Family vacations did not really exist when you were a child. You simply called weekends or the occasional long week away a camping trip. Towing the pop up camper trailer behind the family station wagon back in the 1970s a family vacation started and ended with you riding in the back seat. Facing the pop up camper trailer that you were pulling instead of the road ahead that you were traveling, you were the first to announce any abnormalities. You could warn of loose straps that were flying in the air and a wobbly trailer that might indicate an impending flat tire.
These trips may not have been as entertaining as today’s travel offerings of DVD players and social media posts provided by vehicles with their own WiFi, but it was still fairly dramatic! Your frugal father’s request for the 20 minute update on how the pop up camper trailer was holding up helped the hours of travel click by faster than you might expect. and the fact that you were the only one of the four kids who could ride backwards for hours on end without getting carsick meant that you had the large seat blissfully to yourself. As your three younger siblings battles over the space of the long bench in the middle, you were free to lay down or sit up, completely unencumbered by the seat and shoulder belts that all travelers wear today.
and though your father’s angry outbursts about an overheated station wagon engine or the some what frequent flat tire on the old pop up camper trailer made you nervous at the time, you would give any thing to go back to the simplicity of those trips. Unfortunately, today’s travel plans often involve detailed itineraries with inconvenient hotel check in and check out times. The long lines for airport security screenings make even the shortest flights a burden. And the fun of just creating fun where ever you stopped for the day has become the constant quest for visiting the top sites no matter where you travel. The quiet fishing streams and silent camp sites have been replaced with the noise and chaos created by everyone else who found the list of the top must see sites.
How Does Your Family Spend Its Vacation Time and Budget?
While many families still enjoy the busy schedule and expensive budgets of airline and hotel travel, other families have made the decision to return to a simpler, but no less enjoyable, way of travel. Used camper trailers provide many families an introduction into the life of camper traveling. Add in one of the affordable pontoon boats and your family can make its own fun at hundreds of locations around the country. Used campers for sale provide even the families with a limited budget the opportunity to travel without expensive hotel reservations.
The two main categories of RVs are motorhomes, which are motorized, and towables, which are towed behind the family car, van or pickup. Both options allow families to visit locations far from the crowded hotel lobbies of busy cities. Traveling with your home allows a family to stop at predetermined sites or random locations that they come across. Not surprisingly, A recent survey indicated that for a family of four, traveling by RV on vacation can save anywhere from 23% to 59% on vacation costs. Additionally, these families have the flexibility of traveling where they want when they want and having private space that does not involve busy and crowded hotel lobbies and airport terminals.
The Importance of Family Vacation Time Includes Conversation and Solitude
Families today are often controlled by busy work, school, and activity schedules. Days at home are often a revolving door of early morning departures and late night arrivals. As individual family members attend their own baseball and volleyball practices in the summer, family dinners go by the wayside. With as many as 16,000 public and privately owned campgrounds nationwide, RV and smaller camper travelers are free to roam America?s roads for a short weekend or a long month. The time on the road together and the camping itself provides families a chance to both converse and relax.