RVing is different now, there’s no denying that. Like everything in life, it’s morphed into something so different from what it used to be. But for those of us who love it, the wide-open (okay, traffic-packed) road still calls…
Today, would you say that you still enjoy RVing as much as you did when you first started? Whether that was one year ago or 30 years ago… we want to know. Do you enjoy it more? Less? The same? Do you not enjoy it at all anymore?
After you vote, please leave a comment and tell us why you answered the way you did. We’re looking forward to reading your responses. Thanks.
I like “rv-ing” more than when first started 4 years ago. I keep my travel trailer on a 1/3 of acre lot, and first year was a huge learning experience, causing good bit of anxiety. There is still learning with trailer/site, but have better grasp on who and how to get things fixed, making my weekend trips much more enjoyable. Will get to use traveling in few years when i retire and want to go south for warmth, or experience areas i have not explored. Until then, trailer stays where it is. Steve
Except for the high cost of maintenance, repairs and necessary safety upgrades, plus other convenience features…..we love RVing.
A big misconception is out there……
Traveling and sight seeing in an RV is not less expensive than driving your car and staying in hotels. It is a different kind of experience than being in a hotel, but, it’s not saving any money.
I’m not even counting depreciation since everyone knows that is “built in ” to the price of vehicles. And, resale value is ONLY important if you intend to sell.
Make earlier reservations if you want to camp. Waiting until the last minute is never a good idea.
I don’t go rving anymore.
It’s too damned costly!
When I started camping? Sites were $1.25 to $2.75 a night! 50cents for utilities.
Now prices have gone up about 7 thousand percent? My salary hasn’t gone up 7 thousand percent! How the hell could I afford it.
My father forwarned me when I was young to save my money….things would go crazy in the future. He was right.
Just think of how many goods and services have gone up hundreds of percentage points over the decades. It’s not “growth” it’s “greed”.
Costs have outgrown our earnings.
It’s not just Rving, it’s EVERYTHING!
There is nothing wrong with a capilist society. But there is something wrong when the 1% at the top are buying 3 yachts instead of 1 and sharing the profits from the workers who really got them where they are.
We are seasonal full-timers – meaning we have a house, but spend an entire season living elsewhere in an stationary RV. If nothing else, we have figured out how to live happily in much less space when the time comes that we sell the house and move into senior housing.
And we have acquired a second much smaller travel trailer that is easy to live in and travel with for a week or two. Especially if the pets travel with us, it is MUCH more convenient – for the pets and us – than moving in and out of hotel rooms. Having already learned the mechanics of properly operating a RV, it is nearly all fun and very little frustration.
Many moons ago my young bride and I purchased a small used motor home. We had a blast learning about rv camping. We didn’t even know how the furnace worked on our first trip. We still laugh about how much fun we had snuggling without heat our first night out.
Next came a larger motor home, travel trailers, a even larger 5th wheel etc etc. Now in our golden years we have a small class C motor home.
We now realize that smaller is more fun for us, and we’re back to giggling and snuggling under the covers even though we now know how to work the furnace
Enjoy it more now. Being retired we are able to go more in the fall and spring without a worry about getting a spot at a campground as a majority of kids are still in school!
Voted: Enjoy RVing the same. My wife and I have camped since we were both children. The fun of camping is still the same. But, it does require more planning. We also stay in state and national parks, versus RV parks, which helps keep the dream alive.
We still enjoy RVing, but we don’t enjoy the hassle of planning of late; with reservations needed months in advance (if not a whole year!) Some reservations have become lottery-like where you request and then wait or have to be online the exact minute reservations become available and fight like mad to get a spot. Planning has become a real pain in the ____. I don’t know if there are statistics available as to the number of new camping spots being added each year, but I’m guessing it’s not many. National parks certainly aren’t adding any, and few even allow reservations. First come, first served (arriving without a reservation) these days is a pretty risky gamble. We aren’t out there as often because some times of the year, it’s so crowded we don’t even try to travel.
