Christina and Ben live a minimal and purposeful life that prioritizes adventures. Christina enjoys scenic drives, sunsets and art. Ben is more of a “watch the big game, campfire, bourbon, people person” type of guy. More than anything, they enjoy being together in their Jayco Jay Feather travel trailer and not being tied to one particular location.
We will be the first ones to tell you that RV life isn’t always gorgeous hikes, national park trips and scenic campsites. And while RVing does make it easier to see a lot of beautiful places and experience a lot of new things, there will be plenty of times when you won’t have much to do.
After nearly four years of RVing full-time, we’ve realized that it’s important to learn how to spend downtime in your RV. And this applies to anyone that RVs, including full-timers, extended travelers, even seasonal or summer RVers—there will always be some moments of downtime. Downtime in an RV can occur for a variety of reasons:
Be Aware Of Novelty Burnout
Novelty burnout is when you grow tired of constantly seeing and experiencing new things. This is something that especially affects extended travelers and full-time RVers. When you have an RV, we know how tempting it can be to want to see every national park, book every awesome campsite and fully maximize your time on the road. But constantly being on the go can get tiring and start to feel really overwhelming. Simply being aware of novelty burnout is a good way to avoid it.
Create A Priority List And Build A Schedule
We recommend starting with a short list of places you absolutely want to visit and then build a schedule around them. Make sure you’re giving yourself ample time to stay and enjoy each place. You don’t have to do and see everything all at once—take your time and enjoy each spot. You should make a point to schedule some time for yourself as well. Think about what relaxes and rejuvenates you, and build those things into your travel schedule. This will also help avoid novelty burnout since you’ll have regularly scheduled moments of downtime and you’ll learn to appreciate those grand adventures even more.
Pack Items And Activities For Inside The RV
In order to enjoy downtime in your RV, make sure you’re packing items that actually allow you to do this. For example, Christina loves to read so she’ll pack a few books, while Ben will bring his favorite video games. Some other downtime activities include playing cards, doing puzzles, watching movies, cooking meals, listening to music or podcasts, drawing or painting, journaling, and meditating
Stay Connected On The Road
Another great way to spend some downtime is by connecting with friends and family. When we aren’t busy traveling and enjoying the outdoors, we love being able to catch up with our friends through FaceTime and Zoom. In order to do this, we bring a mobile hotspot device with us so we can easily connect to the internet. We also have two different cellular network providers. This way, if we’re ever in an area where one of the cell phone’s doesn't have great coverage, the other one usually does.
Create Separate Spaces Inside The RV
Sometimes it can feel hard to have true, relaxing downtime in a smaller space if someone else is always around. To help, try to designate certain parts of the RV for your downtime. For example, Christina will use the desk in our main living area to get some work done or scroll the internet and Ben will use the couch to watch TV or play video games (just make sure you wear headphones so you don’t disturb the other person). This might be hard if you live and travel in a smaller RV like ours, but you can still learn to do different things in the same space. And the great thing about RVing is that you’re usu
Maintain A Good Relationship With Your Travel Partner
In addition to having separate spaces and scheduled “me” time, it’s really important that you maintain a good relationship with your travel partner—especially during any downtime periods. Afterall, you are spending a lot of time with them in a small space. One of the things we do to keep a strong relationship is team-up on daily chores. We like to divide chores based on each other’s strengths. For example, Christina handles most of the cooking, while Ben does the dishes. Christina will handle dusting and cleaning inside the RV, while Ben will handle dumping the tanks. Divvy up chores and responsibilities so too much doesn’t fall on one person. Another important thing is to resolve any conflicts quickly. Again, you don’t have a lot of space to retreat to in an RV, and there’s a lot that needs to get done, so we’ve found that it’s best to take a break, step outside, and then get back together to communicate calmly and resolve our issue as quickly as possible. You’ll soon realize that in an RV, you get over things a lot quicker.
Travel trailers are the most popular type of non-motorized RV. No doubt you’ve seen one pulled down the highway hitched to a car or pickup. Travel trailers come in all sizes including tiny jellybean-shaped models with a chuckwagon kitchen in the rear to the massive house-on-wheels with picture windows and a sliding glass patio door.
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