Truthfully, Is RV'in becoming less enjoyable

[nonrev321]

Need truthful opinions based on experience.

My wife and I have been investigating traveling after I retire in two years. We were about ready to pull the trigger on a travel trailer than my wife got talking to some folks in her church who travel a lot with a travel trailer.

Seems they are not as happy with the experience as they used to be. Too hard to find nice places to stay, RV parts are too crowded. You have to make reservations 6 months in advance for the nice places in good locations. The ability to just pick up and go and/ or stop anyplace and stay awhile is becoming increasingly difficult due to the demand for spaces.

Truthfully this kind of freedom was one of the major attractions for myself and my wife. We recognized that some parks would likely be crowded and there would be some need to make reservations in advance... but 6 months ? Also a RV park that is packed to the gills really isn’t too appealing to me, especially if there is nothing like a line of shrubs or other divider to keep me from looking into my neighbors window.

Can people comment? Is it becoming less enjoyable due to
overcrowding?

Thanks
nonrev

[FunnyCamper]

Farmboy666 wrote:

We do Walmart or Cracker Barrel on the road for a quick overnight, curious as to what the many other better options are?

we do this also
walmart, any big parking lot chain stores, rest stops, Cabela's, bass pro and more, truck stops, rv sales biz and so much more in that most will allow ya to park and sleep easily if required! and then find more 🙂 cause we do! if 4-5 hrs sleep is needed an rv'er can stop ANYwhere they want 🙂 we do and it is all good for that long travel time.

[Rock_Wells]

Lots of good advice here. Retirement adds a great amount of flexibility. Try renting at first, or purchase a used one in good condition to make sure you both enjoy it. Happy trails...

[Veebyes]

You have to learn the game. If you can, don't travel when schools are out. Reservations are only needed at high demand CGs, especially weekends. If you think there might be a problem, get there on a Thursday & get a non reserveable site. Many CGs keep a few. Stay put for the weekend. Most people want FHU sites. They go first. Getting a dry camping site is much easier anytime. If you are setup for drycamping, & any unit worth having should be able to do a couple of days off grid, some of the best sites are available to you. At all times be flexible with what is expected.

[Dennis12]

It's all in what you want to make it.

[memtb]

Farmboy666, Camping at Cabela’s is a viable option....though can be quite expensive! :B

[ford_truck_guy]

It is what you make of it... If you go into it thinking you will be unhappy, chances are you will be unhappy..

We have been camping for 30+ years and are still Weekend warriors due to a little thing called work.
It is harder getting into the prime spots on holiday weekends, some choose to sit those weekends out anyway.. BUT we still go... to us, camping is still the only thing we would want to do with our down time..

On the other hand, when we get old, and les tolerant of people (like some on here), it may be hard to continue..

[Farmboy666]

travelnutz wrote:
We are in our 53rd year of continuous RV'ing and having always had 2-4 RV's at any time during those many years. From our first truck camper in the early spring of 1965, then added a TT in 1966, next a small class A, then a bigger TT and a bigger class A. Next, our first 5th wheel which was a Carriage 36', then a second Carriage 5th wheel and a large Allegro class A followed by another new big Allegro, then another big Carriage 5th wheel with 2 slideouts. Always had at least one truck camper owned and used during those over 52 years and still have our 11'4" Lance TC and use it a lot plus our one Carriage 5th wheel also as it's used for wintering for 2-1/2 months in Florida each year.

Trouble finding a site along the way or for when we get there, NEVER and very seldom like can count on one hand had made any reservations. Just need to be flexible and besides, most RV's sold are self-contained so why is or are plush hookups even required for a few days at a time camping? Solar if wanted, a generator, 12V DC to 120V AC inverters drawing from storage batteries solves electrical needs and wants. All that is left is an occasional dump station visit and refilling the freshwater tank again. So many dry camping or minimal hookup CG's to be had, state land/forests, and federal land/forests, and add in county dispersed public lands too.

Notice that Walmart or other free overnighting places when traveling were not even mentioned but are still a viable option if a must? You are not buying the place and just supposed to be staying there for maybe 8-10 hours and you paid nothing to do so. Personally, for us in all those years of extensive RV'ing. only one night was ever spent in a Walmart parking lot as there are so many other better options. You only also rent a site in a CG etc for a time period and never own it or control it unless you buy the actual site. Thus put your money where your mouth is or learn how to be truly flexible and do like the rest of the public has to be. Of course, you can build a CG yourself and help there to be more spaces for RV'ers now and in the future...

Lastly, NO we do not find RV travel and camping to one bit less enjoyable than ever before in all those years and actually is even a lot more enjoyable today. RV travel and camping is what YOU make it as you are the one who makes the decisions, selected your RV rig and equips it, does the preparations for your travels, and executes your trips yourself. You will only get out of it what you put into it and guess who controls that? Nobody to blame other than yourself if your trip isn't fun and enjoyable yesterday, today, or tomorrow!

We do Walmart or Cracker Barrel on the road for a quick overnight, curious as to what the many other better options are?

