So we came up with a list of countries that we think would be the top places where you can enjoy RV travel. And why!
The United States of America
It's no surprise that the U.S. is at the top of the list. With the best RV infrastructure, the most variety of camping possibilities, the cheapest gasoline, and a wide choice of year round opportunities for good weather RV'ing, it would take us more than two full years of constant exploring to see everything we would want to see. And there would still be things left to see for future visits.
One of the campgrounds at Zion National Park, Utah, U.S.A.
France
Again, with a wide variety of good weather possibilities on a year round basis, France would be a fantastic place to explore by RV. And, the French love camping! To give you an idea, there are over 3,000 RV campgrounds in France compared to 1,100 in Germany and only 400 in Spain. Having said that, if you're like us you don't always need a campground to camp with an RV.
Australia
They say you can drive the outback for days and not see a single soul. A huge amount of land to explore. More boondocking opportunities than Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas put together! An absolute dream for self sufficient RV'ers. And a ton of organized campgrounds as well. http://www.goseeaustralia.com.au/
Again, it would take two years to properly explore Australia by RV. It's a big country!
RV camping on Australia's coast.
New Zealand
One of our top choices for somewhere to RV. A year round camping paradise where local law permits you to free camp almost anywhere in the country provided you're 15 kms from the nearest town, and off the main highway. If you go in prime season (Jan-March) it will be quite busy but in July and August you would pretty much have the roads to yourself.
My father once said that he would have liked to have visited New Zealand. Only thing that stopped him was he thought that if he went there he might never come back!
Mexico
For the adventurous RV'er, obviously we have to list Mexico. One of our favorite places to RV. Enough organized campgrounds that you can comfortable explore. Not much in the way of other RV infrastructure though. If you need RV parts or repairs, you may be out of luck! Mexicans themselves are mostly tent campers so you can go days without ever seeing another RV. But, some of the most interesting places that we have camped have been in Mexico.
Unfortunately, the price of fuel has risen a lot in Mexico the last few years.
Canada
With great RV infrastructure in place, Canada is an RV camping playground. For people who like to get away from it all, 88% of Canada's land space is crown land, owned by either federal or provincial governments. Yep, all the free camping you'd like.
The downside is of course that you can only enjoy it properly for four or five months of the year!
Iceland
Not a very big place, but Iceland would be a perfect month of exploring by RV. The ring road around Iceland is 1,300 kms (800 miles) long and there are hundreds more kms of peninsular roads to explore. Maybe a month wouldn't be long enough...
RV camping in Iceland.
Southern Africa
Namely, the countries of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. We spent three weeks camping in Namibia and we were surprised by the number of organized campgrounds. And South Africa has a lot as well. To those of you who have never experienced it, there is nothing quite like driving down the road and seeing a wild ostrich or a giraffe or a baboon at the side of the road!
Cheapest I've ever seen this digital bathroom scale on Amazon.com...
And on Amazon.ca here in Canada, a great one day deal on a paper shredder...
Great list! New Zealand definitely deserves a place on it - fantastic place to travel around in and you'll see tons of folks doing it in RVs. Just watch out for the tourists who aren't used to driving on the other side of the road :-)
ReplyDeleteNow we can't wait to go and explore New Zealand in an RV! We are used to driving on the other side of the road now that we have had 4 months experience in Africa. :-)
DeleteI visited New Zealand back in 2000 and if I hadn't been married I am not sure I ever would have come back!
ReplyDeleteWhen my parents immigrated to Canada way back in 1957, they had a choice between New Zealand and Canada, I am sorta wishing they had picked New Zealand. This country is most definitely on our list of places to visit.
DeleteWe loved camping in NZ. We rented the smallest Jucy van that had everything we needed. The wonderful campgrounds had communal kitchens and lounge rooms. We did the same in Australia and found the facilities slightly better in NZ but both great. We also broke it up with some house sitting where we stayed in people's homes while they went on vacation and took care of their animals.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds perfect! That's exactly the way we would like to explore the area when it's our turn!
DeleteWe RVed for 2 months in New Zealand with a rented small Motor-home,2/3 of the time in the South Island that has more to offer, it was a fantastic experience,nice people,great C.G and outstanding vistas.
ReplyDeleteWe also RVed one month in Norway and I do not remember seeing so many beautiful places like in N.Norway including amazing fiords.
Italy is a beautiful country ,nice people and great food ,but the C.G is nothing to write back home.
Canada&USA ,have it all ,they both are RVers paradise, nature,C.G, personal security and that is why we are already RVing in N.America for 14 summer,each trip for 5 months.....
Sounds like you have a great time no matter where you are RVing! Glad you are enjoying your time in Canada and the USA, there is definitely lots to see. We tend to stay out of campgrounds as much as possible so I am sure that in all these places we can find what we are looking for. Can't wait until we can manage a trip to New Zealand and/or Australia.
DeleteAs you know we free camp more often than not and have done so in virtually every country we have motorhomed except South Africa where we went on campsites for safety so I personally would not have that in my top ten at all !
ReplyDeleteI'd put France, Germany and Italy very high up as they all have special free camping places for motorhomes and I am talking thousands of them . Most have a special station where you can dump waste, get fresh water and top up your batteries for about $2. England are even catching on and the £27.50 annual Brit stops memebership could be almost be counted as free camping as that is the fee for the whole year with nothing else to pay regardless how many stops you make. Australia and New Zealand also had plenty of options and info available so overall I would agree with your listing but will do a bit more checking out next year !
You two are our mentors, no wonder we love to boondock! We really look forward to being able to travel by campervan in Europe and one of these days we will! Glad that our picks were similar to yours.
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