This post is part of a content series sponsored by Camping World. All opinions are our own.
Before hitting the open road in an RV, we used to travel internationally quite a bit. We thought when it came to traveling, the farther and more exotic the location, the better. Then we learned to fall in love with traveling in our own country, the beautiful USA. And that’s all thanks to RVing.
It didn’t take long for us to fall in love with RV travel. And now, several years and over 45,000 miles later, it has officially become our favorite way to travel. In fact, we talk about how we want to start RVing in other countries now because we love it so much.
Here are 10 reasons why we think RVing is the best way to travel:
1. We can bring along our dogs
We have to confess that the ability to bring our dogs along was one of the top reasons we chose to start RVing. Come to find out, we aren’t the only ones and we hear from RVers all the time that they did the same.
We struggled to find good dog sitters, and frankly, we just missed our dogs too much when we’d be away. They are our family. Being able to bring them on our travels was a game changer. Not only do we get to enjoy their company like we do at home, but they get to have their own adventures too. They can enjoy right alongside us most of the activities we enjoy in the RV. They make our adventures sweeter.
For tips on traveling in an RV with a dog, check out a blog post that our dogs Kyla and Pepper wrote: A Dog’s View of Full-Time RVing :).
2. We can go our own pace
No matter how prepared you are, there is always this underlying stress when it comes to flying. The entire process – booking flights, getting through security at the airport, layovers – it’s not very enjoyable. You’re restricted to flight schedules and it can feel like you’re wasting precious vacation time waiting in lines and enduring layovers.
When it comes to RV travel, however, the entire schedule is in your hands. You can go as fast or slow as you please. We love that we never feel like we’re in a rush when we’re in the RV. We can also be flexible if things come up like getting sick or bad weather.
It truly feels like your vacation starts the moment you pull out of your driveway. Getting to destinations is part of the fun and there’s very little time that you feel is wasted. We can enjoy the scenery outside our windows, can play road trip games, have conversations, or just sit back and listen to some tunes. We can drive to destinations early in the morning or late at night so that we can maximize our adventure time during the day. Even better, we can enjoy detours along the way. There are lots of fun roadside attractions to stop at to enjoy and break up the drive a bit.
3. We always find unexpected adventures
While we typically have a general itinerary and reservations for our RV travels, we also allow some flexibility to be spontaneous. We find that some of our favorite adventures are the ones we didn’t plan or even see coming.
Sometimes when you’re in a popular destination, you’ll discover another destination just an hour or so away that you didn’t even know existed. For example, when looking at a map while we were in a popular Colorado mountain town, we discovered several wineries within 60 miles of us. Turns out there was a mini-wine country we had never heard of despite living in Colorado for most of our lives. So, we adjusted our plans to spend a weekend there and absolutely loved it. We even got to stay overnight in a beautiful orchard!
4. We can have the comforts of home with us
We know we aren’t the only ones who miss our pillows when we stay at a hotel. Traveling in an RV means you not only get to have your own pillow and bed, but also your kitchen, robe, and all those other things that make you feel like “there’s no place like home”.
RV manufacturers continue to design and build RVs that are more and more comfortable (and luxurious). Seriously, if you haven’t been inside an RV lately, head down to the nearest Camping World and check some out. Many have washers and dryers, dishwashers, residential refrigerators and stylish fixtures.
Additionally, you can add your own modifications and do a variety of big or small renovations to make your RV feel like more like home. It literally feels like you have a home on wheels and you get the best of both worlds – to be on vacation but also be at home all at once.
5. We can combine our work and travel
Finding remote jobs that we could take on the road was truly a dream come true for us. It allowed us to make travel a part of our lives, instead of working all the time so we could travel here and there. We no longer have to use limited PTO in order to do what we enjoy most. As long as we have good Wifi, we can work anywhere – the beach, the mountains, you name it.
As we already mentioned, you have the comforts of home with you, which can include a comfortable work space. In fact, work becomes much more enjoyable when we’re parked in a beautiful destination and have stunning views outside our “office” windows. Even though that can also be torture because we’d obviously rather be exploring than working. But, the moment we’re done working, we can step outside and instantly be in nature and adventure-ready.
