Curious about the cost of a southwest US road trip? RV rentals and US road trips can be expensive. When planning a trip, it helps me to have an idea of how much money I am going to fork out 🙃 Here is a complete breakdown of everything we spent on our road trip!
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Itinerary
For background information, we flew from Little Rock to Salt Lake City, rented an RV on Outdoorsy and the itinerary included a 7 day trip to:
- Arches National Park
- Canyonlands National Park
- Monument Valley
- Horseshoe Bend
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Zion National Park
- Bonneville Salt Flats
For a full breakdown of our 7 day southwest US road trip, click here!
Cost Breakdown
This is an exhaustive list of the everything we spent on our road-trip aside from a few gas station snacks and refrigerator magnets.
- RV Rental: $1,772 ($1,200 base price +$572 in additional fees for going over mileage limit)
- Gas: $769
- National Park Pass: $80
- Slot Canyon (not Antelope Canyon): $80 per person
- Dead Horse Point State Park: $20
- Horseshoe Bend: $10
- Groceries: $150
- Uber airport <> RV: $43
- RV Campsite in Kanab: $70
- Flights LR<>SLC: $257
Total Cost: $4,012 or $1,338 per person (~$1,081 without flights)
Things that Were Worth the Price
- National Park Pass:
- If you are going to go to more than 2 of the parks on your road-trip, get the park pass. It is $80, can be shared between two people and is good for the whole year
- You can order here, or you can purchase it at most national park gates
- Horseshoe Bend
- Such a stunning landscape! The walk is easy, the price is relatively cheap and it is definitely worth it!
- RV Rental:
- Whether we got a good deal on the RV rental or not, it was worth it. Housing is either limited or super expensive near the national park.
- National parks get crowded and the best way to avoid the crowd is to get to the park EARLY. Housing 30-40 minutes away means you have to get up that much earlier. Parking the RV on land close to entrances is so convenient!
- The freedom was also worth it! We had an idea of what we wanted to see, but we did not have a solid itinerary when we landed in SLC. With the RV, we were able to see what we wanted in a park, hop in the RV and drive to the next location; you just don’t have this freedom when you have pre-booked housing!
- Whether we got a good deal on the RV rental or not, it was worth it. Housing is either limited or super expensive near the national park.
Not High on the List of Recommendations
- Dead Horse Point State Park:
- If you have more time or are going to be in the area for a second or third time, I might recommend it. However, after seeing its very close neighbor, Canyonlands National Park (that we got in with our park pass), Dead Horse was a little underwhelming.
- It also didn’t help that we had to pay another $20 to see it since they don’t accept the park pass
- Slot Canyon:
- I have mixed feelings on this one. Like I mentioned before, Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon tours were booked (book in advance, even during shoulder season!), so we opted to do an available slot canyon tour.
- We did the Waterholes Canyon Tour which was $80 per person. It had cool spots and it wasn’t a total bust, but from what I’ve heard, it isn’t as dramatic and jaw-dropping as Antelope and I felt the price was a little steep for it.
Where you can Save Some Money
The whole reason we went on this trip when we did is because Southwest Airlines was having a great deal on flights. Typically, flights from Little Rock to Salt Lake City are higher than this, but if you can, track flights and take this trip when flights are lower.
Outside of the major expenses, we didn’t spend a lot while on the road-trip. However, here are some ways to keep the cost of a southwest US road-trip down:
RV PRice
- Take note from our situation and money can likely be saved with the RV rental. We rented our RV through Outdoorsy, The original RV was rather small and affordable. However, the week of our trip, it was cancelled due to “mechanical issues.”
- Therefore we had to book another one approximately two days before our trip. Short notice booking lead to higher prices and minimal choices and we ended up with a 32′ RV for 3 of us 🙃
- With that being said, you will likely save more money than we did if you are able to book a smaller RV and can book farther in advance
Extra Mileage Costs
- Be aware of what you want to see and how many miles you are going to cover on your itinerary. We flew into Salt Lake City and our itinerary included southern Utah, Page, AZ and then Bonneville Salt Flats. Needless to say, we wracked up the MILES and therefore, extra fees.
- If you are just interested in souther Utah/northern Arizona, Las Vegas is a closer airport! Fly to Vegas to save some money on mileage fees! However, if you are wanting to visit the Bonneville Salt Flats, which are about an hour and 40 minutes west of Salt Lake City on the Nevada border, it is hard to avoid wracking up the miles.
Gas
- On our 7-Day road-trip we filled up 7 times 🙃 As the RV owner was showing us the ins/outs of driving the RV we asked what the approximate miles-per-gallon were for the RV and he said ~4-10 MPG 😳
- Again, our starting position and our desired route tacked on a lot of miles to the trip which is a bad combination with a gas-guzzler.
- If you are renting an RV, be mindful of the gas mileage.
- Obviously renting a bumper pool or 5th wheel camper to pull behind a truck will save on gas (not our best option due to flying in)
- However, if you stick with an RV, know that not all RVs are as gas-guzzling as a 32 footer. Book ahead (and hope it doesn’t get cancelled) and don’t get an excessively large RV
Free Camping on BLM
- There is BOATLOADS of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land in Utah, which is FREE to camp on.
- Pull off on the side of the road or a parking lot and sleep fo free. However, I do recommend splurging on a campsite with a nice shower house about mid-way through the trip to get a nice, hot shower- WORTH IT.
Was the trip worth the cost?
Absolutely! Southwest US has some REMARKABLE landscapes; landscapes you just won’t see anywhere else and it makes the cost of a southwest US road trip WORTH IT. On top of that, this was by far one of the funnest trips we’ve had. There is just something so fun about the freedom of having an RV and just going with a soft itinerary.
Click here to learn how to have a great 7-Day Utah Road Trip!
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