RVing no fun anymore?

[troutslayer]

Here's an article I came across today. I'm generally not a Chuck Woodbury "fan" but he may have a point. Thoughts?
Why RVing is not as much fun today – RV Travel

[Crabman]

Some good points in that article.

[abarkl]

Boondocking is where it's at and we will always have space way out west.

https://www.boondockerswelcome.com/

[lightcs1776]

My family still loves RVing. We stay at state campgrounds and only need to worry about reservations a couple times a year, such as Labor Day. As the article mentions, the more primitive campgrounds have plenty of space, plus they cost a lot less.

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[glsimms]

Now that my DW is retired and I'm semi-retired we do more camping through the week when it's considerably less crowded.

[bansai]

To be sure, the lifestyle continues to gain in popularity, but it's nothing a little more advance planning cannot solve. My view is a little skewed on this though because I grew up near San Francisco and even in the early 80's my parents would have to book tent spots 5 months in advance. Now in my mid-40's, I still do that so nothing has really changed at least in my perception of things. RV'ing / Camping / etc is just as fun as it always was for me.

The major negative I've seen is the transformation of our park rangers into law enforcement officers first, everything else second, but this evolution is hardly limited to this area of our lives.

If a large percent of the new RV'ers are retirees that like the RV parks, I won't notice the increase for a long time yet and seriously no offense to anyone that prefers KOA camping. It's all good. They are just going to need to build a lot more 'parking lot' camp grounds. An even bigger area of growth I've seen are the number of storage lots that are popping up in the outskirts of every town. Sure seems like a lot of these new RV's spend 90% of their lives in the lot.

Planning ahead though, I am starting to research buying my own 'RV' spot on an acre+ of land somewhere so if things get too crazy I'll always have my own spot.

[Gman1372]

A lot of so called campgrounds are nothing more than RV parking lots. We have many here. 20' space between RV's isn't camping to me. To me it's just an expensive weekend trailer park. So far the beach seams to thin out the herds.

[BCK]

We still love camping. It is harder to find spots in some places than it used to be. And yes, we all fondly remember the good old days when everything was better. For my kids, we are creating today what will be the good old days in their stories. So I can change with the times and book ahead when I have to.

[schrederman]

I took my White Hawk in for warranty work today... only because they wouldn't let me get parts and swap them myself. Not really an off-topic complaint because this is my camping season... when all the fair-weather campers are at home by the fire. This is when I like to be out on the river, too. It's hard to fly fish standing elbow-to-elbow like a lot of places are nice weather. However, Dee Dee wants to go to Idaho and other places early this fall so we're trying to map out our reservations now, instead of waiting. It might be a bit tough for a dumb Texan to do a lot of towing and camping up there, this time of year.

I believe if I was 20 years younger I'd build a nice private park and charge appropriately for it... or maybe a chain of them... It's only money. I wonder why Warren Buffet or some of the RV manufacturer moguls don't get into RV parks... The demand is definitely there.

As to it still being fun... yep, to me it is.

[BuddyRay]

As a Career Technology Entrepreneur (7 companies + teaching entrepreneurship at the local university) my reaction to this is "I need to open a campground!".

It may take a few years, but trust me, the entrepreneurs in America will recognize an opportunity and fill the void. The only question is - will we get all KOA type parking lots? Or will some folks with land develop some nice camping resorts.
And - will the state and national government agencies step up and create more parks and enlarge the campgrounds at existing parks (where there is room and resources).

[bansai]

This place was for sale last time I researched the whole thing..

Montrose Colorado Campground Black Canyon Jellystone Park

(per Purchasing a Campground - Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Franchise )

Looking at 6 million or so to buy a decent, existing campground. Not really that much money all things considered. Find a few partners and go for it. I would.

Jellystone really isn't my style, but there are opportunities out there in the franchise arena.

[BigJohnD]

I'm starting to see a few invest down this way, slowly. I think we'll see more "resorts" in the future as the modern generation wants it all. Level, full hook ups, wifi, shade and many other things. I admit we don't "rough it" like we used to. 13+ years ago I was just glad I had a rv. I'd park in a grass field or wherever I could and love it. Now I'm pickier, grouchier, older etc and we tend to seek out nicer places.

I still enjoy it as the kids and wife do. Just aggravated we can't go like we used to before I got laid off from offshore. Heck we lived 1/2 the year like retired folks.

[schrederman]

I go to a state park in Oklahoma a lot and the sites are nicely spaced out. Someone with that kind of space doing a commercial operation would have to charge quite a bit per night to make a profit... or shrink the spaces and make the absolute most of every square inch like most private RV parks. The start-up costs may be what's keeping a lot of it down. It's not cheap to install 30- and 50-amp circuits over a distance. Then there's water, sewer, cable TV and wi-fi if you're going to compete with KOA and others. There's also staffing and insurance... OK... I'm outa the mood.

