WDYT...Rent a motorhome or rent a car and stay at motels?

Hello, long time no chat.  I am still doing heaps of research for a big trip to the states.  So much info.

I was chatting to a friend about what we are planning on doing, that is travel the states in a class c motorhome with our two boys who will be 3 and 5 by time we come over from Australia.  Not exactly sure which way we are going to go yet as we keep changing our minds and what we really want to do.  Looking at travelling for about 3 months.
My mate was telling me that we should hire a car and just stay in cheap motels as he reckons it would be heaps cheaper than to rent a motorhome.

WDYT?
I'm trying to work out the pros and cons of them, do you have any I could add to my list. 
We love camping over here, usually just in out swags so we aren't the type that needs the comforts of flash hotels or anything like that.

Any ideas whould be great, thanks
Sarah

Sarah,
Everybody here loves RVing, so what do you expect us to say? 

Cheap hotels with beds for 4 people probably run from $45-$90 per night, depending on the location and what you consider acceptable accommodations. Meals will all be in restaurants, which is always expensive compared to preparing some/all of your meals/snacks in your own RV.  How your particular use of motels and restaurants balances out vs renting an RV is hard to estimate.

Do they rent motor homes for that long?

Our preference is for rv travel it's not really cheaper, but for us a lot more comfortable.

glen54737 said:

Do they rent motor homes for that long?

Our preference is for rv travel it's not really cheaper, but for us a lot more comfortable.

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Hi Sarah,
Well like Gary stated we live the RV life style so of course we would promote it over hotels. I am sure that rental places would rent for as long as you like, I found prices for $49.00 daily but couldn't specifically find a monthly or longer rate but I am sure you could work something out.

You can generally find hotels for the same price so add the cost of campgrounds (assuming that you will not always be boondocking) and it would get pricey but you probably could offset the cost of eating out vs. groceries?

Personally I don't envision dragging your luggage and children in and out of hotels as fun of an experience as having your own home per say for the time that you travel but that's just my opinion.

Maybe you could call some rental places to help determine what the cost would be on that long of a period? This one for example has 130 locations in the US but I am sure that there are many more. http://www.cruiseamerica.com/rent/?gclid=CLui3oWV5J4CFcx25QodZ1-4JQ

Good luck with your decision and I hope you have a fabulous trip whatever you decide!

Thanks for your replies. 
I do realise that you all LOVE rving and would of course pick a motorhome over staying at hotels, but I thought I would ask the question anyway as I feel you would be the best people to ask.  I value the framilys opinion very highly and was just interested on if you would know of any pros and cons with renting a motorhome v staying in hotels. 
I have had a better think about it, as I said my mate brought up the suggestion so of course I'm going to do my research but I do believe that a motorhome would def be the best option.
Cheers

RV Roamer said:

Meals will all be in restaurants, which is always expensive compared to preparing some/all of your meals/snacks in your own RV.

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Not "always".

Try some of the Chinese ran places in ChinaTown of San Francisco. Often you cannot buy the stuff for near the same price in a grocery store. Yesterday, Tom  had a whole lobster for under $9.00 in a Chinese Restaurant. About a pound and a half. You can buy the same size lobster in Safeway for about $14.00 or so and then you have to cook it yourself.

But I don't like fighting with eating lobsters. I can buy a good meal for less than five bucks in some of those places. However, we could do better in China for the equivalent of two US dollars <g>. That's where we will be again before this time next month.

BTW, we eat out almost every meal. Even when we were RVing in ridiculously expensive Alberta.

Let's face it, a 3 month trip for 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids) is going to be expensive either way.  RV rental + campgrounds vs motels & restaurants. And you are probably going to use some restaurants either way. Maybe a lot of them even with the RV, if that's your lifestyle. Plus entertaining yourselves as you visit the many wonderful sights across the US, buying souvenirs, clothing foe the local climate, etc. is all going to add up.

Both motels and campgrounds seem to have gotten expensive in the last couple of years. We seem to find fewer bargain rates on either one then was possible 2-3 years ago.  There are always bargain places available, if you can find them and that' can be a problem if you are in an unfamiliar area. Especially if that area is a major tourist attraction, like one of the big National Parks. The bargain places will likely be many miles away.

Sarah also has to deal with driving the RV everywhere, since she probably will not have a car to tow. That's a lot less convenient than the way most of us travel, leaving the coach parked and sight-seeing via the toad car.

