More Money Podcast - See More, Spend Less: The Financial Benefits of RV Travel - President of Go RVing Canada, Christopher Mahony

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

With everything that's going on between Canada and the U.S., a lot of us Canadians are rethinking our travel plans by staying on this side of the border to not only save money but to support our own economy. And one of the best ways to see our beautiful country is by travelling by RV. For this episode, I talk to Christopher Mahony, president of Go RVing Canada, a non-profit that's dedicated to promoting the RVing lifestyle in Canada. He shares the financial benefits of RV travel vs. air travel, the growing popularity of RVing among younger Canadians, the intricacies of RV ownership such as choosing between new and used RVs, and the future of electric RVs.This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by Go RVing Canada. To access free resources all about RVing in Canada visit gorving.ca.For full episode show notes visit jessicamoorhouse.com/427Follow meInstagram @jessicaimoorhouseThreads @jessicaimoorhouseTikTok @jessicaimoorhouseFacebook @jessicaimoorhouseYouTube @jessicamoorhouseLinkedIn - Jessica MoorhouseFinancial resourcesMy websiteMy bestselling book Everything but MoneyFree resource libraryBudget spreadsheetWealth Building Blueprint for Canadians course Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello loo loo and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. I'm your host Jessica Morehouse as well as the bestselling author of Everything But Money on sale now. If you have read my book, please give me a rating or review online. That would be amazing. Anyways, with everything going on economically and politically right now, a lot of uncertainty and I also know that a lot of us Canadians, myself included, are looking to shop more domestically and also travel more domestically this year and for

many future years as well. And what better way to explore the beauties of Canada than by getting in an RV and hitting the open road, which is why I've got Christopher Mahoney on the show today. He's the president of Go RVing Canada, a non-profit focused on educating Canadians about the benefits of RV travel as well as how to be a smart consumer so you can have the best RV experience. In this episode, we talk about what RV travel is all about, the costs involved, how to save money RVing compared to traditional

flight travel, and so much more. And to learn more and find their helpful resources and tools, make sure to visit gorv.ca. So we have a lot to cover in this episode, so I won't keep you any longer. Let's get to that interview with Christopher. Welcome Chris to the More Money Podcast. Thank you so much for coming on this show. I'm so excited to talk to you. Thanks for having me.

Great to be here. You're so welcome. So to dive in, tell me a little bit about yourself, your background and how you came to become the president of Go RVing Canada. Yeah, sure. I mean, I've been with a Go RVing Canada, geez, for 13 years now. So it's been a journey. Been a journey.

Trying to remember what I did before. No, I've been working for not-for-profit associations for most of my career, but this has been a really unique opportunity in that it's not just a not-for-profit association, it's a marketing association. So utilizing some of my background in marketing and some of the skills for leadership of an association, combining those together to come together for president of Go RVing Canada.

So for anyone who doesn't know, can you kind of share a little bit more about what Go RVing Canada is all about and who is it specifically for? Yeah, totally. So Go RVing Canada has been around since 1997. We are a nonprofit association. We were set up by the manufacturers and the dealers as well as the campgrounds to represent the RV industry in Canada. There is a Go RVing in the US

and we are Go RVing Canada. Similar mandates, which is to basically promote the RV lifestyle. Ours of course is promoting the RV lifestyle to Canadians. And we are set up through the dealers and the manufacturers as like a brand agnostic association. So the amazing thing about Go RVing Canada is that we don't sell RVs or represent RVs we're not representing a specific product or a specific brand. We are set up to be there for the consumer to help educate, to help inform, and really to inspire around the RV

lifestyle. I'd assume because you've been with Go RV in Canada for over a decade, you have a person, I mean, I feel like no matter what who works there, you probably have to have a personal passion for RVing. Otherwise, why are you there? Can you share a little bit about how did this passion of yours start? Yeah, totally. You're trying to catch me out here, aren't you? Actually, I used to live in the UK.

When I finished university and I was in my my twenties, I came to Canada and I drove across the country in an RV with some buddies. And that was my first experience foray into the RV lifestyle. So I was pretty passionate from then on. My wife and I have owned a travel trailer as well. So we're definitely, we're outdoorsy people, but we're for sure RVers. And then of course through my job, I get so many experiences at different campgrounds, different types of units, so many opportunities to get out there as we're shooting different

things. So lots of ways to experience the RV lifestyle over the last 13 odd years. What was that RV that you used for that trip in your 20s? Now you're going to play on my 25 year, yeah. It was, I remember it was pretty smelly by the time we got to the end, four guys. 30, it was a 32 foot RV actually from a company called Canna Dream, which is still around. And yeah, we picked it up in Toronto

and we dropped it off in Vancouver. And it was just so much fun to drive across the country together. How, and how, I'm just, it's a personal interest. How long did that take you? Toronto to Vancouver, that's a long drive. It is. And I've done that before.

