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…]

Want to learn how to rent an RV? Today, I’m going to talk about the best way to rent an RV, if renting is cheaper than a hotel, what to know before renting an RV, and more.

While I no longer live full-time in an RV (we’re now living full-time and traveling via sailboat!), I lived in one for several years and still own one. When we’re not on the boat, we live full-time in the van.

RVing is something that I absolutely love, and I think that traveling or living in an RV will ALWAYS be a part of my life!

What I love so much about living in an RV or van is that you have your whole house with you while you visit beautiful places. You can park right next to hiking and biking trails, next to the mountains or beaches, and more.

When we first sold our house to live in an RV full time, people thought we were crazy. We got rid of more than half of our stuff and started driving across the country.

But, as I started sharing our experience with our friends and family, more and more people started to realize it wasn’t crazy at all – it was amazing! [Read more…]