Today, I have a great guest post to share from Alyssa Padgett, author of RVing Across America. Four days after her wedding in 2014, Alyssa and her husband Heath set off on an unconventional honeymoon to all fifty states. They’ve been traveling ever since, now traveling the world with their two young children. You can find them on their website at HeathandAlyssa.com.

When my husband and I started planning our honeymoon, we knew we wanted to start our marriage with an adventure.

That’s when I came up with the plan to visit all 50 states in a year.

Which I realize makes me sound like I inherited a trust fund that allowed me to easily take a year off to full-time travel. 

I didn’t.

I was just a broke college graduate about to marry another broke college graduate and we would both be quitting our jobs to make this crazy honeymoon happen. This was in a pre-COVID world too, when remote work existed, but wasn’t yet common.

Heath, my husband, suggested sleeping in the back seat of our car to make the trip as cost-effective as possible. I pointed out that was a great way to ensure a divorce before we actually made it across the country. 

Further research determined that the best, cheapest way to travel to all 50 states was to buy an RV and take a year-long road trip. 

We didn’t know how much it would cost, how to make money while traveling, or anything about RVs. But we were determined to kick off our life together by accomplishing something amazing and visiting all 50 states sounded just wild enough. 

RVing across America surprised us with beauty and adventure, but also with a surprisingly low price tag. The cost to visit all 50 states in a year—and full-time RVing in general—was cheaper than we expected and even cheaper than life in our apartment.

Let’s look at your basic travel costs first, and then get into ways to make and save money while traveling. [Read more…]