To RV or Not to RV

Deciding to travel across this great country was easy but trying to determine how to actually get from point A to point B proved to be a bit more complicated than I first thought.

First, get your basic framework in place – where you think you want to stop, how much can you afford, how long will you be away…stuff like that.  Then the fun begins, detail by detail. But when you are talking about dropping $12,000 for a vacation, I guess detail is warranted.  I always assumed we would take an RV but you know that saying about assuming, well, it’s true.  I should have never assumed anything.   I’ve been with the same man for almost 20 years – I should have known that we’d start with opposite opinions.   Every time I said “we’ll rent an RV…” my husband would stop me dead in my tracks.  “Do we really need an RV?” he said.  “Why not just take our car?  Lots of people do this trip in a car.  I know this guy at work who…”  That’s the point he would always loose me.  I kept thinking “Are you INSANE!!??  Five weeks in a car with two hormonal 12 year old boys!  I’m the only girl!  I need my space!”

With an advanced degree in communications, I quickly ascertained my argument that he was just simply out of his flippin’ gourd was not going help us come to an agreement (yeah, I’m quick like that).   We debated the pros and cons of our travel options.  There were many sides to our discussions from the trivial pee breaks to the obligatory Robin Williams RV reference but ultimately it boiled down to three key factors:  availability, cost, and experience.

On a side note, if you do plan a cross country trip, be prepared to be asked if you have ever seen the movie RV by every co-worker, teacher, acquaintance, relative and neighbor.

Availability – The first step to help decide if an RV is right for you is to learn what’s available in your area.  When we began our search, we came up with basic criteria.  We knew we wanted it to be small, under 25′ to be specific.   Clean and smell-free also topped my list.  More practically, vehicle mileage and miles per gallon were very important factors.  With those basic criteria in mind, we started on our search.  The internet was an obvious first start.  A Google search gave us hundreds of RV sites to review.  Most sites allowed us the opportunity to narrow down the search even further by our criteria.  Immediately we saw a trend in location and availability – California, Arizona, New Jersey and New Hampshire were the hot beds for rentals.  My super reasoning powers allowed me to quickly identify that availability wasn’t a problem for us.  We live in New England; New Hampshire is in New England…see where I’m going with this.

Cost – Once we knew the model/size we wanted was available to us, we moved our discussion to cost.   My philosophy on vacationing is exactly the same philosophy I employ at work – DO THE MATH.  Make a list of all the costs you will occur for the different travel methods.  For example, if you were to rent an RV you will need to consider the cost of:

• rental fees
• mileage fees (most places give you so many “free” miles each day and you pay a cost for any additional miles traveled. $0.35/mile was an average figure we saw)
• taxes
• gas (you’ll need to get miles per gallon to figure it out)
• meals (consider groceries vs. restaurants)
• RV park/campground fees (many National Parks ave. $25 per night, private sites can range as high as $40 per night)
• insurances.  Not all insurance is created equal and, in most cases, you auto insurance will NOT cover you driving an RV. 

While visiting each dealer, we asked them for a ballpark estimate.  The two big questions we got consistently were estimated mileage and timing.  As you can imagine, the fees are higher in season.  There is also the option to purchase an RV vs. renting.  I’ll delve into that topic in a separate blog.

If you think you may want to drive your own vehicle consider

• mileage
• wear and tear on your car
• meals
• lodging/hotels/campgrounds
• park fees

Depending on whether or not you want to camp or stay at hotels, you may also need to consider whether or not you’ll need to pull a pop-up camper or even a trailer for your camping gear.  Obviously it is less expensive to camp but will require a lot more planning and towing on your part.

There is always the option to fly.  You’ll need to look at flights, car rentals and meals.

When we ran our numbers, we determined that the cost of renting an RV and driving our own vehicle staying in hotels was only a couple hundred dollars.  The hotel and restaurant costs, even assuming light meals at fast food places, added up quickly, making the rental cost nearly a wash.  Again I highly recommend that you run the numbers appropriate for your own travel plans.

One tip when looking at RV rental costs – shop around!  We priced out rentals with 4 different dealers and the cost varied by as much as $4,000.

Experience – By experience, I don’t mean whether or not you’ve ever driven an RV.  Was your trip enjoyable? Fulfilling? Satisfy your expectation?  Did you make the memory you dreamed of making?  Understanding the importance of experience became more and more clear with each conversation we had with friends, family, each other and anyone else who wanted to hear about our plans.  There are hundreds of ways to approach this trip and everyone knew of someone who did it a little differently.  My favorites were the tales of adults who remember being crushed in the back of their parents’ station wagon 30 some odd years ago.   Or the college kids who jumped into a car with nothing but a backpack and several hundred dollars.  The common denominator of all the stories was how it was the best trip of their lives!  Everyone with a different flavor but all consistently talked about the experience – “I remember teasing my brother…”; “We were exhausted by the time we got the Grand Canyon…”; “You have to see Crazy Horse.  When we were there this guy…”

For me, the deciding factor wasn’t the cost or even the comfort but the experience.  I knew at the end of a long day traveling and sightseeing, I wanted to be able to talk to my kids and not compete with the cable in the hotel room.  I could see us sitting around the campfire, chatting about the day, joking about the crazy stuff we saw on the trails.  When we reviewed our options after all the discussions and research, the answer presented itself.  We knew we had access to what we wanted, the cost was close enough either way, we couldn’t have a campfire in our hotel room at night and I’m just not a tent type of girl.  So, to answer the question to RV or not to RV – I’m RV’ing!

TIPS

• Know a basic framework of your vacation dreams before you being your research – length of time, distance, budget
• Research several options. The Internet is the perfect starting point. Don’t forget to talk with people you know, learn from their experience as well
• DO THE MATH! Be realistic about your costs – hotels, restaurants, pit stops, gas, fees, insurance, repairs, etc. Be as thorough as possible.
• Be true to you and your family. Know your limitations, like sleeping in the rain, and your expectations, such as quality time around the campfire. This is not the vacation you want to look back on with regrets.