9 Reasons an RV is Ideal for a Road Trip

Summer is here, and for many of us, it's time to hit the open road and explore! But where to go and what vehicle to use? I recently completed an epic 9-day road trip from SLC to Monterey, to Ventura, to Valley of Fire, and Hell's Backbone of southern Utah. Usually, I would take my Adventure Prius, but my buddy Dave talked me into using an RV, so we contacted our local Cruise America location and got set up with a small 19 foot RV - which was perfect for two people. Here are nine reasons I discovered why an RV is ideal for a Road Trip.

1. A house on wheels! Tiny houses are all the rage, and an RV is nothing more than a tiny home that you can see the world in! Plus, it saves money by not staying at hotels. 

Photo Credit: Josiah Roe

2. Full kitchen! With standard size pots and pans, you can cook great meals and save money instead of eating out or heating up freeze-dried meals. If you have a Bialetti, you can make a fantastic cup of coffee in the morning, and pitstops throughout the day allow you to prepare a delicious quick meal.

3. Easy to pack up and take off! If you are driving from adventure-to-adventure as we did, it was super easy to pack up and hit the road in the morning or pull into a campsite at night. In the morning, throw your gear bags in the closet and cupboards, and you are off.

4. Bathroom and shower! These amenities are extra sweet, and opens up the options of where you can camp. You can roam BLM land and not have to rely on vault toilets, poo buckets, or digging a  hole. Plus, a real shower with hot water is amazingly refreshing after a dusty mountain bike ride.

5. Water tanks! An RV can hold plenty of water for cooking, toilet, and showers! Did I mention how nice a shower is after a dusty mountain bike ride? 

6. Room for all of your adventure toys! We attached a 4-place bike rack on the 2-inch receiver of the RV and loaded up our road and mountain bikes. Plus, there was plenty of storage for our helmets, shoes, clothes, and bike tools.

7. Camp almost anywhere! We rolled into Utah's Kodachrome Basin State Park in the evening and found out the campground was full. The ranger suggested we take a left on the gravel road and camp on BLM land. 

8. Relax in style! When you finish an adventure, you can pull out the chairs and kick back with a tasty chilled beverage from the fridge!

9. Take advantage of the low seasons. If your dates are flexible, you can get great deals on an RV. We went in late April and were able to turn a weekend trip into an epic 9-day road trip. 

To be honest, I was skeptical of renting an RV, but Dave was adamant, and I'm glad he was. The people at Cruise America were excellent and made the trip a fantastic experience!