I've always been a bad traveler - no matter how much fun I had on a trip I was always glad to get back home. Now that I have the motorhome, I get grumpy if I stay home for a weekend. For me it's not the cost/savings. It just seems more comfortable when you take your "home" with you. I would much prefer driving a distance with the motorhome than my Honda Element. I love being able to pull over and have a decent meal anywhere - not to mention the whole bathroom thing. And I agree a campground - or even a Wal-Mart parking lot is a better option than a motel with questionable cleanliness, noise, service, etc.
The question isn't really how much it cost. It's all about whether or not it was worth the cost.
If I ever have to vacation in a motel/hotel again, I'm going to be hard to deal with. It just won't be the same.
We're very fortunate - and I wake up every day knowing it. Life is good.
I've taken many, many vacations where I've stayed in motels, hotels, B&B's, and condo's and I've never felt really comfortable. Now that we have the 5er I realize that having "my stuff" with me is what makes me comfortable. The cost is totally secondary to me in that I don't care if I save money, I just like having, and being around, "my stuff".
Rubiranch wrote: If we "traveled" we'de take the car and stay at Inns or bed & breakfasts, our car is a lot more comfortable to travel in that our truck and a whole lot easier to drive and it doesn't mind going 80 mph all day.
This is our favorite place to stay and only 176 miles from home.
The Innkeepers take a great deal of pride in providing clean and comfortable room.
I guess it all depends on where you book your rooms.
If that's what floats your boat.....
I've prefered driving a truck since I had my first early 50's PU.
The inns and cabins aren't always on my route or in the vicinity or my destination either. I have stayed in some nice cabins, however, and prefer that any time to a motel, especially since most motels these days belong to someone with a last name I can't pronounce.
happycampin4 wrote: Just did a comparison for an upcoming trip....
1000 mi round trip, with our van @ 23mpg, hotel for 5 nights @ $130/night
vs
900 mile towing @ 10mpg, 100 mile running around @ 18 mpg, 5 nights in campground @ 50/night.
Camping worked out to be about $300 cheaper! (We did not include meals as we would have to buy food to stock the trailer or eat out. But I know eating out all the time would have thrown the equation way off balance, (in favor of camping) let alone throwing off my cholesterol!!
So, HappyCampin!
Ive done this calculation and have arrived at similar results... how ever, you have made one mistake...your food comment is not accurate.
In your camper you are going to bring the food that you would have eaten at home had you have not gone anywhere so it its reasonable to say that the food you eat on your holiday with your camper is part of your monthly grocery budget...the food you eat when you stay in hotels is food purchased over and above your typical groceries. Now, unless you plan on eating at greasy spoons, eating healthy on the road is not cheap.
2006 Springdale 292BHLS
2007 GMC Sierra 2500HD SLT 6.0
We will stay in hotels when we go to Europe. Otherwise, it is the MH. I hvae never been able to stay in lodging for over 10 days without wanting to be home NOW! With the MH, I don't care if we ever get back.
Rubiranch wrote: If we "traveled" we'de take the car and stay at Inns or bed & breakfasts, our car is a lot more comfortable to travel in that our truck and a whole lot easier to drive and it doesn't mind going 80 mph all day.
Sounds like yet another candidate for B ownership!
I can't stand motels either. I'm not all that paranoid about "germs" and the like, and I can eat most anything - it's just no fun once you've travelled in an RV. Not having a bathroom and refrigerator convenient all day is intolerable for us now.
Just a couple years ago when diesel was $1.50 and rv parks averaged about 20 bucks, we could tow 300 mile a day for $40 in fuel and get a nice rv park for $20. As fuel and campgrounds went up, we hung-in there as long as we could - but when fuel hit $3.50 and the average price of rv parks increased, it seemed to us, by $10/night we had to quit. We parked the trailer and gave it all up - with great sadness.
We can drive the same 300 miles a day with our little car on 8 gals of gas and get a respectable "mom&pop" motel for around $60 in rural Texas. The problem is that we are so spoiled by the convenience of the TT that we just don't enjoy that anymore.
So we stay home now and have taken-up gardening instead of rv'ing - and it's lots of fun too. I agonized over the decision, but just couldn't justify dipping into our retirement capital to buy diesel oil for sightseeing.
Warmest regards to all our old rv'ing friends here on the forum. I'm not around much anymore.
Rubiranch wrote: If we "traveled" we'de take the car and stay at Inns or bed & breakfasts, our car is a lot more comfortable to travel in that our truck and a whole lot easier to drive and it doesn't mind going 80 mph all day.
Sounds like yet another candidate for B ownership!
We bought our travel trailer to camp in, not for traveling. I guess that's why we look at things a little differnt than most folks here.
Dragging a trailer across the country just doesn't interest us.
* This post was
edited 08/03/08 08:59am by Rubiranch *
TV: Mint 1972 Ford F-250 XLT
TT: 1969 19' Excel; entertains 6, feeds 4, sleeps 2 You don't shoot to kill, you shoot to stay alive.
I don't carry because I have to, I carry because I get to. I like new things-
- when they're 40 years old! My pictures
Just a couple years ago when diesel was $1.50 and rv parks averaged about 20 bucks, we could tow 300 mile a day for $40 in fuel and get a nice rv park for $20. As fuel and campgrounds went up, we hung-in there as long as we could - but when fuel hit $3.50 and the average price of rv parks increased, it seemed to us, by $10/night we had to quit. We parked the trailer and gave it all up - with great sadness.
We can drive the same 300 miles a day with our little car on 8 gals of gas and get a respectable "mom&pop" motel for around $60 in rural Texas. The problem is that we are so spoiled by the convenience of the TT that we just don't enjoy that anymore.
So we stay home now and have taken-up gardening instead of rv'ing - and it's lots of fun too. I agonized over the decision, but just couldn't justify dipping into our retirement capital to buy diesel oil for sightseeing.
Warmest regards to all our old rv'ing friends here on the forum. I'm not around much anymore.
Jack
Jack, you concisely stated my experience to a T with the above--we are in the same boat except, for us, it is golfing as opposed to gardening. It is a shame and I do miss the sightseeing and that "lure of the open road" but at some point the cost of operation simply overtakes the desire to travel. That point is different for every individual--mine was at about $3.30 a gallon for diesel--the "I'm so irked!" factor kicked in at that point--and we parked her.
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