The Ultimate Guide to Holiday RV Travel

Traveling by RV is a great way to go any time of year — but we have to say, RVing makes even more sense over the holidays. Taking a holiday road trip in an RV means you can bring along the whole family, pack just about whatever you want, and enjoy the “homey” feel of a great family holiday even if you’re far from home. RVs also mean climate control so you’ll stay comfy cozy, no matter where your travels take you.

The latest RVshare trends show that plenty of people are traveling by RV over the holidays, including major winter holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as summer getaway holidays like Independence Day and Labor Day. This ultimate guide will serve as your one-stop shop for all things holiday travel, including tips on driving conditions and family dynamics as well as how to cook a traditional meal in an RV kitchen and more. 

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Holiday RV Travel: At a Glance

We’re just about to dive into all the details, but quickly here at the top, here are some at-a-glance benefits of (and tips for) holiday RV travel.

Holiday Consideration	RV Travel Benefits and Tips
Which holidays to travel?	Any and all are great for RVing! RVs are especially popular on Independence Day, Labor Day and over major winter holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas
Cost?	RVing is often more affordable than flights and hotels or a vacation rental, especially when split between multiple adults
Safety considerations?	Preparing for winter driving and ensuring your rig is properly winterized are important RV safety considerations to keep in mind
How to do holiday meals on the road?	With an on-board kitchen, you can make your holiday meals as elaborate as you want — or take advantage of shortcuts like pressure cookers and grills to adapt traditional meals to life on the road
How to keep up holiday traditions on the road?	Get creative with small, lightweight decorations and outdoor activities; consider starting new traditions built with the road in mind
Traveling with family?	Options to make family travel expansive and comfortable, including big fifth-wheel trailers, caravanning, and taking advantage of the great outdoors

Why is RV Travel Especially Well Suited to the Holidays?

Before we get into the tips and tricks below, let’s start with the basics. Why is RVing a great way to travel this winter? There are lots of reasons.

Necessity and Convenience

You may have to travel over the holidays anyway. Families all over the country are trying to get themselves all in one place to celebrate. This makes the winter season a popular time to hit the road. 

Holiday RV travel means you don’t have to continually pack and unpack each night on the road. Also, if you can moochdock in your loved ones’ driveway, you have a guaranteed (and very likely free!) place to stay. You also have some extra room during a possibly crowded visit.

Cost

Holiday travel can be a great joy, but let’s be real: it can also carry high costs. Traveling by RV isn’t without costs of its own (which we’ll get to in just a moment!), but the good news is, RVing can be a lot more affordable than some other types of travel. Plus, there are ways you can modulate the cost of RVing to your budget, for example, by staying closer to home (and thus spending less on fuel.

Flexibility

If you ask someone who loves RVing to list the reasons why, flexibility is likely to be at the top of the list. When you’re traveling in your very own home-away-from-home on wheels, everything is up to you, from the timing of your itinerary to here and how you stay. You can also adapt RV travel for a healthier lifestyle on the road, which, again, we’ll cover in more depth below. 

Keeping Traditions Alive

Even if you’re far from home on the holidays, home is where the heart is — and in an RV, it’s a lot easier to replicate homey traditions like decorating your space or enjoying favorite meals than it might be in a hotel. Plus, there are all sorts of fun ways to adapt your time-honored family traditions to the RV experience. No matter what, though, you’re very likely going to feel a lot more cozy than you would in standard accommodations where you’re sharing hallways and walls with strangers.

Which Holidays Are Best for RV Holiday Travel?

According to the latest RVshare proprietary data, RVers are taking to the road in droves for all sorts of holidays, from Independence Day and Labor Day to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common holiday RV travel times.

Summer Holiday Travel

According to our data, the summer holidays are some of the most popular for RV rentals. RVshare sees the most bookings of the year on Independence day, with other summer holidays like Labor Day and Memorial Day not far behind.

Halloween Travel

While it’s not one of the most popular travel holidays, Halloween can be a really fun opportunity for family trips. Late October is an amazing time to travel, weather-wise, especially if you’re into leaf peeping; the weather is usually cool enough for some stunning hikes and outdoor activities without being downright cold. There are a number of great Halloween destinations that are perfect for RVing, and many of them have events and parties set up to celebrate the day.

If you enjoy handing out candy or taking your own kids trick-or-treating, you don’t have to stop just because you’re camping, either. Plenty of campgrounds are friendly and helpful communities where campers enjoy handing out candy. Some campgrounds, like various KOAs and Jellystone Parks, even organize family-friendly events for the evening.

