Before we bought our first used popup camper in 1998, we would have no problem booking hotels, cabins etc for family vacations or some weekend trips. As I think about the past 17 years I have just realized the only non Rv trips we have taken was 2 family weddings, our 15th wedding anniversary and 1 weekend cabin trip. Now this said we still have some time before retirement but when we finally get there my guess is that we would start to mix in a few non Rv trips/ocean cruises. Now if it was up to me I would find a way to keep every trip possible in my Rv but I must be understanding to my better half, so we will be eventually mixing it up in the futureā¦ but just a little. Mike
Since retiring and buying a motorhome several years ago, we have taken only a handful of trips that were not in our RV. Two were cruises along with a trip to Disneyworld. These were all within a year and a half after retiring. The only other trips when we did not go in the RV were when we just did an overnighter to visit relatives. We got spoiled pretty quickly being able to take all our stuff with us and not having to haul suitcases in and out of rooms and not having to pack and unpack. We also really like having our own bed to sleep in. We have thought about doing another cruise or maybe a train trip, but other than that we plan to keep on going in the RV as long as we can.
Since we bought our RV we have made a "half trip" and that was renting a car to drive to Phoenix to pick up the coach we had left there to have some work on it. after a rear tire failure. We have no plans to ever take a trip using motels/hotels ever again. I can remember back to when we did take trips in the car or truck and all the shlepping of luggage into one motel and out of another, etc. Big PITA every single time. The motorhome has spoiled us not rotten, but good. So nice to have everything along with you including your own bathroom and bed. Traveling any way on land other than by RV to us is just senseless anymore. And to think that just a few years ago I was the one saying you'd never catch me behind the wheel of one of those buses. Boy was I wrong..............
I have to travel for work every so often and it is those trips that means I take my RV when I can. Suitcases and planes or even driving the car is much harder then the RV.
I spent a large part of my working life traipsing around the world staying in hotels ranging from five stars to no stars. When I retired, I vowed to stay away from hotels and airports as much as possible. My wife and her sister took an 8 week circle the country car trip about 12 years ago, and she too said no more hotel/motels. The closest we've come to staying in a hotel or motel in the past 10 years was two nights in an RV park cabin while having some work done on our coach nearby.
We got our 5th wheel april 2003 and got off the road fulltiming march 2014. Never stayed in a motel/hotel all that time.
We have been married almost 28 years and camping almost 26. We have stayed in hotels a number of times but mostly when we visit the kids at college, the night before a cruise or this June we are going to a wedding and the hotel will be party central so we did not want to be off at a campground. Also I guess we stayed 3 nights when our son got married. Other than maybe a cruise, we do not travel much in the winter as we save all of our days for camping season.
We bought time share in 1996 in the US while we lived in the UK. Now that we've moved to Canada and have an RV as well so we tend to split our time between both styles of vacation. Winter vacation somewhere warm using the TS and a few weeks here and there (mainly MT & WA) in the RV during the summer with the frequent weekends using the RV as well. Looking forward to retirement when we can utilize both to a greater advantage than we do no but at the same time no wanting to wish my time away.
We only use hotels in the winter while the TT is in storage. During the summer it's camping all the way. I'd rather pay $50 a night for five of us, to stay in a campground, and sleep in basically our own beds then stay in a motel with who knows what in the room, in the sheets etc.
Before full-timing we stayed in motels. We didn't have an RV. Only had two weeks per year for vacation. Now full-timing once in a while we do have to leave the RV and fly or drive back to where our parents live. It's faster. Motels are a lot quieter then RV parks. No campfire smoke either.
That really sort of depends on which motel and which RV park you are in. But I agree about the smoke.
I'm sorry, but IMHO, complaining about campfire smoke (as long as people are burning decent seasoned wood) is equivalent to complaining about having children running around the campground because they're inherently noisy. Campfires are part of camping; if you don't want them, then only stay at "high end" resorts where people don't do that sort of "low class" thing." I do dislike people burning wet wood and trash and that shouldn't be permitted. We were just at a CG in NH where the rule was that you didn't have to buy wood from their office, but all wood burned had to be seasoned and dry. There were no smoky campfires there.
Ditto on the campfire comments, "its part of camping"! DW and I try to plan all of our time off from work around the RV'ing season, mid April to early November. Every time there is another story on the news about this, that, or whatever new happened with air travel we look at each other and say "boy aren't we glad we got the RV". We have side stepped our own rule a couple of times, once to go to Italy with family (priests!) who speak Italian and know their way around and then for my DW's big birthday a trip to Alaska, land and cruise, because we don't have the 6-8 weeks free to take the RV there yet.
i never liked staying in a hotel,or motel..id rather be outside sitting outside,or be camping out...only time i stay in a hotel,is when it includes my mom.due to her health,camping out is the last thing she needs to try..
I have no problem with fires but every so often it is a problem. I was at one park the the smoke hung so low that it was like driving thru fog. Also, some places put the fire ring right next to the next rigs bedroom. So on a whole I prefer no fires to fires if there are no rules.
Not to get to far off topic but, I wouldn't mind paying a buck or two more for DRY fire wood sold at campgrounds where it's mandatory not to transport fire wood in because of the asian longhorned beetle problem here in the northeast. Mike
thats what i do.pay for it when its mandatory.but yet.one camp ground i stay at time 2 time.lets the folks get their own firewood.
We tend to use the RV for trips closer to home (within 500 miles usually) and hotels for longer road trips or if we fly somewhere (obviously). We are in NJ and never take the RV to florida. I think it is more economical to drive our car and stay in Hampton Inns (free breakfast!) When the kids were real little we only did camping trips. Now they are older and a Hampton Inn is a big treat for them.
Since going full-time about 7 years ago, I have not stayed at many motels. However last month I took a 4,000 mile trip and decided to take my little car and stay in motels for a change. Wow, have prices ever gone up, about 50-75% higher in that time period. It makes me appreciate my RV! I will continue to make an exception for my favorite casino resort town, where you can still get a nice room for $25, about the same as I paid 15 years ago.
One problem with comparing my MH to a hotel is that I wouldn't know how many stars to give it! This summer I used Priceline to book us into 4-star hotels in Vancouver BC and Halifax NS and the cost was ~$125-150 USD in both cases. I'm sure the fanciest campground in the area would have been less than $50. The thread count of the sheets was the same and my MH comes with a completely stocked refrigerator and bar that doesn't cost extra!