[clubhouse]

In CA reservations have always been a must, way too many people and way too few options.

Personally I would like to see demand base pricing into introduced. It would help curb many of the tricks people use to reserve sites early, of which I'm guilty too. And I don't mean peak/non-peak. I mean a demand based algorithm.

For example if a place like El Capitan SP CG was $85 or
$125/night during holidays and peak times, then maybe $12/night during mid-week non-peak times opppsed to the current low rates charged for both peak and non-peak I think it would solve lots of demand issues.

And before someone starts flaming me for not being considerate to low income and fixed income families, I'm not. My though would make it far more affordable for them for the majority of the year. They just might not be able to go camping over 4th of July.

[Witt74]

We usually go to state parks or private campgrounds. Back when we were younger, and the boys were little, we used to tent camp on one of the local creeks. Late spring thru early winter, if you wanted to find us, we were in the woods. Kids grown, DW & I older, our old campsites on the creek no longer accessible. DW & I at the age we enjoy our creature comforts.

[DanNJanice]

Originally Posted by schrederman

I go to a state park in Oklahoma a lot and the sites are nicely spaced out. Someone with that kind of space doing a commercial operation would have to charge quite a bit per night to make a profit... or shrink the spaces and make the absolute most of every square inch like most private RV parks. The start-up costs may be what's keeping a lot of it down. It's not cheap to install 30- and 50-amp circuits over a distance. Then there's water, sewer, cable TV and wi-fi if you're going to compete with KOA and others. There's also staffing and insurance... OK... I'm outa the mood.

Exactly. Land in desirable places costs a far bit of money. So, to make a go of it people either need to be crammed together like sardines or the nightly rates are quite high.
We looked into buying some property to setup an RV covered storage unit, as there are almost none of them where we live, and they are booked way out.
Figured we could get a few acres and let the RV storage pay for the land.
Nope, unless you have the money up front, it just costs too much.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by DanNJanice

We looked into buying some property to setup an RV covered storage unit, as there are almost none of them where we live, and they are booked way out.
Figured we could get a few acres and let the RV storage pay for the land.
Nope, unless you have the money up front, it just costs too much.

Good Luck if you happen to find some place, and hope this never happens... this happened about 3 miles up the road from our house.

Don

Fire destroys boats, RVs at Palm Harbor storage facility | TBO.com

[RAurand]

My niece and her husband have purchased several acres. He does construction work so he has the equipment to work the ground and build. They have a nice wide creek running at the side of the property, he ran 30 Amp electric. No sewer or water but he did install a big tank to pump out into. Very spacious and campsites are spread out.
We (including the kids) have more fun back there than we do at most CRAMMED Campsites.

[Camper_bob]

An additional consideration in our area is the oil boom (now mostly busted). A lot of those guys will live in their RV while they work. When the work slows down, they'll hitch up and move on to the next "boom town" for more work. Granted, they don't tend to take up space in the "nicer" parks. And state parks tend to limit the amount of time a person can occupy a site, but they're still out there taking up RV spaces. Add to this the boom in the recreational side, and you have an even more severe supply shortage. In some of the bigger "boom towns" in our area like Kennedy, and Karnes City, TX, people have created several RV lots. They're little more than parking lots with power posts. Spaces are tight, and amenities are thin. But it doesn't matter, because these guys aren't there on vacation, they're working. Now that the boom has slowed, those lots are quite unsightly, and basically useless for recreational RVers. They're crammed in commercial areas and there are not nearby "attractions" to lure them, and like I said, they have no amenities. During the boom, they were packed though.

We don't even bother any more on holiday weekends. We used to go tent camping on holidays back in the day, but that's been out of the question for over a decade now. Now that we have the RV, and our options are a little more limited, we just don't even bother on those weekends. We'd rather stay home than fight the crowds, even if we could get a reservation. In fact, our major camping season doesn't even begin until September, when the kids are back in school and the crowds have thinned out a bit. This will become a problem when our son reaches public school age.

There's also the "reservation games" people will play. They'll reserve blocks of time (sometimes weeks) as soon as the window opens, and just wait until they're plans are solid to cancel the times they can't go. Sometimes they won't even cancel them until they check in at the park. Since Texas Parks & Wildlife doesn't charge much for cancelled reservations, it's no big deal. But it really hurts the parks, and peoples' ability to use them. TPWD has made some efforts to curb this behavior, but I believe it's still going to be a problem going forward.

Many private parks are not as generous with their cancellation policies. If you cancel a reservation on holiday weekends, you're still subject to the entire reserved fee in some cases. Same if you fail to cancel with enough advance notice.

I'm hoping this is all just a temporary peak in demand and things will calm back down in a couple years.

[troutslayer]

Well, then there's this. So, who the heck knows?!
New-Build RV Parks Crop Up Across the Country – Vogel Talks RVing