Minimum Stay

[Travisma 1,317]

This is wide open to any and all camp grounds not just the Fort.

If you could book a site without a minimum stay restriction, what would be a minimum stay for you (not counting overnight stops on the road to a different destination) and how far would you travel?

And what type of camper would you use?

And would a last minute opening make a difference?

For example, would you drive an hour to camp 1 night in a motor home, but a tent wouldn't be worth it. 

Do you have a personal stay minimum?

It takes use about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get the PUP, tent, screen room, kitchen all set up.  Seems like it takes longer to break down.  And that's not counting the prep time at home packing and loading all the necessities. So for us, I would say a minimum of a two night stay to make it worth our while.

Someone with a MH that stays pretty much stocked may think 1 night is fine.

Just tying to get others thoughts on this.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

If tenting I will drive 6-8 hours and want to stay at least two nights prefer 3. DIdnt get enough experience with the PUP to make a call on that. 

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

2-night minimum, period, unless as you said, overnighting on the way somewhere else.

My mileage max for that 2-night minimum is 200 miles

I'll go 400+ miles for 3 nights or more

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Hmmm... my "preference" would be no more than a 2 hour drive for a 2 night stay in our TT however, we have two more beach trips planned for this year and the drive is 6 hours and we're only staying 2 nights.  It's almost not worth it except, if we leave early enough... traffic is not an issue and it is, after all, the beach :) 

Without traffic, I think I can get to Stone Mtn in less than an hour... so I might consider a 1 night stay there IF I could check in super early (i.e. 9am).

[Travisma 1,317]

Good answers so far.

Lets add a couple of variables, age and kids.

Before we moved to FL and we were young and kid free, my wife and I converted a van so we could camp in it (and still use it for everyday trips).  All we had to do was load an ice chest throw in a couple changes of clothes and off we went. We did a two week road trip from NY to FL in it and that was our first visit to the MK and a stay at the Fort.   Now even if we had a similar type of vehicle and didn't take the grandkids with us, it would still take a little more prep work to just go.

Do we have any young and carefree Fiends out there that can just toss an armload of stuff in the back seat of the car and make a great trip out of just a 1 night stay?

Nowadays, just to take a day trip to the beach with the granddaughter takes more planning than Patton did for invading Europe.

Is there any type of set up/camper/tent that would allow you to make a short trip/stay without getting stressed and feeling exhausted when you get home.

Lots of questions, and a lot of variable answer possibilities.

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

My girls have been traveling and camping since they were all born, so they are used to car rides and can entertain themselves on long drives. We do a lot of weekend trips but no more than 3-4 hours each way, just so I am home at a decent time on Sundays. We travel to Hatteras every summer and they go to Myrtle Beach every summer with my wife as well and they are fine. My mother on the other hand is getting to be a handful. LOL

Best Regards,

Norm

 

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

Weekend (2 nights) 100-150 miles.  5-7 day minimum on any other trips. The max we drive in any one day is 350 and when doing a destination trip we try to make a least one 2 day stop along the way.

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

It's hard for me to get excited for a 1 night trip. Even if I don't do a big "setup" outside there is still a lot of work to do for one night. 
For weekend (2 night trips) about 3 hours is my limit and that might be stretching it a little. We are pretty lucky and have a LOT of campgrounds in the 1 hour range from us so for a weekend more times than not we wont travel more than that.

[Travisma 1,317]

Lots of answers to minimum days, but what type of set-ups do you have, tents, PUPS, TT, land yachts?

What is the easiest to get in and go?

I would think a Class B or C would be the easiest for a quick get away.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

I agree with Todd... 1 night is tough to get excited for, but I would only consider it IF it was a pull-through and I did not have to unhitch.  We would try to use our black tank as little as possible as that takes the most time to "take care of" when it's time to leave.  We have two little ones who love to camp and are use to driving in the car, so not a huge issue there.  We've recently added a pup so, I'll let you know more on that later.

We have a TT and (if we do NOT unhitch), I'm not sure that a driveable would be any easier. 

Our TT is stocked with everything we need (I'm even buying a second dog crate), so the only thing I need to shove in there is a few clothes and food.  Honestly... the "hardest" part of that, is the walk up/down or driveway    Also, for short trips, I try to keep meals very simply.  Not worth the time to do a lot of prep work and/or dishes.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

My current set up is also the easiest I have had. I have an instant up cabin tent, 1 ez-up and an air matress for sleeping that stays plugged in. You set the firmness and it inflates itself with the internal pump and if it gets low it tops it off with a secondary pump. When we camped  at Christmas I had eveything set up and ready to go in 35 minutes. That includes making the bed and hanging the lights on the ez-up. But we have no kids and didnt have the dog with us. 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

My minimum is 3 nights within 2 hours from home.

We've tent camped (one night only, a disaster), had a travel trailer, and now the motorhome.  The moho is by far the easiest for a quick getaway.  We have plenty of storage space and rarely have to take anything out of the house except clothes and food.

[Theed31u 10]

We have 4 kids (1yr to 8yrs) and would likely go about 4 hours of driving if we could stay at least 2 nights.  

But we have the motorhome (34' class c) out at a private lake and will drive an hour out there for just 1 night but make long weekends of it all summer long.  All of my wife's family have tt or 5th wheel out there.  We are lucky to have a place to keep it setup all summer so we can take the kids out there where all their cousins are.  It's ready to go at anytime!

