Who would have thought that I would be loving the RV life? Our weekend getaway is only 35 minutes west of our home in Oakville at Gulliver’s Lake which is close to African Lion Safari.
Sure having a trailer isn’t as glamorous as having a cottage in Muskoka. But I love how low maintenance it is and we don’t have to fight cottage traffic up the 400.
Do you ever think to yourself “if someone told me that I would be doing [blank] 5 years ago I would never believe them?”
That’s how I feel about our trailer… I cannot believe that this is our FIFTH season at Gulliver’s Lake. Never in a million years I would think we would be trailer owners.
Why Gulliver’s Lake?
We didn’t choose Gulliver’s Lake… Gulliver’s Lake chose us. 🙂
Back in September 2014 – we had just moved back from Montreal after living there for two years and my university BFF Cheri invited Tony and I for a visit at Gulliver’s Lake. It was her birthday and she just recently gave birth to her first child Nathan (who pretty much slept the entire time – which was half a day!). The dream baby…..
Tony fell in love with RV living that day and spent the entire ride home that night convincing me to be on board. I was definitely hesitant at first – can we afford this? Do I want to take this on? Will we actually use it? But obviously eventually I gave in. We chose Gulliver’s Lake for two reasons: having friends already there and secondly, knowing this said friend did a lot of research on all potential spots before deciding on Gulliver’s.
Gulliver’s Lake is a seasonal resort which means it’s only open half the year from May 1 to October 31. It’s closed the second half of the year however our trailer in stored on the land so we don’t have to move it. There are definitely trailer parks (or resorts as they are now commonly referred to) that stay open all year long especially down south. Some of our neighbours pull their trailers out for the winter and travel somewhere warm.
Resale verse brand new trailer.
We ended up going to the RV show that fall and saw a bunch of gorgeous trailers and RVs. We saw a lot of layouts and had a better idea of what we wanted – a RV with bunk beds “in case” we ended up having kids (which at time of writing we have two kids and another one on the way so it was definitely the right idea).
We ended up buying a resale trailer for $10K from a place not to far from Gulliver’s Lake. The exact model we bought was the 2007 Jayco Jay Feather 29Y. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money in case we didn’t like the RV life and wanted to sell. A trailers depreciate just like a car – the value goes down the second you take it off the lot.
The one we purchased seemed well maintained and cared for. The decor isn’t as nice as the newer ones on the market but we’re ok with that. But we did ended up replacing the toilet and adding laminate hardwood flooring in.
The new trailers on the market are gorgeous – you can even find them with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops if that’s your thing. We aren’t opposed to buying a new trailer down the road but for two people just dipping their toes into RV living an affordable resale seemed to be the right decision. Plus we you still need to factor in the yearly fees to having your trailer at Gulliver’s Lake.
Travel Trailer vs. Stationary RV Living.
Our trailer is stationary – meaning it doesn’t move nor do we travel with it. We prefer this way since we don’t have vehicles that are strong enough to pull it and we love our community at Gulliver’s Lake. It’s basically like having a home with a small yard and a deck – our little oasis. Although if we change our mind down the road and decide to travel with it, that’s still an option.
Many people have travel trailers – those are ones they can take to travel across Canada and even North American. It’s like bringing a home with you where ever you go.