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Most Americans who enjoy camping do it on the weekends. Maybe they’ll take a week of vacation and head to the beach in their RV. However, most of them are not calling their RV “home.” If you were to sit in a chair and watch campers for a day at a campground, there are some distinctions that you would notice right away.
These distinctions help identify the full-timers from the weekenders. Sometimes it’s comical; other times, it’s annoying. Let’s look at seven specific things full-timers do better than weekenders. Perhaps these are things you’ve noticed, too!
What’s the Difference Between a Full-Timer and a Weekender?
A weekender is someone who camps only on the weekends, or maybe only a week at a time. Weekenders can range from folks who take their RV out every weekend to those who only pull it out once or twice a year.
If you travel seasonally or for several months or more at a time, you might consider yourself a full-timer because your RV is your home for extended periods. Even if you have a sticks-and-bricks house but travel extensively, you camp more than a weekender.
At the far end of the spectrum are those who have sold everything and live solely in their RV. RVing has a learning curve, and there are some things that full-timers do better than weekenders because of the additional experience.
Are There More Full-Timers Or Weekenders?
There are about 11 million American households that own an RV. However, there are over 40 million people who go camping each year. They may rent an RV from sites like RVShare or Outdoorsy. They may tent camp or rent on-site RVs at campgrounds.
Millions more weekenders spend their vacation days enjoying the outdoors than full-timers who spend most of their days living in their RV.
Pro Tip: Full-timers are usually better at knowing etiquette for overnight parking. To get in the know, here are the 10 Rudest Things You Can Do While Overnight RV Parking!
Things Full-Timers Do Better Than Weekenders
Weekenders are focused on having fun during their limited time in the outdoors. Full-timers aren’t as pressed for time because they live in their RVs. So there are apparent distinctions in how these two groups camp.
With the added experience of full-timers who travel, set up camp, tear down camp, and do it all over again, they’ve learned a few things. So let’s look at seven things full-timers do better than weekenders.
1. Honoring Quiet Hours
As mentioned above, weekenders are camping to party. They may want to play music, drink beer, roast marshmallows, tell jokes, and stay up all night around the campfire. Camping can be their escape from the real world.
Full-timers are often not in party mode. They tend to honor quiet hours and settle down earlier than weekenders because camping isn’t an escape from the real world; it is their real world.
2. Backing Into Sites
This skill comes with practice, and full-timers have significantly more experience than weekenders. When you only take out your camper three or four times a year, it’s hard to get better at backing into sites.
When the camping trips are even more spread out, like a weekend in March, then another weekend in July, and then one more in October, it’s hard to remember which way the steering wheel needs to turn and how wide your turning radius is. Full-timers do this week in and week out.
3. Setting Up Camp
This skill also comes with practice. Once full-timers get the rig in place, there’s a routine that many of them follow to ensure that everything gets done in the correct order. Usually, each person has a job, even the kids. When a weekender gets to a site, you may see the kids jump out of the truck and run around.
Maybe Mom and Dad look at each other, wondering who will do what. Full-timers get the wheels chocked and the stabilizers down. They get the rig level and push the slides out. Someone puts out the patio mat while someone else gets the camping chairs and picnic table covers. It’s like clockwork.
4. Maintaining Their RV
Part of the reason full-timers maintain their RVs better than weekenders is that they have to. The toll that an RV takes while traveling is brutal. Therefore, full-timers will have a maintenance checklist and routine they must follow. This is imperative to keeping their RV in top shape.
Weekenders might not even think about getting up on the roof more than once a year after getting it out of storage. They may walk around and check the seals after de-winterizing.
But unless something breaks, weekenders probably won’t keep a close eye on a maintenance checklist. They’ll want to enjoy a camping weekend, not spend it tightening screws, checking lug nuts, and patching the underbelly.
Quick Tip: Here are 5 Annual RV Maintenance Tasks Every RVer Can Do!
5. Eating Food Other Than Hamburgers and Hotdogs
Because weekenders approach camping as an escape, they may not have a meal plan. They’re going to rely on campground restaurants or traditional hamburgers and hot dogs. No one wants to work over an oven or spend hours cooking when they only have two days to enjoy camping. Plus, indoor cooking is hard in a camper when you haven’t figured out how to operate the oven correctly.
On the other hand, full-timers can’t eat just hamburgers and hot dogs every week. So they’ll do grilled chicken or maybe steak kabobs. They’ll enjoy local cuisine since that’s part of the travel lifestyle.
When it’s necessary to cook inside, they’ve figured out how to work the oven to heat thoroughly without burning the food. More experience leads to more food options.
Keep in Mind: As full-time RVers, we’ve learned how to save money on a variety of things, including food. Here are our favorite ways To Save Money On Food When RVing.
