Campground pricing.

[tomkaren13]

We just took a road trip. Just driving our truck, not with the TT. Got good MPG of about 18. Motels were expensive. Got a couple of good deals but some were outragous in price. Went this option because of gas prices.

Now to my question. Anyone have a good estimate of the average night rate of regular campgrounds, not state or federal places?

Trying to questimate our next trip and see what is the better option price wise.

(Oh the camper we know is more comfortable!)

[rockhillmanor]

I hear ya. I have never RV'd west of the Mississippi. I was going to take a trip to see a friend of mine in California until I saw the price of CG's/resorts. :E

Not to mention they were all booked up for what seemed a year. No spur of the moment trips to THAT state.

I headed south instead!

[mileshuff]

Wow!! Many are finding inexpensive RV resorts in their areas! Try going to San Diego or Temecula or Paso Robles, CA especially during a popular time. Nice RV parks will easily run you $75-$100 a night. Motel 6's are often the same price in those areas. RV'ing at nice RV parks in popular areas is getting very expensive. Not long ago these same parks were $30.

In other not areas or off season I can find nice parks for around $40-$50 a night. Anything less is a dirt lot dump with hookups.

One of the most basic dirt lot RV parks I've stayed at is the Lost Hills, CA KOA. It's $41 a night.

[JAXFL]

It just cost a lot to travel any more. In September we are flying from Florida to San Fransico Ca. We are only going for 5 days. The flight this time is the cheapest part of the trip. Because of award points the 2 RT tickets cost me $40 total, but then comes the costs, $400 for the hotel, $206 for the rental car, eating out while there about $30+ a day for both another $150. Right at $800 and free airfare. Driving a car or RV out for the same thing is beyound expensive. Any more if you are not going to spend a month at a location over 300 miles for home, it is almost not worth going.

[wbwood]

JohnnyG73 wrote:
The cost of our vacations often depend on our plans. If we plan to travel for many days it's much cheaper for us to stay in a motel/hotel than to pull our trailer. I have to factor in gas along with accommodations. The extra cost of a full day of towing a trailer and the CG can far exceed the cost of a motel room.

On the other hand, sometimes we only travel a short distance and spend a week or two in one place. With this route the trailer is less expensive.

The trailer is always more comfortable than most any other lodgings though.

Very good point....I was just thinking about this earlier this morning. We are about 2400 miles from Los Angeles. For us to drive our motorhome (or even pull our old TT with the F250 we had) to Los Angeles and back, it would cost us $2100 just in gas. That's at 8mpg and an average of $3.50/gallon. That's just for gas there and back. Plus not including at least a week of travel time. A couple years ago we flew out there. I was able to get 3 round trip tickets for less than $700 (haven't anything like that again). Our hotel at a Homewood Suites in Agora Hills was $900 for 7 nights. Rental car was $200 for the week. All together that is only $1800. Saving $300 immediately. Plus we traveled for about a day (both ways), rather than a week. We didn't have to pay campground costs along the way (we could of stayed in a parking lot for free I guess). But there would be about another $400 + of camping expenses during the week there in Los Angeles area. Plus no wear and tear on my rig. And then if you want to take in the costs of the rig, insurance, blah blah blah

[wbwood]

Atlee wrote:
We averaged $23.45 per night on our recent journey across America. We were on the road for 44 days. We stayed in a variety of different places, ranging from Walmart/Flying J/BLM/National Parks/ and regular private campgrounds. Off the top of my head, I'd say 75% of our time was in private camp grounds. The private camp grounds includes a week in City of LA campsites. These were $55 per night.

$55/night in Los Angeles? Where was this at? Was it an actual campground/RV Park or a trailer park that allows RV's?

[wbwood]

JAXFL wrote:
This has been interesting and I have to go with the saying that "we don't RV to save money" because you are not. Almost ok all of you have forgotten a cost that you need to factor into the nightly stay at a campground or RV Park.... You bought the RV did you not? So it is not $25 average per night, it was $25 for the campground and $80,000 (or whatever it costs you over the years) for the RV that you parked in the campground. EXAMPLE: you buy a $80,000 RV and camp 30 days a year over 8 years the RV has cost you $334 per night PLUS your $25 camping fee so nightly average would be $359 until you sell the RV and recoupe some of your money back. Just saying "we don't RV to save money".

x2

Don't forget your interest, insurance, taxes and registration fees every year also. Not including all the extra money you spent to outrig it and accessories. Plus, not many will be financing an $80,000 RV for just 8 years.

