[Paul]

Just want to share our experience as a retire couple deciding to buy a camper.

We have found that it’s much cheaper to set a comfy bed in back of our SUV and set up a tent for our stuff and a dining tent.

If we did more camping maybe a trailer is the way to go. But at this point it’s the most economical way.

As we only camp occasionally.

What is your experience?

Hotels are so expensive!

[Lauren]

Most campsites for travel trailers are as expensive as a hotel and with much less availability.

I’d suggest pretending you want to take a trip in your imaginary travel trailer right now and calculate how much it would cost for that trip, check if the campsite where you want to go has availability, the cost of gas, etc.

Keeping up a travel trailer is also work and $, you have to reseal and caulk yearly, power wash, keeping mice out is a full time year round job.

Just some things to take into account, we have one but it has its downsides and the only reason we keep it is because we use it on land we own up north for a few months out of the year, otherwise I wouldn’t want one.

[Julie]

We are retired (66yr old and 70 yr old) and long time tent campers. Last fall we took a 20 day road trip camping along the way.

It’s so much cheaper, and easier to find a place to stay tent camping.

There are a lot of amazing campgrounds out there.

We just got back from 5 days camping with three grandkids.

It provides a great experience for them too.

[Lisa]

Found camping with fees and camper cost to be more expensive than hotels unless you do a seasonal

[Kelly]

I camp in my car all the time. It’s hard for me to get up and down off the ground anymore.

[Rebecca]

I’m getting g ready to try out car camping!! Tired of buying buying buying

[Catherine]

We put a bed in the back of a minivan. Everything we need goes under it. We can camp anytime, anywhere.

Every town has a community center for showers for a small fee.

We have been all over Canada and the states.

[Rose]

We have an enclosed trailer similar to this photo. Inside of it we can fit one cot on each side, with an aisle down the middle.

And up near the head is a lot of room for gear and our dogs.

We have a couple of shelves inside as well, you can really customize them.

We are long time tenters as well, and this makes things so easy.

All our gear fits easily inside for transportation.

And then to have a solid, enclosed area is a treat!

[Sherri]

I spent a lot of time camping with my kids while my husband was working.

It was too much setting up the tent alone and keeping tabs on little kids, so we started “comfort camping” or “equipped camping”.

It is anywhere from $30 a night to $120 a night to stay in an equipped site (tent and sleeping pads already set up and a camp stove), yurt, o-tentic, tent trailer, camper trailer or vacation cabin.

I have used these options in Canadas National and Provincial parks as well as KOA’s.

My kids are now grown, but I am spoiled by the comfort camping.

[Leigh]

Our minivan can fit a full size mattress in the back. I need to come up with a way to rig up a window AC to plug in at state park campsites with electricity.

[Dee]

Tents end up leaking.
Stuff gets ruined eventually.
But good luck for sure!

[Carol]

I find it daunting to set up a tent, blow up mattresses and have to lug everything to go camping.

We have tent camped when the kids were little, went to a pop up and had two, then to a hybrid.

All of those take a bit of extra work.

We ended up buying a couples camper. Have all we need in it.

I buy groceries before we leave and set up is a breeze.

We take it to all vacations, so no hotels and the dogs go too so we save on boarding them.

[Melissa]

I converted my minivan to a no-build camper.
No-build= nothing permanetly attached to vehicle

[Mindy]

We took a 5 week, 10K mile trip around the U.S. mostly visiting national parks with the two of us.

We drove a car, stayed in basic motels, and generally ate one meal a day.

The total came in approximately $7K for the entire trip.

We thought this was pretty good considering how much gas was in the western part of the state.

However, frugal is defined different ways.

[Author]

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