need your opinions: rv or hotel?

[booshmom]

We are retired, very young ages 58 & 64, two small dogs and getting ready to hit the road, but have not been able to decide on mode of travel. Additional facts: we want to take the dogs as much as possible, we used to camp when our son was growing up but sold the tent camper when he left home,we are lazy and don't like a lot of set up, liked to stay in national parks in the past, have already been to the lower 48 but now want to wander more leisurely than we were able to when we were working, want to visit some of Alaska, won't do much cooking on the road because we consider regional cuisine part of the fun, want to avoid schedules as much as possible and love the western US. We have looked at class C, travel trailer and gave a nominal amount of thought to the possibility of a small class A, but think class c is preferable due to size and drivability. We may spend up to one month at a time on the road, a few times a year. We are trying to decide if we should invest in a used rv or just do hotels and we would like opinions. I also need to add that we plan to do some European travel, so that is part of our reservation about buying something. We will welcome any thoughts anyone has! Thanks for your help!

[wintersun]

I would take a look at the Class B+ motorhomes by Roadtrek and Phoenix. The Phoenix with its two slideouts is particularly impressive.

With hotels most will not allow pets. Restaurants are fine in some area and terrible in others. In many areas I would rather grab cold cuts at a local market than eat at the local places. With our RV we can eat healthy food and eat anything we can find in a market and not be limited to what is on the menu at some local dinner or cafe. Lunch and breakfast are also a waste of time and money to search out the least bad place and hoping Yelp.com reviews are accurate and working them into the route planning.

With an RV we can pull off anywhere (ours is 23' long which is a tremendous help in this regard) and stop and have wine and cheese or fix a meal or simply enjoy the view. I noticed when I was in Yellowstone that none of the pullout were large enough for a Class A or C motorhome or for anyone pulling a trailer. Same applies to many areas where we travel and where we camp. Even stopping at a restaurant or a market for food is much easier with a shorter RV.

In California at the BLM and USFS campgrounds having an RV longer than 28" is going to severely limit the campgrounds where you will be able to find a space and many campgrounds do not allow for reservations so the few campsites that might accommodate a 32' RV may already be taken and any size RV or even a tent camper can take any space they choose.

[booshmom]

Oops, stupid auto spell check!! I meant Mvander!

[booshmom]

Meander, that is a good point about having something tangible!!

[Mvander]

Aliners are awsome. Hope you enjoy it. Also I don't think anyone mentioned that when your done with your rv it will still have value. A motel stay or a meal don't have resale to help justify there purchase.

[aussie1]

Another thought! If you buy a small motorhome (not more than 25ft) you can ship it to Europe and travel around Europe in that. This is our plan for when we have done a few more trips around the US and Canada. Trade the 5er and truck on a motorhome and then do the same thing in Europe.
Cheers

[booshmom]

MLTS22:several of the things you mentioned are what helped us decide to stick with driving our own bed around, mainly the bedbug problem...of course, we also like to have our favorite beverages handy, too!! Mostly for us, travel is a way to relax and maybe even learn new things, but carting luggage and dog supplies in and out of hotels is not very relaxing. Plus, another recent poster mentioned talking to new people and our experience has been that that almost never happens in hotels. I guess we're just better off being outside!

[booshmom]

2gypsies: I know what you mean:I appreciate it when people let us know what they did about something because it might help me!!

[IndyCamp]

Canadian Rainbirds wrote:


One last thought: You make a lot of new friends and meet some very nice and helpful people when RVing. You meet the odd twit now and then too, but then you can just move! 🙂

You know, I think that is a BIG plus about camping that is often overlooked.

We often stay in hotels and never talk to our neighbors. Even when we are walking down the hall or riding the elevator with them, it is usually nothing more than "hello."

With camping, it is very easy and natural (at least to us) to chat with our neighbors, have a beer, swap stories, etc.

Of course, there are those who rarely leave their trailer/MH and never make eye contact when they are outside, but I've found those types to be fairly rare.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

I haven't read all the responses, so I may be duplicating some here.

We started with tents, then tent trailers, then truck camper,then a very small and very old (1973) 23" class A, then a 1997 30' Class A gas and now 2002 32' DP.

First, let me assure you that a Class A is every bit as "drivable" as a class C. They may be a bit bigger but the visibility is far better. I would far rather drive a Class A than a Class C. Size for size, a DP is easier to drive than a gasser. Our 32' DP is much easier and more comfortable to drive than the 30' gasser we had previously.

Class Cs tend to have more sleeping options if you have several kids. Class As usually have only one bed and a dinette or couch that convert for sleeping.

Class As also tend to have more storage and to carry more water and fuel.

We travel with 2 medium-large dogs for 6 months of the year. Previously we had two large (95 pound) dogs. Traveling with an RV the dogs always have there own bed and are always "home".

Depending on size, you may need to tow a car as well.

You can see some of out travels on our blog including Alaska a few years ago. (Blog entries from Alaska from July 2010. Getting there starts with the June 2010 entries.)

