At first, it can seem intimidating. The idea of trekking long distances in a tiny home…with kids. It’s enough to deter many families from taking the plunge. And while challenging, your first family RV trip is also one of the most adventurous and rewarding experiences. I’d call our first family RV trip a success, but there were some things we learned that could have made the planning process less daunting.
1. Pack Less than you think you need
It’s seems a little counterintuitive given an advantage to RVing is that you can bring more. Having your home with you means you don’t have to worry about stuffing everything into a tiny carry on. But this is exactly the trap most people fall into while planning their first family RV trip. Just because you have the room, doesn’t mean you should use it. And this is for a couple different reasons.
Tow capacity
As a beginner RVer, things like tow capacity and gross vehicle weight may not be top of mind. But they are important – especially if you plan to tow your camper. There are many calculators out there to help you crunch the numbers. And this will determine how much weight you can bring aboard. But typically, more weight means more money on fuel. Every ounce counts for fuel efficiency. So less is better!
Clutter builds in a hurry
One of the classic mistakes first time RVers make is the “I should bring this just in case” mentality. We were those people. I brought a thousand toys because I was scared the kids wouldn’t stay entertained. And then they played with spray bottles and tongs the whole time.
In reality, the more you bring, the more time you are going to spend cleaning. Organization is key when living out of a camper and you have to be on point with your cleaning game. If you only bring the necessities, you won’t get bogged down with clutter.
2. Go slower than you think you should
It’s hard to not get carried away when planning your route. When we were planning our long distance trip out west, I wanted to see and do it all. It’s really hard to fight the urge. But getting too aggressive with your route can be super exhausting. During the planning process it seems easy to zip in and out of campgrounds. But setting up and tearing down every 2 days gets tiring. And that constant movement can take away from your trip.
So do yourself a favor and slow down. Spend more time at each destination – even if it means less stops. You’ll thank me later for this one.
3. Arrive at your campsite before dark
I don’t care what type of RV you have – it is not a fun process to park and get setup in the dark. Especially when you have kids running around. It will take you twice as long. And then you may have to rush to make dinner. It’s just stressful. So when planning out your travel days, make sure you leave early or plan shorter distances to arrive in daylight. You won’t be in a huge rush and you’ll have some time to relax following your travel day.
4. Book reservations with free cancellation
Just like with hotels, you’ll want the flexibility of free cancellation. Especially if you are doing a longer RV trip with multiple stops, things come up. In our case, the steering on our tow vehicle just quit working. While driving through a mountain, it just simply stopped. Scary at the time, but it also required a fix at the repair shop before we continue on our journey. Luckily it was one of the longer stops we had scheduled, but it easily could have caused us to rethink our itinerary.
Things like this do happen and you’ll appreciate being able to make changes to your reservations. Sometimes campgrounds or state/national parks will have a small fee to cancel, but it’s better than losing all your money. Check the policy before booking to make sure your choices offer some reassurance.
5. Consider boondocking
Boondocking is a type of off-the-grid camping. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are on your own in the middle of nowhere. It can simply mean you don’t have hookups like water, electric, and sewer. And while the idea of this is enough to scare off some families, it can actually help quite a bit. The distance from location A to location B may be pretty long. And rather than conquering the whole thing, it’s often less stressful to stop in between.
We used (and still use) Harvest Hosts when planning our first family RV trip. To be fair, it’s a little like glamping boondocking. You purchase a Harvest Hosts membership and then you camp for free-ish at thousands of wineries, breweries, farms, and museums. I say free-ish because they recommend you make a small purchase at each stay to support the small business. But it’s a great way to get some rest between stops while checking out local businesses. Plus, if you’re only boondocking for one night at a time, you don’t miss the lack of hookups much.
An example was when we were driving from Chicago to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The drive would have been insane in one day. So we stopped at two Harvest Hosts along the way to make it more bearable.
6. Don’t underestimate potty breaks
You likely know the drill: when you’re traveling with kids, you’ll be stopping every 30 minutes. Factor this into your planning. If you are aggressive with your drive and think it’ll only take you 6 hours with a few 5 minute potty breaks – add an hour or two. Those 5 minute potty breaks are only present in your dreams. In reality, you have to unbuckle and rebuckle the kids. The whole family will probably want to go. Someone will inevitably be hungry and want a snack. You’ll need to refill your gas. These stops are more like a half hour minimum.
It’s best if you plan for longer potty breaks rather than racing everyone around like a pit stop crew. Definitely learned that lesson early on.
7. There’s almost always someone around to help
That first RV trip is a major learning experience. You can’t possibly go into it knowing everything. But luckily, you don’t have to depend on rapidfire Google and Youtube videos for everything. There will always be an experienced camper around. Someone to help you park if you get stuck. Or help you with leveling. Or provide a tool you left at home. Help is never far. And don’t be embarrassed to ask for it. Everyone was a first time RVer once.
8. Plan some meals in advance
One of the biggest lessons we learned from our first family RV trip was the importance of meal planning. Don’t stress about this – it doesn’t have to be anything super extensive. But the first several days of our trip out west, we didn’t have a plan for lunches. And in our case that meant we dined on PBJ everyday. Looking back, I would have planned out a few quick lunch options and some quick dinner options. It’ll just give you something to fall back on in a pinch.
We also planned and shopped for some meals before leaving so we didn’t have to do grocery trips every day.
9. Choose the right RV
Whether you are buying or renting, selecting the right RV for your family is critical. Many campers have pull out sofas or convertible tables for extra beds. But we’ve found bunks to be so, so helpful with kids. It gives them their own space, helps contains toys, and you aren’t constantly moving things around. Our travel trailer also has a small bathtub vs. a shower which is great for young kids (plus an outdoor shower for easy washing off dirt).
These days campers come in all shapes and sizes with all kinds of features. What’s right for one family might not be a good fit for another. Make a list of nice to have features and then prioritize it. Then shop around and focus in on the features that are most important to your family.
10. Write it out
When planning your first family RV trip, I highly recommend writing everything down. Use whatever system works for you. For us, that was an excel doc complete with all our dates, campgrounds, travel times, costs, etc. You may want more or less detail, but having all your info in one place will save you time and frustration.
An example of this is when you’re headed out and trying to find the name of the campground. Often this will take the form of frantically scrolling your inbox to find the confirmation email. Put it in one central document and you’ll never have to deal with that.
It totally is about the journey
It’s the most cliche thing when people say travel is about the journey. But in the case of RVing, it’s also completely true. Because you could easily fly there and probably be at the destination in a couple hours. But family RVing is about the journey to the destination just as much as the actual destination. So take some of our learnings into consideration. But have fun with the planning. RV trips open up a new world of travel. And after your first, you’ll be hooked!
