If you already love RVing, or if you’re thinking of getting into it, it just got a little sweeter – a new study by the travel and tourism group PKF Consulting has found that vacations taken in an RV are WAY less expensive than other types of vacations – between 27 and 61%! Even taking into account the cost of RV ownership and the quickly rising cost of fuel isn’t enough to limit the savings!
How’d they figure that out?
The consulting group, who studies travel and tourism, analyzed the costs that a family of four could expect on a three, seven, 10 or 14 day vacation to places like the Grand Canyon, Napa Valley and Cape Cod. According to Kannan Sankaran, the lead researcher for the study,
RV vacations were more economical than the other types analyzed in all but one case. Even as fuel prices increase, our findings show that almost all RV vacations are still significantly less expensive than non-RV ones.
In fact, fuel costs would have to more than double before they reached levels that would take RV camping out of competition.
Among the trips analyzed by the group were a family of four traveling from Phoenix, AZ to Napa, CA. A 10 day trip in a pop-up camper (assuming campground fees of $33 a night) would save a whopping $2,379 compared to a car drive + hotels + eating out – that’s about 52%! The same trip taken in a travel trailer still yields some pretty good savings – $1,704 (37%) compared to car travel!
A bigger trip, such as driving from Salt Lake City to the Grand Canyon, had even greater savings. Compared to the cost of flights, rental cars, hotel rooms and food, towing a travel trailer saved $2,647, or 65%!
Even smaller trips yielded considerable savings. Staying in a travel trailer during a three day trip from Pittsburg, PA to Lancaster, PA saves about $323 compared to conventional travel!
While most of the studies involved pop-ups and travel trailers, the group did analyze Class A motorhome costs and determined that vacations taken in more luxurious RVs were still less expensive than other types of trips. The research even factored in documenting average ownership periods, residual values, annual days of use, insurance and applicable interest deductions. They did not look into non-economic elements, such as the convenience, flexibility and quality family time you get from RVing that you don’t always get with conventional travel.
If you needed any more reasons to jump into RV camping, there you go! Now you’re ready to come down to Beckley’s Camping Center and check out our HUGE inventory of new and used RVs, parts and more!