And it took us like a week in a car. I think we took up around two and a half, three weeks to do it. You know, stay, it depends on how long you stop off in each place. I remember we did the Calgary Stampede, which was pretty cool highlight. But yeah, I think it was three weeks all inede, which was a pretty cool highlight. I think

it was three weeks all in all, but just a really fun trip to do, especially with three buddies. Yeah. No, I feel like as a Canadian especially, what a special way to see. I mean, our country is so big, but what a special way to really experience the vastness. For me, I wasn't in an RV. We were in a really tiny car and then did hotels and staying at places that we had friends in. But we did Vancouver to Toronto and that's how we moved here.

And that was the most special trip of my life, but man, it would have been a lot more convenient with an RV, let me tell you. Let me tell you, trying to fit everything in our hatchback. Dear me, yeah, it wasn't something that I'd recommend for most people. So now I kind of want to get into, just for people, fit everything in our hatchback. Dear me. Yeah. It wasn't something that I'd recommend for most people. So now I kind of want to get into just for, for people, like, I'm, I'm

not an expert in RVs at all. The little I know is really from my parents-in-law, my husband's parents. They've had RVs since he was a kid. They've always been into RVing. It's their big passion. What are some of the different use cases for RVs? Cause I think lots of people may not know. They may think of like the cross Canada trip, but also you can do short term, long term travel. You can even live in an RV. What are some different use cases you kind

of come across? Yeah, it's a really good question. I think, you know, we kind of say there's an RV experience for everyone. And you know, that sounds a little little blanket but it really is true because you know while RVers tend to have a propensity for the outdoors that's let's be honest we're not we're not getting anybody in the lifestyle that's not interested in the outdoors there as you put a use case for the outdoors could be very very different some people like to be super active maybe they like to hike and you know bike and so on and so forth. Others just like kind of want to chill by the lake etc. So those use cases differ

based on if people want to be mobile, if they want the open road or if in fact they want to be seasonal. And a lot of people don't realize that a lot of RVing is actually seasonal camping. A big segment of RVing is park models, for example, which is sort of a cottage alternative, if you will, but set up in campgrounds by lakes, et cetera, and people have their own lots, et cetera. So I think there are different use cases in terms of your mobility stage, like how would you want to move around from place to place, transient, or if you want to be seasonal? Yeah, no, that's a big consideration.

And for my listeners that haven't been RVing or haven't maybe considered it yet, can you give a brief overview of some of the different types of RVs? Because I know there's, yeah, they're small, there's big ones, there's so many different kinds of RVs out there. Oh my gosh, yeah.

Yeah, can you kind of, yeah, give us a little kind of breakdown. Yeah. Can you kind of, yeah, give us a little, a little kind of breakdown. Yeah. It's crazy. If you consider there's actually 2.1 million RVs on the road in Canada, and there's obviously a vast array of those. So the way we really try and summarize it, I guess, is there's motorized, towable, and then park models. So those are the really three definitive categories. Within each category, there are subcategories. And for example, for motorized,

there's the class A, which is the big bus, or there's the class B, which is a smaller van. So, you know, there's categories within that. The most popular category is travel trailers. That is over 80% of the market. And that could be anything from a little pop-up tent trailer or a teardrop trailer, which has become hugely popular, especially with the younger demographic, all the way through to like a travel trailer itself or fifth wheel, which is the one that where it would hook onto a truck bed. So that's a travel trailer. Just so I know, is that something

is that its own thing? Or is that the thing that you have, like your own vehicle and that's like latched on to the Yeah, that's right. So a travel trailer basically is like it's a towable that yeah, that you're towing with your vehicle, but it's just on the hitch. Yeah. If it's if it's in a truck bed, then it's a fifth wheel. And that's because it's the fifth point of point on it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm already learning because I'm like, I actually didn't know what the terms

for those things were. It's okay. Honestly, it took me a while too. So, and I'm still, honestly, there's still so much, you know, the interesting thing actually is that you got us this question now and the reality is that the answer would be different next year. Because the industry is innovating so quickly, I mentioned teardrop trailers. Those didn't really exist a few years ago. What is that also? I have no idea what that is.

