For those who like to feel at home while they travel, there may be no beating today’s RV.

Short for “recreational vehicle,” new RVs blend comfort and convenience in luxurious ways. Picture leather furniture and wide-screen televisions. Gas fireplaces, full-sized beds, marble countertops and tiled bathrooms, microwave ovens and air-conditioning, all in a package that can be towed by most any half-ton pick-up truck.

The perfect home away from home.

Mike Poole, a salesman at Jubilee RV Centre in Kamloops, said RVs continue to grow in popularity. For the most part, seniors remain the driving force behind the market, although young families are showing increasing interest in having an RV for family vacations.

“Young families like to go RVing,” he said. “It’s a great way to raise a family.

Poole said RVs have been around for decades, but the technology is changing. Trailers today are lighter and have more “slide-outs” — portions of the unit that expand to make for more internal space when set up.

“They are getting more high-end and a lot less expensive. Ten years ago, a trailer you spent $50,000 for, today you can get for $25,000,” he said.

Small trailers weigh 3,500 to 4,000 pounds can be pulled by the average SUV — even a strong car — while the bigger units require a truck.

While RVs are built to be mobile, there are people who plunk them down and live in them year-round. 

“It’s a lot cheaper than real estate. It’s one way to do it,” Poole said.

Roger Larsen, the training manager with Outdoors RV, a manufacturing company, said one of the big moves in the market today is towards trailers that can be pulled with an under bumper two-hitch instead of a fifth-wheel hitch.

The tow hitches allow people to use the box of their trucks to carry other things, like ATVs, boats, bikes and other recreational gear.

“Just about everything can be towed with a half-ton truck,” he said.

Larsen said there is no doubt people today want top-of-the line RVs. Fit and finish has become of the most important considerations buyers make when deciding between RVs.

“People want to live comfortably,” he said.

Larsen said RVs hold their value well.

“Have you ever seen an RV wrecking yard? There aren’t any,” he said. “There is a lot of (1960s) RVs out there. Very few of them are scrapped.”

But are they hard to drive?

Tim Wourms runs a driving instruction business in Kamloops and teaches people how to drive or tow RVs properly.

For the most part, trailers are not hard to tow but do require some special knowledge, as well as a special endorsement on one’s driver’s licence for big trailers.

Any trailer over 10,000 pounds GVW require the endorsement on the licence, he said. Motorhomes require only a Class 5 driver’s licence.

“They are not hard to drive at all if you have a little help learning how to hook it up and how to corner properly. There are some things to know regarding towing, especially uphill and downhill,” he said

Wourms said most people find motorhomes easier to drive than trailers, largely because trailers are more difficult to back up.

Wourms is also an RV aficionado. He owns a 1960s RV which he pulls behind his 1959 vintage car. He said technological changes, especially with regard to hitches, make RVs much easier to handle than they were years ago.

“RVing is not as hard as it used to be because the equipment is so much better,” he said.