6. Making New Friends
Although this isn’t true of all full-timers, many make new friends more quickly because they have to. Life on the road can be lonely if you don’t put yourself out there. So they’ll attend campground activities and events. They’ll intentionally look for another family or couple to befriend.
Weekenders sometimes go camping with friends, so they arrive with their cohort intact. They also don’t need to make friends for a weekend. They’re going back home on Sunday.
Pro Tip: If you’re looking to make friends on the road, we recommend checking out Nomad Near Me!
7. Camping Etiquette
Often this is where weekenders can rub full-timers the wrong way. There’s an unwritten set of rules to camping. If you’re new to camping, you have to learn on the fly. But sometimes weekenders focus on having a good time no matter what. They may trash their sites. Kids run wild without supervision.
Campers traipse through other campers’ sites. Dogs run loose, poop on other campsites, and no one picks it up. Full-timers tend to honor the camping code better than weekenders because it’s their way of life.
Tell Us: What Do Weekenders Do Better Than Full-Timers?
While there are some things that full-timers do better than weekenders, there are also some things that weekenders do better than full-timers. They bring joy to camping and excitement to the weekend that full-timers can lose over time. What have you noticed? What are some things full-timers can learn from weekenders?
I really enjoy reading through the articles and information you put out, and in this day and age of inbox clogging garbage you have done an excellent job of staying in my inbox, thank you. With that said it’s obvious you must of recently had a few bad weekends around some beer swilling, late night rowdy, hot dog gorging, morons that had no clue how to back up unless they had a tree or electrical pedestal to target, yapper dogs crapping everywhere, let their children run out of control, and won’t make eye contact or say hello RVers. I believe you called them “weekenders”. Sorry to hear that, we all run into those idiots sometimes. Let me assure you most weekenders (at least in my region) are not like that, and I find this kind of insulting. I understand and can appreciate your perspective, you are seasoned veterans at this, but don’t lump all of us into the fools that ruin RVing “camp” as it were. There are campgrounds and areas like that here as well, we are just seasoned enough locals to know how to stay away from what we call “generator cities” and know where those areas are. Loud boats, big screen TV’s, music for everyone to “enjoy(?)”, 4 wheelers, and screaming kids taking shortcuts through your campsite on their bicycles. That is a whole other kind of camping(?) appealing to some, but to each their own, just not for us, and obviously not for you.
When my family goes camping (and many people like me) we are taking what valuable time we have and enjoying what we love about this kind of recreation. We spend time fishing, crafting, playing card and board games, walking around the campground or boondocking area visiting with others (if they are up for it…know the signs), hanging out with friends, cooking wonderful meals, and overall enjoying the time we have together.
My camper is well maintained, and I have gone to great lengths to protect my investment while doing multiple upgrades to further enhance our ability to stretch our stays when we can. I do lots of Dutch oven cooking (you should taste my pineapple upside down cake, lasagna, or siracha bacon wrapped chicken and onion rings), not just hot dogs, and plan my meals well for my “special time” away from the daily grind. I do enjoy an adult beverage when camping but am not a belligerent drunken bum annoying campers around me. We typically leave our campsite (and sometimes surrounding sites) in better condition than they were in when we got there, we might be the person that left you some firewood or kindling in a dry place. Setting up camp and maintaining it is a part I enjoy as well, and I’m efficient at it so I can maximize my time with my family.
As you can tell, I am a bit insulted by this article and I think maybe as full-timers you must not have done your research well for the area you were in and got caught with your pants down. Don’t lump all people into a category so quickly, or someone might call you a band of nomadic millennials that can’t hold a job (which I don’t believe is true). Like many other young people, you have found a way to do what you love and make a living at it…congratulations and kudos to you. I try not to subscribe to that kind of thinking, it tends to generalize humanity based on age, and if you don’t give people an opportunity to show who they really are then you will miss out on possibly meeting some great people over time. It is not fair to generalize and lump all “weekenders” into a category of bad experiences you have had.
You asked what weekenders do better than full-timers? Maybe checking ego is something. Just because you are leading the life many dream of doesn’t make you better than “weekenders”, you have made the choice to do so, and it’s not for everyone. I hope to continue reading and enjoying your articles. If you’re ever in Montana (this is where you get to be jealous of where I live), enjoy the firewood I left you in your clean quiet campsite! If it’s not both of those things, you need to do your research better to find out where I’ve been camping…maybe talk to a local?
Thanks,
The “weekender”
Sorry. Seems slightly arrogant…and this is something full timers seem to do better than weekenders. All people are different…
Weekenders make full use of the camp ring, making it a second living room with a fire going all day.
This is a pretty flattering list, I like it. 😁
One thing I see weekenders do much, much better than most of us fulltimers is really milking the camping experience. I know I tend to get in a bit of a rut and just kind of coast on auto pilot sometimes. Seeing weekenders have their fun sorta gives me a needed kick in the pants and reminds me to try to more fully take advantage of this pretty awesome lifestyle.