One last thought: You make a lot of new friends and meet some very nice and helpful people when RVing. You meet the odd twit now and then too, but then you can just move! 🙂

Happy travels which ever way you go.

[2gypsies1]

booshmom wrote:
so it's been a couple of months, we did a bunch more research, looked at motor homes, trailer/truck combos and virtually everything on the market and we bought: an Aliner!!

To the OP: Congratulations on deciding on your Aliner. It's a great start. If you find you don't like it, it will be easy to sell. If you find you need more room, you won't be out a lot of money.

Also, thank you very much to come back to your post and let us all know what happened! Wish more folks would do so. 🙂

[mlts22]

dwayneb236 wrote:
Here's mine and my wife's take on hotels. We are both police officers. She's is actually in crime scene now. There are so many things that go on in hotel rooms, you would be shocked, or maybe you wouldn't. We've both seen the lowest form of human existence in these places. We tend to avoid hotels as much as possible. Definitely no lower rent hotel/motels. We will take our trailer when we can. Not always possible of course. Just nice knowing who's slept in the bed before us, preferably us. Going to Boston in a couple of weeks, will be staying in a hotel, but at $400 bucks a night I'm assuming it's ok. (famous last words)

I've heard plenty of stuff about hotel rooms being used as meth labs... and nothing gets those nasty chemicals out of a room unless it is completely torn down to the walls.

Believe it or not, one can come out ahead using a RV than hotels. After this next winter, I will have slept in my TT over 100 nights on weekends. At the price I paid for it, the cost per night compares pretty favorably to a hotel. To boot, if I unloaded my rig right now, and only factored in the cost of deprecation, the TT actually would be cheaper than staying those nights in a hotel (cheapest in my neck of the woods would be $100 a night when all the fees are added up.)


In general, RVs are more expensive, but there are plenty of advantages:

1: You can cook your own meals, as opposed to hoping the local greasy spoon adheres to health standards.

2: The useful pesticides that work on bedbugs are all banned, so they have made a comeback with a vengeance. Even just three years ago, bedbugs were the exception, not the rule. Now, they are epidemic.

3: RVs do have common keys (CH-751), but there is no maid wandering around with a master key that can make stuff vanish. Yes, in theory, they have surety bonds, but it gets tough to prove one had a laptop, that it vanished, and that a maid did it. With my TT, a thief would have to get in, then try to pry open a strongbox. Not impossible, but a lot harder than swiping a card and tossing it in a laundry cart.

4: You know the bathroom/shower will work. One never knows this with a hotel, if there is hot water, or if there might be surprises in the hotel's water.

5: Stocking up the bar area with one's favorite beverages is cheaper than cracking open a hotel's minibar.

6: No need to worry about looking under ever crevice to make sure there is nothing forgotten.

7: Less time waiting in line, and no need to hand keys over for check-out.

8: The nefarious people tend to go where the pickings are. In general (as there are always exceptions), hotels are easier spots for thieves to make income than CGs.

9: Sick building syndrome, mold in the air ducts, and other airborne sicknesses that are a problem with old buildings tend to not be a problem with a RV.

10: Hotels can be located pretty far away from where one needs to be.

Of course, there are times where a hotel is a must, for example, an urban area, or flying to a different region of the US too far to drive. But, it is nice to use one's own rig instead of having to get a hotel (or driving back/forth) if at an event 100-200 miles away.

[lovemountains]

Enjoy your Aliner. That looks like it will work for you. Happy Trails!

[Grit_dog]

Depends how many nights you plan on traveling and for how many years.
Do the math and see which way works out best for you.
Pretty easy for 2 people to spend upwards of $300/day on meals an lodging. If you travel for 3 months that's $27k! By way of comparison, added fuel to drive a RV vs your car/suv is about 1/10th of that depending on miles and specific vehicles. Add in groceries and campground fees and I bet the total expenditure is half that of hoteling it for 3 months a year. After a few years, the RV will essentially pay for itself if you're serious about traveling.
As far as travel to Alaska from the lower 48, "local cuisine" and nice hotels are few and far between. I've made 2 trips recently and ate at restaurants and stayed in hotels (moving, not vacationing, did camp a cpl nights though) and from central BC north, the services generally are sub-par and very expensive. Like $120/night for a roach motel in the off season.
In the lower 48 I'd consider hoteling it, but even that can be cumbersome if you want to see the sights out west. In Western Canada and Alaska I would only consider some sort of camping/RVing if I was on vacation.

[dwayneb236]

Here's mine and my wife's take on hotels. We are both police officers. She's is actually in crime scene now. There are so many things that go on in hotel rooms, you would be shocked, or maybe you wouldn't. We've both seen the lowest form of human existence in these places. We tend to avoid hotels as much as possible. Definitely no lower rent hotel/motels. We will take our trailer when we can. Not always possible of course. Just nice knowing who's slept in the bed before us, preferably us. Going to Boston in a couple of weeks, will be staying in a hotel, but at $400 bucks a night I'm assuming it's ok. (famous last words)