Yeah, so no, a good question. So it's kind of like, if you think about a tent trailer, which is like those flat trailers that you kind of wind and those are the sort of like, that's what we call the glamping the the entry level to RVing so from tent camping into glamping tenting if you will and then as those have kind of expanded and innovated in our market got younger and younger manufacturers made small teardrop trailer so they're kind of shaped like a teardrop.

But they've the reason why is they've made them really light and they've made them really useful in terms of the floor pattern and things like that. But they're typically for a younger demographic because it's just for couples or a very small family. But the great thing about them is that you can tell them with your regular family car, you don't need a big truck. You don't need an SUV, et cetera, et cetera, because they're so light in weight. So they've, uh, they've really become very, very popular. That's amazing. Yeah. That does make a lot of sense. A lot of, depending on where you live, I mean, um, you know, in Toronto, there's not, you know, parking doesn't really allow too many people to have big cars. So you need a smaller car to find parking around the city.

And so you want, want something to kind of accommodate the car that you own. So just to also get a sense of who is RVing. Because again, you've been in this industry for a long time. I'm sure the demographics have changed. Yeah. Who do you see is on the road? As I said, it's really, it's been awesome to witness and see this kind of evolve, but it's, it used to be an older demographic. Um, 14% of Canadian households own an RV, which is a staggering number. It's a lot. It's a lot. If you live downtown Toronto and you're like, hang on, where are they? Um, but as you go across the country, obviously the incident cases, uh, it's pretty big, especially in urban and sorry, excuse me, suburban and rural areas. But, obviously, the incident case is pretty big, especially in urban, sorry, excuse me,

suburban and rural areas. But, you know, the average Arvier, 65% are under the age of 55 now. And that to me is the big statistic that's really sort of ringing true is that our demographic is skewing younger. So yeah, I think there's a lot of Canadians who are obviously aware of the lifestyle and into it. And yeah, it's for all walks of life. Yeah. I'm curious too, if there's been like this shift has been also because the workplace has changed so much that so many people can work from anywhere.

And so, I mean, I just, I know personally some people who set up their own kind of online businesses and just live in an RV. No matter the entrepreneurs, right? Yeah. No matter the entrepreneurs. Yeah. I think, look, I definitely think that's part of it. Van life has been part of it. As we talked about the innovation of RVs, them getting smaller and lighter and more accessible, not just these big, large units that nobody can fit in their driveway or whatever. So as the industry's evolved, so has the audience and the customer, um,

and probably gained significantly. I think that if we go and look at something like the barriers to RVing and, you know, we'll talk a little bit about affordability because that's one of the barriers, but not for people like me was one of those barriers several years ago where people were like, oh no, it's just Empty nesters and you know sort of trailer parks, etc. And I I think that that Stigma and that sort of stereotype has changed so significantly and now frankly RVing is cool You know, it's kind of it. Yeah, it is. It just has become that way. And it's awesome to watch. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we've talked a little bit about some of the benefits of RVing and some of them are super obvious. Flexibility when

it comes to where you can go. You have the comfort of home. You don't have to live out of a suitcase. But I do know still lots of people are probably concerned about the cost and thinking it is too expensive. And it could be because we just don't have a frame of mind of how much things do cost now compared to maybe some of the ideas of the past. Do you want to kind of talk about what are some of the costs or is this a valid concern? Yeah. I mean, I think like anything these days, we're all watching our pocketbooks, right? Like, I mean, With inflation and everything that's gone on in the last few years, it's been significant. This is something that people do with discretionary income. This is in the same category, we call it leisure time and money,

and it's in the same category as boating and things like that. So I think, realistically, yeah, I think there is a certain barrier there of affordability or even a misconception around it. But, you know, as we talked about earlier, there's all these units available. And when we look at it, like from the entry level, it's like $10,000. So we kind of say there's an RV for everyone, depending on how you want to scale, it's just like anything else in life. But the one big thing I would say is that RV in comparison to the other sort of forms of leisure time and money and discretionary income RVs are amortized over or can be amortized over 20 years. So that there makes them you know significantly more affordable on a month by month or biweekly

