What to Bring on an RV Road Trip — A First-Timer's Honest Packing List

We are not RV experts.

We want to be completely upfront about that before you read a single word of this packing list. We are Carlos and Nancy — a couple from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, who have camped our whole lives but have never once driven an RV. Not a Class A. Not a Class C. Not a rented travel trailer. Nothing.

That changes this Thanksgiving.

We are renting an RV, loading up our two dogs — Macie, our Australian Cattle Dog–Jack Russell–Corgi mix with the giant ears and the pink harness, and Mindy, our Miniature Pinscher–Chihuahua mix who thinks she runs the campsite — and driving 19 hours to New Mexico to meet up with our daughter and her family near White Sands National Monument.

Nineteen hours. Two dogs. Zero prior RV experience. A few RV park stops each way. A Thanksgiving dinner somewhere in the desert.

We are either very brave or very bad at planning. Possibly both.

This is not a list from someone who has done this a hundred times. This is a list from two people actively figuring it out — researching gear, making judgment calls, and accepting that Macie and Mindy will absolutely have opinions about all of it. We hope it helps someone else who is in the same boat. Or, in our case, the same rented motorhome.

The Packing Mindset: Rent First, Buy Smart

Before we get into the list, here's the thing we keep reminding ourselves: we are renting. That means the RV itself comes equipped with the basics — bedding, kitchen tools, a bathroom, hookups. We are not outfitting a ship. We are filling in the gaps.

Our rule: if the RV probably has it, we are not packing a duplicate. If it is specific to us, our dogs, or the road — we bring it.

With a 2.5-day drive in each direction, broken up by RV park stops along the way, this trip is as much about the drive as the destination. We will be checking out campgrounds in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas on the way there, and doing the same on the way back through a different stretch. That changes the packing equation. This is not a one-campsite trip. It is a moving base camp.

The Dog Situation (Which Is Really the Whole Situation)

Let's be honest: Macie and Mindy are the co-pilots. The logistics of this trip are mostly about them.

Mindy, our Miniature Pinscher–Chihuahua mix, is small enough to disappear under a blanket and convince you she was never there. Macie, the Cattle Dog mix, has enough energy to power a portable generator and the ears to pick up radio stations from two states over. Traveling with both of them requires planning.

Here is what we are bringing specifically for the dogs:

Their own travel water bowl and collapsible food dish. RVs do not come with dog dishes. The Ruffwear Bivy Bowl collapses flat, clips to a bag, and does not slosh everywhere on sharp turns. We are bringing two.

A travel dog bed or their own blanket from home. New places smell wrong to dogs. Their own scent helps them settle faster. For a 19-hour trip across three states, settled dogs are the goal.

A dog safety harness or travel crate for the drive. Mindy fits in a soft-sided travel crate. Macie uses a crash-tested dog seat belt harness like the Kurgo Tru-Fit Smart Harness that clips into the seatbelt. Neither of them is sitting loose in a moving RV on an interstate.

Poop bags, and then more poop bags. Every RV park has rules. Every campsite neighbor notices. Bring twice what you think you need.

Their vet records and vaccination documentation. Some RV parks require proof of vaccinations. Others just ask. Either way, having a photo of the records on your phone handles it in ten seconds.

Their medications and a small first-aid kit for dogs. We are driving through three states and spending Thanksgiving in the desert at elevation near White Sands. We are not winging their health.

If you travel with dogs and want a shirt that accurately describes who actually runs the camping operation, our Camping with Dogs — Happy Camper Dog Lover Travel Buddy tee says it all. Or if your dogs have claimed co-pilot status as definitively as Macie and Mindy have, the RV Adventure Co-Pilot Dog Shirt is the one. Both on Comfort Colors, both printed on demand through our shop.

The Sleep and Comfort Layer

The RV has beds. But RV mattresses are a famously polarizing topic in every camping forum we have ever visited. They range from surprisingly decent to "we woke up on what felt like a yoga mat."

We are hedging.

A mattress topper. A 2-inch memory foam topper compresses small enough to fit in a duffel bag and transforms a mediocre RV mattress into something you do not dread lying down on. The LINENSPA Memory Foam Mattress Topper rolls up tightly and has held up for other RV renters we have talked to.

Your own pillows. RV rental pillows are the luck of the draw. We are bringing ours.

A lightweight throw blanket. New Mexico in November at elevation gets cold at night, even inside. A fleece camping blanket takes up almost no space and handles the gap between "the RV heat is on" and "it is actually warm." Search "fleece camping blanket" in Amazon Associates to find your preferred option and generate your affiliate link.

Earplugs or a white noise app. RV parks are not silent. Generators, neighbors, dogs in adjacent sites — it all adds up. We are not leaving sleep to chance on a 19-hour road trip.

The Kitchen and Food Setup

The RV has a kitchen. We are not cooking Thanksgiving dinner in it — that is happening at our daughter's Airbnb. But we are covering five or six days of meals on the road, breakfasts and dinners at RV park sites, lunches on the highway.

A good insulated cooler for the drive days. The RV refrigerator takes time to cool down after you pick up the rental. We are bringing a YETI Roadie 24 hardside cooler for the perishables that need to stay cold from hour one. Hard coolers hold temperature longer and stack better in a moving vehicle than soft-sided options.

A French press or travel coffee setup. This is non-negotiable. The RV may or may not have a drip machine. The morning does not start until the coffee starts. A GSI Outdoors JavaDrip or a simple AeroPress covers it without taking up much space. Search "GSI Outdoors JavaDrip" in Amazon Associates to generate your affiliate link.

Pre-portioned snacks for the road. Five days of impulse snack decisions at gas stations adds up fast and tastes worse. We are packing trail mix, individual nut butter packets, protein bars, and a bag of Macie's favorite treats which she will 100% find and redistribute throughout the RV.