Thanksgiving Travel

The days around Thanksgiving often rank up there among the busiest travel days of the year. Case in point, last year, FOX LOCAL’s Alyse Eady chatted with our Director of Communications and Travel Expert Spokesperson, Maddi Bourgerie, about the predicted 73 million road trippers who took to the highways for Thanksgiving 2025. (Spoiler alert: More people than ever are turning to RVs instead of a typical car-and-hotel road trip.)

If you are planning to travel for Thanksgiving this year, an RV really can be an incredible way to increase flexibility, reduce unknowns, and stay comfortable. You’ll have the opportunity to stay close enough to family while still having a little elbow room, and you could even cook up the entire Thanksgiving shebang in your rig (or just opt for a few favorite sides and maybe some grilled turkey breast). 

In any case, if you’re going to be stuck in Thanksgiving traffic, it’s way better when you have your very own bathroom on board!

Christmas Travel

Christmas is another super-common time for holiday travel, and Christmas RV travel really can be a magical experience for the entire family. Rather than spending the day in a characterless hotel room, you can be cozied up with your family in your own private space, complete with Christmas decorations, games, and delicious Yuletide treats. 

Just keep in mind that some pieces of the puzzle, like ordering packages and figuring out where to hide gifts before the big day (even the biggest RVs do have a limit to their storage space!), can take a little bit of extra footwork. Good thing one of our writers, Chelsea Gonzales, has you covered on the dos and don’ts of spending Christmas in an RV — written from ten years of experience!

How Do You Cook Holiday Meals in an RV?

For most of us, food is one of the biggest factors when it comes to celebrating a holiday right. And that’s one of the reasons RVing is such a great fit for holiday travel: you’ve got your very own kitchen along for the ride, so you’re really in the driver’s seat when it comes to holiday meals.

Of course, even in the most luxurious RVs, cooking onboard is a little different than cooking in your typical home kitchen. Here are some tips and tricks for doing holiday RV cooking deliciously — with the least amount of fuss.

Take Advantage of Extra Space

Yes, your RV kitchen might be teensy, but chances are you’ll be staying near friends and family and organizing a group meal. In that case, their home kitchen might be the main event, while your RV kitchen is something like a side-kick — a great place to cook up some favorite side dishes, while Aunt Suzy or Uncle Sam take care of the entree.

Even if you’re just traveling on your own or as a family, don’t forget that at many RV parks, the great outdoors becomes part of your kitchen, too. Consider adapting favorite holiday dishes to the grill so you can spend more time outside, enjoy less mess in your kitchen, and expand your palate, all at the same time.

Plan Ahead

If you’re going to do the traditional Thanksgiving bird, for example, you may need to check the size of your roast to make sure it will fit in your RV oven. You’ll also have to plan out how and when to cook all of the sides and desserts you’ll want for your meal. You can make some things ahead of time and save them for the big day. 

Get Creative with Cooking Gear

Who doesn’t love a gadget? Amazing holiday cooking can result when you consider other methods of cooking along with your RV stove and oven. For instance, have you been wanting to try out an outdoor deep fryer? No time like the present! Or, for a lower-key option, you could bring along an Instant Pot or slow cooker to handle some dishes. Another time- and stress-saving consideration: going with a combination of homemade and grocery store-prepared dishes. Make the treasured family dishes yourself, and outsource some of the others.

Eat Out

Listen, not every tradition has to be about mom in the kitchen all day! Full-time RV families like Chelsea’s often adapt holiday traditions so that everyone gets to have a relaxing and enjoyable day, which, in their case, means making a Christmas trip to the Waffle House part of the festivities. Enjoying a meal out doesn’t have to be super expensive or fancy to feel fun and indulgent, especially on a day like Christmas.

How Do You Entertain a Big Family in a Small Camper?

Even if you’re confident you can make an entire holiday meal in your small RV, you may not be so sure about actually eating it. If you’ve got a large extended family, the idea of fitting them all into even a large 40-foot RV can be overwhelming… or even downright alarming.

But even if you’ve got a lot of guests to consider, you can entertain them comfortably with your motorhome or travel trailer as a base, so long as you prepare. Here are a few ideas to make the big day a little smoother.

• Head outdoors. Depending on where you’re camping, the weather might be perfect for enjoying a Thanksgiving meal al fresco. You might even be able to drag over a picnic table from an empty campsite for more seating.
• Go casual. If you trade your traditional, sit-down Thanksgiving for a lower-key, finger-food affair, folks can circulate and eat at their leisure. Which means you don’t need to seat fifteen people all at the same time.
• Consider a caravan. Camping can be a great way to bring the whole family together in a middle space, rather than having everyone travel to one family member’s city. If everyone brings their own camper, there’s plenty of room for cooking, dining, and mingling. And you get to have your privacy once the meal’s over!

