Standardized Format for RV Outings

[chasfenwick]

Over the 6 years that we've been into the RV activity, we have developed what you might call a "template" for our outings. First of all, it us just the two of us, retired, and not wanting to be away from home for more than three weeks. We limit our radius to 1000 miles, staying in an RV park near a major metropolitan area for 10-12 days. Up to 4 days on the road outbound and then the return. Pick up a rental car on the way in and drop it off as we leave. From St. Louis this gets us to such places as Houston, New Orleans, Pensacola, Hilton Head, Charleston, Toronto, Middlebury (!), Minneapolis, Fargo, Winnipeg, Kansas City, and Denver. Many memorable adventures. Currently we have 2017 Precept 31UL. Works well for us - our interests being nature, cultural attractions, and food explorations. Yelp! and TripAdvisor.

[Decrows2]

We are not so structured. We drive about 4 hrs per day. Do a radius of 50 miles to 100 and look to see if we want to go visit something. If we like a place we may stay longer but our usually 3 days.

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[Atlee]

Not sure a standardized template would work for us. Different uses for different times of the year. In the fall, it used a lot, but for 3 day weekends mostly, but sometimes 9 or 10 usage at a time. We are still following my alma mater around for football games.

And of course next year, hopefully our several times postponed trip to Monument Valley, UT, to Yellowstone, and then the Black Hills region of SD, then to Michigan to visit or daughter, then finally back home.

There is no template for that trip, or for football season.

[FeatherFam]

Originally Posted by chasfenwick

Over the 6 years that we've been into the RV activity, we have developed what you might call a "template" for our outings. First of all, it us just the two of us, retired, and not wanting to be away from home for more than three weeks. We limit our radius to 1000 miles, staying in an RV park near a major metropolitan area for 10-12 days. Up to 4 days on the road outbound and then the return. Pick up a rental car on the way in and drop it off as we leave. From St. Louis this gets us to such places as Houston, New Orleans, Pensacola, Hilton Head, Charleston, Toronto, Middlebury (!), Minneapolis, Fargo, Winnipeg, Kansas City, and Denver. Many memorable adventures. Currently we have 2017 Precept 31UL. Works well for us - our interests being nature, cultural attractions, and food explorations. Yelp! and TripAdvisor.

What are the pros and cons of using a rental car versus towing your own car?

[chasfenwick]

Originally Posted by FeatherFam

What are the pros and cons of using a rental car versus towing your own car?

Pros of towing would be 1) The convenience of having the vehicle with you at all times, 2) travel can be done with one person, and 3) possibly cost, especially if it is a car that you would want to use as a daily driver anyway. Cons would be 1) nuisance of hitching and unhitching, 2) overall length of the combined rig, reduced maneuverability, 3) tie-in to the brakes of the towed vehicle, 4) accommodations one must make for restrictions on towing for a particular type of vehicle (such as transmission lubrication, can't be AWD, etc), 5) miles that you put on the towed vehicle. One plus for the rental car itself is that generally it will be near new.

If the itinerary of an outing would take you from place to place to place, or schedule is indefinite, that would tend to rule out the rental approach. However, we have rented a car in New Orleans, stayed at RV parks in New Orleans and Pensacola, then dropped the car off back in Kenner on our way home to Missouri, two weeks later. Of course that sort of scheme requires two drivers.