If you’re like me, an individual who chose air travel during the busy holiday season, you too are likely still recovering from the whiplash that was flight cancellations, replanning, and navigating airport chaos. That’s not to mention the outright financial cost for a family to fly, even just a family of two. Don’t get me wrong; I am incredibly grateful for the option of hopping on a flight as a quick way to get where you need to go. But, as someone who owns an RV, my recent canceled flights and delayed arrivals got me thinking: how would a trip in my RV compare to air travel?
While an RV trip may not always be the best option during winter’s extreme weather conditions, in warmer months, I see myself reevaluating how I travel. You may be surprised to find out that road tripping with my RV, even just for my family of two, would have cut travel costs while adding an element of adventure. Here’s how I’m comparing air travel to RVing.
Cost of Gas
Thanks to an article from the Axle Addict, which easily shows how to break down the cost of RV travel, I was able to get a rough estimate on how my 1,200-mile trip from the east coast to visit family in the midwest would have cost, including a one-night stop at a campground each way.
This starts with evaluating the most significant cost: gas. Using a high-end estimate, my vehicle gets around 10 miles to the gallon towing my travel trailer (though typically I get a few more miles to the gallon). Traveling 1,200 miles and estimating the average gas price to be $3.50 per gallon, the total gas cost would be approximately $840, there and back. About the cost of one to one-and-a-half airline tickets.
If you are looking to get more specific and know exactly how much you would pay for gas, there are a ton of other useful tools out there that can do that for you, based on your vehicle and/or RV for your specific trip, such as FuelEconomy.gov.
Camping
For this trip, bringing our RV would have allowed us to break up the driving, making an 18-19 hour drive far more doable. While camping costs can vary widely, choosing a smaller, local campground as opposed to a chain, can make camping extremely affordable, costing around $40 a night. However, this can also be a great way to turn a trip to see relatives into a fun mini vacation, by choosing a campground with offerings for the kids at just a little more stretch to your budget.
Additional Costs
An additional cost to take into consideration on a road trip is tolls. Thankfully there are many toll calculators available for free online. For my trip, in particular, tolls would total around $88.
So, What’s Cheaper?
Overall, for my family, this trip for only two people would not have saved us a significant amount of money compared to airfare. However, while in the airport during this holiday season, I noticed something I had never seen in such large quantities before: dogs. A large cost of my holiday away was either boarding my dog for the time I was gone or paying the extra price to fly with her. We chose the boarding route, costing us around $350.
If we had traveled by RV, our canine companion would have been able to join, and we could have saved big. In total, for me and my husband to make our trip from the east coast to the midwest with our RV, would have cost in the ballpark of $1000-$1200. This is $600 less than what it cost us to fly, including our additional expenses to leave our pup behind.
The Value of Adventure
Finances aside, my husband and I don’t mind swallowing our anxiety about taking to the sky, but we know once we have a few more members added to our family, the task might be a bit more effort than we would like to take on. We really can’t put a price tag on the peace of mind that comes with being in control of our travels, or on the lifelong memories that a family-bonding road trip entails. No checking the boards for flight delays, no waiting around or running late, having the ability to stop when we need to, and maybe taking an extra day to ourselves to make memories at one of the many incredible campgrounds out there.
After taking time to evaluate this option, I realize Cousin Eddy and his family might have known what they were doing in the film, Christmas Vacation, when they showed up to the Griswald’s in their RV. The next time you need to get from Point A to Point B, maybe you too will consider hopping into your motorhome instead of taking to the skies. You might just save some money, avoid the stress, and have way more fun along the way!