If you have a big group, check out our tips for entertaining in small spaces. It’s easier than you might think!

How Do You Keep Holiday Traditions When You’re Traveling?

If you’re used to putting on a big production for Christmas, complete with ornate displays of intricate decorations, you might wonder how you can translate that to the RV life. After all, even in a large Class A motorhome, you’re dealing with a pretty limited space; you may not have room for a full-sized Christmas tree or piles of carefully wrapped presents.

Which is the main trick to keeping holiday traditions alive while traveling: think small. One of the best things about RVing is that it forces you to downsize and reevaluate what really matters. When it comes to bringing the spirit to the road, less is often more.

Decorations

And there are ways to shrink down your traditional Christmas adornment to a trailer-friendly scale without giving up any of the holiday spirit. For example, maybe instead of a full-sized Douglas fir, you opt for a tabletop version. And to decorate the tree, look for shatterproof ornaments that can stand up to the rigors of travel. Other easy ways to decorate include battery-operated light strands for either indoors or out, window decals, and even a simple bowl full of candy canes. You can decorate the outside of your rig with some festive icicle lights as well.

Gifts

In western culture, “Christmas” might as well be synonymous with “presents.” And while a well-chosen gift really can be a joy for both the giver and the receiver, again, spending holidays on the road gives us a chance to reconsider what really matters.

Maybe instead of lots of toys, games, and gadgets, each person gets one really good gift… and you save the money to use on exploring new destinations. Or, lean into giving experiences rather than things. Concert tickets don’t take up much room at all, but can leave an outsized impression on the recipient’s heart.

Activities

When it comes to favorite holiday activities, plenty of them are already perfect for the RV lifestyle. Whether your family prefers to curl up around the TV together watching Christmas movies or go out on an adventure in nature, you can easily do either with an RV as your headquarters. You can also customize some new holiday traditions for RVing — for example, maybe your family will decide to carol around the campground!

How Can RVing Make Holiday Travel Healthier?

Travel during the holidays can seriously challenge your regular healthy lifestyle. With a plethora of goodies on offer, and normal exercise schedules thrown off for travel, it can be hard to feel like you’re staying healthy on the road.

Here are a few tips for a healthy lifestyle while you travel.

• Make simple swaps in your favorite holiday recipes. In many cases, recipes can be tweaked in simple ways to make them better for you. Swap in Greek yogurt for sour cream or olive oil for butter. Also, make sure that along with the delicious desserts and sides, you have an array of fruits and veggies to keep you feeling good.
• Find fun ways to move. Winter brings all sorts of opportunities to get outside. Bundle up for a walk around town to see the lights or head out into the mountains for an epic day of skiing. Don’t forget about snow angels and snowball fights — just because something’s fun doesn’t mean it’s not exercise!
• Instead of restriction, try moderation. Healthy living doesn’t mean never eating a cookie in your life. It just means eating a moderate helping. And if you do, don’t beat yourself up over it. Health is about lots of choices over a long period of time, not one decision.
• Make sure to find time to retreat and recharge. As wonderful as it is to spend time with loved ones you might not get to see very often, the holidays can also be busy and stressful. That goes double if you’re sharing a small space, like an RV. Finding time to get grounded and centered is just as essential to your health as eating well and exercising. Check out this post on great yoga poses for RVers, which will help relax both mind and body. If you’ve got a full house (or mobile home), check out this post on finding personal space inside a small camper.

How Much Does Holiday RV Travel Cost?

As mentioned above, RVshare has done an analysis of travel costs that shows that RV travel can often be much more affordable than airfare and hotels, or even vacation rentals that advertise themselves as being low-cost. Of course, that doesn’t mean that holiday RV travel doesn’t have any of its own costs, so it’s important to plan ahead for your budget.

According to proprietary RVshare data, the average Christmas camper who booked their rental rig through RVshare in 2025 spent $246.20 per night. WIth an average of 5.2 nights of camping, that comes out to a total of $1,280.24, just for the rental.

Aside from the cost of the RVrental itself, other expenses to factor in when you’re figuring out your holiday RV travel budget include:

• Nightly campground fees, which can range from $15 to $40 at state parks and other public campgrounds to $100 or more per night at luxury camping resorts. (Don’t forget you can also boondock, moochdock, and otherwise find free and very cheap places to camp!)
• Fuel costs, which, in our age of sticker shock at the pump, can add up considerably for these large RVs. (Again, though, staying closer to home or traveling in a smaller rig gives you a lot of control over how much this ends up adding up to.)
• Food and entertainment costs, which are, of course, a fact of any vacation. Yet again, RVs often have the affordability edge since you’ll be able to store snacks and cook plenty of your own meals from scratch!