basis than most of the other areas within that category. Yeah. And I guess the other thing that I'd love to touch on, so what's interesting is so my parents-in-law, they had an RV. They actually just sold it recently. But because it's still an asset and it has its own market, you can look on the primary market or the secondary market, and they were actually able to sell it to other RVers. And what's funny is just because of the demand, sometimes there's low demand, sometimes there's high demand,

they actually kind of broke even and they held onto that home for five years, which is really interesting. So I think that's another thing to consider is it's different than a car in that a car, they lose money right as soon as they leave the lot whereas with RVs, it's a bit of a different market. I'd love to know kind of your take on that or what you've seen. I mean, I look with the sharing economy is something that was, it's there, it's prevalent, the Airbnb's, et cetera, and it came to RVing through a couple of different peer-to-peer companies.

Dealers, a lot of dealers actually also offer this as well. If you purchase from them, they have a certain rental roster and that you can go through them. I mean, I would always caution, make sure that you're good for your insurance and that you're good for your finance and you know, all that if you're totally aligned on that, then absolutely, there's nothing wrong with, you know, during downtime, making sure that

you're gaining some of those costs back. So I've heard I've heard anecdotally from people that you know, people, some people are making money, other people are talking about just breaking even and saying, hey, when I'm not using my unit, I don't feel bad about it because I'm actually making a little bit of money and maybe it's paying off the monthly or just covering us even for the year so that we can go do those family trips. So I think we definitely encourage it, but again, just make sure you follow the rules. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that's something that people may not really

think about. But yeah, let's talk about some of the dollars in sense of it, just getting into some of the numbers. You mentioned that a general entry point may be $10,000. But what are some other considerations in terms of costs, say financing, maintenance? Gas is probably a big one. Campsite bookings.

There's a lot of things that go into things. Yeah, I mean, there's insurance, you know, etc, etc. Look, I think the first thing is that the way we're set up is we are there, as I mentioned earlier, to help inform and educate. And what we would want people to do is kind of figure out what use case is right for them, what kind of unit makes sense for them and their lifestyle or their family. You know, you kind of look at the size and the floor plan and that kind of stuff. And that sort of, and then obviously going

to your question here, the budget, we have an affordability calculator on our website, which kind of you can plug in and do play around with the amortization as well as the sort of interest rates, which have dropped now a little bit, which is making things. Fingers crossed they stay like that, but who knows what's going on this year. No crystal ball here, especially with other stuff going on in our, in our south of the border right

now. But yes, we won't go there. I think the reality is that you have to find what's right for you. Find that sort of budget and then you have to factor in, right for you, find that sort of budget, and then you have to factor in as you put in all the other costs. What I would say is that the main cost you're going to be outlying is really, it's going to be your storage and your maintenance and things like that. Campgrounds, I mean, that's a sort of running cost, but campsites aren't that expensive. And kind of when you're doing it certainly a lot cheaper than a hotel or anything else like that

and believe it or not gas I mean if you're using a towable most of these now are super light most of the trucks are very efficient so gas is not as bad as one might think in it and it really just kind of goes into the sort of cost of living or cost of doing something, cost of the experience. Typically those costs tend to be around 70% cheaper than your average family vacation, going airline to Disneyland or something like that. We know what airline costs have been like and hotel costs.

So I think the running costs are not something that I'd be as concerned with, but certainly ensuring that you're finding the right budget or the right sort of budget range, and then factoring that in that insurance and that maintenance and that storage. And you should be able to do all of that through a reputable dealer, by the way.

That should be like something that you should be asking right up front. So talking more more specifically about how to go about, someone's like, yeah, I want to do this. It sounds amazing. How do I actually buy an RV? I would not know. I'd have to start doing my research. I guess you mentioned there's dealers or I guess you could do it privately with someone who owns an RV. What are some things that you should know in advance and some questions that you should ask before, you know, here's all my money. Yeah. Well, as we said, I mean, this is like, this is pretty, this is a pretty big deal.

