20 Pros & Cons of Full-Time RV Living (2024)

After 18 months of living full-time on the road, we learned what was great and not so great about a nomadic lifestyle. While not all travel is created equal these are our 20 Pros & Cons of living full-time on the road in our 30-foot Airstream RV. We always want to share our most honest thoughts, good or bad, because if you dream of living full-time on the road we want you to have the most realistic expectations of what’s the come. Most days are great, some are not, and what we might find as a pro you might consider a con! We hope you find this information useful and that it helps on your journey.

Full-Time RV Living Pros

1. The Weather

   We love the sun, and we love warmth, so living in Seattle was not what I would call ideal. When we started on the road, one of our top priorities was to chase the sun. We have spent our time on the road doing just this. Maybe you love snow, you love fall colors, or like us, you love the sun. Regardless of what you love, living a nomadic lifestyle means you can chase what you love.

2. Experiences

   We have lived (together) in NYC and Seattle, so we've been fortunate to have access to a lot of experiences, but we were starting to realize that a few weeks of vacation time per year was not enough for us to experience all we wanted. Full-time RVing allows us to work during the day and explore new places every week.

3. Freedom

   We aren't saying we did not have freedom when we lived a sticks-and-bricks life. But we did, at times, feel like we were stuck. Sadly we had a troublesome neighbor when we lived in Seattle. We couldn't just pick up or home and leave when things started to act up. Now, if we don't like our neighbors, the weather, etc., etc. we pack up and head out, home in tow.

4. Nature

   While living in Seattle, we loved exploring the surrounding nature. We hiked, we biked, and man the pacific northwest is one beautiful place to explore. But what we love about full-time RV'ing is that we can explore all types of nature. From mountains to deserts, oceans to prairies, we have had the chance to explore it all, and maybe one of my favorite things about this new life. Over two weeks, we were hiking the phenomenal granite cliffs of Yosemite to the miles of sand dunes at Death Valley National Park.

5. Choice

   I know choice fatigue is a real thing, but it's not something I've been known to suffer from in my life. I think it's just the opposite! I love change, I love choice, the more, the better. Over the past months, we have been in seven different states stayed in 25+ cities and driven over 10,000 miles. That's a lot of choices to do what we want, and every week we get excited to move to the next destination and explore.

6. Minimalist Lifestyle

   The reality is that you cannot live in 200 square feet and not be a minimalist. I will admit that I am not a minimalist by nature, even though I want to be. Josh, on the other hand, is and initially found the process of downsizing our life from 1400 square feet to 200 much more straightforward. Despite that, I have embraced this lifestyle and love how easy it is to get things done. It only takes us 30 minutes to clean the whole place. SERIOUSLY!

7. Time with one another

   Josh and I are not only a married couple, but we're also business partners, so we spend A LOT of time together, and we did before we left on this adventure. That being said, we have discovered that we get to spend a different kind of time together now. Our free time is spent exploring and experiencing new things. Living in 200 square feet has made our marriage stronger. When you have so little room, you learn to communicate better, you don't let things linger, and in combination with these fantastic new life experiences, we are stronger than ever!

8. Focus on our business

   While it may sound glamorous to be traveling full time the time we have gained in living this lifestyle, even as we move every week, has given us the ability to focus our time and energy on growing our advertising agency.Josh and I have been working to take our side hustle to our full hustle for some time.Now that we have done that, we want to take it to the next level. This lifestyle has given us the ability to do just that.

9. no daily commute

   For all of my adult life, I have lived and worked in cities that required a serious commute each day to get to work. For the first time, I get to wake up, walk ten steps, and boom I'm at work. Josh and I are so thankful for these two hours a day back and are using them for personal growth.

10. Time for personal growth

    As mentioned above, we have found ourselves with more time on our hands. Whether it's reading, meditating, or learning something new, when the world gives you some time back, make the most of it!

11. BONUS: Unpredictability

Full-Time RV Living Cons

1. Fatigue

   We’d be lying if we didn’t say that living a nomadic lifestyle doesn’t get tiring. We generally move every 5-7 days and as a result, we can often feel like we are always on the go.

