Carole and Nick Tirozzi and their friends, Luanne and Rick DeMatto, have been RVing together across the Eastern United States for more than 15 years. “Luanne and Rick had a motorhome. But we had a 4-wheel-drive truck and we would pull a travel trailer and the four of us would go all over the place,” Carole Tirozzi says.

But while the two couples enjoy camping together as much as ever now that their children have grown up, they no longer need the travel trailers and motorhomes that helped cement their friendship and many fond memories in years past. Instead, the Tirozzis and the DeMattos have joined the growing numbers of New Englanders who now enjoy their weekend getaways in recreational park trailers or “park models,” as they are often called.

Unlike mobile homes, which are a form of low-cost, permanent housing, recreational park trailers are movable resort cottages that are designed exclusively for part-time recreational use. Typically upscale in appearance, they often include bay windows and lofts as well as walnut, oak or maple cabinetry.

“It’s just a matter of two or three years and every unit in here will be a park model,” said Bob Crandall, who has developed and owned the Timber Creek RV Resort in Westerly, RI for the past five years and recently added the Tirozzis and the DeMattos to his growing list of recreational park trailer tenants.

While condos or site-built vacation cottages in resort areas can easily cost two or three hundred thousand dollars or more, recreational park trailers cost under $50,000, with the average price being in the $33,000 range. Campsites, meanwhile, typically cost $3,000 or less for an entire season, including winter storage.

“It used to be that the majority of the recreational park trailer users were retirees,” said Curt Yoder, vice president of Kropf Industries, Inc., one of many park trailer manufacturers based in northern Indiana. “Now people say, ‘I can buy one of these and put it where I want. Instead of buying that $300,000 condo on the lake, for under $50,000, I’ve got a vacation home.”

It’s an argument that makes a lot of sense to the Tirozzis and the DeMattos, who purchased their park trailers earlier this year. The DeMattos, in fact, were so enthused with the prospect that they bought a second park trailer for their sons, so they could visit them on weekends and continue to enjoy weekend or seasonal getaways in the natural setting “It’s our getaway home,” says Luanne DeMatto. “As soon as you arrive you can feel the stress disappear. You can be by yourself or socialize with friends.”

Recreational park trailers make sense to Tirozzis, too. “Our family connects with camping as a real way to relax,” said Carole Tirozzi. “We’ve done cruises. We’ve done traveling in other fashions, staying in hotels. But we like to have all of our things around us,” she said, adding that their recreational park trailer accommodates this need.

Partly because of their affordability and upscale appearance, more and more people who have never owned travel trailers before are now investing in recreational park trailers. More than 50 percent of the recreational park trailer owners who lease sites at Timber Creek RV Resort, in fact, are professional people, many of whom own their own businesses. The remainder are empty nesters or people approaching retirement age.

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But no matter what their age or occupation, recreational park trailer buyers like to place their units in campgrounds or RV parks that are in scenic locations with lots of nearby activities -- just like what we can find in Rhode Island's Westerly.

You can call Timber Creek RV Resort at (401) 322-1877. They're at 118 Dunn's Corner Road in Westerly, RI. Visit their website at http://www.timbercreekrvresort.com/ (Photo courtesy of TCR)

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