With the initial price of any travel worthy RV, ongoing maintenance, fuel, insurance, and camp site costs being what they are, we went the less expensive route:
We fly to the camping spot, rent a car, set up camp in the local quality hotel, rough it in the lounge after a day of sightseeing.
I'm a bit biased but it's difficult to compare the hotel experience to staying in a decent campground. 1 isn't better than the other. It's just that they aren't the same.
RV campground folks, for the most part, are solid people. Even their kids are well behaved. My last hotel stay had noisy neighbors at 2am. The campgrounds where you will find the noisy crowd are the state parks on the weekends.
No doubt an RV, like a boat, is a huge financial purchase. So it makes sense to use it instead of parking it in the driveway to take out twice a year. I like to think I got my money's worth out of my rig. And I drove that thing all over the country and over half of Canada. I logged 40,000 miles in the cockpit in 14 years. Went to 34 states and a few provinces. Around 10 of those years were spent living in the rig full time.
And what price can be put on all the memories of the amazing place that were visited?
Given the cost of the rig, maintenance, fuel & campground fees, yes it was pricey. But full timing there was no rent or mortgage to pay on a 2nd residence. Only moving the rig about 15 times a year saved on fuel costs compared to someone running the roads. Rents go up, homes need repairs and an RV requires periodic maintenance. So those costs are a wash. Campgrounds ran between $440 & $2,300 a month. Average was probably around $700 - $800 a month. Work camping got campground fees down to $0.
Add me to the list of folks that stay in hotels while on vacation now. I'm glad I got to experience both ways to travel.
