Luxury RVs Are Changing The Travel Landscape

RVs have come a long way since they first emerged in the early 1900s and while many more people are increasingly choosing RVs for travel, it is the luxury RV landscape that is changing the travel market – now travelers can get away to the most deserted place on the planet (if accessible by road) with everything they need, from a rooftop disco to a concierge service.

What is the story of the RV?

The history of the RV is as old as the automobile, possibly inspired by the idea of ​​the Roman caravans traveling in Europe in the 1800s. Although camping has become more common since the mid-1800s, it was the birth of the car that encouraged more campers and the first RV was attached to a car in 1904 – it could sleep four adults on bunks and had lighting, an icebox and a radio. .

Car owners continued to add larger and larger contraptions, but it wasn’t until 1910 that the first commercial RV, Pierce-Arrow’s Touring Landau, appeared at Madison Square Garden, equipped with an in-room toilet, a folding seat which turned into a bathroom. a bed and a telephone to connect the driver with the passengers.

Since then, auto campers, as they were calledthey were rolling off the production lines of many companies and by the twenties they were quite large – think REO’s “fast wagon bungalow” and Hudson-Essex’s “Pullman Coach”.

It’s a trend that grew as people began to visit the National Parks more and many of the leading entrepreneurs who launched RVs were avid users themselves – think of Henry Ford and Wally Byam, the founder of Airstream, whose brand became ubiquitous in the RV world in the 1990s. 2000s.

After the Great Depression and the lean years after World War II, many RVs were used as inexpensive homes and/or cheap ways to travel. With the launch of the Winnebago in 1967 and the rise of interstate highway stretches, RVs gained mass market appeal.

Can RVs be luxury?

RVs have had a similar trajectory to houses and have always kept up with modern technology – as something new came into the market, it was always added to a new brand or model of an RV, whether it was a refrigerator, a oven, microwave, garbage disposal. , washing machines, dryers, showers or a satellite dish.

It makes sense because the reason people use RVs is because they want to travel, but take all the modern comforts they have at home; as homes became more luxurious, so did RVs.

How is luxury RV travel different from typical RV travel?

One of the main differences in how luxury RVs differ from normal RV travel is in how Luxury RVs are built and how they allow their residents to move, without fighting for space. Imagine state-of-the-art technology and devices, well-designed floor plans (which means everyone feels like they have enough space) and a sleeping area that’s well removed from the rest of the RV.

It’s everything anyone feels inside too, namely passive floor heating, plenty of hot water, large refrigerators, walk-in showers, and solid handcrafted countertops.

Luxury RVs traditionally think about how their owners interact with the outdoors they seek to experience, so there are likely large panoramic windows that allow travelers to feel closer to nature. They can also enable off-grid living and combine sustainable living features such as off-grid energy production, LED lights, fresh water treatment and indoor air quality purifiers. It is common for luxury RVs to come with solar panels on the roof.

Mobile connectivity is also of the utmost importance – luxury RVs will always be connected to the internet everywhere unless they choose not to be, with wifi boosters for use around the outside of the RV as well. Some luxury RV owners may even pay for a monthly subscription for a concierge service to help when travel plans go awry.

What is a luxury RV trip?

Luxury RV travel is elegant, having everything one could want, including the ability to be able to block out everything a traveler might not want – people, noise, light and crowds.

Luxury RVs come with a price tag, ranging anywhere from $40,000 to $1 million, depending on your view of luxury, although some luxury RVs can cost much, much more. The two-story, 732-square-foot EleMMent Palazzo Superiore, for example, is one of the most luxurious RVs available. It has adjustable sun protection that darkens the glass as needed and a 68-foot automated Sky Lounge on the roof with a sound system to match any night club. Only a handful exist and no one knows the exact cost, but it is estimated at around 3 million euros.

Other luxury RVs can be a bit more reasonable. The $2.5 million Featherlite Vantare Platinum Plus has a built-in treadmill and gym and the $1.6 million Newell Coach p50 has a Porsche-designed interior.

What are the luxury RV destinations?

In the early 1900s, drivers took their RVs to places that had everything typically associated with a holiday – a golf course, restaurants, the beach. Since the pandemic, many RV travelers are now choosing to spend time in places that are away from crowds, cities and amenities and clearly, luxury RV travelers have the large kitchens needed for cooking and entertaining.

The bigger the RV, however, the more difficult it can be to find a place to park overnight or for several days. Lonely Planet has a list of wonderful national parks for RVs throughout the United States, chosen for the quantity and quality of RV camping in the parks, but also because they offer a lot of access for RVs to visit the parks on large, paved roads and where it is easy to see the attractions of the park. from the road.

How many people participate in RV Luxury Travel?

Since the pandemic and the increase in remote work, the normal use of RV has exploded as it allows digital nomads to travel for bleisure. During the pandemic, there has been a 16% increase in RVs shipped to new owners in the US and is believed that 11 million households have a normal RV in the United States

Since Covid, luxury RV sales have also increased by a staggering 143% as travelers effectively pay to get away from the big resorts and crowds.

Is the number of luxury RV travelers expected to increase?

The number of people using RVs is growing overall in the market. According to the RV Industry Association, RV ownership has increased continuously over the last decade with 18 to 34 year olds making up 22% of the market. In 2022, the median age of a first-time RV buyer was 32, up from 41 just a few years earlier—a trend driven by an increase in remote work. The RV market has also been driven by baby boomers entering retirement and wanting to travel in an RV. Both trends suggest that the RV market is likely to increase, plus there are more places that accommodate RVs now, all over the United States.

It also fits Pinterest’s Summer 2024 Travel return where between an incredible one billion travel searches and more than 10 billion travel savings between February 2023 and February 2024, the site saw searches for a “quiet life” increase by 530% in the same period, supporting the need of simplicity and calm. , two other popular and growing search terms on Pinterest.