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RV Vacations Are Still One Of The Most Affordable Ways To
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Here are some RV related articles you may find interesting...
New Study Shows RV Vacations Least Expensive-Source: RVIA
Despite record-breaking fuel prices, typical RV trips remain the least expensive type of vacation, according to a new study comparing vacation costs. PKF Consulting, an international consulting firm with expertise in travel and tourism, found that "typical RV family vacations are on average 27 to 61 percent less expensive than other types of vacations studied." Even factoring in RV ownership and fuel costs, the 2008 study reveals that RV family vacations tend to be significantly less expensive than other types of vacations.
PKF analyzed major costs that would be incurred by a family of four taking eight different types of vacations for three, seven, 10 or 14 days to such popular travel destinations as the Grand Canyon, Cape Cod, and Napa, CA.
"On average, RV vacations were more economical than the other types analyzed in all but one case," says Kannan Sankaran, PKF's lead researcher for the study. "Even as fuel prices increase, our findings show that almost all RV vacations are still significantly less expensive than non-RV ones."
Fuel prices would have to more than double for typical motorhome vacations to become more expensive than other forms of travel, according to PKF Consulting. The study also shows that fuel costs would have to more than triple for trips in lightweight travel trailers or folding camping trailers to be more expensive than the least expensive non-RV vacation. Almost 80 percent of the RV market consists of towable RVs, including lightweight units which can be towed by car, van or pickup.
RV owner John Bargo, a computer operator from Milwaukee, WI, agrees with PKF's findings. "When you figure the cost of driving in a car, staying in hotels and eating in restaurants, it's a lot more expensive than bringing your lodging and food with you."
Dennis Silipena, a 55-year-old service and parts manager from Hammonton, NJ, also appreciates the affordability of RV travel. "I've owned an RV for 25 years and I've enjoyed significant savings over other types of vacations. I pay $30 to $40 to stay in a campground rather than $150 to stay in a hotel. And it's a much nicer experience staying in my RV."
The study showed that a family of four traveling from Phoenix, AZ. to Napa, CA., with their folding camping trailer for 10 days, staying in campgrounds at the local average of $33 per night, would save 52 percent, or $2,379, over the same trip taken by car, staying in hotels averaging $122 per night and eating in restaurants. Taking the same vacation by a Type C motorhome would save $1704, or 37 percent, over going by car.
A week-long family vacation towing a conventional travel trailer from Salt Lake City to the Grand Canyon compared to the cost of taking the same trip by airline, renting a car and staying in a hotel would be $2,647, or 65 percent less expensive.
Shorter getaways by RVs were also found to be more economical. For example, a family taking a three-day vacation from Pittsburgh, PA. to Lancaster, PA., would save $323 or 31 percent by towing a conventional travel trailer, rather than going by car, staying in hotels and eating in restaurants. The savings would be even greater -- $889 or 52 percent -- for families taking the same trip by a Type C motorhome rather than flying.
In addition to major expenditures required from the start to finish of each vacation, PKF factored in an estimated cost of ownership of the RVs analyzed: a folding camping trailer, conventional travel trailer, and Type C and Type A motorhomes. Research included documenting average ownership periods, residual values, annual days of use, insurance and applicable interest deductions.
The PKF study considered only quantifiable economic factors, not the comparative quality of each vacation. As a result, the convenience, flexibility and quality family time cited as major benefits of traveling in an RV could not be addressed.
Visit GoRVing.com for more information about RVing and to get a free DVD on how to get started RVing.
PLYMOUTH —
excerpts taken from article
By Edward M. Colby
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jun 26, 2008 @ 09:18 AM
Brian Whitcomb loves the RV life. As he nursed a glass of wine on a sunny day at Pinewood Lodge Campground in Plymouth, the 59-year-old from Michigan explained why. “We’re sitting here in this nice pine grove, and it’s like being in the wilderness,” Whitcomb said. “You’ve got every convenience you could want,” he noted, pointing to the 27-foot Fleetwood Pioneer he shares with his wife, Sherryl, 57. “Or you can just sit out here and listen to the birds.”
The Whitcombs plan to call their recreation vehicle home for several weeks until the house they are having built in Bourne is ready. They are about to retire and want to live closer to their grandchildren in Plymouth. But even when they’re moved in, they plan to hit the road again. For them and hundreds of thousands of others, RVing is a way of life. As the first of nearly 80 million baby boomers began to retire earlier this decade, the motor home business took off. The Woodstock generation, it seems, has heard the call of the open road. Even with high gas prices... “It’s a great mode of travel for people – the freedom of the open road. It’s still a great lifestyle.”
With gasoline at $4 a gallon and rising...RVing offers choices and freedoms that other modes of travel or vacationing do not. “People wanted more control over where they were traveling and how they were traveling, and you can do all that in a RV,” Pinewood Lodge manager Jim Saunders said. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said, more and more people are choosing to RV rather than chance delays or cancellations with the airlines. “We can’t make the economy put us in a negative attitude,” he said.
Don Belliveau agreed. The 77-year-old retired high school teacher and coach from Florida recently parked his motor home in Sandy Pond Campground in Plymouth. Rather than have a second house in Massachusetts, Belliveau and his wife take theirs with them up and down the East Coast. Their 36-foot HitchHiker includes a small kitchen and dining area, satellite TV, a queen-size bed and full sewer hookup. “We have all the amenities that we’d have in a house, only it’s in miniature,” Belliveau said. “We come up here a little better than four months, and then we head home. We call it our cottage.”
'THERE'S NOTHING LIKE HAVING COMFORTING FOOD WHEN YOU'RE ROUGHING IT' By Michael James Rocha STAFF WRITER May 21, 2008 " The San Diego Union-Tribune"
Keep it simple The key to successful camp cooking is sticking to the basics. The fewer ingredients, the better. Leave the 30-ingredient casserole for Sunday-night dinners at home. “People make camping food more complex than it needs to be,” said Andrew Zimmern, a St. Paul, Minn.-based chef and host of the Travel Channel's “Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern.” “It's silly to re-create a fancy kitchen experience when you're camping. When I'm out in the woods, I want to keep it as simple as possible.”
Katherine Emmenegger, executive chef at the Great News! Discount Cookware and Cooking School in Pacific Beach, remembers a simple stew from her teenage days in Ohio. “It had beef, carrots, potatoes, garlic, beef bouillon, and salt and pepper to taste,” Emmenegger said. “It was the best stew I've ever had. There's nothing like having comforting food like that when you're roughing it.”
Use versatile main ingredients You can come up with enough meals for a three-day camping trip with versatile ingredients such as ground beef or boneless chicken breasts. Ground beef can be split and used for burgers one night and spaghetti the next. Those leftover potatoes from dinner? Toss them in the next morning's omelets. Check out www.rvcookingshow.com
Good Times has a variety of cook books available. On the shelf now is:
"RV Cooking, Recipes for the road" Gooseberry Patch Publishers, 29 pages $4.95
"Pie Iron Recipes" by Richard O'Russa, 64 pages $8.79
"Biker Billy's Hog Wild On A Harley Cookbook" by Bill Hufnagle, 200 fiercely flavorful recipes Reg $19.95 July sale price: $17.96
We invite our customers to send us your "Good Times" RVing picture along with a story about your experience at Good Times Unlimited so that we can share it with others through this special section of our web site.
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