2. Lack of routine

   When you find yourself in a new place every week it can be hard to establish routines. We don’t always move on the same days, we travel a different distance each week, etc. Each day really is different so creating a routine can be challenging. The longer we’re on the road.

3. unexpected issues

   Things break, most often when you are as far away from a Home Depot as you can imagine being. We learned to be better prepared. We have a full toolbox, we carry spare parts that are likely to fail, and we have learned how to fix things. We’ve also learned that there is almost always a short-term solution until you can get to a long-term resolution. When we first hit the road, we would feel defeated when something went wrong, now we laugh it off and keep moving forward. We know we can either live without it (for some amount of time) or we can fix it. Don’t get too discouraged!

4. WiFi connectivity and reliability

   We run a large, client-facing business from the road. This is a 9-5 (and by 9-5 I mean more like we haven’t had a real day off since 2016) and we take a lot of Zoom calls. We most often worry about our service. While we have come up with a pretty robust setup, it is something that can sometimes hold us back from going where we want to go. It’s a compromise we are willing to make to be able to travel full-time.

5. cost

   While this most certainly varies by person and circ*mstance, overall, the cost of traveling full-time, even when you bring your home and everything with you, is more expensive than you might expect. Josh and I are pretty good savers and we try not to waste our money, but it can get easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of a place and want to eat out or see all the things and that generally begins to add up. Our best recommendation is to make a REALISTIC budget and really stick to it.

6. connection to friends and family

   Very often Josh and I are off somewhere, just the two of us. To be honest we love adventuring together and both feel so fortunate to have each other as our partners. But this lifestyle can often be solitary and we don’t get to see friends and family nearly as often as we wish we could. What I do love about this life is the fact that we have spent more quality time we a few people because they let us park in their driveways than we would have ever done otherwise. Those moments feel like a serious pro, even if they are few and far between.

7. travel days

   The first I’d recommend you focus on is how to make your travel days easier for you and your family. We all have different things that make long travel days more challenging. For us, it has often been the sheer distance we drive and thus having to stop more than once for gas. What we learned was to keep travel days to 4 hours or less, bring snacks and drinks in the truck with us, and if the driving day is going to be longer than 6 hours pre dinner and have it in the fridge so that as soon as we got settled into camp, we already had dinner situated. As you begin traveling, make notes as to what is causing you stress on travel days and come up with a plan to reduce it or eliminate it all together!

8. distance to things (mail, grocery, laundry)

   I cannot tell you how much time I have spent driving to far-off places to get mail, how long I spend in grocery stores trying to figure out where things are in what aisle or what a replacement item is when they don’t carry the brand we like to buy, or how many laundry mats we have sat in and taken work calls from. It’s just the reality of living nomadically. My best advice is to have a plan. We get mail once a month and know weeks in advance where and when we will get it. It means we can coordinate getting our mail and know it will be there when we get there. We make grocery lists with alternatives so if I show up and they don’t carry something, already have a different dinner planned that I can pivot to. We also only do laundry about once a month. We dedicated a space in the Airstream to just laundry, it holds 4 weeks’ worth and doing it all at once, it saves us a lot of time. This does require you to have more towels, sheet sets, and clothes, but we found a perfect balance that worked for us!

9. lack of community

   Just like missing friends and family, sometimes it can get lonely not being in the same place with the same people. I have been overwhelmed by the kindness and friendship of fellow travelers! Any chance we get to cross paths with and spend time with others who love to travel we want to. Don’t be afraid to reach out whether that’s around a camp, on a trail, or on social media! Those fireside chats or Insta DMs can really turn into lifelong friendships!

10. unpredictability

    If you don’t like change or the ability to plan everything nomadic life might not be for you. We have run from wildfires and skipped entire parts of states due to flooding. Taken refugee with friends and family when things have broken, the world went into a global pandemic or it’s been 110 degrees and we didn’t have AC in the Airstream. In all of these cases, I felt endlessly grateful for the love and support of others and knew that we’d be ok. Josh and I adapt well. It’s just part of who we are as people. I’d go as far as to say I actually thrive on change. If this isn’t you it doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t live a nomadic lifestyle. Maybe it’s a great opportunity for personal growth and you’ll thrive!

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