[Redterpos3]

rockhillmanor wrote:

Desert Captain wrote:
... Avoid KOA's like the plague. They will always be the most expensive, full of kids and usually alongside a busy highway and or rail line. ....

I full time and I now stay at KOA's exclusively.

And no they are NOT always on a busy road and/or loaded with kids. Just like every other CG, if it is located near an attraction there are going to be tons of kids and close to a road for easy access to attraction.


After a long day driving I got tired of pulling into a crappy CG for the night. With KOA/franchise at least their is a standard required at all of them. I KNOW what I am going to be pulling into. Over the past 6 years I found their rates to be be right in line with other CG's within the same area. :C

BTW, the Nashville KOA is one of my favorites. Yes the rate is $65.00 for a huge pull thru WITH a concrete pad that comes complete with your very own patio furniture.......try and find a motel at that price!:W

We dont stay exclusive, but I know there is a standard, which works for me especially when I'm just moving down the road !!

[rockhillmanor]

Desert Captain wrote:
... Avoid KOA's like the plague. They will always be the most expensive, full of kids and usually alongside a busy highway and or rail line. ....

I full time and I now stay at KOA's exclusively.

And no they are NOT always on a busy road and/or loaded with kids. Just like every other CG, if it is located near an attraction there are going to be tons of kids and close to a road for easy access to attraction.


After a long day driving I got tired of pulling into a crappy CG for the night. With KOA/franchise at least their is a standard required at all of them. I KNOW what I am going to be pulling into. Over the past 6 years I found their rates to be be right in line with other CG's within the same area. :C

BTW, the Nashville KOA is one of my favorites. Yes the rate is $65.00 for a huge pull thru WITH a concrete pad that comes complete with your very own patio furniture.......try and find a motel at that price!:W

[qtla9111]

Coming off of a four month trip through the U.S. and Canada we found that rv parks are outrageously expensive. The last one we passed up was in St. Louis, $53 back in. We found four hotels in the area that were under $53, in fact, they were under $35 and not bad for the price. Sure, I won't give up my rv bed but it has come to a point where that is way too much. The other was in Kelowna, BC at $65 a night.

We boondocked most of the four months except for about 15 nights. Home Depot loves to have rvers and they have wifi that you can easily access from your rig.

We will be rving in Mexico for the next couple of years where we can boondock just about anywhere.

Funny, we've never made a campfire and we stayed in BLM land, Grand Canyon, all throughout the west. Not much into forest fires and smoke 🙂

[BUB1988]

Coming in late to the post, but I believe that RV'ing can be less expensive than staying at a hotel/motel. We bought an older 32' Class 'A' RV gas RV about 5 years ago to travel from Florida to Upstate NY with the grandkids. The overall trip for 21 days was about $2700.00. That included everything, campground fees, museum entry fees, fuel, and amusement part fees for 3 kids and 2 adults, which also included 2 dogs. The fuel cost was by far the most expensive part of the trip, about $1600.00. The cheapest we spent a night was of Blue Ridge Parkway at about $12. per night and the most was the KOA outside of DC about $67. The $67 as well worth the cost since for $10 the KOA had a shuttle that took you to/from DC daily. For the same trip, but without the convenience of stopping when you wanted and not having to eat out every meal, it would have cost us $4400.00. Why so much you ask? Well 15 meals a day, except maybe some continental breakfasts, car rental, pet deposits, and fuel these all add up fairly quickly. The OP didn't indicate how many family members went on the trip, but the average cost we usually see is about $30.00 per nights. We have stayed in many different types of campgrounds from rustic electric only to paver/concrete pads and the average is still the same. As mentioned by many of the previous responders location does account for some of the higher costs. If you travel to Key West, or on the beach, you are going to look at close to $100 a night. Stay about 20 miles from Key West and the cost could be as low as $50.00. These rates also reflect the time of year.

