Camping to save money

[hikeorbike]

Compared to staying in hotels, camping can be a very frugal way to travel or move! I did it with my mom when we moved across the country at a young age.

 

[LoveTheWater]

Yes, I imagine it can be cheaper then staying in most hotels. It can be more work but if you are used to doing it and are pretty organized about it you could save a lot of money.

 

[JeepThrills]

I use to know a man that lived year round in a tent at a campground that was situated by a lake. He said it was cheaper than living in an apartment and he could eat all the fish he could catch.

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

I've camped several times when I was travelling for business. I usually got a motel room when I got where I was going, but en route, I would find campgrounds and spend a night or two. It was fun exploring new areas and beat hell out of a motel.

 

[Hikenhunter]

I worked with a guy years ago who lived in his small camper. When ever he wanted new saurroundings he would just move to a different campground.We worked construction at the time and he moved around the country bouncing from job to job, living in his camper. Not very stable but it was working for him at the time.

 

[Bojib]

I've tried to talk my wife into camping to save money during our vacation this year. So far, I don't even get the pleasure of hearing an answer, just a blank stare, like I'm some kind of fool or something.

She likes to camp, but I'm guessing a vacation must be more "luxurious" in her mind.

But yeah, we have camped before to save money over a hotel room. Especially on trips to the Great Smoky Mountains. We camp there fairly often.

 

[Barney]

I totally misread the title of the thread: camping for money. Wouldn't that be nice? Anyways, this is a good idea but as LoveTheWater said, you need to be organized and proficient in it to enjoy it.

 

[ppine]

For many of us, camping became a style of living when we were younger to save money. Now it is a way of life.

Camping for business was sometimes a requirement during remote field work. It is not as much fun working all day outside, and then trying to cook and relax with minimal furniture.

One great trip was a mine site in the Toquima Range of central Nevada. My work partner and I camped at a remote hot springs out in the sage brush only 15 miles from the mine. We slept on a small wooden deck next to the springs without a tent. We woke up in the morning and rolled into the water. I could stand chest deep and make coffee on the stove on the deck. We got paid per diem each day along with our hourly consulting rate. Now that was what I call a great business trip.

 

[Grandpa]

I've tried to talk my wife into camping to save money during our vacation this year. So far, I don't even get the pleasure of hearing an answer, just a blank stare, like I'm some kind of fool or something.

She likes to camp, but I'm guessing a vacation must be more "luxurious" in her mind.

But yeah, we have camped before to save money over a hotel room. Especially on trips to the Great Smoky Mountains. We camp there fairly often.

My first thought was "who does the cooking and dishes" when you go camping? Maybe your wife wants a vacation.

 

[back2nature]

I either want to go camping as my vacation or want to stay somewhere with all the amenities. Those are two different types of vacation in my mind, so I doubt I would ever camp out just to save a few bucks on hotels. When I camp, I want to stay in one spot for the entire vacation, not move every night.

 

[Judy Ann]

Now that I own everything I need the cost savings should start adding up for my trips. When I plan to stay put for 4 or more nights I take my big canvas tent along with reclining chair, linens and air mattress, rug for inside the tent and everything I need for cooking. A quick stop at the farmer's market and I'm on my way to another exciting destination. There are a lot of great state parks with large lots that are almost empty Sunday-Thursday and weekend groups can be an interesting time and short-lived. Walking to the bathhouse and restocking ice daily can be a very small inconvenience when there are outfitters nearby with canoes, mountains to hike and ice cream somewhere on a really hot day. Nothing like a quiet evening by a lake or river after cooking some freshly caught fish. A nip or two of a single malt or an icy beverage might just make it this side of Heaven!

 

[Theosus]

Yes, I imagine it can be cheaper then staying in most hotels. It can be more work but if you are used to doing it and are pretty organized about it you could save a lot of money.

