RVing has to be one of the best ways to see the country. They allow you to cover a lot of miles in comfort. You can drive them right to the front steps of your destination. And when the days travel is done, you never have to worry about a place to stay- you have your motel room with you! But unlike the strangeness of a new motel every night, you are surrounded with your own things. You never have to worry about getting stiffed by the mini-bar, you’ve stocked the ‘fridge yourself with things that you like.

There is a steep price for this amount of freedom and luxury, however. That price can be summed up very simply: RVs are freaking huge! Traditionally RVs come in three basic configurations, the motor home, the pickup camper, and the travel trailer. The motor home would seem the simplest option, but actually has the most disadvantages. They are a self contained unit, but they are large, and therefore unwieldy to maneuver; they require a large and inefficient engine, so your fuel costs will restrict your travels; and you will have to pay to insure and maintain another vehicle. A pickup camper seems a better option, because you can use the pickup separate from the camper. In actual practice, because of the difficulty in mounting and unmounting the camper, this is rarely done. A travel trailer can be left at the campsite, but a large vehicle subjects the tow vehicle to great strain and wear, in addition to being difficult and frightening for inexperienced towers to manuveur.

So what is the solution for a fun RV vacation? Consider going smaller. Radically smaller! A so called tear-drop trailer is a simple, albeit tiny, camping and traveling option.

A tear-drop is often home built, but there are plenty of manufacturers who can built you one with plenty of customization. Usually they are built on 4 x 8 foot trailer frames, on slightly bigger. Most will have a main sleeping and storage chamber and a kitchen area under a clam shell in the back. You will need to do a grammar check in your state’s vehicle regulations, but in many areas, a tear-drop isn’t required to be licensed by the state.

I’ll admit that staying in a tear-drop is a lot nearer to tent camping than a rolling hotel room, but the advantages for traveling are great. The biggest is that a tear-drop is small enough, most weigh less than 400 pounds fully loaded, that almost any car can tow one easily. This will extend your travel range, and when you are in an area you would like to explore, you will have your daily driving car for the job.

And tear-drops are so cute that they are always the camp-ground celebrity where-ever they stay!