The rationale for buying a camper vs. using hotels for longer trips typically includes cost savings from cooking your own meals, having flexibility to stay closer to parks and wildlife areas, and being able to stop wherever and whenever you want. In our case we could also include eliminating dog sitters or boarding fees.
For those of you veteran camper folks, in your experience, are the hard and soft savings from having a camper worth the extra maintenace and cost? I've always heard campers are one of those items you're better renting vs. buying, and I'm interested to hear from practical people that love them and would never go back vs. those that suffered buyer's regret.
As a sidenote, I have a 2009 Duramax that can tow around 13k pounds, and my wife and I have been casually looking at campers with a max length of 22-23', so capacity isn't an issue. Primary uses would be "couples" camping to visit our grown kids with our 3 dogs and occassional hunting or fishing trips. Thank you in advance for the advice!
IMO? If you aren't sure, you shouldn't get a camper. Rent one the few times you want to camp (this is really easy to do on sites like RVShare). if you WANT a camper, nothing else will do and no justification is needed.
Hotels have long, hot showers and tons of room to spread out. Campers have all your stuff already in them - nothing to unpack/bring in.
Hotels are often in much more convenient locations if you're visiting a city/a person in a city. Campgrounds are often in better spots if you want a view, a lake, a river, etc.
Hotels are easy - pay, go to your room, done. And they look it - unless you stay somewhere odd, the halls smell the same, the linens are the same, the fake wood desk is the same, the $7-per-bottle water from the fridge is the same... Campers (mostly) require setup, managing tank levels, dealing with frustrations like neighbors laughing loudly til 1am right next to you, very out-of-level sites, and "poop pyramids".
Hotels are much more expensive
per night. I mean, maybe you're on a budget, but I won't stay somewhere with <4 stars. (Actually these days I prefer VRBOs and have stayed in some lovely ones.) Who wants to sleep on sketchy linens and walk barefoot on gross carpet 50 other people did too (maybe with athlete's foot)? So I'm not usually at a $40/night no-tell-motel in the boonies, I'm at a Sheraton/Holiday Inn/Embassy Suites/etc. Even on a budget you can be looking at an average of $120/night, and double (or more) in city centers.
You can buy a lot of camp site nights for that. But if you camped 50 nights in 5 years (10/yr) let's say you averaged $45/night (after taxes, fees, etc.) For 50 nights in that $120/night hotel you'd pay $6,000. To camp you'd pay $2,250. But of the amount you saved ($3,750) no way do you buy even a moderately decent camper for that. You can adjust the numbers however you want. There's still no objective world where it makes sense to "buy a camper so we can save money using camp sites instead of hotel rooms."
Unless.
You want to buy a camper...
And then no justification is needed!
