With house prices soaring through the pandemic and rent being eye-wateringly expense, travelers nowadays are starting to look for more affordable options when it comes to short-term rentals or even for long-term stays. And what we’ve realized at here at ACRV is that most of our long-term customers come for all sorts of reasons, not just for travel!
You might be part of a road crew in town for a short project, or a traveling nurse working at the CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Medical Center at Longview, the Longview Regional Medical Center, the UT Health Science Center at Tyler, or one of the handful of hospitals in-and-around east Texas.
Recently, we have been getting so many inquiries asking us what to look out for when trying to find an RV park for extended-stays, that we decided to ask our long-term residents for their opinions.
What do you usually look for in an extended-stay RV park? What can be a real deal-breaker? What should you be aware of when choosing an affordable long-term RV park? How can you get the best deals and find cheap long-term RV parks? Why did you choose Antique Capitals RV Park?
And they didn’t disappoint! Here’s a few tips and tricks for those of you just embarking on the adventure of staying long-term at an RV park – be it for travel, work, or affordability:
1. Make sure they’ve got laundry facilities
RVs are great living spaces for a short while, but for long-term stays, doing all your chores and upkeep in the RV is not ideal, and can quickly result in burnout. That’s why our long-term residents wanted us to make sure this was the first thing our readers considered when choosing an RV park for extended-stays.
“Number one – Laundry, period,” said a traveling nurse who has been staying with us for six months. The laundry capacity can vary depending on the make and model of your RV, but one thing is for certain – you don’t want to be doing laundry in your RV for more than a month.
Thankfully, we offer two laundry facilities at our Park – one at the front and one located at the back of the park. This is so our residents have the option of choosing the nearest one to their slot, instead of having to lug your tighty-whities across the considerable span of our sprawling park.
2. Make sure they’ve got other amenities
Sometimes we can start to realize what we really miss on our extended-stays: cooking your own meals, gym time to unwind and de-stress, fishing in the pond outback, or attending social gatherings and making connections.
“Think of what you really need in the long-run – things you don’t want to do without – and look for parks that offer those amenities,” says another long-term ACRV resident. Here at Antique Capital RV Park we offer a wide-range of amenities and facilities aimed at making our long-term residents feel more at home: a large activity center with regular group events, a fishing pond where you can while away a relaxing afternoon, two laundry facilities, a fully-equipped kitchen, picnic tables and a barbeque pavilion, gym facilities, a book exchange and library for avid readers, and even a community fire pit where residents love to gather! Click here for a full list of our amenities.
3. Make sure it’s in a nice area
If you’re staying long-term, look for an RV park in a nice area – the city lights are alluring but can quickly wear down in the long run. “It needs to be livable, maybe something on the outskirts of the city, near the suburbs, where you can get nice landscapes and have access to nature,” recommends a long-term ACRV resident who is part of a road crew.
Even though the living situation is still somewhat temporary, there’s a reason why eventually, we want to move to the suburbs. Near the outskirts of town, the din will quiet down, and the overall environment is just better for extended-stays. With a little more space, there’s also room to spread out and enjoy nature, but one can still enjoy proximity to all the excitement and entertainment of the city.
4. Make sure there are fenced yards
Nice RV parks are usually situated in lush, beautiful landscapes (as is ACRV Park!) so many visitors feel very connected and close to the surrounding nature – sometimes even too close for comfort!
Woodland critters inhabit the trees and underbrush around the RV parks in east Texas, and it is as much their homes as it is ours. They like to visit from time to time, which is great if you have children or enjoy their company, not so much so if a pesky raccoon starts rattling around your garbage cans in the middle of the night, or a deer decides to have a picnic right on your front yard (a rather common sight in Longview)!
Fenced yards keep the critters at a comfortable distance, while still leaving you the option of opening the gate, walking out into the woods and enjoying nature. It may also serve as a deterrent for unwelcome human guests – but this is not as common as one might imagine in RV parks. Why?
5. Make sure you’ve got good neighbors
The best thing about extended-stays at RV parks, are that most likely, you’ll have some good neighbors. This is probably not their first rodeo so they are more likely to be conscious of all the minor etiquettes and pleasantries to make it a friendly neighborhood for other long-term RV-ers. If they are part of a road crew or travel for a living (e.g., a traveling nurse) then they probably keep to regular schedules and appreciate fellow residents who do the same.
This is contrary to the concerns that we have heard from first-time long-term RV-ers who worry about adjusting to their neighbors – long-term extended-stay RV parks are more likely to be less rowdy as they resemble more residential communities.
So if the next time you are in east Texas looking for a place to stay long-term, consider Antique Capital RV Park. We have an impressive array of amenities and facilities that will make even the most jaded traveler feel right at home. The location is also perfect – just the right amount of nature and picturesque scenery mixed in with easy access to the excitements of the city!
