By Luke & Alysha

Our RV Travelling Style Over Three Years

Over the past three years of RVing, each year we have focused on a different style of RV travel, and each has had its own ups and downs. Year one we put down plenty of kilometres, hardly ever spending more than one night at the same spot. In year two we were still actively travelling but tried to spend at least two nights per spot when we could. Now in year three while RVing with a baby, we tend to spend multiple nights per campsite and have really slowed down to enjoy each area. Of course, everyone will have their own preferences when it comes to “how to RV", and those preferences may even change season to season like it has for us.

In our first year of RVing, we travelled across Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland and back in about three months. Travelling on the open road every day across Canada was exciting. Every day offered new scenery and it felt like we were on a mission. While travelling across Canada we had no camping reservations or plans ahead of time. We were truly going where the road took us. We either found a campsite last minute or just boondocked wherever we made it to that day. As the trip continued on, however, we found that packing up our belongings every day and never setting aside days in our itinerary to unwind became fatiguing. It was an exciting year doing 20,000 km in a cross-Canada RV adventure but we will plan more rest days next time to allow more time to actually unpack and camp.

Year two RVing we toured our home Province of British Columbia with an emphasis on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. This time, we decided to plan out our trip beforehand rather than departing on a wild and unpredictable adventure. This meant that we were stressing less about finding a spot to sleep at night, and we were also able to schedule forced rest days into our schedule. We booked the competitive campsites in advance while still leaving open days for flexibility and non-reservable campsites. This was a nice style of travel where we had certain deadlines to arrive at nice campground sites while allowing flexibility in the time you spent to get there if you came across an area you loved or a hidden gem of a spot. This style worked well for us, and we learned that staying at least two nights at a campsite allowed you to actually unpack and enjoy a full second day where you are not having to be checked out and back on the road by 11:00 am. Of course, if we weren’t as excited about staying in certain areas, we still could just do a quick one-nighter to get where we were heading. This style of travel allowed some full days to unwind while still being able to put down some bigger driving days to cover more ground for adventuring.

Heading into year three of RVing for us, we were not sure what to expect RVing with a baby. Thankfully Chloe has taken to the RV lifestyle as a true little camper. We still enjoy the two-night minimum campouts to get that full day to actually camp, we just tend to cover less ground per trip now. One of the biggest things we’ve found RV camping with a baby is that travel days take about twice as long as the estimated driving time. If we are three hours away from a campground, we expect it to take around six hours for us to give Chloe time to stretch her legs out of her car seat, eat and play and remain a happy camper. That being said, we don't cover as much ground between campsites as we did before having a baby. We now like to try and spend a little extra time at each campsite too knowing that more of our time will be spent caring for our daughter so we will need more time to get out and enjoy the area. This style of RVing has been quite the change for us but has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We had been guilty in the past of travelling quickly to see and do as much as possible, which sometimes led to being burnt out. Having a child has really forced us to slow down and have shorter driving days which we have really enjoyed.

About the authors: Luke & Alysha bought their first RV from Fraserway RV and travelled around Canada exploring.