Is the "cheap RV camping" fading into the sunset?

[TR25]

Yeah, this is interesting to me for some reason.
With the dramatic rise of RV living/long term RV-ing, seems like the rates for campgrounds are going up and up and up.
$75 a night a deal? Compared to hotel/motel, yeah. Plus, no bedbugs.
But if you have an actual RV and not a stealth type van and/or staying in BFE land out west......a month worth of camping/travelling in your RV will come to what, $2250 a month.
Is that worth it to people?
How much of the people will be eliminated from any longer term RV-ing with pricing like that?

a seasonal rv space I talked to a guy about, he said it was $1600 (something like april-oct). I told him that amount was nuts and he said it was a great deal.

maybe it is. My background in boondocking/work camping/stealth camping affected my thinking as I never paid to camp other than a few times over, say 10 years. and that was minimum access, no hookups.

What do you spend RV-ing?
Full time? How long? Often?

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Full time camping?

It is true that those in power are trying to eliminate Full time camping (low cost camping), for high cost Full time resort living in equipment designed for temporary living.

But cost is directly related to terminology, and the willingness of people to redefine it.

 

[Neal]

We all know post covid and the booming RV lifestyle with working remote, etc. caused a surge in pricing everywhere including campgrounds and RV's. A lot seem to have exited the lifestyle to return to work or due to the rising costs making it less affordable, is my opinion of what we're seeing of late. I also recognize the comparison to parking on a slab of concrete vs the cost of a hotel room and how similar they are especially with campgrounds that have quite a bit of taxes and resort fees to slap on top of what you thought you were going to be paying yet the receipt sign here please says otherwise.

Some know how to camp with minimal expense and a lot of that depends on your RV, i.e. large heavy Class A's vs. Van Lifer's, risk you're willing to take being in the open not among others for security, or those that want to be near amenities. It's up to each as to what brings the most joy and some may want to just stay home too.

Personally I want to explore more boondocking but I do have to weigh the fact I'm in a Class A and have had to be towed out of wet grass once already at a rally, and security. I look forward to getting back out west and exploring BLM land which I haven't done much of yet.

 

[Dan_Frisbie]

I have seen the lower budget/snowbird/long-term camp grounds and they seem to be populated primarily by people that have had quite a run of bad luck. Wouldn’t allow my wife to walk the dog without me on the last few we visited.
They’re full of sketchy people…
If I were fulltime, I would spend it at state and national parks, even if I had to move every two weeks.

 

[fishslayer]

I usually stay at our State park cg s..Toledo Bend park is my favorite because of the great fishing..With my senior discount, 20 bucks a night.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

The myth is in the belief you can live a lifestyle without paying the price.

The crime is not permitting those that have less, to live in freedom because you may be offended by how safe you feel around them.

Best answer is of course, live within your safety zone, and let others live as they must,or feel comfortable.

Understand that those that can't afford,or don't want to live the life you have chosen, don't seek to tell you you must conform to the standards you have set for you and yours.

Simple note: yes! You can full-time on the cheep. However, there are those in power that would endeavor to remove your privilege to do so because it makes them or the corporations they serve feel uncomfortable, or want more profit.

How you react, and how you respond, is completely on you, and you have the resources to make your choices. However you may find the cost uncomfortable.

 

[Raydawg]

Rv'ing as a main residence compared to other options as renting or owning a home, etc......
All have associated cost, with owning most likely to most expensive.

As a "luxury" or add on to life everyone has a different value on what its worth is.

Just like life itself many people don't plan well, they want more than what they can really afford and it puts their future at risk beyond their control, AKA fate.

My wife and I had to claw our way back into life after a very bad automobile accident in our prime of life at no fault to us, and we had no avenues to return us back to our previous life situation. We barely hung onto our house, and we dug in and worked hard, saved, and rebuilt our life back from scratch.

It was EXTREMELY hard work but we persevered and now have the opportunity to travel with our RV, also have a boat, and no debt and even in our 70's we still generate income instead of draining our accounts.
NOBODY gave us this and no government programs can provide it either.

