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

[MinnesotaDreami]

We still travel allot in our travel trailers (in the past we had 5th wheels and a class A). In our opinion they (travel trailers) work very well for spontaneous travel and camping, as long as you are not going to south Texas or Florida in early winter. Are many of the state and National Parks overcrowded, yes., but usually on a seasonal basis. From the Pacific NW to Michigan are beautiful from June till November. We are setup to do boondocking (dispersed camping) for 3 -4 days if needed. We love the road less traveled. But also enjoy RV parks periodically because of the social interaction and neat people we always meet. We also avoid any of the major parks and travel destinations on popular holidays. We take long trips (1 to 2 months) in a > 28' travel trailer. Which is plenty big for us.

My advice is to start slow, do not buy new, talk to everyone you meet and enjoy the trip. We have been at it for over 40+ years. Welcome to the party.

[bucky]

I think that if you are looking at cost OR rewards you are not cut out to be a RVer in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with that, just different strokes.......

[SoundGuy]

Truthfully, Is RV'in becoming less enjoyable

John&Joey wrote:
Yes. For me it all breaks down to cost vs rewards.

My breakeven point is 2-3 months. At that point then VRBO or extended stays becomes a viable option vs RV ownership.

That's sure to depress anyone who can't ... which is probably most of us. :R

[John_Joey]

Truthfully, Is RV'in becoming less enjoyable

Yes. For me it all breaks down to cost vs rewards.

If just going for a week or less then RV'ing is not giving the rewards for what I'm spending to own a RV. I would rather pay someone to rent their place and hand in the keys and walk away.

If going for 5-6 months then the costs of RV ownership makes a lot of sense. I would never give up the freedom it allows me to have if gone for that long.

My breakeven point is 2-3 months. At that point then VRBO or extended stays becomes a viable option vs RV ownership.

[SoundGuy]

Bowti wrote:
First of all I want to say we love RVing and never plan to stop. Having said that, there are things that have changed to lessen the experience. 1st is the heavy traffic, road conditions, and driver courtesy, we find it to be more difficult to travel each year.
Next, it is almost impossible to get into places we used to be able to get into, even by trying to reserve a year in advance. Last is the cost factor, the demand for full hook ups, WiFi, concrete slabs, cable TV and pull through sites has made some over nite stops hurt the pocket book. Yes, there are ways to get around these difficulties but "Times are a changing".

blofgren wrote:
I completely agree.

Agree mostly. 😉

Yes, there is more demand these days than they're used to be but we're usually able to get a campsite whenever we want and I often still don't reserve, 'though on weekends and during the busy summer months we usually do have to plan and reserve well ahead. If we're willing to camp without shore power I can usually still get a site last minute so I've set up the camper so we can get through a couple of days without shore power if need be.

Traffic we avoid by heading to areas away from major population centres, which is unfortunate as here in S Ontario it means we rarely go east past Toronto or north up into cottage country and thereby miss out on a lot of otherwise great places to camp. 😞 OTOH, we can easily head south into the US without much fuss and have plenty of access to all sorts of great camping opportunities without all the aggravation of too many people in too little space. :B

My biggest issue with RVing is the cost which contrary to the belief of those who don't RV is quite substantial and increases each season. 😞 Capital cost of the camper is a given, perhaps even a suitable vehicle with which to tow, but that's just the start. Regular maintenance costs you expect (brakes, bearings, lap sealing, etc), surprise maintenance costs you don't expect (tires that blow out well before their time, a fridge that won't cool, a furnace that won't heat, a pump that won't pump, etc, etc, etc), insurance, storage fees, and the ever increasing campsite fees along with additional vehicle parking fees sure can have one wondering whether it's all worth it. When our boys were younger and we travel camped a lot the costs were definitely worth it, now not so much. Yes, times are a changing. 😉

[georgelesley]

Get off the interstates whenever possible and stay in small city/county cg’s and other low cost few facilities unless you have to have everything every stop. Learn to use a community dump and your options will open up. We manage our tanks carefully and sometimes park in places with no dump for a night or two. Not needing family amenities helps also.

The big national parks and such may be different especially in certain season, but we toured the five np’s in southern Utah a few years ago without reservations,

[blofgren]

Bowti wrote:
First of all I want to say we love RVing and never plan to stop. Having said that, there are things that have changed to lessen the experience.
1st is the heavy traffic, road conditions, and driver courtesy, we find it to be more difficult to travel each year.
Next, it is almost impossible to get into places we used to be able to get into, even by trying to reserve a year in advance.
Last is the cost factor, the demand for full hook ups, WiFi, concrete slabs, cable TV and pull through sites has made some over nite stops hurt the pocket book.
Yes, there are ways to get around these difficulties but "Times are a changing".

