell him "I like it" and leave it at that.
1975 American Clipper RV with Dodge 360 (photo in profile)
1998 American Clipper Fold n Roll Folding Trailer
Both born in Morgan Hill, CA to Irv Perch (Daddy of the Aristocrat trailers)