RVs became popular during the pandemic as people yearned to get out of their houses without leaving their bubble. We love traveling by RV and even considered buying one. Instead, we rented an RV and toured around the Southwest. We found lots of reasons why renting is a better, cheaper, and more flexible option than buying. Here’s why RV rental is a fun and affordable travel option and how we made it even cheaper.
Eating great food and cooking outdoors are great reasons to do anything. Fun and frugal cooking is a wonderful reason to travel by RV. If you are in a rental car all day and a hotel at night you are probably going to eat out most meals. Not the kind of eating out that brings joy. The kind that brings guilt and self loathing for the amount of money you spent and fat you consumed. In an RV your fridge, pantry, and stove travel with you and you are always parked next to a campfire. Before our trip we ordered groceries. We picked up the RV from Cruise America in Denver then drove 2 miles to Walmart where people filled our vehicle with bags and bags of groceries. We were headed to Utah so we also stocked up on beer and wine too which we piled in the RV shower with ice.
Our grocery order included ingredients for a lot of our standard fare like tacos and pasta but we also got steaks to grill and other campfire goodies. Sarah is an ace in an RV kitchen. She is an ace in any kitchen but really shines when we are in an RV, AirBnB, or hotel room with limited ingredients and limited tools. It doesn’t hurt that we often sit down to a meal after hiking several miles or driving several hundred. Pasta is great camping food. Tacos are great RV food. Our most extravagant hops-fueled meal included steak, fried eggs, tostados, beans, and, of course, ranch dressing outside by the fire. A similar indoor meal, maybe it was raining, had fire-baked potatoes, more steak, and Sarah made some kind of creamy, cheesy bean situation.
We love the outdoors. We like hiking and camping but also appreciate having a soft dry place to sleep. It's also great to sit inside playing cards, cooking, and drinking beer during rain, sleet, or just darkness. We’ve had days on other RV trips when it was too rainy to hike or do other outdoor activities. In similar weather while tent-camping we have huddled in a car or packed all our wet shit into the trunk and driven to a brewery or hotel. On one occasion, pre-kids (just barely), we left a soggy campsite at 9pm and landed at a motel in Homestead, Florida. It was owned by a former Tina Turner backup dancer and his partner who played piano and sang during breakfast. It had a free Coke machine, free breakfast, free porn, and tropical ambiance to spare. That is another story, but guess what? The next day our shit was still wet and the rental car was sandy and filthy.
RV travel also makes our vacations more inclusive. Our recent RV trip meant no wet stuff or sore backs but it also meant we could bring my Mom. She doesn't want to sleep on the ground, wet or otherwise. This created a special opportunity to travel together but we didn't all have to do the same activities. If some of us wanted to take a long hike (which some of us did) Mom and anyone else not up for it could hang in the RV reading or knitting or napping. It can be hard to plan vacations for groups that span wide ranges of ability, age, or interest. Often these trips will default to compromise activities. Things like poking around in stores, visiting museums, or going to the movies are accessible for babies or grandparents but are not always fun for everyone, or anyone. The RV provides flexibility. Hike your butt off or intermittently snooze with your Kindle. You do you.
The main reason we feel that renting an RV is a better option than owning one can be summed up by the old saw “the things you own actually own you.” Beyond the purchase price, owning an RV has many ongoing costs, such as insurance and maintenance. A used RV that sleeps 5 costs around $45,000 from the rental company Cruise America. You can rent the same RV from Cruise America for about $125 per night or $750 for a week (6 nights). You can rent an RV for about 60 one-week trips for the price of buying one. In between, someone else is storing it, cleaning it, fixing it, and paying the insurance. All the while your money is invested and growing instead of depreciating in your driveway. Of course your one-week trip will cost more than $750 because you need to buy food and gas but you would have to buy those for your own RV also.
Traveling by RV combines the expenses of a rental car and a hotel. You would be hard pressed to even get a hotel for $125 unless you are paying by the hour. (If you are, you just need a van.) Rental cars have gotten crazy expensive, especially one that will fit 5. Thus, an RV saves money even with the poor gas mileage. We traveled about 1500 miles through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona over 9 days. We bought $620 of gas which averages $68.88 per day. We stayed in a hotel the first night when we landed in Denver because we had to get the RV the next morning. The last night of our trip we returned the RV and stayed in a hotel at the Phoenix airport. These were $200 per night but we still came out way ahead.
Here is the real secret. Cruise America needs to move RVs around the country when people take one-way trips or when vehicles need to be repaired or retired at the headquarters in Mesa, AZ. If you take an RV to and from the places they need it can cost as little as $9 per night. Our trip from Denver to Mesa cost $29 per night. You need to look online for availability but great deals and great experiences await as long as you are not picky about the route.
We have traveled by RV to Yellowstone twice. It really is the optimal way to visit Yellowstone. Our trip around the Southwest was just as great. In parks an RV lets you stay right near the best sites and trails. You can also travel easily within the park to see sunsets or animals active at dawn and dusk. One of my favorite RV moments was in Yellowstone. I woke early so we could get to Lamar valley to see wolves and other animals at dawn. I started driving while everyone else slept. Sarah woke at some point and handed me coffee. Then we drove together until the sun was up and the rest of our crew crawled out of their rolling beds.
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