Motorhome travel USA 2015-2019
In 2015 were living in a rural area of Spain and we had a small holiday rental business that we had built up from 2003. We had decided after all the hard work it was now time to do some travelling for ourselves during the winter months. After a lot of research we decided to buy an American motorhome and travel in the warmer Southern areas of the USA.
So in the autumn of 2015 we initially hired for 2 weeks a Cruise America 28A RV which was 30ft long and designed for a family of 6. Just the right size for 2 people who intended making an RV their American home and travel for up to 3 months at a time!
Initially we spent the rental period in Florida going around areas that most holiday makers would never travel to. The springs were a great place to start our adventure off and to see such a different life compared to the tourist trap of Orlando.
The 30ft RV with a fixed double bed was definitely the size we wanted but we ended up buying a 30 ft 27G with what we decided had a better layout. This model was only rented for a few years and had a more modern styling to it. We think they probably stopped using it as it was not so good for a family but in our case for 2 people it was perfect. With the deals from Cruise America we got our rental money back and also the internal flight costs to Phoenix from Orlando to pick up our RV.
From Phoenix we travelled through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas before storing our RV near Dallas from where we flew back to Spain.
In the 2016 Spring we went from Dallas to South Padre Island and we only paid only $8 a night next to the beach (the beach was free but we did not want to risk getting a 7T RV stuck in the sand!). Then we spent the autumn in Arkansas where no one seems to go and it is such a great place with plenty of lakes, rivers , wilderness and boondocking (free camping). At the end of this trip we returned to Spain and had only 2 weeks over Christmas to pack up everything as we were moving to England. This in itself was a story and a half as we lived in the middle of nowhere with no roads and only our trailer to move things to a storage area to be collected by a lorry.
2017 saw us travelling from Dallas to Las Vegas for a new storage area and the route we travelled took us through Texas, New Mexico Colorado and Nevada. This included Pecos National Forest, Wild Rivers, the Chama to Antonito railway, Arches , Canyonlands and Navajo Monument National Parks. Finally we spent a week at the South side of the Grand Canyon and a raft trip on the Colorado River.
For our first time back to Las Vegas to collect our RV we decided to stay a couple of nights on the Vegas strip to see what it was all about. Expensive, smoking everywhere, not even a fridge in the hotel room as they want you to go out and spend money. Definitely not our scene. For all future trips we found a sensible price hotel/meals/drinks etc just off the main strip so we could arrive in the evening at the airport and go there before getting taxi in the morning to our RV storage in North Las Vegas.
2018 we spent 3 months Nevada and Utah with lots of boondocking, fabulous places including the North side of the Grand Canyon. At first on this trip we stayed next to Lake Mead boondocking as we waited for the snow and cold weather in Utah to clear. Lake Mead is a fabulous place that people who go to Las Vegas tend to not realise it even exists within 30 minutes.
For our second trip that year we had loved the Lake Mead area so much that we stayed for 2 months around there in the glorious weather. We only spent $20 in this whole time on camping fees as we wanted to be in Las Vegas for an appointment first thing one morning. As we had everything we needed in our RV we travelled with just carryon baggage and even in 2019 the cost for both of us return London to Las Vegas and then return from Seattle was only £635
In 2019 we did our last trip to the US as we had decided to move on and to sell our RV. We were going to buy a motorhome or caravan and then travel Europe in the future.
This trip started in Las Vegas, down into Arizona, across to California, and then up Highway 101 on the West coast travelling to Oregon and Washington State Seattle. This was a very different trip and we felt that RV’s were not wanted in most places. The free camping was very difficult to find and our costs went up a lot also with the higher price of fuel in these states.
The secret of our great times was driving small distances and staying in places from 3 days to 14 days to really enjoy the area, relax and be happyJ Not forgetting the 3rd traveller with us, our navigator Flat Eric (from the old Levi Jeans adverts). He sat on the dashboard and anytime we went the wrong way it was his fault and never one of us to blame J
If you would like to see more of our story and photographs please look at our web site www.cencerrita.com It is best viewed on a desk top or landscape on a mobile device.We also whilst traveling wrote a book if anyone is interested on the practicalities of buying and owning an American RV which is called American Motorhome Lifestyle Handbook for Europeans
Comments
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I'm fascinated by the account of your motor-home travels in the USA. I posted an account on the Club site last year of my trip to the USA in a 1989 Auto-Trail Apache - which I believe you were kind enough to comment upon. I did carry out some research into renting an RV in America, which, for the six months duration of my visit, would have been prohibitively expensive, and I also looked into the possibility of purchasing a second-hand American vehicle. However, my investigations seemed to indicate that, in order to own, register and insure such a vehicle, would require me to have a United States address. I would be interested to hear if you found this to be the case and, if so, how you managed to overcome the requirement.
USJOE
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Sorry for slow response but the "follow link" had not appeared on my story until you wrote a comment. Whilst checking today I was finally able to click on it so I am notified of any comments.
Yes you need to get an American address which is very simple by downloading a form from USPS (United States Postal Service) and getting it notorised. Then you need a mail service and it is very important which state you use for many reasons.(We used Florida). It is also very easy to get a US bank account contary to what you may read so you can change money at the best rates during a year and not at bad U credit card rates as you spend! Everything is quite easy to do but as there is so much required to get your adventure right we wrote a book which is available in Amazon - American Motorhome Lifestyle for Europeans. Hopefully you have looked at our web site link already www.cencerrita.com and one of the web pages it gives the index for the book so anyone can see what is in the 430 pages (304 A4 pages).
Anyone buying an ex Cruise America rental can also get an additional $300 off if we send their details to them before they start a purchase enquiry. They can also get their rental money back if at first you rent.
Hope you get back across there again and have some great trips as we have. We are just so lucky we are not there now as last year we were part way through a 3 month trip and would have been stuck.
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Oh, the above photo was one of the free overnight spots we stayed in next to the Golden Gate Bridge. There is also one right next to it you can walk over the bridge and also get the tour bus from around San Francisco
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Hi Joe
We do have a hard copy as a project to complete if you are interested. Due to the large amount of pictures it looks like it will cost over 20 pounds which is why we had not done it before.
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Just to let you know the paperback copy is now listed on Amazon an it should be available very shortly
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