A basic spice kit and cooking oil. Most RV rentals have pots and pans. None of them have salt, pepper, garlic powder, or olive oil. A small spice organizer and a travel-sized bottle of oil costs almost nothing and means you can actually cook a real dinner at an RV park site in Oklahoma instead of eating gas station sandwiches.

Paper plates and lightweight utensils for camp meals. Washing dishes in an RV is possible. Washing dishes at 9 PM after a 6-hour driving day while the dogs are losing their minds is not something we want to do every night.

The Tech and Connectivity Layer

This is a Thanksgiving family reunion trip, which means phones and tablets need to stay charged and working across five or six days in unfamiliar locations with unpredictable WiFi.

A portable power bank — a real one. Not a $15 gas station emergency charger. A proper Anker 737 Power Bank or similar high-capacity bank handles phones, tablets, and earbuds for multiple days between charges. We will be plugged into RV park hookups at each stop, but the bank covers us during the long drive hours.

A 12V car charger with multiple USB ports. The RV cab has power ports but rarely enough of them. A good multi-port charger keeps both phones running without fighting over the single outlet between Texas and New Mexico.

Downloaded offline maps. Cell coverage on a 19-hour drive through the southwest is not guaranteed. We are downloading Google Maps offline for every stretch of the route before we leave Murfreesboro. We have also downloaded the iOverlander app, which marks campgrounds, rest areas, and water fill stations even in dead zones.

A Bluetooth speaker for the campsite. RV park evenings are significantly better with music. A JBL Clip 4 clips to a bag, is waterproof, and does not require you to prop a phone against a cup to hear it.

The Clothing Strategy for November on the Road

Tennessee to New Mexico in November means weather that changes every few hours. We are starting in Tennessee fall, driving through Texas plains wind, and arriving at elevation near White Sands where Thanksgiving nights can drop into the 30s.

Our packing approach is layers, not volume.

Base layers for cold nights. A lightweight merino wool or synthetic base layer top and bottom packs small and handles a wide temperature range without bulk. Smartwool Merino 150 base layers are what we are both bringing. Search "Smartwool Merino 150 base layer" in Amazon Associates to generate your affiliate link for men's and women's versions.

One medium fleece each. A mid-layer fleece handles the gap between campfire warm and freezing cold that defines high desert evenings. We are not bringing a second jacket — we are bringing one good fleece that does multiple jobs.

A waterproof shell. New Mexico November is dry but not predictably so. One packable rain jacket each takes up the space of a sandwich and covers the scenario where it actually rains or the wind at White Sands picks up.

Comfortable camp shoes or sandals. After a day of driving, getting out of road shoes and into something easy is one of the small things that makes an RV park stop feel like a real rest instead of just a parking spot.

Four or five days of clothing that layers. We are not packing more than we need. RV parks have laundry facilities if we miscalculate.

The Safety and Documentation Kit

This is the section most first-timers skip and then desperately wish they had not.

The rental agreement and emergency contact numbers. Printed. In the glove box. Not just on the app.

Roadside assistance coverage. Most RV rental companies offer this. AAA Premier covers RVs up to 100 miles of towing. We verified our coverage before picking up the keys.

A basic first-aid kit. Not a tiny band-aid pack — a real one. We are driving through rural stretches of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The nearest urgent care is not always close. A Johnson & Johnson All-Purpose First Aid Kit covers cuts, burns, blisters, and minor injuries without taking up the space of a tackle box. Search "Johnson & Johnson All-Purpose First Aid Kit" in Amazon Associates to generate your affiliate link.

A headlamp for each of us. RV park hookups and campsite darkness do not mix well with phone flashlights. A Black Diamond Spot 400 headlamp is hands-free, bright, and handles the middle-of-the-night "why is that noise happening" moment that every RV first-timer will experience.

Leveling blocks. Most rental RVs include them. Confirm before you leave the lot. Sleeping at a sideways angle in a rig that is not leveled is not comfortable and is not good for the RV refrigerator.

The Honest First-Timer Assessment

We are going into this knowing we will forget something.

That is fine. Every RV park we are stopping at has a camp store with the basics. Every Walmart between Tennessee and New Mexico is an emergency supply run. The trip will not be ruined by forgetting the coffee filters or packing one too few dog treats.

What makes a first RV road trip work is not a perfect packing list. It is leaving enough buffer in the schedule to stop when something is interesting, checking into each RV park with enough daylight to actually see it, and not treating the drive as something to survive rather than enjoy.

We are driving 19 hours to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family in the desert, with two dogs who have never been in an RV, in a rig we have never driven. We are going in with a decent packing list and a complete lack of certainty about how any of it will go.

That is the whole point.

The Shirt You Wear After

If this is your first RV trip too, we will see you on the other side. And when you get there — whenever the dogs are finally asleep, the leveling blocks are set, and you are sitting outside the rig in a camp chair watching a New Mexico sky that does not look like anything you have seen back home — there is only one shirt that accurately describes the experience.

The We Survived Our First RV Trip tee from our shop is exactly what it sounds like. We designed it for people coming out the other end of their first adventure in a rig they were not entirely sure about.

It is printed on Comfort Colors 1717 — garment-dyed, soft from the first wear, and made to order through our shop at Horacio & Visconti on Etsy.

And if you are still in the planning stage — still not entirely sure you have got this — we also have the Funny RV Rookie — We Barely Survived tee, and the Funny New RV Owner — Send Help, We Have No Idea What We're Doing shirt, which is accurate at every stage of the process.

We will report back from New Mexico. Macie and Mindy will have opinions. We will share them.

— Carlos & Nancy Horacio & Visconti | horaciovisconti.etsy.com

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