So how much does it cost to travel America in an RV?

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The cost of full-time RVing and driving cross country will be different for everyone. It all depends on your spending habits and how much comfort you need to get by. Are you willing to boon dock your RV and cook a lot of meals, or do you need to eat out at all of the local restaurants when visiting a new town? There is no right answer, it just depends on your own preferences.

For us, we didn’t have much money to spend. Our goal was to enjoy as much of our surroundings as possible for as little spent as possible. Sometimes this meant passing on experiences we would have loved to go on, but it was the tradeoff of covering so much ground in such a small amount of time. So without further ado…

Here is our final travel costs from 2014. We drove our RV to 48 states over the course of 200 days.

Gas: $6,593.57
Lodging: $2,710.84 (Were able to keep this so low mostly because of using membership clubs like Passport America)
Groceries: $2,053.05
Gym Membership (planet fitness): $344.84
Phone Bill: $1,311.22
Eating Out: $512.88
Giving: $210
Maintenance: $1,955.72
Miscellaneous & Entertainment: $3,432.60

Total Cost- $19,124.72

Tested Tips

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A few things might wake you up in the middle of the night the first time you climb under the covers inside an RV. Fearing that you forgot to engage the parking brake and are in danger of rolling down the hill to your death, for one. (You did, and you are.) Thinking someone left the light on in the bathroom and wondering whether that will drain the RV’s battery by morning. (They did, but it didn’t.) Hearing campers breaking the sacred “quiet after 9 p.m.” rule and imagining they’ll get busted. (They did.) Wondering if the bacon and eggs you bought for tomorrow morning’s breakfast are now, effectively, toast, because you’d been told that the fridge will mysteriously stop working if the RV is parked on even the slightest incline. (They are.)

Packing Food for an RV Trip P2

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3. When it comes to food, think shelf-stable.

One of the perks of RV travel is the ability to plug that sucker into an electrical outlet if you overnight at RV parks. When you do, your fridge will get cold. If you’re like us, though, and spend your days driving from place-to-place, that fridge might soon lose its mojo and anything in it could start to warm. For this reason, we shied away from bringing raw meat and other high-risk perishables and opted largely for shelf-stable items. (Small quantities of cheese, yogurt, and eggs did fine because we ate them quickly.)

Some of our favorite provisions included:

  • Canned oil-packed tuna and beans; taco shells; peanut butter and jelly; bread; dry salami; couscous; tomato sauce; tube polenta; olive oil; cereal; oatmeal; fruit; avocados; cocoa; and tea. And graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate for nightly s’mores.
  • Catch-all spices rather than individual bottles. I packed a small jar of salt and a packet of taco seasoning. I don’t normally use seasoning packets at home (where I’ve got a fully-stocked spice drawer), but taco seasoning’s as good over tuna-and-bean tacos (don’t laugh, they’re delicious) as it is over avocados and eggs.
  • If you do want to bring more highly perishable food, pack a large cooler you can replenish with ice. Transfer items from the fridge if necessary.

4. Avoid a few tricky foods.

My family loves pasta, but with limited propane, boiling a big pot of water in an RV is inefficient. Plus, any heat you generate will raise the temperature in your sleeping space, which can be problematic on warm nights. For this reason, couscous, quickly sautéed polenta, and the aforementioned tacos worked better for us than anything that needed to be boiled or fried. (The exception was hard-boiled eggs, since I turned off the heat as soon as the small saucepan came to a boil.)

I also shied away from making pancakes or other dishes requiring batch-cooking. In cramped quarters, I wanted to cook as quickly as possible, then get outside and enjoy time with my family.

5. Leave room for local finds

One of our favorite drives was along Oregon’s fertile Hood River Fruit Loop with its abundant orchards and U-pick farms. We stopped at Montavon’s Berries, which could accommodate our RV (not all can, as parking may be tight), and had a ball filling our buckets with blueberries. When Lee Montavon, the owner, weighed our abundant haul, we were shocked at the total price: $2.60. (The same berries would have cost ten times more at home.)

Better Sleep in an RV P2

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3.  Get tired.

If you get lots of physical activity through the day, you will sleep more soundly. Exercise is a sleep aid. Sitting in the lawn chair all day is not. Just make sure you aren’t exercising right before bed, since your body needs time to wind down and relax.

SONY DSC

4.  Get the RV temperature comfy and cool:

Sleep experts recommend a cool 65 degrees for sleeping, but this isn’t going to be the ideal temperature for everyone. Find a temperature where you aren’t waking up during the night feeling too cold or too hot. And hopefully, that temperature is the same for both you and your spouse.

5.  Create a separate bed for Fido:

A Mayo Clinic survey found that over half of people who share beds with pets have disrupted rest. If you want to sleep better and improve your health, Spot needs a new sleeping spot in the RV. How about a luxurious and cozy bed of his own like this one? 

dog in bed