A group of three girls spent eight days traveling across California and kept their wallets happy.
Bailey Dean, a travel and lifestyle content creator, documented her very envy-worthy camping trip with two of her friends. The three wanderlustful ladies proved you don’t have to spend a fortune to explore, as the entire trip cost less than $1,200 each.
While the number may sound high, the road trip was eight full days and included three national parks, gas — which is still at an all-time high in California — food, campsites and renting a sleeper van.
“Road trips are by far my favorite way to explore the US and can really be as cheap or expensive as you make them. Dean said on a TikTok.
“There’s just something about spending all day outside and waking up in a completely different landscape every morning. That’s always worth it,” she added.
Dean is right. Road trips can be one of the cheapest ways to travel across the country, especially if you grab a few friends along the way to help split the cost.
Data from Going.com — a travel service and app sending curated flight deals, mistake fares, and price drops — revealed that traveling shorter and more often can typically be “cheaper, more flexible, and more fulfilling.”
For Dean and her two friends, that’s exactly what happened. The explorer broke down the cost of the entire trip, sharing how doable the road trip can be.
- Gas – $211 each
- Groceries – $119 each
- Campgrounds – $40 each
- Camper van rental – $755 each
This means that the final total came out to $1,134 per person for eight beautiful days in California.
Notably, gas was the biggest expense.
“Gas was definitely the biggest pain of the trip California prices were around $7 a gallon. Thankfully our van wasn’t diesel because that could have been even worse,” Dean candidly said.
The girls saved some cash by cooking what they say were “pretty elaborate meals.” While they definitely could have pinched a penny or two, they wanted to sip coffee every morning and munch on “way too many hiking snacks.”
“We definitely could have done it cheaper but we always scope out a Trader Joe’s before every trip,” Dean shared on TikTok.
Campgrounds were fairly affordable as she said as for five nights they had to pay but the rest were free. They were also able to spend four nights in Yosemite, stayed in Sequoia one night and Death Valley two nights.
The group of girls rented the van from California Vanlife, a camper van rental company based in Fresno. The van set them by about $2,265 all in, but shared between the three of them a fairly good price as hotels would definitely be a steeper cost.
The girls’ trip is part of a much larger trend. Jon Gray is the founder of RVshare, an online marketplace “connecting private RV owners with travelers looking to rent motorhomes and trailers,” the site reads.
Gray spoke with The Post and said the company is seeing more summer travelers prioritize value. According to their own 2026 data, roughly 60% of travelers were planning a road trip or RV vacation — with over half preferring to stay in an RV.
“Travelers want a real vacation without overspending to get it. Our most recent flash sale was the largest in company history, and it tells us people are very willing to hit the road for the right deal,” Gray shared.
“RV travel isn’t about replacing a flight one-for-one. It’s about giving travelers control over their dates, their destinations and their budget,” he added.
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