It's just, you know, it's leisure time, money discretionary income, and you want to make sure you're making the right decision for yourself and your family. For me, that's why Gore Ving is there. We're there to help ensure that you ask those right questions and help guide you. We have no stake in the game, but we do have a dealer listing on our website of RVDA approved dealers in Canada. These are dealers that are, you know, you can guaranteed, they're going to treat you well, they've got the maintenance and storage and they're not just going to close up shop tomorrow or whatever, hopefully not. But you know what I'm saying, this is a reputable factor. If you want to buy private, absolutely, but we have checklists for questions that you should ask, checking on

checklists for questions that you should ask. Oh good. You know, checking on maintenance records and things like that. I mean, you know, ultimately these are larger scale units and machines that are complex. They have electrics to them and they have a lot of innovation and things like that. And you want to make sure that, you know,

it's being treated well, that the warranty is covered if that's what you're looking for, that kind of thing. So I think you've got to protect yourself and really kind of go through that checklist. Absolutely. And I guess to most people may think, is it better to get brand new? Because like you mentioned, you get that warranty or are there some benefits to getting a used vehicle? It's like anything else. It's the trade-off. I would always recommend buying new. I think,

if you work with a dealer though, some dealers may have units that are two or three years old. Again, that will come backed up with a warranty. So I would always personally recommend going through a reputable dealer. You just know you're covered. They've been in the game often for decades. Most of these businesses are family businesses, some third generation. I've even heard of four generations. So I think that, you know, there's they know what they're doing.

They have a reputation to uphold and you're going to be covered for, you know, if and when you require them. And believe you me with these units, you are going to need your dealer eventually, because something will ultimately break or, you know, go wrong. And you want to have that good relationship where maybe it's for storage, maybe it's for maintenance, maybe it's for a warranty issue, or it could be for an upgrade, right? Or a change to finance any of those things, you want to make sure

that you've got a good relationship. So absolutely. One question that popped into my head, and it may be a dumb question, but I'll ask anyways, no such thing. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Is are there any is there such a thing as an electric RV or that doesn't exist? There, you know, actually, it. No, actually it's interesting. There is. It's coming.

Oh, it's coming. So for electric, obviously one of the biggest issues is going to be range. But I do know that there's a couple of US manufacturers that have been playing around with it. I have seen that they are working on that range factor as the batteries get better and get more efficient. They can get that range up. Ultimately, I think it would end up being a hybrid type system. I don't think gas is going to be as much of an issue, but maybe not running a generator and utilizing more battery and solar. Certainly solar has

been around for a while for RVing and I think it's increased even more. So yeah, I think it's slowly coming, but to be perfectly honest with you, it's a lot slower than the car industry. Yeah, fair enough. But that's something that's interesting that there's some progress going on on that side if people are concerned about their footprint and all that kind of stuff. So we kind of talked about costs and maintenance and things like that. Well, I also think that there's lots of opportunities to save money by traveling this way. Obviously, you kind of mentioned, you know, traditionally, if

you were to take a flight somewhere, that can and then hotels, you know, hotels like two to $300. I just booked a flight to Terrace, BC, very small and it's the hotels are not cheap there. I'm like, this is wild. And so what are some ways that you could save money? I mean, top of mind is like, you probably save on food costs because you actually have a kitchen. You're bringing all the creature comforts of home, right? So basically you're packing up your home and putting it into your smaller home. Yeah, I think the fundamental costs are obviously air travel and accommodation. But I mean, the other thing is that restaurants, like look at where we are now,

look at your average restaurant. I know I hear just anecdotally my group of friends or family always complaining about, oh my gosh, I went to so-and-so and you wouldn't believe how much chicken wings and whatever it was. And that is a reality That we're facing so as you well put it

I mean you can now get from your grocery store bring everything in the fridge Cooked by the cook by the campfire Etc and I think you know if you want to go out you can eat But it's certainly you're gonna save you a lot So we estimate that most people will save around 70% of those types of costs when they're RVing. If you consider that like a monthly payment is around $350 for a $40,000 unit, you can do the basic math from there. And a campground is $50 a night or

something. It's pretty easy to figure out that you can save very quickly. Is there like an easy way or is there a calculator that helps you determine how often you need to go on trips or use your RV to get the most maximum value? I mean, I've heard of such calculators. I would just do it in a spreadsheet yourself if you can. But I mean, what I would just do is my burn cost for the year, take a look at my overall burn cost and then figure out how many days I'm using it. You know, one of the challenges with this type of thing, it's I've heard of people and I've

myself I'm guilty of this for boats, you know, like doing it on a boat. It's just like, oh my gosh, like, are you telling me that I you know, every time I go out, it's going to be $800 or whatever. I think what I would say is with an RV, it's a little bit different than that 30 minute boat ride or that two hour boat ride. What you're buying is you're buying an experience for your friends or your family. You can't, and this is not me being salesy, it's quite honestly just my experiences. You can't replace that moment sitting under

the stars with your kids or going for that dip into the lake first thing in the morning and having a coffee in the comfort of your home and if it's raining, watching a movie inside. These are all things that I think go into that. It's really hard to put a number to that kind of thing. That's true, that's true. And even too, like when you're on say a flight somewhere, you're like, oh, well, you know, get to sit next to each other.