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

We have done one night trips to some local places an hour or less but I prefer at least 2 nights. I keep the travel trailer stocked and ready to go all the time so it's a matter of carrying some close and cold food down the stairs, soon to be just out the door.

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[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

11 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Hmmm... my "preference" would be no more than a 2 hour drive for a 2 night stay in our TT however, we have two more beach trips planned for this year and the drive is 6 hours and we're only staying 2 nights.  It's almost not worth it except, if we leave early enough... traffic is not an issue and it is, after all, the beach :) 

Without traffic, I think I can get to Stone Mtn in less than an hour... so I might consider a 1 night stay there IF I could check in super early (i.e. 9am).

I agree with this. 

[PGHFiend 140]

We were so excited to get the new 5th wheel we towed 16 hours each way to Lake Magic for 4 nights back at New Years. 

Totally worth it to get out of the cold north. 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Sometimes you just really need some sun and warmer temps!!  

[keith_h 420]

With the TT we typically do weekenders where we stay Friday and Saturday nights and return home Sunday afternoon. The campgrounds and towns we frequent are about an hour and half drive so they work well for us leaving after Rene gets home from work Friday and we don't feel rushed trying to get back home. For destinations that are 4-5 or more hours away we will usually stay a minimum of three nights. If I really had to get away I would consider an overnighter if we could get into our site early in the morning otherwise there wouldn't really be anytime for hiking or visiting attractions. When we tent camped we found it easier to do overnight trips as we could leave the SUV packed while we parked and did other things. In reality the way we take trips isn't much different than it was before we got the TT and stayed primarily at hotels when visiting cities or tent for camping.

We haven't found that the TT takes anymore or less time to setup than when we tent camped. The only real difference is what we have to do to be setup. In both cases unless it is really hot or raining we are/were setup and ready to go in about 30 minutes. When we tent camped setup was nothing more than pitching the tent, throwing in the sleeping bags and pulling out the camping kitchen. With the trailer it is put down the stabilizers, hookup (optional), put up everything stowed for travel and roll out the awning. Packing up takes more time with the trailer with the need to empty and flush the holding tanks but without that consideration we can be packed and ready to return home in about an hour which is how long it took us with the tent.

[YENSIDCAMPER 66]

We would typically drive no more than 2 - 3 hours for Friday-Saturday-Sunday morning stay.  That is with the pop up.  The set up time usually made a late Friday arrival very difficult.  We only did a single one night stay in 10 years.  We would never set up the screen room unless we were on a week long stay.

We will changing over to a motorhome in a couple of weeks will make a one night stay even with a two hour drive more likely.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

My two night minimum is with the camper. I have done several 1-nighters with a tent back when the boys were Scouts. These were backpacking trips. We would hike in starting early Saturday morning, set up camp, then break camp Sunday morning and hike back out.

[Retired and Happy (Ken) 101]

Even with a MH, we still have to take enough stuff out of the house that it takes us 2-3 days to get ready for any travel.  I never gave much thought to how far and how long because we usually go to Disney for a month and Dollywood for a week, sometimes two.  An occasional family visit may be a week or so,but it still requires a lot of prep.  I doubt I would go anywhere for one night, but maybe a long weekend within a couple hundred miles.

[Travisma 1,317]

Everyone has given great input and answers.

I was just wondering if a certain type of camper/method is more conducive for a quick get-away.

I was wondering about one of the small Livin Lite/Quicksilver truck bed slide ins, the small ones that pop open and are only a few inches higher than the bed itself when closed.

Or a small class c drive in type.

Something you just throw perishables and clothes in and go.

Right now for tenting/PUP camping, we start staging stuff on the screen room over a week in advance, just to make sure we have everything, and that everything still works.  Then is a matter of also the week or more before, opening up the PUP and seeing if everything survived since being closed up.

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

One thing that we do for shorter trips (Nacole touched on this) is easy food. If we are only going for 2 nights I don't want to spend hours cooking\eating\cleaning up that I could be doing something else. We will usually just have cereal for breakfast, quick sammich and chips for lunch and MAYBE precook something nice to have for dinner on Saturday night.

Since we have started doing this it has made the short trips a little more enjoyable. 

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

Everyone has given great input and answers.

I was just wondering if a certain type of camper/method is more conducive for a quick get-away.

I was wondering about one of the small Livin Lite/Quicksilver truck bed slide ins, the small ones that pop open and are only a few inches higher than the bed itself when closed.

Or a small class c drive in type.

Something you just throw perishables and clothes in and go.

Right now for tenting/PUP camping, we start staging stuff on the screen room over a week in advance, just to make sure we have everything, and that everything still works.  Then is a matter of also the week or more before, opening up the PUP and seeing if everything survived since being closed up.

We started with a small 18ft travel trailer, actually started with a tent then truck camper then tt. It was a little more roomy then our truck camper and easier to hook and unhook. Stored everything but perishables and clothes in it and could be ready to go in an hour if I wanted. Same with the lager tt now.

Just a thought some of the smaller tt are light and have more choices of layouts.

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[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

We had a hybrid before this TT.  Our TT is easier to set-up/tear down... so that is really nice.  The time to pack clothes and food is really the same.   Last year, I think we did maybe 45-50 nights in the TT.  I've gotten pretty good at knowing what to grab.   As long as there is a market near the CG (i.e. Publix) then I could probably be ready to hitch up and pull away, with just and an hour notice.  But again... that's just because our TT is stocked with everything:  Dishes, medicine, soap, dvds, pots, pans, dishes and disposable plates, toys... etc.