Full-timing gives you the freedom to roam anywhere your heart desires. With so much open road to choose from, it doesn’t take long to experience the dramatic differences between city RVing and country camping. Do you know what you prefer? Discovering your likes and dislikes about locations is the foundation of a stress-free life on wheels.
There’s a learning curve with living off-grid and campsites are rarely level. We don’t mind as we have all the time in the world and a good set of leveling blocks. Photo: LiveWorkDream.com
My husband and I don’t enjoy RVing in cities. Close calls in city traffic, stressed out residents, and lack of nighttime sky just wears on us. For our own sanity we’ve made it a habit of going around urban areas. Yes, there’s a lot to be said for the culture and arts that cities at warp speed can offer, but rural camping has its perks too. Clearly, both have trade offs. Here are some you can expect:
Getting there
It’s not fun to drive in urban congestion alongside drivers who have no idea what it’s like to commandeer a large vehicle. Photo: LiveWorkDream.com
We spent last winter in the solitude of southwest BLM land, where roads are wide, quiet and relatively uneventful. Drivers usually practice common sense around RVers on the highway and nobody gets hurt.
However, in April we had to drive to Austin, TX for business. We timed our arrival for a Saturday morning but traffic was maddening (even though locals probably considered it light).
A tire blowout on the fringes of town didn’t help. It’s not fun to drive in urban congestion alongside drivers who have no idea what it’s like to commandeer a large vehicle. RVers get cut off, flipped off, and sworn at every other mile. Welcome to the big city.
The scenery
Cities are exciting places, which is why we loved living in the heart of San Francisco in the ’90s. Back then we had a sweet little apartment by the bay.
Today, when we go to the city, our RV home is restricted to parks that are generally in questionable neighborhoods, on the ‘wrong’ side of railroad tracks or under flight paths. We’ve learned that the key to finding the rare exceptions is to scour RV LIFE Campgrounds long before we arrive.
Accommodations
We love boondocking in beautiful places with few neighbors and lots of space between RVs. Sure, there’s a learning curve with living off-grid and campsites are rarely level, but we don’t mind because we have all the time in the world and a good set of leveling blocks.
Urban RVing with full hookups is an entirely different experience. Setting up our rig on paved, level campsites, taking longer showers, and consuming electricity however we want is sweet. But there’s also often a lack of tall trees, lush grass, and adequate space in-between campsites. A good set of earplugs comes in handy because you never know when you’ll be parked next to the airport or a noisy neighbor.
Amenities
Rural RVing is more pleasant and I accept that it comes with a price, like the amenities. Many small town parks don’t have more than one washer and one dryer for guests and if we want propane we have to go to town and get it ourselves.
As always there are exceptions, but the vast majority don’t measure up to the “resort” status that many urban RV parks justifiably live up to.
Mission Bay RV Resort.
Activities
RVing in the country puts you on a DIY activity plan. Go find your fun because most mom and pop RV park owners aren’t going to have it waiting there for you (they’re too busy just running the park!). Don’t look for it in town either: usually the biggest thing happening is the 1pm mail call.
Urban RV resorts bring the activities to you. From pickle ball to concerts, if your goal is to fill up your day with things to do, then you’ll love RV resorts like The Great Outdoors RV and Golf Resort in Titusville Florida and Fountain of Youth Spa in Southern California.
As a bonus, parks like Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego often put you within easy proximity to the city’s best activities. That’s one reason we’ll put our preferences aside to stay at Sentinel Peak RV Park during the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
When it comes to city RVing and country camping, it’s hard to make a blanket statement because exceptions always exist. These are my own generalizations but I’m sure you have great experiences and awesome discoveries that are different from mine. If so, I want to hear about them, so that some day I can add them to my RVing itineraries.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
Are you joking? Even folks that live in the cities leave to go to the country or the beach where there are no people. Why would I go to a place where a million other folks live at? It is like a fresh puppy box with everyone crawling all over each other, and most of them don’t even like each other. Why would one drive through the traffic you describe? To go to a restaurant? Learn to cook yourself! I’ve traveled north America, the cities look the same except the old sections that were built from local materials. The newer sections are stick and stucco and all look exactly the same. If you look between the cities you will see some interesting landscape that was “made” to look different. I go to rv parks when my tanks need to be dumped. Parking next to another RV gives me no comfort at all, but instead makes me feel boxed in. RV resorts are for Canadians that can’t tolerate their harsh winters and we americans make a fortune by overcharging them rent!
You’re funny Roy! Well one of the inspirations behind my post was a couple from California that I just met. They love going to RV resorts with lots of people where they can make friends and do activities together. They’re what’s known as “social.” Imagine that! Apparently they’re not the only ones out there. Me on the other hand, I’m mostly a lone wolf like you. I enjoy solitude over city life.
We live in the mountains on the edge of a national forest where there are no neighbors to speak of, kind of like what many city RVers look for when they go camping. So we enjoy having others around us when camping. But it’s hard to imagine living in a house on a 6000 sq. ft. lot with houses ten feet either side of ours. As we are aging, we are considering moving closer to a city. Not really looking forward to it. OTOH, we could just stay here. There are very few sick old folks around. With emergency response times measured in hours, well, ER doctors don’t talk about that Golden Half Day or So!
Sounds like you’ve got a great spot in paradise, Craig! Have you considered something like a life flight service subscription? We know lots of rural mountain folks who have it.
Elaine and I are of the same persuasion. We primarily boondock aka freecamping on BLM, Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation lands. We do stay at an “RV Park” on the beach near Tulum, Yucatan for six weeks or so but it is pretty much dry camping: we are solar autonomous (the electricity can go from 80 to 150 V) and buy purified water in 20 l garrafones, but do use the sewer facilities. We also mootchdock i.e. our three kids each have a spot in their backyard or 30 acres in the mountain land for us to set up and visit.
Not using a generator means that wildlife pretty much ignores us. Coyotes, Deer, Elk etc just wander by. Had two young Bull Moose fighting for 45 minutes to within 25 metres of our 5th wheel. Birds come to the feeders much more readily than if a generator were running. If bears about, then the feeders are 15′ off the ground.
Reed and Elaine
“Moochdock”…that’s a new one, I love it!
Your camping style sounds a lot like ours. We use our gennie as little as possible. I could do without the moose fighting though. Eeek!
Hi Reed and Elaine,
Can you share how to get to Yucatán RV Park
Hopefully I’m able to make the trip one of these days
Rene
They got into it about 6:45 am. Wife, son, daughter-in-law, year old grandson were enthralled. No one woke me up till it was almost over. They were just a couple of very young bulls sparring about. Son tried to do a video of the fighting with his I-phone; however, they both felt like taking a breather and just had antlers locked, noses touching and breathing hard. We kept our distance and they had no interest in us at all. This was at dispersed camping about two miles from the Forest Service campground in the Vedauwoos. This is about a mile and a half off Interstate 80 between Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Reed and Elaine
Roy, I’m trying to picture what you look like. (Griswalds cousin in Christmas Vacation maybe?) Everybody has their own idea of what they want in an RV trip. RV parks with half of the spots occupied by full timers with blue tarps on their roofs? No. Personaly I’m a Glamper. I did the Volkswagon bus and tent when I was young. No more. We do do our research and hopefully it works. Great day to be sober.