?Every summer for the past 37 years I have had the pleasure of escaping the daily grind, and sharing with the whole family a range of scenic destinations throughout North America.

Our preferred mode of travel has varied as the children have grown, starting with fold-down camping trailers, moving up into travel trailers and progressing through the various types and sizes of motorhomes.
We have always found that the freedom and comfort available when you travel by RV brings a very special family value to each trip that would be missing if we were to travel by commercial airlines, stay in motels, and rent a car at the destination. Our RV provides transportation as well as lodging, and opens the door to a vacation lifestyle that is unequalled in flexibility and family enjoyment… we have learned that “getting there is more than half the fun”, and the trip itself usually becomes an adventure that is as memorable as our time at our chosen destination.

This year, with fuel prices gouging everyone at a rate that is unsurpassed in history, some of our readers are thinking twice about their RV touring plans… and this is indeed a shame, because in the overall perspective, RV travel remains the very best value for any family – and we have the data to prove it.
Take a minute to crunch the numbers with me. If your RV delivers 10 miles per gallon (30 L/100 KM) and you travel 1,000 miles round-trip on your summer vacation, your fuel cost for the trip, at a projected $3.50 / gallon, would be approximately $350. If the fuel goes to $4.00 per gallon, add another $50 to the trip budget. That’s less than the cost of dinner for four at a family restaurant and less than the cost of one night at a one-star motel… when you put everything into perspective, the summer of 2008 will only come around once in a lifetime – don’t deprive your family of an RV vacation for the sake of a few dollars. The way I see it, we will just take our barbecue along, and enjoy one more meal at the campsite instead of going out for dinner.

This issue of RV Lifestyle Magazine includes our 37th annual Canadian Campground Directory, listing more than 4,000 places to discover the good life from sea to sea. If this is your first encounter with the magazine, I thank you for sharing your leisure time with us… we publish seven issues per year, and maintain a very informative website at www.rvlifemag.com. If you would like to enjoy every issue of the magazine delivered right to your mailbox, check out our special subscription offer on page 63, or sign-up on-line, we would be delighted to welcome you to our family of RV enthusiast readers.