Sarah,

 I'm not sure what exactly you have planned for your trip. What exactly are you planning on visiting while you are here? The reason I ask is that you said you would consider staying at cheap hotels. I can't speak for small town hotels but if you are considering a cheap hotel in a big city, you may want to stay with the RV plan. Cheap hotels in big cities are usually rampant with crime and are occupied by drug dealers and members of the criminal element. If you do decide to go the hotel route make it a point to stay as far as reasonable away from the big cities.

 I have never camped and had concerns about anyone inside of any campgrounds. I can assure you that if you stay in a cheap motel in a big city, you are going to have many concerns about the people staying there.

 Should you decide to stay at a cheap hotel anywhere that you are unsure of, before you register find a patrol officer working the area and ask the officer if their are problems at said hotel/motel. They will be more then happy to supply you with the information.

Even if it costs more, I would think that traveling for 3 months with a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old would be a lot more comfortable for everyone in the motorhome. They'd have their books and games, a table to play on, snacks, TV. I can't imagine 3 months staying in motels, even nice ones. JM2C

Wendy
Anza Borrego SP

The economics are probably a wash.  Living out of grocery stores as opposed to restaurants is definitely cheaper.  I would form my decision in terms of what you lke.  If you are into cities  and night life, by all means car and motel.  Motorhomes are a hard fit in San Francisco, New York, or Washington DC.

If it is the great out of doors and scenery, especially in the West, I would go motorhome.  Three months of greasy spoon meals and iffy motels with two young kids will be a bit harrowing.  You will find that a lot of campground have playgrounds and kid things.  For the occasional city, stay outside it and rent a car to tour or take advantage of tours and shuttles.   

Wendy said:

Even if it costs more, I would think that traveling for 3 months with a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old would be a lot more comfortable for everyone in the motorhome. They'd have their books and games, a table to play on, snacks, TV. I can't imagine 3 months staying in motels, even nice ones. JM2C

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Wendy put my thoughts into words quite nicely.  I think children of those ages would really benefit from being in their "own" surroundings each day.  Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy traveling in our country.   My SIL recently spent three weeks in Australia and came home raving about your hospitality.  I hope we can return the favor.  

Margi

One Thing to Consider is whether you could get by with just one hotel room.

We have three kids, and in the states, the fire codes have become more strict in recent years and hotels are generally less willing to provide extra beds.  We find that, at a typical hotel, we have to rent two rooms.  This changes the cost equation considerably.  We live in Minnesota and while the regulatory environment differs from place to place the trend in the U.S. has been towards smaller rooms and less flexibility than was once the case.

So you could easily find that you're spending $160 a night for lodging and $120 a day for fairly average meals, plus car rental.  The motorhome might be cheaper.

I personally find it not only costly but wearing to eat three meals a day in restaurants.

Jammer said:

I personally find it not only costly but wearing to eat three meals a day in restaurants.

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Not us. We find it boring to spend too much time at home (or inside a RV regardless of size). But it is important to us to have a much different types of meals every day. Very easy to do here in the SF area, where there are countless good cheap restaurants bringing the cuisine here from all over the world.

How does some clay pot fresh (not fried, but steamed) frog sound, with bones and all?  Not hard to find here. We also just discovered a place here that serves snake soup, our favorite (seriously, try it if you ever get the chance). Haven't had that since the last time we were in Hong Kong a few years ago. It's made from three very venomous Asian snakes. But it's on the expensive side. It tastes a little like Shark Fin Soup, but even better, IMO.

