Living the dream for some means a big house, a neat garden, and 2.4 kiddos. For others, it means traveling around the country in an RV. Firstly you would have to get a great deal on your RV of choice because that is how you’re going to be getting around.

Secondly, planning.

Not everyone has the option to start traveling, bills, commitments, work contracts, rental contracts they can all keep us pretty tied to where we are. If you know that you for sure want to take a long trip, then start working on tying up those ends within the same week. It’s not easy, but it will be worth it.

RV travel used to be something left to retiring people, family travelers or just slightly older people. But actually, the practical nature of an RV lends itself to so many more different types of people that they’re starting to explode in popularity.

So, once you have the RV what about the rest?

Be Firm

Once you have made the decision, it is easy to push it aside again and say it is just a dream for another life. Or, that you will wait until XYZ. But, that will never get you traveling as you might wish. Once you have made the decision takes some action to cement it. Invite your wildest friend, tell your family, start looking into when your current contracts run out.

Save

You’re going to either save up or find a job where you can work on the road. The latter of the two is probably more preferable. You could manage social media, create websites, teach English via skype, copywriting and so much more. You’ll need to decide what will work best for you but gas isn’t free so try to remember that.

Packing

The greatest thing about an RV is, it will be your giant suitcase. You’ll be loading her up once and just trying to keep her tidy for the rest of the time. But, when you do pack try to pack like you would for a trip with many destinations. Jumpers for those very cold evenings, swim gear for when you’re beachside. You might like to pack something a bit more formal too – because you never know where you might end up. Packing a capsule wardrobe is going to work wonders here.

Food

Remember that you can cook in an RV, so start stocking up on easy to cook and eat foods like noodles, rice, dried pasta and jars of sauce. Of course, you will be picking up fresher food as you go, but having a good stock to start with will help cut the costs of your first big stop.

Remote Working

When you are on trains, planes and in the car, it can sometimes suck to find a space where you can work and plug in your equipment to get a decent charge. However, in an RV there are multiple power outlets. You can even modify some of them to USB for things like tablets and phones, leaving the bigger once clear for laptops. You can plan your trip to make sure that you have plenty of WiFi hotspots on the trail. Before you go, checking out a mobile phone contract or PAYG service that has a really decent data plan will enable you to deal with things like emails when you can. It might not be ideal for everyone, but it is a great way to see a lot of the country and earn money to keep you going for long. If you are worried about temperamental WiFi, then a TEP wireless WiFi hotspot might be what you need.

Sleeping & Staying

Of course, you’re going to need to sleep and park the RV for a few hours. Sleeping isn’t hard if you have more than just yourself that is able to drive you can take it in turns to sleep and drive. Sharing the load. For the times that you want to stay a little longer, then you can use this little list of apps and websites to help you find safe places:

Allstays

Campendium

Hip Camp

What you will be looking for will consist of campgrounds, RV parks and ‘free parking’. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. If you want to have a chat with people, have some basic amenities or at least some partial hookups then campgrounds and RV parks are for you. F you want that real deal, hyper-authentic wilderness feeling, then boondocking or dry docking is what you will want to do. You won’t have water, be able to charge up, or even a real toilet, but they have that outdoorsy starry-skies that you are looking for. For help finding the free spaces:

Boondocker’s Welcome

FreeCampsites.net

Harvest Hosts – cool because this matches you up with people who are happy to host you on their land. Membership is $40 a year though. Your spot is free but if you find yourself on a honey farm, buy some honey, jam maker? Buy the jam. You get the idea.

Spontaneity

If you are driving, and have set up notifications for free festivals, or perhaps see a sign for one – then go! It’s liberating to be able to simply park and enjoy live music, street food, new people, beaches, beauty spots and local events – so be liberated. You have the choice to curate how your future looks hour by hour. There is no set itinerary (unless you planned one), no limitations to where you can and cannot go (for the most part), and who knows who you might meet!

RV travel is like the safety of a house, on wheels. A percentage of what you own can come with you, like your dog or cat for example. A portion of your wardrobe and your favorite photo of you as a kid. It’s pretty much what travel dreams are made of, wind down the window, turn up your favorite songs and see where it takes you.

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