[travelnutz]

We are in our 53rd year of continuous RV'ing and having always had 2-4 RV's at any time during those many years. From our first truck camper in the early spring of 1965, then added a TT in 1966, next a small class A, then a bigger TT and a bigger class A. Next, our first 5th wheel which was a Carriage 36', then a second Carriage 5th wheel and a large Allegro class A followed by another new big Allegro, then another big Carriage 5th wheel with 2 slideouts. Always had at least one truck camper owned and used during those over 52 years and still have our 11'4" Lance TC and use it a lot plus our one Carriage 5th wheel also as it's used for wintering for 2-1/2 months in Florida each year.

Trouble finding a site along the way or for when we get there, NEVER and very seldom like can count on one hand had made any reservations. Just need to be flexible and besides, most RV's sold are self-contained so why is or are plush hookups even required for a few days at a time camping? Solar if wanted, a generator, 12V DC to 120V AC inverters drawing from storage batteries solves electrical needs and wants. All that is left is an occasional dump station visit and refilling the freshwater tank again. So many dry camping or minimal hookup CG's to be had, state land/forests, and federal land/forests, and add in county dispersed public lands too.

Notice that Walmart or other free overnighting places when traveling were not even mentioned but are still a viable option if a must? You are not buying the place and just supposed to be staying there for maybe 8-10 hours and you paid nothing to do so. Personally, for us in all those years of extensive RV'ing. only one night was ever spent in a Walmart parking lot as there are so many other better options. You only also rent a site in a CG etc for a time period and never own it or control it unless you buy the actual site. Thus put your money where your mouth is or learn how to be truly flexible and do like the rest of the public has to be. Of course, you can build a CG yourself and help there to be more spaces for RV'ers now and in the future...

Lastly, NO we do not find RV travel and camping to one bit less enjoyable than ever before in all those years and actually is even a lot more enjoyable today. RV travel and camping is what YOU make it as you are the one who makes the decisions, selected your RV rig and equips it, does the preparations for your travels, and executes your trips yourself. You will only get out of it what you put into it and guess who controls that? Nobody to blame other than yourself if your trip isn't fun and enjoyable yesterday, today, or tomorrow!

[jmtandem]

We were about ready to pull the trigger on a travel trailer than my wife got talking to some folks in her church who travel a lot with a travel trailer.

Seems they are not as happy with the experience as they used to be.

Your church friends are not you. Maybe they are getting burned out. You should go find out for yourself. There are lots and lots of places to camp that are not crowded especially in the western half of the United States. Get a Class B or better yet a slide in truck cabover camper and you can go and park almost everywhere and anywhere.

[Farmboy666]

We just Did Moab, Bryce and Zion. Waited until the end of Oct and had reservations but turned out we didn't need them. There were no crowds and the weather was perfect.

[memtb]

nonrev321, Though I’ve only recently retired, and haven’t done extensive travel... if left to crowded RV parks, high population areas....we wouldn’t be RV’ers. For short time periods we “may” have to deal with these things to see or do something....but we quickly escape to “the road less traveled”! We’re we live, our closest neighbor is about 600 yards away....which is much too close. And... the wind must be from the correct (wrong) direction for us to hear traffic on the paved road. Much of our rv’ing involves boondocking far from the paved roads. Grizzlies, wolves, and assorted other wildlife....generally make nice neighbors.

[FunnyCamper]

Easiest to just type in your post.

nonrev321 wrote:
Need truthful opinions based on experience.

My wife and I have been investigating traveling after I retire in two years. We were about ready to pull the trigger on a travel trailer than my wife got talking to some folks in her church who travel a lot with a travel trailer.

Seems they are not as happy with the experience as they used to be. Too hard to find nice places to stay, RV parts are too crowded. You have to make reservations 6 months in advance for the nice places in good locations. The ability to just pick up and go and/ or stop anyplace and stay awhile is becoming increasingly difficult due to the demand for spaces. (Are you comparing apples to apples. retired and your own time frame to choose to visit spots is SO different then those loaded down with school schedules and work vacation time, so your freedom will not ever be the same as their freedom to travel. Makes a huge difference really.

Truthfully this kind of freedom was one of the major attractions for myself and my wife. We recognized that some parks would likely be crowded and there would be some need to make reservations in advance... but 6 months ? (some vacay spots will always be crowded, all depends on the spot. Take the road less traveled and find your own fun 'near the crowded' tourist spot and take your retired time to drive in as you see fit against the crowd times) you have this advantage.)Also a RV park that is packed to the gills really isn’t too appealing to me, especially if there is nothing like a line of shrubs or other divider to keep me from looking into my neighbors window. (what floats your boat on your site and its' reason for being there. I hate small tight crowded sites but if what I want is near this cg I booked, then I am fine with it for that purpose. I want wide, less crowded for another trip I book that 'near' the tourist trap I am visiting, so what we havee to drive some, it boils down to what do you want at what time and how important is the travel time in your 'vacation schedule' etc....)

