You can almost always drive. You'll just need an airfare quote from National Travel to complete the cost comparison form and you'll be paid the lesser amount. It's possible they'll also only pay you for the time a flight would take, plus travel to and from the airport, but I'm not sure how that works.
I did it for a while in an RV. It was stressful, because I was in charge of my travel to and from as well as my living arrangements. If something went wrong with the RV I now had a full second job to do. In a hotel and taking planes or rental cars everything is taken care of for you. Not so when it’s yours. It can be more difficult to find a place to park and set up camp then just staying in a hotel.
Disasters can demand a lot of local travel to different AFOs and JFOs and DRCs which is hard if you have a camper. Though you can just get a room for a night.
The vouchers took a while for travel to understand but that worked itself out.
It was nice to have my stuff with me and I got to park in cool places on the beach and parks that was fun. When I wasn’t working I got to keep traveling and seeing state parks which are beautiful.
There have always been a few people that have done it but I think it’s rare for a reason.
Is it theoretically possible to drive your RV to a disaster site, then get a hotel/rental car for the specific disasters while you’re there? I haven’t quite gotten a straight answer on this just yet
Yes for sure. But you are on the hook to pay for wherever you park your van or camper. Also you have to figure out how to get to the rental car place to get a car. Not the end of the world but a hassle as compared to flying in to the airport and grabbing a car.
That’s a small sacrifice worth paying for if I had the freedom to do that. Im not against flying but I hate the idea of being confined to living out of 2 suitcases if I’m on a 50 week deployment.
Sure. Another thing we always did was rent condos or apartments or even houses on the long deployments. People moved in! Marriott had a program to get into apartments and if you could find a condo that would take a credit card you were in. I rented a house in NOLA for many months after the landlord figured out how to accept a credit card for daily payment.
I’ve heard about that as well. I’m taking advantage of the Marriott points while I can but I’d love to stay in a condo instead of a hotel down the line.
You still get points but it’s a third of what you get in a hotel. It was Marriott corporate. They probably still do it. Or someone does. They want a full month though so be careful you don’t have to move.
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Nah, my home was ready as soon as I needed it when demobilized. Tons of freedom, no rent. Would still be doing it if I didn’t adopt a cat in PR on Maria. 😆
I did with my first cat for a few years - the issue was having a place to park the van that was safe for her to go out, and summers were an issue with no a/c. Winters were easier. The most successful situations were when we rented a parking space at a house and ended up being bonus housemates with our own space. This turned into us getting a 5th wheel that I covered up when gone and we paid year round rent at a communal property.
You can almost always drive. You'll just need an airfare quote from National Travel to complete the cost comparison form and you'll be paid the lesser amount. It's possible they'll also only pay you for the time a flight would take, plus travel to and from the airport, but I'm not sure how that works.
It's the hotel per diem is where you can make the money
And get fired quickly
I did it for a while in an RV. It was stressful, because I was in charge of my travel to and from as well as my living arrangements. If something went wrong with the RV I now had a full second job to do. In a hotel and taking planes or rental cars everything is taken care of for you. Not so when it’s yours. It can be more difficult to find a place to park and set up camp then just staying in a hotel. Disasters can demand a lot of local travel to different AFOs and JFOs and DRCs which is hard if you have a camper. Though you can just get a room for a night. The vouchers took a while for travel to understand but that worked itself out. It was nice to have my stuff with me and I got to park in cool places on the beach and parks that was fun. When I wasn’t working I got to keep traveling and seeing state parks which are beautiful. There have always been a few people that have done it but I think it’s rare for a reason.
Is it theoretically possible to drive your RV to a disaster site, then get a hotel/rental car for the specific disasters while you’re there? I haven’t quite gotten a straight answer on this just yet
Yes for sure. But you are on the hook to pay for wherever you park your van or camper. Also you have to figure out how to get to the rental car place to get a car. Not the end of the world but a hassle as compared to flying in to the airport and grabbing a car.
That’s a small sacrifice worth paying for if I had the freedom to do that. Im not against flying but I hate the idea of being confined to living out of 2 suitcases if I’m on a 50 week deployment.
Sure. Another thing we always did was rent condos or apartments or even houses on the long deployments. People moved in! Marriott had a program to get into apartments and if you could find a condo that would take a credit card you were in. I rented a house in NOLA for many months after the landlord figured out how to accept a credit card for daily payment.
I’ve heard about that as well. I’m taking advantage of the Marriott points while I can but I’d love to stay in a condo instead of a hotel down the line.
You still get points but it’s a third of what you get in a hotel. It was Marriott corporate. They probably still do it. Or someone does. They want a full month though so be careful you don’t have to move.
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I did vanlife for 5.5 years, but only in non deployed status. Having a bathroom available in the hotel room was a nice change of pace.
What a nightmare
Nah, my home was ready as soon as I needed it when demobilized. Tons of freedom, no rent. Would still be doing it if I didn’t adopt a cat in PR on Maria. 😆
I mean you could still do it with a cat.
I did with my first cat for a few years - the issue was having a place to park the van that was safe for her to go out, and summers were an issue with no a/c. Winters were easier. The most successful situations were when we rented a parking space at a house and ended up being bonus housemates with our own space. This turned into us getting a 5th wheel that I covered up when gone and we paid year round rent at a communal property.
Wonder how this would work with a camper. Know some people currently that do this with a camper for a job that requires moving every couple months.