We camp differently, do different things, plan accordingly. We are glad to have our sticks and bricks so we have respite from the traveling which gives us respite from staying home. Two to three long rv trips per year or a couple plus a foreign foray, home between but often short camps when weather and other activities permit. We are living a good life.
Starting at age 17 and move to age 85 here is a lot of difference in the body. I don’t enjoy it as much as I did because I can’t do as much as I did.
“Do you enjoy RVing as much …?”, meaning do I enjoy as much? Just like everything else in my life right now – One has to ask me TWO questions, 1. How are you? and 2. How is your body? You will get two different answers. Some days Arthur rules, some days not so much.
Hi, Kelly. Same here, so I’m on Tylenol Arthritis all the time, for what it’s worth. But your reference reminds me of my neighbor (who reminds me of the late comedian Norm Crosby, who hilariously mixed up words). She sometimes complains about her “Arthuritis.” Another one of her terms is “shrapmetal,” which is actually quite accurate. Have a good afternoon/evening. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
I had an old uncle named Arthur. He wasn’t funny either. Now I have to go on YouTube to see if I can find any old Norm Crosby videos. He may have been the cause of my dyslexia. Ha!
Our new sticks and bricks was purposefully built with an RV garage, 50 Amp and dump plus a guest spot with 50 amp. Now, loading for 60 day trips, 3 x per year and multiple long weekends is much better than the remote storage we did for the first 15 years. I now think I have another 15 years of RV memory making.
It’s DIFFERENT, but still enjoyable. I grew up “ACTUALLY” camping with a sleeping bag and tent in a canoe, paddling 20 miles from the nearest electric plug. I continued that until I started doing festivals with friends and was always the soggy member of our party compared to RVers, and started travelling with large dogs who prefer hard walls, so got my first 20′ RV. Then the friend-trips dropped away, but I started travelling by RV for my safety/firearm lecturing business (taking guns on planes is a pain in the {bleeped}, hotels are often gross/insecure, etc…), and when that died down, I started RVing with foster/adopted kids or respite from an OVER-electronic/connected job… so, what RVing means keeps migrating, but it’s all been good at the designated points in my life…
When we started full time, I worried about how/could I would fix things that broke. 17 years later I have become very proficient at fixing things. MUCH better than any RV techs I hired early on. Don’t get me started on that!
Now, I just worry about what and when the next thing will break. Because it will. 🙂
I had to say I enjoy it more for two reasons, 1 after over 50 years experience, I have gotten really good at it with less, but not no, mistakes and 2, I’m no longer “roughing it” but have a luxury Motorhome. I don’t need to spend much time trying to get level, crawling underneath to set blocks and and such, I just push a button. Now I can just sit with my “adult beverage” and watch newbies struggle. 🤗
It’s totally different now from what it was when we started more than 40 years ago. Back then it was weekends in state parks and a two-week vacation once a year to Utah and everywhere was new. We went full-time after retiring and it was a different kind of everywhere new, national parks, even Alaska.
Now I’m solo and just following the seasons to stay in comfortable weather. And nothing is new anymore, just different. A great deal more crowded and expensive.
As I’ve aged over the last 15 years, and the arthritis has gotten worse, it is more difficult to take weekend trips. Thus, the effort for a two night stay at our local State Park is the same as a stay of two weeks somewhere. That takes a lot of the fun out of RV’ing. However, when we are on the road, heading to the races or a National Park, that part is actually more fun. We know our rig now, compared to when we started, so we aren’t as apprehensive about things on the road.
I enjoy the state parks a lot but my husband prefers staying put in an RV park. As he has very severe spinal stenosis causing great pain plus cancer he has a hard time setting up and tearing down so I’m content to stay put. I’m grateful we can still snow bird.
Less, after 50 years of RVing there’s not as much to get excited about.
The cost and stress of locating RV parks has somewhat diminished my enthusiasm. Now I must say, I have been fulltiming for over 20 years, so that may have something to do with it.