How Often?

[Rafigso]

I'm interested in travel habits:

How many of you travel full time: Moving each week, each month, how often do you move? I' really trying to gauge how often we will be on the road and how often in a campground. will we dry camp Monday through Thursday and a place with hookups for the weekends?  Will we travel to a central location and do day trips with the toad? I'm thinking a new campground with hook ups often will get really expensive.

Anyway, if you could maybe share some of your travel habits, that would help us greatly.

Thanks a bunch, you folks have been great sources of information.

 

[Kim (skyking4ar2) Bertram]

We travel full time, move as little as possible in a month, unless it's on purpose, trying to stay central to the area we want to explore. We do not drycamp at this time, although we could with ease. That monthly rate lowers the effective rate paid per day but not everyone wants to go like that or stay that long in one place. I can tell you we have lived in 10 states in the last year doing it that way, tho'...  ;D

Constantly moving is a fuel expense in its own right that you might consider if your plans cover a large area. It is far less expensive for us to sightsee in our 32 mpg Honda than our 7 mpg DP.

I still work full time from the coach, which changes the concept for us a bit. I cannot boondock where I don't get a good AT&T or Verizon data signal, unless on the weekend. So taking advanage of National Parks, etc. is not something we get to do often.

Travel habits are going to vary immensely on several criteria, so one size will not fit everyone. Also, part of the allure in RV'ing is doing it your own way and nobody is wrong. I suspect you will get any number of answers, and you can distill the results to fit your situation.

Good luck with your survey!

 

[Orick]

Travel habits are going to vary immensely on several criteria, so one size will not fit everyone. Also, part of the allure in RV'ing is doing it your own way and nobody is wrong. I suspect you will get any number of answers, and you can distill the results to fit your situation.

Truer words were never spoken.

We just completed 18 months of full timing following 2.5 years of half time travel.  In the 18 months, we took a big loop from California... along the souther US boarder to the east coast... up to DC... over to Illinois... on to Minnesota... and then back to California via Arizona. 

I think we traveled where we wanted... when we wanted... but spent much more on CGs than we needed to.  Our CG cost averaged $900/mo for that 18 month period.  We do not dry camp and do not stay at WalMarts, etc.  We feel that our future travel will be much more destination oriented and incorporate month long stays to take advantage of the lower rates.  Fuel was a very large expense for us naturally and longer stays can certainly reduce this expense as well.  It's tough coming out of the chute as a new full timer to really know what you want to do so you are ahead of the game by asking these questions and then deciding how your travel wishes are similar and different than those of others.

Best of luck...

Rick

 

[Kim (skyking4ar2) Bertram]

To add perspective to Rick's comments, we are into our eleventh month of full timing, and had never RV'd before we left. Frankly, reading the Forum for a month before we left, and trying to get some overview has saved our butts on numerous occasions, then and since.

We have never Walmart'ed, don't suspect we will, simply because we "settle" more and don't ordinarily do one night stands. And we find nothing wrong with the concept, we just don't do that kind of traveling.

We are destination oriented, not trying to rack up miles or score "been theres", and feel like we have plenty of time to go where we want, if not this year, then next, or the next. We learned in the first three weeks that hauling down the highway every day was a losing proposition on any number of fronts.

To Rick's point about coming out of the chute without a clue, Christi and I had already agreed between us that we need to let the experience drive us, not us drive the experience. So we let some things just come to us, and other things we plan somewhat rigidly, like maintenance, doctors visits, etc.

A flight instructor in my early days taught me to loosen my death grip on the controls because the plane would generally find its way with a light touch....the same has been the case for the RV'ing....I hope you can find your middle ground, as well.

Enjoy!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

All good advice so far, I think. The main thing is that you have plenty of time, so no need to move any faster or more often than you feel like. If you like an area, extend your stay. If you don't, or grow bored where you are, move on.

We are half timers rather than fulltimers, and found that we moved every 3-10 days in the first several years. Lots of places & friends we wanted to visit, so we got the urge to move on. Now we tend to stay longer in one place - 6 weeks at our current location, but we are here with good friends and that adds to the fun. Next stop is planned for two weeks but not sure about either time or specific destination after that.

 

[Jammer]

I work weekends as a musician and travel regionally to attend various festivals where I perform.  Some of the engagements are for one weekend and some are longer, and I generally leave the trailer during the week and return to my stick house in those cases.  The longest show I do runs for two months.

Due to complicated and unfortunate circumstances I ended up leasing my permanent residence to another family and the purchase of another house was delayed for several weeks so I presently live out of my trailer and end up moving it every week or so as circumstances seem to warrant so I can be close to whichever friends and relatives I'm visiting. 

Otherwise when traveling for the sake of travel I typically spend 3-5 days in one spot unless I'm deliberately breaking up a long drive by adding a day stop.

 

[Jeff Brown]

We tend to spend between 3 and 5 days at any one place.  Usually because we have seen what we came to see and would like to move on.  But we only get a short vacation time each year and so we have to use what we can when we can!  It might take 3 days to get where we are going then we spend a few days there and plan to work our way back home generally along a different more scenic path. 

I was really hoping for 3 weeks out this year but my company has gone out of business and the blessing of all curses is they feel that they need to keep me around for my wife's entire summer vacation to assist with the transition.  No long trips, just weekends this summer!

So be sure to post trip logs this year, I'll be trying to live vicariously through all of your travels!

Jeff

 

[Kim (skyking4ar2) Bertram]

Jeff,

(thread drift starts here)

that just blows!!

(thread drift stops here)

Kim

 

[tonyandkaren]

You won't settle into your traveling style until you've been on the road for awhile. There's no right,average or even normal way to fulltime RV. We've have a small RV and put on a lot of miles every year because we have family scattered across the country who we like to visit. The family visits are our longest stays - a couple of weeks to a month or more. The rest of the time we roam staying as long as we are interested in the area ,mostly dry camping or boondocking.

Many fulltimers with large RVs ,like the one that you are considering, will take advantage of a lower monthly rate at a RV park and explore the area with their car - a big savings in camping fees and gas but a choice that cuts down on the spontaneity that we enjoy.

If you feel like reading check out some of the fulltime blogs at this site - http://www.hitchitch.com/links.html

 

[John From Detroit]

Due to limited budgets and the advantages of membership camping, Every 1-2 weeks (2 weeks in the membership park followed by at lesat a week out of the park, costs me around 35 bucks a month for the membership plus whatever I pay (12 per night) for the other park in the winter,, Summer Well I have two memberships.)

 

[Rafigso]

Membership?  can you give examples and/or websites to see examples?

Thank you!

 

[Jeff Brown]

We are members of RPI Prefered (resortparks.com).  The cost was around 700 to buy in and around 200 per year in dues.  We try to use it at least one weekend each month.  We,stay in full hookup sites for between 10 and 18 dollars per night.

It works well for us but its not for everyone!

Jeff