I think somewhere as a nation we took a wrong turn, instead of viewing adversity as opportunity to grow stronger we look to blame and attain victim status and expect the pie to fall from the sky in "fairness"

That is a mindset that will never deliver a sustainable outcome that will achieve our deepest needs in life, it can't....
I count my blessings and gladly pay my way to those who provide me the opportunity to use their "hookups" to enjoy this love of travel and the beauty of our world......

Your milage may vary, I understand, but I feel its all about how you look at life.

 

[Holdmybeer]

Were someone kvetching with me over what I charge for an RV campsIte, I'd offer to rent it to them at the 2015 rate if they'll sell me their home for it's 2015 appraisel. That guy is paying water, electric, garbage collection, landscaping/maintenance, insurance, staff wages and health insuramce, etc. None of those things are getting cheaper for him.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

The old adage of location, location, location still has some truth in it.

Recently we made reservations for next spring down in AZ and it will be around $1600 for a month, plus electric. Close to some desired locations to visit.

Reservations for a month in a Missouri, 30+ minutes from some lakes, only $400 a month (including electric).

Those less expensive locations are getting harder to find.

 

[Jim]

Yeah, this is interesting to me for some reason.
With the dramatic rise of RV living/long term RV-ing, seems like the rates for campgrounds are going up and up and up.
$75 a night a deal? Compared to hotel/motel, yeah. Plus, no bedbugs.
But if you have an actual RV and not a stealth type van and/or staying in BFE land out west......a month worth of camping/travelling in your RV will come to what, $2250 a month.
Is that worth it to people?
How much of the people will be eliminated from any longer term RV-ing with pricing like that?

a seasonal rv space I talked to a guy about, he said it was $1600 (something like april-oct). I told him that amount was nuts and he said it was a great deal.

maybe it is. My background in boondocking/work camping/stealth camping affected my thinking as I never paid to camp other than a few times over, say 10 years. and that was minimum access, no hookups.

I get where you’re coming from, especially if your background is boondocking, work-camping, or stealth camping. If you spent years paying little to nothing to park, today’s campground prices can feel shocking.

What’s changed isn’t just demand for RV living, it’s the cost of operating a campground. Nearly every expense has risen sharply over the last several years:

• Land values and property taxes
• Insurance (often dramatically, especially for liability)
• Utilities - electric, water, sewer, trash
• Free WiFi - this is a big one.
• Maintenance costs for roads, pads, septic, and electrical systems
• Labor costs and difficulty finding reliable help
• Regulatory and compliance requirements that didn’t exist years ago

Campgrounds aren’t immune to inflation any more than grocery stores, fuel, or housing. In many cases, they’re hit harder because they combine real estate, infrastructure, utilities, and hospitality into one business.

For people who primarily boondock or stay off-grid, paid campgrounds were never the core of their RV lifestyle, so the value equation will naturally look different. But for travelers who want hookups, maintained sites, safety, and predictable access, the costs reflect what it takes to keep those things operating.

 

[Boat Bum]

^ Yup, ya get what ya pay for.

 

[dons2346]

I'm in Yuma on our own property. Behind me there are spaces for $25/day full hookups. No pool,, no golf course, no clubhouse but there are laundry facilities. There are rv parks with all the good stuff starting at $550/month plus electric. So, there are places way cheaper than $1600/month

 

[TR25]

those in power are trying to eliminate Full time camping (low cost camping)

This is where we will disagree. I've personally witnessed the change in CO, the public lands there, over time. Starting in the 90s, it seems as if the floodgates opened up and everyone was coming there. This was when the xgames came into being, so it was mostly young gen wanting to live that lifestyle.
So what happened is the previously open public land became parking lots, trashed campgrounds for people who didn't care as they wanted to do their own thing, their rights and all that jazz. So they were literally trashed, trails/forest roads torn up, trashed with literal trash. So "they" started to close off the road access to those places. And of course people complained about it, but they were the ones who were responsible for it being closed.

Every year since then there were just more and more people and even on best behavior of most, the wear and tear will increase. And it did.

I worked when I was doing the vanlife/RV camper thing. Didn't realize I was before the time, but I was able to park most anywhere and not have a problem, although one time I parked across the street from a cop's house and he did tell me 'no'. I respected that as I'd not want that either.

But I didn't make my overnight parking a campsite. When it came time to wind down, I drove to a place, parked, lights off, no music, etc. then just went to sleep. In public land, it was different of course as it was allowed in most places.