Hello,

Like someone else mentioned, it depends a lot on what you want to do when you get here.  Also, three months is an interesting number... it's a long time to rent if you rent a car/van and go from motel to motel and actually quite expensive... I'm guessing but I could see you spending at least $200 to $400 per day, sometimes more and somedays less depending on location.  Renting a MH is not a panacea either after you account for fuel, insurance, rental fees, RV parks, food and entertainment.  For instance, if you are going to Disneyland for the "kids", it's going to be kinda expensive and the same for tours of the museums in Washington DC or NY or most large cities.  If you want to tour the National Parks, hike and see the natural scenery of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and so on, then a motorhome might be the way to go... lots of Europeans do exactly that.  Lots of visitors also go from city to city, either by air or rental car and stay in mid level, 3 to 4 star hotels.  Some people come to see Las Vegas, LA, NY, Washington DC and Florida.  One option that becomes almost realistic at three months and very realistic at 6 months or more, if you have the cash, is to buy a vehicle and then sell it when you get ready to leave.  Used RVs are selling at very reasonable prices right now but it might be "difficult" to sell at a moments notice at the end.  One option that is "in-between" is to buy a slightly used car/SUV or rent one and buy a modest camp trailer or tent trailer which gives you the flexibility to drive into cities with the small trailer and stay in a hotel or camp at the national parks.  Then sell the camp/trailer, probably at a sizable loss, to get rid of it when you want to leave.  Even though you would lose money on the transaction, it might be way less than you would have paid to rent.  You risk the cost of repairs however unless you get insurance coverage.  When we took our motorhome to Mexico for 4 weeks recently, we spent about $150/day (average) not counting the cost of the motorhome.  When we fly and rent a car and stay in motels or take cruises/tours, it's about $300-$500/day but we only go for 1-2 weeks.

I guess, if it were me, I'd arrange to rent a SUV with a trailer hitch, buy a reasonable tent trailer or smallish walled trailer, hopefully used but in excellent condition, and go do your thing... NPs and some big cities.  The SUV rental, for three months, who knows, you might find one for $1000/mo if you look around.  A reasonable used trailer might be available for $7-9,000 and get a quick resale for $5000.  That gets you to about $6,000 net, then you have to add in daily expenses like $25/night for a RV park or $90/night for a mid level motel room, plus food and admission charges for fun things to see and do, say 90 days at $120 (average) or so, say $10,000, plus airfare from Au.  Probably talking about $15-20,000 by the time you finish for a rough estimate.  You could do the trip for less if you are careful and you could easily spend much more.

Sounds like fun, go for it.

I will give you a base comparison for your info. We programed a trip from Mission, TX to Boise Idaho. We compared expenses by traveling in plane and hotels and car rentals vs. goin on our motorhome. the price difference was about $500 cheaper doing the air travel. Now we have a 5yr and an 8 yr old and after much thinking and brainstorming, we came to the conclusion that $500 was worth the naggin and whinning that kids those ages are sure to give when you spend much time enclosed in a rental car or airplne. See, with the MH is like they never walked out the door, cause they will have all the comodities and entertaining devices they have at home. Plus the minute you are passing by an interesting place worth spending some time to appreciate, you just park get out and admire, wether is a canyon, a river, the sea or a landmark; you can spend as much time as you want and not feel restricted by hunger, nature calls or daylight.

Hi Sarah,

We were fortunate 2 years ago to have a couple from Ireland visit the USA. They flew into Florida, where we live, and spent a couple of weeks in our little community of RVers getting used to driving on the other side of the road. They had three children at the time. Then they embarked on a trip to the west. I'm sure they had much more fun doing that than living in motels.

I don't think you can have as much fun traveling in a car and renting rooms in a motel as you can in an RV. When was the last time you walked down the hallway of a motel and actually made eye contact with another individual? Well, maybe that's not a true comparison with Australia but it just doesn't happen often here in the USA. Folks don't seem to be "friendly" when staying in motels even if they really are in real life. You and your family will get so much more out of your experience by RVing than you ever could traveling by car.

Since you are now part of the Framily you will be able to visit with many of our members throughout the States no matter where you go. Granted you can do that even without an RV but being in a campground with friends is much more fun. I think the kids will also have more fun as it's an adventure rather than a chore. I would encourage you to visit via an RV. If you get as far east as Florida, and we're here, we would love to show you around our small part of this great country.

Jim, I was also remembering our Irish friends.  If Sarah is interested, this is the travel blog about their trip.

http://freerangetravels.blogspot.com/

Margi

Hi Margi,

Yes, that should be a good reference for Sarah. Only problem I have with a blog is having to go way back to the beginning and read forward. Wish they were arranged chronologically from day 1.

We actually ran the numbers on a similar decision a few years ago. We priced out a 3 week trip from Ontario, Canada to the East Coast & back. The motorhome option came out at just over HALF the cost of motels/restaurants. Our situation was a little different, in that we didn't rent any vehicles; rather, we bought the MH (very) used and towed our small car behind.

For us, the motorhome turned a "mandatory" trip for a family wedding into both an adventure and an actual vacation. 

We actually ran the numbers on a similar decision a few years ago.

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Were you aware this is a six year old thread?