When I was a child in the 70s we went to Disney world. Back there were two choices inside the property. The luxury hotels or the campground. Spending a week in central Florida in June in a Korean-war style green family tent was enough to temper my urge to camp for years. It was just so damn hot the whole time.
We used to do the same thing at Myrtle beach state park a few times a year. Again, summer heat in myrtle beach is nothing to sneeze at. Plus the bugs could almost carry you away.
But times have changed. I stayed in a tent in the Tennessee mountains to save money. I had no ground pad, and a 20 degree army surplus bag. I sweated to death sleeping naked in that damn thing, while my mouth and nose froze, but I had a blast.

 

[Grandpa]

We sometimes blend both camping and hotels when we travel. This isn't so much for a cost savings as being able to take backcountry roads to get to a vacation/business location. We have discovered many "off the grid" beautiful places traveling this way. Many of these we have gone back to just for the camping.

When Grandma and I got married many years ago, we loaded the old pickup and just took off. After a couple of nights in a tent in some remote forest, we would find a motel for showers and a meal we didn't have to cook ourselves.

The last few years it has been just one or the other. Camping trips are for camping and the other trips are for the vacations where someone else does the cooking and the linen laundery.

 

[ChadTower]

The problem is now camping is the trendy thing "to help in this awful economy." State parks in a good spot are full within an hour of the booking window opening. Private campgrounds in good spots have tripled their nightly price. Camping is actually getting more expensive, quickly, for those of us who always preferred camping to the $4500 family vacation.

 

[love2hike]

Fortunately for us, camping rates at the local state parks have stayed fairly stable, even with the price of everything else rising. A "cheap" hotel room around here is at least $50/night, while back country camping spots are still under $20/night. Also, while camping has increased in popularity in recent years, we have enough state parks to keep them all from filling up, so we've never had any problems booking a nice spot.

 

[ChadTower]

Yeah, state parks have not gone up, but the cost of getting sites has. A lot of parks in MA are starting to fill up 6 months in advance within hours of the rolling window opening. I am already getting sick of playing the Ticketmaster game with campsites.

 

[Judy Ann]

Yeah, state parks have not gone up, but the cost of getting sites has. A lot of parks in MA are starting to fill up 6 months in advance within hours of the rolling window opening. I am already getting sick of playing the Ticketmaster game with campsites.

Hi Chad! I have a list of places within a 4 hour radius of my home just in case I can't get the desired site where I want to camp. SC beach campgrounds booked, ok what about the NC beaches? Best places to canoe with the pup, waterfalls, lakes in the mountains for chilling out on a summer evening, new areas with flowers blooming by month, you get the idea. Thank goodness all that reading and researching is not as much of an obsession as it has been for the last couple of years! :tinysmile_tongue_t:

 

[ghostdog]

I simply don't like hotel rooms of any kind. I spent far too much time in them over my mapping career. And I like saving money like everyone else. It has always been hard for me to justify the price of a hotel room just to sleep in. We have developed our means to clean up just fine in the backcountry. For the price of an expensive restaurant meal we can cook up a week's worth of meals in our own little bistro with a view and ambiance that fancy places wish they had.

Away from all cares of the busy city, simple camping is sublime.

 

[CozInCowtown]

We camp both in tents and the 5th wheel, kinda depends on alot of factors.
Weather, who and where we are going are the main factors.
We also do road trips where we just grab a hotel/motel enroute to wherever we are heading. Overnighters to Carlsbad Caverns come to mind.
DC

 

[Judy Ann]

I simply don't like hotel rooms of any kind. I spent far too much time in them over my mapping career. And I like saving money like everyone else. It has always been hard for me to justify the price of a hotel room just to sleep in. We have developed our means to clean up just fine in the backcountry. For the price of an expensive restaurant meal we can cook up a week's worth of meals in our own little bistro with a view and ambiance that fancy places wish they had.

Away from all cares of the busy city, simple camping is sublime.

X2!!! My tent and linens are cleaner than a cheap motel and taking my dog with me saves me $40 in boarding fees nightly. My 3L platypus bladder does double duty as a shower backpacking and a couple of Arizona Tea gallon containers set out in the sun during the day allows me enough warm water to shower and wash hair if car camping. A quick visit to the Farmer's Market and the butcher shop on the way out of town and I'm golden for 24+ hours until I need more ice.

Two more weeks until the next trip! :cheer2: