DH and I are considering a ~1,000-mile trip next May/June through North and South Dakota, Montana, and maybe some other states. We’d fly out there and then rent an RV, but what I don’t understand is where you park it each night to get electricity, water, sewage to empty the toilet, etc. How does this all work? Has anyone done this?
I’ve never done it, but here’s a good book about it: The Ride of Our Lives by Mike Leonard.
I haven’t done it but I always assumed you go to an RV park. You pay to hook up and use the space and facilities.
We’ve thought about doing it but between the cost of the rentals and the hassle of dealing with pumping out your own toilet, and the poor gas mileage, we’ve opted to drive a car and stay in hotels/rentals, camp, or a combo of the two.
Would love to hear others experiences as well.
Never done an RV vacation, but stayed in many campgrounds that have all of the amenities that RV users need. Also, many national and state parks have campgrounds. You may need advanced reservations.
An RV park can take you for a night or more. KOA is a nationwide outfit, there are also websites with info and reviews, like a TripAdvisor for RV folks. It’s kind of a natio nal pastime for some. The rental place will have some info.
I’ve always wanted to to this, but we tent camped. Ever been to an RV show? On the high end, washer/dryers, big refrigerators, a/c, a tub, etc.
I always found the price tags on those fancy, high end RVs a little shocking for something that will deteriorate in value because it is a vehicle as opposed to real estate and its land value.
@doschicos, I think it’s a particular sort of commitment but here’s one guy’s comparison,fwiw. http://time.com/money/3889400/road-trip-costs-rv-hotel/ I think one issue for us would be how to get into town or different attractions without a car. I wouldn’t want to try to park the behemoth near some museum or whatever.
Relatives had one but mostly used it to take a bunch of family to FL, AZ or CA, parked for a few weeks or a winter month and rented a car.
We did a 10 week road trip when DH had sabbatical. We left Austin on Easter Sunday and drove to Pensacola, then to St. Pete, Up to St. Augustine stopping at various place along the way all the way up to Nova Scotia then across Canada to Ottawa and then down through the Central US. We did a combo of tent camping, staying with friends and family and Air BNB and Price Line, we even stayed in a light house! This was 3 teens and 2 adults in a mini van with a car top carrier for 10 weeks. Worked for us! Some National Parks have cabins for rent (we stayed in a cabin outside DC that even had a small fridg and went into DC on a train pass.) RVs use a lot of gas, and are hard to park, I’d rent a mini van and camp instead.
Another benefit to a car is you can drive faster to get from place to place. I can’t imagine cruising 5 to 10 miles above the speed limit in a big RV. Am I publicly acknowledging my need for speed? B-)
Walmart allows overnight RV parking in its lots, but you would need to find somewhere to hook up to water, etc. eventually.
ND is well set up for RV travelers and tent campers, less so for people who want a cabin or a hotel room in a remote area. There are many lovely local, county, and state parks with good campground facilities. Some of the state parks do have cabins to rentl: http://www.parkrec.nd.gov/information/parks/cabins.html Although Teddy Roosevelt National Park has no cabins in the park, there are hotels in Medora and other lodgings nearby. https://www.nps.gov/thro/index.htm
My parents owned an RV when I was a teen-it was easier and probably cheaper to use than getting 2 or more rooms per stop (2 adults and 5 kids) AND paying the extra fee for dogs-we had 2 Great Danes that often came along. Great memories. The RV parks and many campgrounds have hook ups with electricity, water and sewer, but most RV’s have reserves of water and storage tanks for sewage so that you can opt to only get an electric hook up spot on occasion. These are more plentiful and cheaper than the full-service spots. We often stayed in store parking lots, no-service parks (you would run off the batteries and reserves) and once, in a police precinct parking lot. You won’t need the whole shebang every night, especially if it’s just two people.
RV’ing is nice because you can cook on a real stove, keep perishable foods in a real fridge and sleep in a real bed as opposed to the ground in a tent (shudder). There are people who do this year-round and I’m sure share information online about it. A friend’s parents are retired military and have criss-crossed the US almost year-round for years. They rarely even go home anymore. And @happymomof1 is right. Ex and I spent a lot of time in the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho (where he was from). They’re well set-up for campers.