[JAXFL]

travelnutz wrote:
If you are only getting 8.5 mpg, you have the wrong tow vehicle or driving too fast which sucks fuel big time and lowers your mpg's. We average 13.6 with the 29' Carriage Carrilite 5th wheel behind and 14.5 with the 11'4" Lance truck camper on. That's hand calculated recorded in our log book since 2004 with our present truck with a little over 150,000 miles of RV travel so far with the truck. 58-60 mph on Interstates and never faster. Speed limit on other roads.

I have a 32' Class C F450 V10, towing a small 4x4 Colorado and 9-MPG on flat Florida roads at 55-60MPH and never faster is all your going to get. Worse if there is a head wind. And don't even think about running the generator while driving.

[travelnutz]

If you are only getting 8.5 mpg, you have the wrong tow vehicle or driving too fast which sucks fuel big time and lowers your mpg's. We average 13.6 with the 29' Carriage Carrilite 5th wheel behind and 14.5 with the 11'4" Lance truck camper on. That's hand calculated recorded in our log book since 2004 with our present truck with a little over 150,000 miles of RV travel so far with the truck. 58-60 mph on Interstates and never faster. Speed limit on other roads.

[JAXFL]

JohnnyG73 wrote:
The cost of our vacations often depend on our plans. If we plan to travel for many days it's much cheaper for us to stay in a motel/hotel than to pull our trailer. I have to factor in gas along with accommodations. The extra cost of a full day of towing a trailer and the CG can far exceed the cost of a motel room.

On the other hand, sometimes we only travel a short distance and spend a week or two in one place. With this route the trailer is less expensive.

The trailer is always more comfortable than most any other lodgings though.

This is a big factor also... If I travel 300 miles by RV and get 8.5MPG at $3.50 it costs me $250 just to get there and back vs by car at 25MPG and $84.

[JohnnyG73]

The cost of our vacations often depend on our plans. If we plan to travel for many days it's much cheaper for us to stay in a motel/hotel than to pull our trailer. I have to factor in gas along with accommodations. The extra cost of a full day of towing a trailer and the CG can far exceed the cost of a motel room.

On the other hand, sometimes we only travel a short distance and spend a week or two in one place. With this route the trailer is less expensive.

The trailer is always more comfortable than most any other lodgings though.

[travelnutz]

kcmoedoe,

Not even close to the same cost incurred to the CG. Where do you think the big rigs water comes from and how is it heated and who's sewer does the used water go into. Absolutely no different than the cost to the CG from the small rig using the bathouse. I know as I got to see all costs and breakdowns while serving on the board for 9 years. Even our family's CG owners say the big rigs have a much higher cost per day to them and most CG's are now realizing it and adjusting their rate systems.

Yes, some big rig people do stay mostly in their RV's but they usually also demand fancier larger sites with some landscaping and nicer picnic tables, nicer firepits, leveler or paved site pads whether they ever use any of the nicer ammenities or not which still all add cost to operating the CG with less ROI (return on investment) to the CG. The smaller RV's usually have more outdoor orienated people and families. They are so much easier to please also. Of course, not the drunks and party'ers as they create many problems for the others who are the normal CG users. Not dissing big rig owners but rather pointing out the facts as they are.

Black and white numbers on financial papers and journals are very hard to argue with!

In general to the OP's question:

Regardless, RVing on average is much cheaper in the long run than moteling or hoteling it as for one major feature, you are not owned by restaurants for about every meal with overpriced food and overpriced both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages or coffee etc, sales tax, and tipping. No limit on the ingredients or don't include X or the size of your favorite foods like in a restaurant where a meal is a meal wuth pre-deterimned portions unless you frequent smorgasbords (pig troughs to wallow in till you bust). You also get to choose and see what is actually in the food you prepare and eat. Very important to some people especially as their system. body, and palette can't handle everything that may be in restaurants meals. Of course, you know who slept in your bed last and sat on the white goddess, no hauling suitcases in and out constantly, packing and unpacking repeatedly, most states CG's have no bed tax etc and NO tipping is customary, and the real biggie is cost of the room vs a CG site. There are so many other reasons also! In short, you have total control of nearly everything you like or choose to venture in on your trip including when and where to stay and it doesn't mean just where the hotel or motel is sitting. You can boondock or go luxury.

Try "boondocking" with moteling or hoteling and tell me how that works! I'll just bet they won't move the place out in the country for you to where the air is pristene and the stars are bright and that silence you hear is because there's no cars or trucks whizzing by and horns blaring constantly.