I like to visit with my short-term rental guests, but only those that want to chat. When they learn that we live in our RV in the barn that’s on premise, they start asking a lot of questions, like so you moved out of your 4-bedroom house with a pool and traded it in for an RV? You should see their faces when I say yes, I’ve house hacked my own house and I get to meet great people like you.
Their immediate response has been, oh, I can’t do that. I’m not sure exactly what they are afraid of, but what I’ve learned is that ALOT of people are hesitant to give RV’ing a try. I think they just need a little inspiration to go out on a limb and give it a shot! I’m going to share with you the 10 best reasons I think you should choose RV’ing over flying in a plane.
1). RVing is a journey, not a destination!
I believe traveling in an RV is more about the journey. Sure, you’ll have to plan more days for your journey, but isn’t that more fun than the hassle of driving to the airport, parking, getting to your plane, waiting, getting on the plane, landing at a layover city, waiting for 2 hours, or running to meet your next plane, getting on another plane, and then arriving at your destination?
It’s so impersonal. If you’re like me, when I traveled by plane, I was so focused on why I was flying that I just didn’t want to talk to anyone. I had more the attitude of, just leave me alone so I can read my book to come down off of a nasty work week I just had. In an RV you can experience everything the road has to offer. Stop when you see something like Mammoth Caverns in KY. It gives you the freedom to take adventures. When the pilot of the plane announces, “and to the right side of the plane you’ll see the Grand Canyon”. It’s not like you can say, “Hey, pilot, can we make a pit stop here?” No, he takes you to your destination and drops you off.
2). No standing in lines at TSA. TSA can be intimidating to a lot of people, after all you don’t want to be caught bringing a drink in or forgetting to take your pocket knife out of your pocket. RVing, you can carry whatever drinks you want and bring an arsenal as long as you’re in compliance with the states you’re travelling through. All you need is a driver’s license to drive whatever vehicle you’re licensed to drive while on your trip. You don’t have to have to wait on someone else’s opinion of your flight status.
3). No bags to lose!
That’s right you won’t lose your bags because you’ve brought everything including the kitchen sink with you and it’s either packed in a storage bin or you’ve hung your clothes up in the closet. Now, if you forgot something, that’s on you!
4). No masks, no more unfamiliar people!
You’ve got the best seat in the house, the driver seat! No more overcrowded uncomfortable seating! No more sitting next to someone you don’t know, and you don’t have to wear a mask! They say you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family. So, I wouldn’t choose to take your uncle if you don’t like him, but certainly take everyone you do like on your journey. In an RV, you don’t have to pay for any extra seating, just pick a seat in the truck or ride in style in a Class A and let the kids play board games while you’re driving down the road!
5). Prepare your own meals and eat healthier
I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately but the airlines are no longer preparing meals for us anymore. Now, we get pretzels or a cookie – of which neither are healthy and then you can select your favorite unhealthy soda. Instead, in your RV, you come prepared and gathered one week’s groceries and you’ve made meals ahead of time so you can spend more time enjoying your journey rather than cooking the whole time, except for when it’s time to make the smores over an open fire!
6). Who needs a rental car?
You finally get off the plane and now your intent on locating the rental car area. Once you weave through the airport terminal, you now have to wait for the rental car shuttle to escort you a couple of miles outside the airport to rent your car. Stand in yet another line and wait to fill out your paperwork and opt to use your personal insurance before getting assigned to a car. Once that’s done, you now head out to the parking lot to find your car, mind you, you are carrying and dragging all your bags with you. Guess what? If you’re in an RV, you don’t need a rental car! You either have a tow vehicle with you pulling your RV or you’re in your Class A and possibly towing your own personal vehicle and your laptop and other personal items are all on board with you. They never leave your sight! No baggage fees, no rental car fees!
7). Your RV is your bed!
Scrap the hotel, you have a hotel on wheels, and you get to sleep in your own bed, eat your own meals. Nobody is waking you up from next door with all kinds of wicked sounds, unless of course you brought your kids with you on your journey! But that’s a welcome sound because you know their excited because they are camping and its summertime!
8). You can’t get cancelled!
I don’t know if you’ve been watching the news lately, but flights are either getting cancelled or there are major delays lately due to numerous reasons. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck in cities overnight because of flight cancellations due to weather or mechanical issues. The worst part is if it’s not a mechanical issue you’ll get stuck paying for overnight hotel costs! In an RV, if you encounter bad weather – PULL over and ride the storm out. You can’t get cancelled because you’re in the driver’s seat and get to make your own choices of how long you drive, where you drive and when you drive. I’ve even got the heck out of Florida escaping in my RV dodging an the impending hurricane Erma.
9). Fear of flying
Even John Madden one the nation’s best-known football broadcasters and coach of the Oakland Raiders had a fear of flying. He suffered from claustrophobia while in flight but needed the ability to get from city to city quickly with his rigid football broadcasting schedule. What did he do? He customized his own “Maddencruiser” or a Greyhound bus with high ceilings because he was tall, larger shower and a huge bed. How do I know this?
I know this because I used to work for Greyhound in Des Moines back in the 80’s and they brought his bus to our office so everyone could tour it. I even have a picture of me and one of his drivers in front of the bus, but we were disappointed, John wasn’t there that day. He would have multiple Greyhound drivers on board, so they could continue traveling when one driver’s time was up. Everything is possible with an RV. There are even people converting school buses into RV’s!
10) Costs
Today, with inflation on the rise airline flight prices are going up but so are fuel costs. The largest cost you’ll encounter with an RV will be the fuel costs, but I’d like to think that since you’re bringing your own food that perhaps you bought in bulk at Costco or Sam’s Club that your overall costs are lower. The best advice I’d give you is plan your trip right down to the number of miles you’ll be travelling, plan your stops and determine what your costs may be ahead of time, so there are no surprises.
I’m Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, thank you for listening and I hope you found this information helpful.