I own a small RV, very similar to the ones you can rent. I take the kids on a “road trip” every year, in addition to many weekends in campgrounds.
Depending on how outdoorsy you are, it can be way more fun to reserve spots in campgrounds than RV parks. RV Parks are expensive, not scenic, and you will be parked very close to your neighbors. Instead find a nice pretty campground. The RV has enough water, electricity, sewage capacity, etc for several nights. But you’ll want a campground with full hookups (or an RV park) every 4 nights or so to fully charge the electric, refill the water, dump the sewage, etc. If it’s a long trip, get to an RV park every week to take advantage of the laundry facilities.
It’s usually pretty easy to park the RV at museums, theme parks, national parks, and other major attractions. They have RV parking spots. But it is difficult to maneuver around a city. I regretted taking our RV to Vancouver BC last year.
@Mommertons my dad drove our RV through Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, the DC area, and I forget where else. But the, he was a little nuts, lol. As a teen, it sure was an adventure! But yes, OP, most tourist areas will have RV parking.
We took an RV trip in the SW. Flew in, rented an RV and stayed at National Park campgrounds, which generally had electric but not always sewer hookups. It was much easier than tent camping with little kids and we got to stay right in the park in beautiful spots. We used the camping site grill and so saved the money and stress of eating out at the parks. We avoided using the bathroom and toilets so only had to pumpout once. It was a smallish RV so not that hard to drive or park, but that is a concern. Given the lower gas prices now, may be less costly than hotels. Many National Parks have buses that run within the park, so we did not have to drive the RV much in the park. It was especially great the night there were continuous thunderstorms in Zion and we were able to sleep and not be in a tent.
We have friends who did this. They did NOT own a RV. They rented one. They flew to someplace…I don’t remember where…and picked up the RV. They said it was fabulous. They camped at national parks campgrounds mostly…BU did the KOA thing when they wanted to do laundry!
More than figuring out where to park it at night, you need to think about the attractions you want to tour during the day. Are they accessible by RV? Also, be cognizant of construction zones. Our neighbor followed directions on a GPS, and got caught in driving through cattle shoots near a big city. It was a lot of white knuckle driving.
We rented one when the kids were little. We drove it from DC to the Outer Banks and stayed at a park on the beach. The pros, the kids weren’t annoying on the car ride, we were right on the beach, packing or unpacking and more homey than just a plain old hotel room. The cons - it meant we didn’t have a car, so it wasn’t really feasible to pop out at night for dinner or a gallon of milk without it being a production. However, we were at a camp ground with mini golf, a pool, the beach, a little shop, etc and the kids were young enough that was entertaining enough. Hubby also had a hard time driving it and the gas mileage was horrendous.
It was a one time thing for us. It would have been better if we had a professional driver and towed a car - but then there goes the point of it.
My SIL has one. They like to book a week each summer at a Ca State park campground. They also have taken it up the coast from Ca to Washington. Many public campgrounds have a dump station.
My other SIL has a toy hauler trailer. They pull it with a truck and also bring motorcycles. They prefer to go to private RV parks. The benefit of the trailer is you can visit sites in your vehicle.
We tent camp and most of the public campgrounds we have camped at have sites to accommodate Motor homes and campers. When you reserve the site they tell you if they have hook ups and what size RV the site accommodates.
I have heard you can rent an Airestream that comes with a Chevrolet Tahoe to pull it. Not sure if it is in limited locales.
We have a small travel trailer (has a bathroom, small kitchen, AC, TV etc) but haven’t gotten to use it in a few years because of family commitments and elderly dogs. We really want to get back out with it. It’s easy to unhook it and leave it at the campground when we want to drive into town or do something else. We found many of the KOAs (have to look at the reviews) to be attractive and you are NOT on top of the next camper. We have friends who travel with a huge Winnebago (the kind that costs more than most luxury houses…) and they have to carefully scope out the best routes. There is a lot of info on that now. They tow a small car. I would want to have a car with me.
We rented a 45 foot class a rv and drove it 2000 miles round trip with six middle school girls to compete in a robotics competition. And two dogs. We’d never rented an rv before, and we’ll never do it again, lol. The kids ans the dogs were fine, It was dealing with the rv that was so exhausting. We went back back to road tripping in our car and happily checking into a nice hotel at the end of the day for our subsequent adventures.