I completely agree.

[Blazing_Zippers]

I noticed that quite a few of the folks on this topic are from the Eastern end of the U.S. Two thirds of the United States population are gathered East of the Mississippi River. Now that leaves one third of us to wonder the entire "Left" side of the U.S. There are more RVers out now, but there is a whole lot of space to enjoy out West.
A note: We enjoy our R V as much now as ever. Some folks can easily find things wrong with most anything.

[Cloud_Dancer]

There's a lot more to be angry about, plus there's a lot more people, plus some of us prefer RVing in a newer and better RV than the one we have, but we have that ole insufficient funds problem. That's how it is when you grow up wanting material stuff. We've used it as motivation to work harder in order to get ahead. But, it's starting to look like I ain't getting a Newell for Christmas. I'm a mad man,.....so shallow. Sometimes I feel like doing some rage stuff on the road,........except that I still have some common sense, and have't yet lost my sense of humor....:B

[Bowti]

First of all I want to say we love RVing and never plan to stop. Having said that, there are things that have changed to lessen the experience.
1st is the heavy traffic, road conditions, and driver courtesy, we find it to be more difficult to travel each year.
Next, it is almost impossible to get into places we used to be able to get into, even by trying to reserve a year in advance.
Last is the cost factor, the demand for full hook ups, WiFi, concrete slabs, cable TV and pull through sites has made some over nite stops hurt the pocket book.
Yes, there are ways to get around these difficulties but "Times are a changing".

[georgelesley]

BizmarksMom wrote:
The only trouble I have with finding campsites is that some don't allow my dogs. I just go elsewhere.

Here, in Idaho, there is so much forest service land that campsites do not fill up if you are willing to drive the dirt roads to get to them. If you need water and electric hookups, then you are limited. If you are set up to dry camp, the world is your oyster. I pull into a full service campsite only when I need to do laundry, dump my waste tanks, fill my fresh water tank, and take a long shower. Then I'm off again into the dispersed spots.

I have never camped in the eastern states, so things might be different there. I can tell you in Idaho, eastern Oregon, Nevada, the CA desert, Utah, and Montana, there is no shortage of campsites if you are willing to go without hookups.

DW and I have two long trips in the lovely state of Idaho. Last one we put on 3000 miles and never left the state. Since it was September, the wx was hot and cold, changed daily. So, when it was hot up the mountains we went, when it was cold, down into the valleys we went. We stayed in many forest service cg’s, usually alone. Counting the few regular cg’s, our camping expense was under $8 per night average and never stayed in a Walmart. Love your state.

[BizmarksMom]

The only trouble I have with finding campsites is that some don't allow my dogs. I just go elsewhere.

Here, in Idaho, there is so much forest service land that campsites do not fill up if you are willing to drive the dirt roads to get to them. If you need water and electric hookups, then you are limited. If you are set up to dry camp, the world is your oyster. I pull into a full service campsite only when I need to do laundry, dump my waste tanks, fill my fresh water tank, and take a long shower. Then I'm off again into the dispersed spots.

I have never camped in the eastern states, so things might be different there. I can tell you in Idaho, eastern Oregon, Nevada, the CA desert, Utah, and Montana, there is no shortage of campsites if you are willing to go without hookups.

[nonrev321]

Thanks everyone.

My wife and I had planned on doing some Boondocking and dry camping but I think we'll be fine and just plan on doing a bit more boondocking and dry camping that we expected. Thats Ok as we both love the outdoors.

Appreciate all the advise and info

Rgds

nonrev

[IdaD]

jplante4 wrote:

nevadanick wrote:
East coast problem.

There are a number of Californians here that would disagree with that.

Even California has a lot of wide open public land to stretch out on. Maybe not as high a percentage of many other western states but in absolute terms still quite a lot of acreage. Certainly the camping opportunities in California dwarf what you'd find in any state back east.

[toedtoes]

jplante4 wrote:

nevadanick wrote:
East coast problem.

There are a number of Californians here that would disagree with that.

Even within California things vary. We have coastal locales that have parking lots for campgrounds/RV parks. We have some locales that have lots of space between sites, but no visual privacy (no bushes, trees, etc.). We have forest locales that have sites close together but lots of visual privacy.

I've heard a lot of campers in the Midwest talk about having to make reservations. I know some Californians who always make reservations and some who never make reservations.

It's really dependent on the specific area you want to visit and the time of the visit - not on the region in general.