6 Practical Money Saving Tips for RV Travel
TL;DR: Maximize savings on RV travel with these six practical tips, from boondocking to off-season travel. Prioritize preventive maintenance to avoid costly repairs, and improve fuel economy with simple adjustments. Plan free activities and learn DIY maintenance to keep costs down while enjoying the flexibility and freedom of RV life!
RV travel is one of the most flexible, affordable ways to travel; that's one of the many, many reasons to love it. Still, finding ways to save even more money is always a good thing!From tips on how you can adjust your driving habits to improve fuel economy to free family activity ideas and DIY tips, we're sharing six practical money saving tips for RV travel. These tips will come in handy whether you're a here-and-there weekend warrior or you live in your RV full-time.
6 Tips to Help You Save Money on RV Travel
1. Try Boondocking
There aren't a lot of stats out there on the average nightly cost of staying in an RV park because there are so many variables. Rates vary significantly for sites with versus without hookups, premium waterfront or view sites, the length of your rig, the type of land it's on (national park, privately-owned, etc.), and other factors.
Even without hard data, though, you can safely count on at least $30 for a site in an RV park with hookups — and that's being extremely conservative. Sites with hookups in many places are upwards of $40 and it's becoming not-at-all-uncommon to see numbers in the $60s and $70s. Add that up over the course of a month, then several months out of a year, and you've got one high cost of RV living.
Fortunately, there are much more affordable solutions. One of them is boondocking, or dry camping. In this method of camping, you camp on free public land, such as national forests and BLM-managed land, and don't use water or electricity hookups, saving quite a bit of cash.
Many people use generators, , or other methods to become more self-sufficient, allowing them to stay out boondocking for longer periods of time. Of course, this style of RV living isn't for everyone, but if you do it even a fraction of the time, you'll start to see the savings add up quickly.