Opinion: outside kitchen or second bathroom

[ffjone54]

Hi everyone I am new to the forum but not new to camping, I have been camping for around 30 years on and off everything from tents to pop-ups recently bought a travel trailer and I am looking to buy a class A RV. I am considering either a coachmen or a Georgetown both of which have bunk beds I am traveling with a family of four and my children are three and nine and the Georgetown has two full baths but the coachman has a single bath but an outside kitchen I just wanted to reach out to all the family campers out there and see what their opinions are given the choice of a second bathroom or an outside kitchen

[wredman]

If I was to get a floorplan with a second bath, I would want that bath to be simply an extension to my minimum expectations from the rest of the coach, simply put, the length of the coach would need to be longer for the additional bath. I don't want to cramp something else to fit the additional bath.


An exterior kitchen, really does not take much from something else. It is simply a storage compartment that has been filled with a refrigerator and cabinets. The lost space is the area below the sink where the plumbing is.


Ultimately, I suspect there are many other differences between the 2 choices you are zeroed in on, typically the exterior kitchen is lost when there is a campside slide, especially one for the rear bedroom.

[barmcd]

Do you currently cook and eat outside much? If not, I'd think the bath would be a better option with two kids.

[computerguy]

I can't add another bathroom at anytime. The bath and a half floor plan is one of the most popular out there. Think resale.
I can "add" an outdoor kitchen when/if I need it. A cooler doubles as a refer. A grill and or a camp (propane) stove can cook anything I want outdoors. That leaves a sink as the one item I "can't" easily duplicate outside. But 2 small tubs of water would suffice.
Notice there are not many outdoor kitchens on motorhomes out there?
With 4 people I think the extra toilet is going to be a nice thing to have.

[rapid rick]

Half bath with outside door, like many travel trailers=cats meow.
you can go inside to use the john while sitting outside having many cold ones, and have a second escape door= added plus.

[becks]

I would think second bath would be more useful with kids on board.

[SpaceNorman]

We spend months at pop traveling in our coach. My DW loves our bath and half floorplan. First, because the half bath located midship is easily accessible when the slides are in (i.e., when we're rolling). Secondly, because it allows her to claim the "full bath" located in the rear of the coach as her bathroom. This is very much how we've used the two bathrooms at home .... full bathroom upstairs tends to be "family only" - for showers. If you're a visitor or somebody who's just gotta pee ... you get pointed to the half bath off the family room.

We do not have an outdoor kitchen in our coach ... we do have a propane BBQ grill that we place on a table beside the coach - and fuel via the auxiliary propane connection. This too is exactly how things work at our "stick & brick" home. Food prep and storage as well as any stove top, microwave or convention oven cooking gets taken care of inside - anything destined for the grill gets walked outside. DW would blow a gasket trying to do much food prep outside (she's got a thing about bugs....)

As mentioned - we spend months at a time living in our coach, and therefore tend to view it as our mobile house as opposed to a vehicle we go "camping" in. There may be people "camping" all around us ... but us, we're just living in our "home".

[4x4van]

Personally, we have no need nor desire for an additional bathroom, even though my (adult) kids and grandson often camp with us. However, a built-in outdoor kitchen would be very nice. I currently use two 4' tables outside. One for a BBQ grille and a single burner camp stove, the other has a built-in sink that I hook up to a water line from the RV (that outdoor sink is one of the handiest things I've ever had in 28+ years of RVing). For us, the more cooking and food prep we can do outside, the better. Having all of that built-in instead, as well as a small fridge, would be very nice (easier setup/tear down) even though it would likely take up storage space. Your habits/needs may very well be different. Ask yourself; how much outdoor cooking/food prep do you do? How much do you want to do?

[TonyDi]

When you have only one bathroom and kids you wind up with line ups at the door. As the kids get older the need for the second bath increases.
Outdoor kitchens are nice, but you can easily set one up with coolers, grills etc. JMHO.

[Blondiega1]

2nd bathroom, hands down.





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[twogypsies]

As stated by others, you can easily do your own outside 'kitchen' with a camp stove, grill and cooler. You don't need to take up RV space with a kitchen. With your previous RV how did you cook outside?

[wildeflowers]

For me, neither, honestly, but we don't full time.

I have two kids, but they are older than yours. If the kids were younger, and I was willing to get a longer coach, I'd probably elect for the extra bathroom. I can see how with littler kids, it would be helpful.

My husband wanted an outdoor kitchen but I'm pretty opposed to them because of pests. We ended up with a Tiffin which doesn't do outdoor kitchens so it became moot anyway.

[MFortie]

Do you 'camp' where there are a lot of bugs? If yes, you may want to rethink the outdoor kitchen idea...

Frankly when our (4) kids were younger and going with us, I rarely remember a time when we needed a second bath. Even now when we take adult friends with us do we ever have a problem...

[lenkerb]

second bath!!!