New to RV'ing, many questions

[Chargenrse]

I am researching and planning a cross country trip from Florida to the West Coast. I would need to rent and RV since buying is not an option, but am curious if anyone can help me decide whether a type A or C would be the better option? We are a family of 5 with the youngest being 18. We want to stop in Las Vegas, LA, San Fran, Portland, Seattle and then maybe hitting Colorado on the way back to Florida. Is this possible in two to three weeks? How many days in each? Any information would be much appreciated.

[Grit_dog]

OP, take some of these recommendations with a grain of salt. Mostly old codgers who think 300mi a day at 50mph is a long day, and then have to stop for a day to let the Metamucil work, lol!
That said it is a lot of driving, figure the cost of flying out west and renting from there vs a cannonball run across the US and back. With 4 drivers, non stop you can get to the west coast in like 2 days. Wouldn’t be my preferred way to do it though.
What is totally feasible though is to fly out to Vegas, Denver, Seattle etc and do a loop from there. You could easily go up or down the coast, across to Vegas or the Rockies and back in under 3 weeks and see some sights.
Yes RV is like driving a big Uhaul. It’s not rocket science on the open road. Save the best drivers for the city and the mountains!
Have fun!

[ppine]

Fly to the West Coast and rent a vehicle.

[MWJones]

With all due respect,Chargnrse, Your plan is IMPOSSIBLE!!! Having never RVed before, makes your plan understandable, but still impossible.
Your plan would be at least a 6 week trip for an experenced RVer.
You need to do some RVing BEFORE undertaking a trip like this.
I mean will.

[Lexx]

I never drive from Northern California to Seattle in one day. It's too long a drive for me. We usually spend a night in Eugene Oregon.

[Chargenrse]

Thanks again for the info, as for being to the west coast I have lived in Northern California and Aspen Colorado when I was a teen, so I know how large the area is, my family though, especially my husband has never been west. I wanted to show them what I love about the West coast, but after reading everything I realize I was living a fantasy dream lol. I am interested in maybe flying to the west coast and then renting an RV once there to just go up the west coast. Any other info and ideas would be great. Also I would actually like to do this trip right before summer in the spring actually.

[Roadpilot]

I use RVParky.com to plan all of my trips. I did a trip there that goes from Orlando-Vegas-Portland-Seattle-Denver-Orlando. You can access it by going to the RVParky.com web site. It is called "For RV.net". You can change any parameter I put in. I look at the distance between stops. As an example Orlando to Vegas is 2299 miles. If you assumed 500 miles, you'd need 4 intermediate stops to get there. I'd eyeball the route and pick 4 spots roughly 500 miles apart and then click on the "Pick a Place to Stay" button.

If you fool around with it for a bit you'll get a sense for wether the trip can be done. I usually plan on 600 miles/day going across country on highways. That's in a 45' class A pulling a trailer and stopping in rest areas or Walmart's. If I have to stay in a campground, I lose an hour or 2 in the morning because they don't like a diesel starting before 8 a.m. and an hour or 2 at night because the office is closed and I don't like pulling into an unknown campground when it's dark.

[ependydad]

Here's an article on Trip Planning:
http://learntorv.com/lets-go-trip-planning-apps-and-websites/

[ependydad]

I'll be the dissenting voice. There's no reason that this trip can't work. The trick is to mix in some super long days of driving with some short sight-seeing days.

If you're starting in Florida, don't plan on any sight-seeing before Texas. This is all areas that you can explore on a regular trip vs. this big "see the USA" trip. 🙂

Then pick a stop to spend a night and explore a little and then beat feet to the next place.

Once you get to the Vegas area, you can start to explore. Each stop should be 2-3 days to allow for exploring, groceries, and a little bit of rest. Know that you won't be able to fully explore each location, but you can definitely get a taste of them.

The estimate of 50mph for travel is a fairly accurate one. 500 miles = 10 hours. 500-600 miles is about our max for a day and we're usually zonked out by the end of it. But that's typically with just 1 or 2 drivers.

Have fun!

[Captain_Happy]

From what I'm reading is your located in Florida somewhere. And you want to drive to Las Vegas, San Fran, Seattle. This is kind of the idea on how your driving going to be. Florida to Texas, maybe 1 day, across Texas, 2 days minimum. Lets say you make it to El Paso, from there it's another 2 or 3 days to Las Vegas at best. From Vegas to San Fran it's probably another day and half. From San Fran it's all of a day to get close to Seattle. And this all driving, no sightseeing, just gas stops and eating. And it's only 1 way. I think you need to come up with another plan. And I can tell you after relocating to Nevada, the western states are pretty big, and a lot of mountains to climb.

[kerrlakeRoo]

Have to agree with the others here. Fly to Vegas, spend a couple days in a hotel here and then rent the Motorhome. Tour the Mighty 5 National parks (Utah), and the Grand canyon seeing the north and south rim, one outbound from Vegas, and the other as you return.
You will have time that way to enjoy the trip and the company of your family , without racing to the next parking spot. And the trip will still not seem slow, your covering a lot in 2-3 weeks.

[2gypsies1]

Agree with others... reconsider this trip. It's too ambitious. You need to shorten your list.

First look into how much a rental will cost you. They are very expensive. That said, a Class C will have better sleeping accommodations - 2 in the bedroom; 2 over the cab and 1 on the sofa. Most tables convert to a bed but it's mainly for children or a short adult. Someone mentioned bunk model Class As but many bunks also are geared for children, not adults.

Secondly, you are going to big cities. A big RV isn't easy to drive in cities much less tour around and park. Also, your choices of RV parks will be limited and expensive.

With your timeframe you might want to just o to the Grand Canyon and the southern Utah national parks such as Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches and skip the big cities.

[Diesel_Camper]

I'm not sure you could drive in a regular car and see all that in three weeks. We once tried to plan a cross country with 20 something days and figured out real fast that it's a two month trip to do it right. RV travel is much slower than driving a car for a bunch of reasons already mentioned above. You either need more time or less distance to travel.

[Second_Chance]

Chargenrse wrote:
There will be 4 of us that can drive, but no none of us has ever driven and RV.

You don't say in which state you are based, but about 1/3 of states in the country require a special class of driver's license to drive an RV with a GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) over 26,000 lbs. This would include many class A coaches. If you were from one of these states, driving a rig with a GVWR over 26,000 lbs., and have an accident or get pulled over, and don't have the proper license, you can be cited for driving without a license.

Rob

[bikendan]

As someone new to RVing, you're biting off too much.

Only if you flew to the West Coast to rent your RV and then flew home after your 2-3 week trip in the West.

Many Easterners have no concept as to how big the West is.

Also, I'm assuming that you want to visit in the summertime. If so, many places you want to go to, will require campground reservations months in advance, IF you can even get them.

[goducks10]

One way I hope. No way for a RT.