You're not talking to your seatmate. No. You have headphones in watching a movie. So that's five hours. Just trying to get through it. Yeah, when you're in an RV, believe me, you have to keep the driver awake and everyone's like participating.

You know, it's a different experience. It is, it everyone's like participating. It's a different experience. It is. It's a joint experience. Part of what we're about and with our sort of campaign of Wildhood, it's really about just getting people to get back out there to reconnect with one another, but to reconnect with nature. And I think that there's no better time than right now for Canadians, that's for sure. Yeah, no, that kind of leads me to my next question is because there is absolutely a

growing interest in traveling domestic this year, which I anticipated back at the beginning of this year and now it's like, oh, it's really happening. Do you anticipate an increased interest in RVing specifically this summer? I kind of do. I mean, just, you know, even for me, I'm like, well, we're not, you know, really traveling outside of the country this year. Right. I mean, you know, it's hard to bet on anything these days, but if I had to, if I had to make a bet, absolutely. I feel a little hate to say this COVID-esque to me. Yeah, it does. You know, we kind of, we went through this obviously in 2021. There was a huge boom in

our industry in terms of, you know, people wanting to get RVs, but also go RVing. It was the main sort of opportunity that people had was to get out there and We noticed last year Deloitte did a study I think it was 76 percent of Canadians were talking about spending at their family vacation or taking their family vacation in country So if that happened last year and that was pre everything that's going on right now, then I can only see that number increasing I would think that with cost of travel and now some of the, let's say, sentiment around it and political things around it, no matter what your doctrine is, I think that that will probably lead to an increase in RVing this summer. But I mean, look, ultimately, I would say that this is being, you know, out of a bad thing came something good, which is that people

learned that Canada is your backyard. It is huge. We've known that for a while, but now people are actually exploring it and recognizing there's so much out for them to do. It's so beautiful. It's crazy, crazy beautiful. We're so lucky. There are so many pockets.

We're so lucky to live in this country. Absolutely. Now, we've touched on a little bit of what are some of the maybe hidden expenses or things that will be part of your RVing budget when it comes to maintaining the cost of an RV. But I'm sure there's a certain, just like any kind of asset or any kind of vehicle especially, a certain number of years that it's like, does it make sense to continue fixing this and maintaining it or does it make sense to sell or upgrade? What would you say to someone just wondering like, how long should I really

keep my RV for? I mean, it really, you know, often most most people make the decision based on their family and their family size. So what I've heard it go both ways the family increases and they need a bigger floor plan or you know they want a different kind of format for their RV they want maybe a different type because their use has changed maybe they want to add ATVs or something so they're getting a toy hauler etc. But I've also heard it go the other way, which is, you know, where the kids are now gone. And, you know, it's just us and we want to go to a class B, like a van type. So I think ultimately, it depends on your use case. But I would say on average

around five years would be the time that I would look at. And I can't, you know, sort of back that up with any particular statistic. But that's just anecdotally what I have heard. So not too many people probably keep a vehicle or an RV for like 20 years or something like that. I mean, you see it and people fall in love with them. Yeah, that's true. You know, like I, my wife and I had an airstream that was a 2005 airstream and it was in great condition. We loved it. Her name was Betsy and You know, she was fantastic but yeah, like I look I I know that people have poured their heart and soul into their units and I think you just have to be ready to do that if

You know if you're going past a certain Period of time just like anything at it decreases and sometimes And sometimes, structurally, you need to do certain things. But yeah, I mean, ultimately, I think it's more based on use case than anything else. Amazing. Well, we went through a lot. Was there anything that I forgot to touch on, or you wanted to make sure anyone listening

knew about RVing, especially, I guess it'd be 14% of my listeners may already own RVs and the rest may be not. What would you want to make sure that they, you know, leave knowing? Yeah, I think, I mean, as I said, you know, we really want to encourage people to learn and take things slowly. We definitely encourage people to try before they buy as well. I think that's a great way to get out there.