Can people comment? Is it becoming less enjoyable due to
overcrowding? (NO! Who in the heck mostly doesn't hate crowds, lol, but if you want XYZ you will always have a crowd situation. If you want ABC you can get far away from the crowd situation. You can EFG and get near a tourist spot and have less crowds in the cg and drive to the crowded tourist spot.......beauty of it is you are on wheels. You visit tourist area you get tourist life. You visit less visited areas you get less crowds in your direct line of fire. I will RV til I am in the grave and bob and weave and deal with it all :), we got no problem doing just that!)

Thanks
nonrev

[bgum]

I don't think it is less enjoyable. I think it is a little harder due to age. We still look forward to getting away. We still plan our trips with anticipation. We know at some point we will have to give it up but that time hasn't arrived yet. The reasons we RV are still there. They haven't changed. Clean bed, clean shower and restroom, home cooked food when we want it, a place for us AND our pet, and many other reasons.

[docsouce]

Thumbs up to the "off the beaten trail" posts. As suggested here previously it's all about planning. We have found making our reservations 3 or 4 days in advance for our weeknight stays and a week ahead for weekends works (we tend to avoid the big National Parks). That pulling into an RV park on Friday or Saturday and expecting to find a spot is a recipe for disappointment. We pretty much stay off the interstate highways too. There is just so much to see driving along on the state highways and these roads are where we find some really beautiful RV campgrounds. It's all about timing. Major destinations will be "very busy" during the summer season. It's just the way it is. As said hitting them in the off season is the trick. We did as suggested here. We rented a class c for a 2 week trip before making our decision. We set it up in the driveway and camped in it for a night to get familiar with the set up. The folks here on this forum though are the best. Give it a try. You might like it, you might not.

[D_E_Bishop]

I agree with most of the replies, particularly TomG2, georgelesley, jfkmk, bucky, and DEB and Ed M's. We have been camping on and off for over fifty years, I know this because our youngest is 54 and we started camping as a family when she was 4 yo.

In the beginning we tent camped because we couldn't afford motels and destination resorts. For nine years we upgraded our tent and bought and set aside things that were just for camping. My DW and I loved it and slowly we fell into the habit. Then the Teens:W and BOYS:M came along and the girls wanted something other than a one inch pad on the ground and coin operated showers for summer time.

For years we dreamed:Z about RVing and owning a Class A. We spent a lot of time and money visiting the world and when I retired we finally bought an "A". I had been planning for about ten years my DW just couldn't commit to the plan. Loosing several thousand a month in expendable income had scared her and we were now on a more or less fixed income:).

I had been retired for about three years and the DW was still hanging onto the job security thing , when I gave her the only ultimatum I have ever given her. I told her I was going to buy an RV and travel so guess what, she retired, WE bought a used "A" from her cousin and we have never looked back. We never really thought about full timing and still don't but we're still on the road.:B

From 1998 until this year, we were Journey Oriented RVers. We camped in a lot of parks, we drove a lot of miles and we saw a lot of this amazing Country. As we drove around spending only one or two nights and back on the road, we saw a lot of areas that we wanted to revisit. Our comment was "Someday, I'd like to come back here and spend a few days", well guess what.

This year we stopped driving and started SEEING all those places we had wanted to go back and explore.:) Actually we started a couple of years ago when it took us 10 hours to drive 90 miles. We had our granddaughter with us and driving Hwy 1 and 101 up the CA coast to Florence OR. Between Eureka and Crescent City there is a lot to see if you get off the highway and sometimes off the pavement. It had been driven a hundred times on our trips to visit my older brother in Florence OR but we had never seen it. Now we have.

We have slowly become Destination Oriented RVers. We have been to all 49 continental states in ONE RV and Now all but one National Parks, excluding the two outside of the US. We spent a week at a County Park on the OR coast, partly to visit family and partly because we just needed to escape the big city. When our reservation ended, we asked about and got another spot in the same park for a couple more days and then did that again. We took the towed and explored, even took a 8 or 10 mile long logging road out to another beach, found an on the beach dry camp, not to our liking but neat to see, watched the folks scurrying around on Saturday and Sunday to cram as much into their week end as possible, while sat back and watched.:B

We are breaking with recent practice of before Memorial Day and after Labor Day travel and we're planning on July and August in the cooler Northern reaches of the US and maybe even Canada, spending a week or more in most places, no written itinerary and no time schedule and to add to the interest, no reservations.

Our daughters have already planned out the care and feeding of our stick and brick, everything will be turned off except for the AC which will be set on 85 or 90 degrees and the landscape watering on our normal summer setting. They are not interested in us telling them where we are going just in receiving our daily log of people and places.

The DW is no longer worried about income, kinda about outgo however, but not wanting to be moving everyday, just wants to travel leisurely where ever the roads take us. On the big blank white space on the back of the Adventurer is a new decal of mountains, trees, and water with a big compass rose and an almost quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, "NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST", we think he would approve.:B