What changed there was an ever increasing group of people doing the vanlife/urban camping on streets, in the open, acting like they are, well, camping out. They were literally making campgrounds of neighborhoods/streets.
No one that lives there would want that. They didn't buy a house there to be surrounded by transients in vans/busses/RVs. So they complained to "the public", aka the govt, police, etc. and they policed the streets and parks, making sure their use was as intended.

So it's not some grand scheme by "they" that is the problem.
It's us, it's "we". It's ever increasing mis-use and over-use.

The increasing price for campgrounds is simply supply and demand. If more people are demanding campsites, eventually the price will increase. Price increases is also a way to not have people utilize the sites who trash it/make problems for others. Higher income people with more valuable items tend to take better care of them and their immediate environment. Popular or not, that's a fact.

That's my take on it.

The increasing pricing and shoddy/terrible quality of RVs (and vehicles) can be directly attributed to government intervention, controlling both the inputs and the outcomes of those industries. The only way around that is to buy older units then fix them up....and hope you aren't forced to sell them by govt in some crazy "cash for clunkers" scheme.

 

[TR25]

Personally I want to explore more boondocking but I do have to weigh the fact I'm in a Class A and have had to be towed out of wet grass once already at a rally, and security. I look forward to getting back out west and exploring BLM land which I haven't done much of yet.

That's the eternal trade-off. Big, spacious and comfortable vs limiting areas can use, thus increasing the cost. Just length alone can lead to high centering stuck and/or unable to make turns. Heck, some are so big/long that some people have to check to see if a desired campground can accept a rig their size. but that's the trade-off they have to make. That old "nothing's free" is very real, especially when there's physics.

I have too many vehicles/boats. But, boats as an example, one is for big water and the other, for smaller water. As I do both, each have their role. A smaller boat on the great lakes often isn't fun and can be dangerous, but I love the big water of the great lakes.

Each boat is limited going downwards. A small boat in lake superior can be done, but it's going to be a LOT of work, have to keep an eye on conditions, can't go everywhere, and isnt' very comfortable. Same with RVs. I'd love to have taken the 5th wheel in some of the national forests we would camp at....but it was just too big, too long. And as we did that more than any other type of camping, we sold that and just used the truck camper.

Our first camper was an 8 footer on a beast of a dually truck. Could go most anywhere. But wife became more disabled, so we had to get rid of that and get a larger, more spacious and comfortable camper. So that eliminated some of the boondocking trails we could go on. OK, part of the deal. We took whatever we could and dealt with it.

So what now? Well, I have an 8' lightweight truck camper I rebuilt. I think I'll just keep that. That'll be my travelling/trail/boondocking RV. I may get something larger, more spacious, more comfortable like a bumperpull trailer and that will be my more "campground/open space" RV.

A toyhauler would be splitting that difference, but that'd then be the worst of both worlds, so I'd not do that.

My take.

 

[TR25]

we dug in and worked hard, saved, and rebuilt our life back from scratch.

Great respect! I did that twice. Well, not time 3 as wife passed, but now I have assests/wealth I didn't have before to this level.

What you alluded to is the difference between my "vanlife" in the 90s and the "vanlife" of today. I did it with an eye on the future, better my income potential, thus having more, better opportunities down the road. And I did. Best move I ever did.

Granted, now I'm, rural so don't get a lot of interaction other than the net/vids, but that seems to have changed. People on hard times, such as a retired single who only has social security, doing the vanlife/lower end RV is their lifeline. Nothing wrong w/that as they ran out of a lot of options in life, so make do as best they can.

But....others look at it as....well, I dunno. They don't seem to have a lot, but at the same time, aren't interested in improving their lot in life, at present or for the future. They seem to be 'stuck' where they are. And then they make all sorts of demands for free/less expensive stuff. That baffles me. OK, you want others to pay for your healthcare or an apartment/house. Fine. ....then what? They will have done nothing to improve their lives in regards to making themselves more attractive to employers in the job market. Living in a van/rv and demanding free stuff for 5 years probably won't look good on a resume to a prospective employer. Wouldn't me at all.

So three groups:
RVers for the adventure
RVers as a place to retire to/as
RVers as they have no other options in life