It may not be the type of unit that you're exactly going to get eventually, but there's a lot to this lifestyle. There's a lot to do around the campsite and things like that, and a lot of fix up things. Ultimately, we want people to check that out and we want them to learn through that.

GoRV.ca is a great resource for all those things, whether it's setting up camp or just learning what questions to ask through a dealer. I would say that the other thing I would back it up with is just don't be afraid to ask. This is one of the friendliest communities I've ever witnessed. I've pulled into a campsite and kind of been fiddling around with my barbecue and my neighbors come over and said, hey, I got you, and no problem. And next day I know we're sitting

by their campfire having a beer. So just be open to that and ultimately protect yourself, but do go through those steps and take it very seriously. But yeah, check out go rv.ca. We've got a lot of great tools there, affordability calculator, RV matchmaker, persona quiz. So you can kind of figure out what type of RV is right for me and my family. Just one last thing that just kind of popped into my head. How would one test out an RV? Like can you, do you mean like renting or is there a test out period before you buy? Yeah, I would say most people probably rent first. I think that's just the safer bet. You know, it's somebody else's unit. Essentially, you can go through one of the rental companies

lots in Canada. You could also go through one of those peer to peer services that you know, you talked about before. So either way, I think just get out there with your family, try it out and see if it's right for you. But essentially if you ever pass through the outdoors and you love Canada, there's no better way. I mean, freedom and flexibility of the open road, this is it. This is the way to see our country. And would you say just like for, I'm just like, I'm thinking like, oh, if I want to

go RVing this summer, would I have to get my act in order right now? Because I feel like those spots probably book up and you have to, sometimes like a year in it, I don't know if it's normal campgrounds where they're like, oh, sorry, there's a lottery. And it's like, once a year, it's a whole thing. What's that kind of, for people to kind of be aware of in case they're like, oh, I'll book a spot next week. You're like, no, no, no. Yeah, no, it's a great call out.

I already know that there's kind of a bit of a rush for those, uh, those sort of premium campsites. Let's just say that there's over four and a half thousand campgrounds in Canada. So, you know, you're kind of covered, but that said some of the pre most spots, they obviously go pretty quickly. So I would definitely get ahead of the game. There's a lot going on right now. There's a lot of RV shows around the country that are happening. So, you know, always check that out, talk to different dealers. It's a great way to explore with the family. But then, yeah, I mean, plan your RV trip. We have trip planners on our website as well. So if you don't know where you want to go, which a lot of people don't, like I know,

that seems like a lot of work. I say, okay, so I've got five days or I got seven days. What should I do? You know, we've curated these trip guides, especially to help people kind of plan. Oh, okay. We're going to go to Quebec. We're going to, you know, do this winery. We're going to hit the fromagerie and then we're going to go to this lake with the family and go fishing, et cetera.

So all of that info is there. Uh, that's the fun part of this. So I would start planning now. I mean, look, we're in the middle of winter here. It's not quite ending. So start to dream, right? Start planning your summer trip now. That's it. Well, I am already fantasizing about the summer. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing all this really important info. Cause I think, yeah, as, as whatever's going on with the world, I think a lot of people are going to be doing things a little bit differently with their, their travel plans and being a

little bit more domestic this year. And this is a really good option that, you know, a lot of the country may not have considered. So thanks for coming on the show, sharing all your knowledge. And once again, what was that website that people can check out more information? www.goarveying.ca. Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Chris. Thanks so much for having me. Awesome to chat with you. And that was my episode with Christopher Mahoney, President of Go RVing Canada. To learn more about everything RVing in Canada, make sure to go visit gorving.ca or follow them on Instagram or Twitter at gorvingcanada. Well, that's it for me. Thank you so much for listening or watching. A reminder, if you're listening to this

on one of the Apple or Spotify, this is also a video podcast, so you can check it out this episode and a couple past seasons on my YouTube channel, the full video, so make sure to check me out at jessicamorhouse.com slash YouTube. It'll take you right to my channel, so make sure to do that. And, you know, thanks for sticking around and, you know, supporting this podcast

by listening and subscribing and supporting me and my book launch of Everything But Money. It is out now. I'm going to be talking about my book all year, so you're going to get sick of it. But thank you for for indulging me. Thank you for indulging me. Well, thanks so much again, and I will see you right back here in my next episode. The More Money podcast would not be possible without the amazing talents of video editor, Justice Carrar, and podcast producer, Matt Rideout, who you can find at mravcanada.com