Holiday RV Travel: How to Stay Safe on the Road

No matter what time of year you travel, safety comes first. Safety-conscious RVers will carry an up-to-date emergency kit on board. A kit should include basic first aid, roadside repair tools, and extra potable water.

But when you’re traveling during the holidays, it’s important to take some extra precautions to keep your family safe. Winter driving can make the roads slippery and extra treacherous, and increased traffic can increase the chance of collisions.

Here are some basic holiday safety tips to keep in mind when you’re planning your holiday RV trip.

• Be prepared for winter driving. Even if you’re used to driving on icy roads in a regular car, you’ll need to up your vigilance to tackle those frigid highways in an RV. With so much weight behind you, stopping on a slippery road becomes even more difficult. Depending on your rig and where you’re headed, you may need to invest in snow chains or snow tires. And no matter what vehicle you’re driving, you’ll always want to leave yourself plenty of extra stopping space. Here are seven pro tips for driving an RV in winter weather.
• Holiday celebrations mean lots of alcohol… so be on the lookout for drunk drivers. Not all road hazards are weather-related. In fact, other drivers can be one of the deadliest factors when it comes to traffic accidents. Given that the holidays are about celebrating, it’s likely many people will imbibe, and they may not stay off the road afterward. While you should always have your eyes peeled for drunk drivers, it’s even more critical to stay alert during the winter holiday season. In fact, on major holidays, it might be a better idea to avoid the road entirely.
• Reserve your campsite early. While spontaneity is fun, you always run the risk of not having a place to camp for the night. That’s doubly true during the popular holiday travel season. Although it may be convenient to call it a night in a Walmart or Cracker Barrel parking lot, it’s not always the most secure or festive camping situation.
• Make sure your RV is properly winterized! Your rig’s pipes can freeze just like the ones at home, and a breakdown in freezing winter temperatures can be more than just an inconvenience. From the proper use of RV antifreeze to tips on staying snug as a bug even in a small travel trailer, we’ve got the information you need to safely camp in the winter weather.

Fall and Holiday Travel Insights

RVshare surveyed 1,200 active RVshare renters in late August 2024, ranging from the age of 25-89 to see what their holiday travel plans were. Here’s what we found:

• Overall Fall Travel: Despite a quieter Labor Day, 77% of respondents planned to travel at some point over the fall. More than half opted for shorter trips lasting less than a week.
• Frequent Fall Trips: Over half of those surveyed planned to take multiple trips throughout the fall and holiday season.
• Driving to Holiday Destinations: A majority of respondents (53%) said they would be driving to their holiday destinations that year. Just 20% flew. Interestingly, half of the respondents preferred driving because they found it more enjoyable than other modes of travel.
• Top Influencers: The key factors influencing fall and holiday travel plans were cost (42%), followed by convenience (23%) and comfort (19%).
• Domestic vs. International Travel: A significant 72% of respondents did not travel internationally that fall or winter.
• RV Trips for the Holidays: An impressive 75% of respondents said they would consider taking an RV trip over the holiday season, either for leisure or to visit family.
• Preference for Road Trips: Nearly half (44%) of the respondents were more likely to choose RV or road trip travel for their next fall or holiday vacation.

These insights show that while travelers may face uncertainties and challenges, there remains a strong appetite for exploration and adventure.

Key Takeaways

• Holiday RV travel is growing in popularity — precisely because RVing makes for such a flexible, comfortable, and cost-effective way to travel.
• You can adapt holiday meals, decorations, gift-giving and other traditions to RVing, especially if you keep in mind the principle that less is more.
• Staying safe while traveling in an RV over the winter holidays includes making sure your RV is properly winterized and giving yourself some learning-curve time for winter RV driving.
• While RVing does have its own travel costs, it’s often substantially more affordable than other forms of travel, especially with airfare costs on the rise. 

Holiday RV Travel: Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Take a Holiday Road Trip?

Whether it’s a spooky Halloween getaway, a satisfying Thanksgiving on the road, or a Christmas journey your family will remember forever, holiday RV travel isn’t just possible; it’s an amazing way to experience your favorite traditions. When you spend the holidays in a camper, you’ll be able to enjoy the best parts of holiday travel — quality time with loved ones and a renewed sense of wonder — without worrying about the hassles that come with other types of trips. (Such as missing your flight!)

No matter where you’re headed or how you get there, we hope you have a safe, relaxing, and joyful holiday experience.