Length of stays

[gilljr]

We are thinking of going from long term to full timers. How long is your avg. stay in one place

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by gilljr

We are thinking of going from long term to full timers. How long is your avg. stay in one place

Congratulations! Well, I see you're still in the contemplation stage but congratulations if you decide to go full time.

As for length of stay... when we started out, a few days to a week we considered a long time. Over time that changed to us staying for a month in many places so we could explore the area to see things we otherwise would have missed and so we could cut down and go sightseeing maybe 3 or 4 times per week and so we could leave the weekends to the tourists. After all, it's not a vacation, it's our life and we need days to relax and just be retired as well as days for laundry, shopping, etc.

At this point in our fulltiming life we usually stay at least one month, sometimes two. And if we're around grandkids we may make that 3 or 4 months.

To me, the key is to realize you're not on vacation, take time to enjoy and relax as well as to see. When you start out traveling that's very hard to do. There's the excitement of wanting to see so much that it's very easy to try to do too much in too short a time. That will burn you out quickly. Kind of like those vacations where you have to go back to work to rest up.

I see you're already long timing so I probably didn't say anything you didn't already know.

[K0LCB]

I like to stay in one spot until I can find my way back without getting lost

[DQDick]

We have a summer "home base" we stay at for 3-4 months and we usually work a winter job in Arizona that lasts 5-6 months. The rest of the time we travel and like to spend at least a week at the areas we target so we can experience the area. when we're traveling from targeted area to targeted area we seldom stay in parks and usually stay were we can stay for free so that means one night and move on.

[JandC]

We have a "summer base" where we are staying 7 or 8 months (central Illinois). For 4 months we will winter in Florida. During the winter we will stay put the whole time. During the summer months we will take trips from our "summer base" that last anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks. We almost always stay in a campground 2 nights before moving on. What is nice about the campground we are in during the summer is that when we are gone on trips they do not charge us and give us our spot back when we return. Of course all the above is subject to change each year, and that is part of what we love about full time living in our Montana.

[rohrmann]

We try to plan on at least a week at one place, But we have stayed a month or more at a number of locations. We will have been at our current location just north of Kansas City 3 months when we finally leave for a warmer place. You may get a break on the site for weekly stays, but not all parks do that. We have found the best rate is a monthly rate, which usually has electric as a separate charge. Our best rate was $325/month in Caldwell, ID and the electric was only about 9 cents/KWH.

[Recumbent]

So far its been two months max at one spot, and will be increasing to three months this winter. In 2010 we did long weekends and vacation trips, 2011 was a mix of vacations and one 3 week trip. Then in 2012 we lived in the Monty 6 months including 3 places for one months stops in FL and then in 2013 again in FL at one spot for 2 months with the remainder being one to two week stops with a few 4 and 5 night stays. Also, with this comes several destination trips where we just stop for one night in route.

[mazboy]

your question is quite open, there is really no average. as a full timer you just decide where and what to do and do it. lots of full timers have a summer location and a winter location. enjoy the travels.

[rving2us]

Great info, Murf and I are interested on how full timers/long timers/snowbirds deal with Christmas holidays when family (grandchildren) live in northern states and you are parked in the sunbelt.

[Montana4two]

We have a base in summer where we stay for 6months as my husband still works. This winter we are down at the Imperial Dam LTVA near Yuma and had intended to travel around, but, we like it so much here we might park here for 5months and just do day trips out

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Holidays, I want to honker down from about the 15th of December to the 15th of January.

The grandtwins get nice gifts.

Skype.

Many campgrounds have holiday meals for the residents/campers.

More Skype!

[JandC]

quote:Originally posted by rving2us

Great info, Murf and I are interested on how full timers/long timers/snowbirds deal with Christmas holidays when family (grandchildren) live in northern states and you are parked in the sunbelt.

This will be our first Christmas holiday season dealing with that issue. Having 11 grandkids we were not ready to be gone at Christmas yet. We are celebrating Christmas with kids/grandkids on December 14th and then pulling out for Nashville TN on December 16th. We are hoping to stay in the Nashville KOA until the 24th, and then leave the Monte there and just drive the truck back to one of the kids houses for Christmas. We then will return to Nashville and start making our way south for the winter. Of course all of this depends on the weather.

[kiltedpig]

One of the deciding factors in length of stay is the budget. We have been doing some close analysis of costs and one of the big drivers of cost is the cost of fuel to travel from spot to spot. Does anyone else see this as a problem in keeping the budget in control?

[Montana Sky]

The best part about the fuel cost and keeping it in budget is.....you are in 100% control of it. The more miles your wheels turn, the more $$$$ your wallet burns. Weekly rates are cheaper than daily rates. Monthly rates are even cheaper than weekly and seasonal rates can be even cheaper yet. The cost of fuel is not going down anytime soon, therefore I offset my monthly costs in other areas. I eat in more often now, stay in parks that are nice, but I dont have to have 5 star resort/amenities/prices. I stay in one place or one geographical area for seasons now, verse constantly being on the go every week or so. I have found I really enjoy staying around the park and talking with fellow neighbors and folks that come and go. You can burn up a few afternoons and evenings getting to know folks and hearing about their adventure on the road. I especially enjoy this as I get to hear about the "must do's" and "must go" places along with the "dont waste your time or money" places as well. Helps when trying to decide on where to go next and what to do once ya get there. Lastly, I also offset my monthly costs when traveling between destinations by staying over night in Wal*Mart parking lots. I will drive until I'm tired, find a Wal*Mart that allows overnight parking, pull in and bed down. Amazing how 5 to 6 nights of "boon docking" will allow you to save $300 or more in overnight nightly campsite rental fees. There are many options that will help you keep, expand, and reduce, your budget. It just takes a little creativity.

[JandC]

For us there was a learning curve the first year of full timing. We needed to spend some summer time in the area our family is located. Therefore we wanted that to be a full service, clean, nice cheaper RV park. We found one that is wonderful for $325 a month all utilities included. At $10.83 per day for several months that cleared up some room for us to pay higher rental rates while in Florida. So now even if we stay at a high end Florida RV park for 4 months in the winter our annual average per day is still lower because of all the money we saved during the summer. The way we did it this year our average rental per night was less than $25.00. When traveling we use Passport America and KOA to get some knocked off. We could do it a little cheaper than we are but we wanted full hook ups 365 days a year plus we wanted to be within a mile of a beach while staying in Florida during the winter months. Our ultimate goal is to pay less every year than we used to pay for taxes, utilities, and insurance on our house. So far so good for us.

[CORattler]

Sage advice... the voice of experience. Thanks for the post.

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

Congratulations! Well, I see you're still in the contemplation stage but congratulations if you decide to go full time.

As for length of stay... when we started out, a few days to a week we considered a long time. Over time that changed to us staying for a month in many places so we could explore the area to see things we otherwise would have missed and so we could cut down and go sightseeing maybe 3 or 4 times per week and so we could leave the weekends to the tourists. After all, it's not a vacation, it's our life and we need days to relax and just be retired as well as days for laundry, shopping, etc.

At this point in our fulltiming life we usually stay at least one month, sometimes two. And if we're around grandkids we may make that 3 or 4 months.

To me, the key is to realize you're not on vacation, take time to enjoy and relax as well as to see. When you start out traveling that's very hard to do. There's the excitement of wanting to see so much that it's very easy to try to do too much in too short a time. That will burn you out quickly. Kind of like those vacations where you have to go back to work to rest up.

I see you're already long timing so I probably didn't say anything you didn't already know.