RV After Cruising???

[rmesfo]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

There's a LOT of the world to see other than near the water. My wife and I have been talking for a few years (basically right at the start of taking off to boat cruise) about getting a RV later and land cruising. I wonder how many other water cruisers have, or are considering, going land cruising after they are finished on the boat.

Leave comments, but please also vote on the poll.

We do both. A few months in the RV, then a few on the Pearson.

Best of both worlds.

[Davy J]

Is there such thing as a cruising guide for RVs?!

We carry the Good Sam RV Travel and Saving Guide in the RV, but it only lists campgrounds and RV parks.

Here's also something I found out on Google maps, you can search for "campgrounds", which will return one set of results, then search for "RV parks", that will give, usually, a different set of results.

The difference being "campgrounds" usually allow tents and pop-up trailers, RV parks, many times, only allow travel trailers, fifth wheels and motorhomes.

[Mike OReilly]

There are online guides that I used to find free or cheap camping spots when I did our motorcycle camping trip. A DuckDuck search should turn them up.

There are also resources for us frugal folks, such as: https://www.cheaprvliving.com

[Mr O]

Both! I bought my first VW Westfalia in the early 90’s. Its a labor of love, just like a boat, but no moorage or barnacles. Yes, it is a lot to maintain owning a boat, camper and home! Will scale back one day but we enjoy the diversity for now.

[tackleandtax]

So I recently discovered expedition trucks and (aside from paying for one!) I think I'm sold.

1. I finally get to own a real truck (and have a fairly genuine excuse for doing so)
2. Go anywhere
3. See some (sort of) unexplored places and avoid the tourist traps.



I read a thread on here about a family that is planning to sail to Australia and sell their boat. The profit on the sale will pay for the trip. I'm beginning to wonder if it's possible to do something similar with one of these trucks.... Buy in UK and "drive" (with a few ferries/ships) to Australia or somewhere else to sell.

[FLH91]

We went the other way, from RV to Sailboat. We couldn't stand all of the heavy traffic on the roadways not to mention the construction and accidents.... We also found the campgrounds getting more crowded, more unsupervised kids and dogs, just too many people for us...
Good luck though!

[RossD]

Great thread! We have camped and boated since the kids were very young. Back then it was pup tents, Sunflower sailing, rowing and eventually a move "up" via a borrowed 1956 Airstream which we resurrected and used for a season. Eventually, we eliminated the camping trips due mainly to the unruly state parks. A few years ago we purchased a very used diesel pusher motorhome and have been upgrading it ever since. We love the road life, so many interesting people, so many places to visit! We don't need to book sites at state parks, with the coach, even a Walmart parking lot "gunk hole" will do.

[IMG][/IMG]

[jcord]

We bought an airstream and keep it in storage not very expensive. It is great to have our boat and our airstream to cover land/sea. After selling the house it was a perfect compromise (at least for me) to be able to do both and get off the boat in winter. Plus we pull it so once we get somewhere we unhook and have our truck to use so very easy.

[secrabtree]

We cruised for a few years, mostly California and Mexico, but included a dozen passages between Hawaii and San Francisco. In 2015 I finally realized that I was no longer flexible enough at 80 years old to maintain the 43 year old boat. With the money from the boat we bought a 33 foot travel trailer and are now 34 months (and 17 states) into full timing. The additional space in a 33 foot travel trailer over the space in a 39 foot sailboat is a luxury, as is the convenience of reprovisioning. But at the cost of not being able to just jump overboard when the sweat smells too much. Both ways of travel have their pros and cons. But at my age the cons of maintaining a sailboat become the determining fact. I miss being able to drop the anchor at almost any cove for free. The comment about travelling by RV is like marina hopping with a sailboat with a land vehicle available when needed is right on.

[wingssail]

I’m usually the odd one out on this forum and I don’t mind that, and so here goes again:

For me there is no “after cruising”. My boat is my home, my only home, and I hope to keep it that way, at least until I can no longer scramble over the lifelines and raise a sail. And I don’t like to be gone from the boat that long. My wife shares this view but, I’ll have to admit, with slightly less fanaticism.
So… no RV for us.

But we do like land travel.

So we have frequently found a good marina to park the boat and rented cars, nice cars, and traveled. Short trips mostly a month or less. We did it in New Zealand, Australia, SE Asia, and Africa. Other times we owned cars. We even flew to places for visits (like Europe).

Now that we are based in North America we have a very nice car and we travel frequently. Canada to Guatemala and east and west several times.
But the bottom line is that we can’t wait to get home to our own beds and our own routines.

For the same reason we always decline offers to “house sit”. Never quite felt the need to “get off the boat for a while”.

Most of you won’t get this. Like I said, that’s fine.

[RELENTLESS 1]

Check out 'The Wynns' they did RV first and now a boat - they have tons of advice - highly recommend their site.

We are doing it backwards. We had a very nice Diesel Pusher and we did an around the US for 4+ months with the kids. We did lot's of other short trips, we even went skiing - took a bit of prep there!

Now we are ordering a Cat to pickup in FR next summer and hope to sail the Med for a couple of years then work our way back to the West Coast in 3-5 years after that.

For National Parks and dry camping you probably want to limit your size to 32'. There are a lot of nice coaches - RV speak - in that size range. We preferred towing a vehicle - a jeep would be really fun especially in remote areas.

There is a lot of camaraderie as with boaters, less 'fixing' as salt and slamming are not a daily thing and you will find - hopefully as we did - a greater appreciation of our Country and its history. Granted there are some places that you will need to go to and hook up at if you are going to go to DC for instance. But the park we stayed at was reasonably priced and we spent 2 weeks there visiting everything we could. (side bar - the most expensive 'park' we stayed in besides Disney World was The Dells in WI - huge $$ for a parking lot postage stamp!!

In 10 years or so we may do it again.

[JamuJoe]

Sailboat - Trawler - RV is the progression of many.
Your path will depend upon your interests, capabilities and finances.
We have been blessed to enjoy a ‘life in three parts’ since retirement.
Four months annually cruising our sailing catamaran.
Four months annually cruising our Airstream Travel Trailer.
Four months annually in our earthbound home.
All flexible pending life events.
Logistics can be a challenge that keeps the mind sharp.

Some are born with a ‘wanderlust’ gene. Happy are those who have a partner similarly endowed.

Safe Travels,
JamuJoe

[Compactorguy]

Sail boat, power boat, motor home, rest home as the saying goes

[TravelinLight]

So right now #vanlife and #overland are huge hashtags with a lot of people building out rigs to live the "Instagram" life. My hope is when my time comes there will be plenty of well sorted / outfitted rigs on the secondary market.

My thoughts would be to have both options available.

[Hotboy]

We’ve been refitting for about 2 years so our sailing is, obviously, curtailed. To ‘scratch the itch’ I have disappeared overseas on my bicycle occasionally, and explored other ports that way. The one thing that I miss most is being able to find my own piece of paradise, set up camp and relax without being harassed by someone who resents me being there (government or otherwise) because they control it and/or require money for me to stay. I understand there are no free lunches, and money is required to maintain facilities. I get that, and pay whenever we tie up at a marina, but my observation is that there are fewer places where you can freely camp (and the more noticeable your RV is the harder that will be) in comparison to my cruising experience in Australia. If we look at the financial side I would guess each has maintenance expenses but the boat would probably have more.