6. We can experience destinations in a deeper way
Do you ever leave a destination when you’re on vacation feeling like you needed more time or just barely scratched the surface? We certainly did and hated having to only pick 2-3 of our top things we wanted to do and had serious FOMO (fear of missing out) with the decision.
RVing has allowed us to stay in places longer (especially since we can work from the road). Staying longer means we can enjoy as many of the top things to do as we want. More importantly, we can get a deeper feel for the places we visit.
It makes us feel less like tourists and we get a better sense of the culture and community that a destination has to offer. We’ve attended numerous churches and other local events, met and hung out with locals, and have even volunteered in some of the places we’ve gone in our RV.
7. RVing is more affordable
Plane tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms…it all adds up fast and can make traveling nearly impossible to afford more than one or two trips a year. We’ve shared the cost of RVing and how we save money while on the road because we’ve found that it can be as affordable or costly as you want to make it. And the more affordable you can make it, the more often you can enjoy it!
Being able to cook your own meals, find free spots to park, and enjoy free activities like visiting national parks (once you purchase an annual pass), are some of the specific ways we’re able to make RVing an affordable way to travel. In fact, we know several RVers who have chosen to RV as a way of saving money and achieving their financial goals. There are also many RV memberships out there like Good Sam that can help you cut the costs of campgrounds, gas, repairs, etc.
8. We love the community
A huge bonus of RV travel is that there’s an incredible community of RVers that are so welcoming and accessible. There are lots of ways to get plugged in and it doesn’t take long before you find your own little traveling “tribe”. The RV community seems to always have some fun events and gatherings going on, they love to swap tips and product recommendations and reviews, and they’ll always be there to support you or help you when you need a hand.
We’ve met some lifelong friends on the road and have even done caravans with our RV friends. It seems every time we are staying at a campground, we strike up a conversation with someone camping nearby us. We’ve been invited to so many campfires over the years! Yet, we hardly remember a time where we struck up a conversation with the people staying at the same hotel as us. There’s just something about RVers that are friendly and easy to relate to.
9. We feel safer RVing
There’s always a little anxiety when it comes to getting on a plane and putting your trust in the pilot. But with the RV, we’re the ones behind the wheel, which gives us a sense of control. Once we park the RV, it feels like being in our own home since it is our own space, which can feel safer than a hotel or an Air BnB in an unknown place. We tow our own vehicle with us so there is no fumbling around a rental car trying to figure out how to turn on the wipers once the rain starts – it’s all familiar, and familiar feels safe!
And, since the outbreak of COVID-19, RVing is pretty much the best way to travel for minimizing your exposure to others and potential infection. We can control how frequently we clean and sanitize the RV, we know the people that have been in the RV and we can remain self contained for much longer than we could with other forms of travel!
10. We can bring more stuff and we’re not be confined to suitcase
Having the comforts of home extends beyond your clothes, towels and sheets. RV travel allows you to bring and have at your disposal the things that are important to you. Some RVers travel with mountain bikes, kayaks, ATVs or even boats. No matter how good you are at packing your suitcase, you’ll never be able to fit a boat in it!
For us, we love that we can bring our fishing and hiking gear with us whenever we travel by RV. It is great to know that if we see a good slice of river or a hiking trail while we are driving or nearby where we are staying, we have everything we need to enjoy our favorite hobbies. Having the ability to bring the gear or things that allow you to easily do your favorite activities is the best.
Conclusion
There are so many wonderful things about RVing that make it our favorite way to travel. We love that we can travel at our own pace and let the adventures unfold naturally. We love that it is easy to bring our work with us on the road, which ultimately allows us to travel more frequently. It’s fantastic that we get to bring our pets with us as leaving them behind is always the hardest part of other types of travel. Not to mention, RVing provides the ability to explore and experience areas in a deeper, more rewarding way. We can bring our gear to do our favorite activities and have the comforts of home with us so that we can deeply connect with the places that we visit.
What do you think? Do you love to travel by RV as much as we do? Tell us below why or why not you think RVing is the best way to travel!