So tell me about the time you rented an RV...

Thought about it once, looked into it. Turned out that between the cost of the rental, the fees to stay at campgrounds, the gas and insurance etc. we could do the same trip in a car, stay at decent hotels, and eat in restaurants. Ditched it as an idea for a cheap fun vacation.

My grandparents owned an RV and took lots of trips around North America in it. I think it really enriched their lives. Note, however, that they were wheat farmers, so during those long prairie winters, there wasn't much work to be done and they already knew how much money they had to live on that year. They had that freedom to take off for months at a time, and they had a home to come back to.

I will note they said they'd met retirees who got themselves into trouble by trying to live the RV lifestyle full time. They met one fellow in Alaska who was trying to sell cartons of cigarettes he'd bought for himself in the south just to scrounge up enough gas money to make it back to his kids in Montana. He said he was flat broke and was going to have to move in with them.

We loved it. We rented in the fall when it's cheaper. Then we bought one, and so did my step daughter.

I owned one when my kids were younger. We loved to go to the beach four or five times a year and with the kids, it was cheaper than renting a house, condo, or hotel.

Yes, there are downsides to owning an RV such as maintenance, but compared to renting one, its a cheaper option if you like camping a lot. And to get your moneys worth, you do want to go camping, a lot...

Met some great people over the years and my kids all remember those spring, summer and fall adventures and the friends they made...

We rented RVs twice--once to travel from Iowa to Wyoming and down to Colorado and back; and once from Iowa to Alabama to the National Seashore. Loved it both times.

Now we have our own and just go wherever the mood takes us when we can.

There's a lot to know from efficient packing, to meal planning and prep, to how to find the best RV parks, and so on; is there anything specific you're looking for?

My grandparents had an RV when I was little. It was a road trip every summer. I've seen all of the continental US except the Northeast.

On top of that, I worked for an RV dealership that also rented RV's. So I've seen some stuff.

Also, in no way do I consider a motorhome camping.

hmm. I don't know if you've done any research on units available in your area, so I might say things here you already know. Gasoline mileage will be . . . eh . . . somewhere between 8 to 12 miles per gallon depending on the unit. Rentals will probably have a per mile usage fee tacked on--that's to cover normal wear and tear on the vehicle--and it's not bad, if memory serves. But it's a good idea to shop rates if you can.

Once you're sure, do go ahead and plot out your route on travel software and pick where you'd like to park each night. Make your reservations as early as possible. (It sucks to drive around until 10:00 p.m. looking for a place to park for the night. ) Personally, once the plotting's done, I'd make the reservations at Yellowstone, et al FIRST. Everything close to where you'd want to be can be already booked well in advance.

What else?

Touring in an RV is on my bucket list.

Seriously.

I've been all over the world yet this is something that tugs at my heartstrings. There's just something about the pee where you eat where you sleep where you drive that fascinates me. My kids would LOVE it, too.

The kids WOULD love it. When we did the whole Wyoming (Frontier Days) to Utah to Colorado to Kansas and back to Iowa trip, we took my best friend's teenaged twins with us. It was a blast! You can get a bit claustrophobic after a couple of days, so we planned activities: books, tapes (DVD/CDs now), games. One of the things we did was stop at the welcome center in Nebraska to get tapes (hey, it was 20 years ago) to listen to as we crossed the state 'cause Nebraska. I vetted the tapes because there's educational and boring and there's educational and fun. Fun always wins with me. We also planned a couple of day trips along the way for the kids--trip on an antique train, Emmett Kelly's museum, just stuff to help keep them from going stir crazy.

ETA: Just to add that you make the most amazing discoveries when you travel this way. Doesn't matter what your tastes are, there are always fascinating things to see and learn. All four of us learned about the Transcontinental Airmail Navigation Arrows as we crossed Nebraska. Seriously, I'd never heard of them. It led to cool 'what if' conversations. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

Perks said:

That was definitely the plan. Luckily, there seem to be plenty of RV sites available in the park during our timeframe, so we're going to have that ironed out before we do anything else.

Click to expand...

Let me just say...I ADORE Yellowstone. I got a chance to work there as a researcher for 8 weeks, and it was the best time of my life.

HOWEVER, I had visited YNP three years previously, and it was the WORST trip of my life. Why? Because I went in the middle of tourist season, stuck to the roads, and had to battle the horrid "wildlife jams" and idiot drivers.

Yellowstone is an amazing place - IF YOU GET OFF THE ROADS. Go backpacking, for crying out loud. Go for a hike. There's some statistic out there that says some ridiculous percentage of people NEVER leave the roads or the easy roadside hikes (like Old Faithful, some of the geothermal pools, Tower Falls, etc.) - and the real magic of Yellowstone is away from those places. Overnight backcountry permits aren't too expensive, you won't have to compete as much for campsites, and you get to enjoy a piece of the park that people rarely see. Of course, you have to be in somewhat reasonable shape to do this, but some of the backcountry sites aren't that difficult to get to - you just need to make sure you have the right supplies, and are smart about bears (there are a LOT of them - that's what I was researching).

But all in all, ENJOY! And then go to Glacier National Park, it's much, much awesomer. And the glaciers will be gone in a few years.

From my trip to Glacier in 2009.

Also if you go to YNP and want to see wolves, drive through the Lamar Valley early in the morning and look for the Wolf Groupies. They're always set up somewhere, a huge line of them, with spotting scopes. Usually there's a pack nearby that they're looking at, and most of the time some of them are willing to let you look through their scope.

If you're going to Yellowstone, I highly recommend the bus tours. We took one tour and it was worth every penny we spent on it. Driving around in our RV (tiny as it is) just would not have been as interesting, informative or stress-free.

When you rent your unit, make sure you pay attention to all the steps involved in emptying the grey and black water tanks. It's not hard but it is important to get it right. And wear gloves when you do it!

Don't worry too much, though. The minute you swing into an RV park in a rental unit, the old timers will swarm around offering lots of advice. ;-)