We recently purchased a travel trailer (Coachmen Freedom Express Maple Leaf Edition) after years of camping in a tiny tent trailer that we mainly used for back country camping. What we wanted when we were shopping around was: Bathroom/shower, solar package, good inside kitchen, outdoor kitchen, bunk room (sleeping space for the dogs since we have no kids), comfy sitting area with push outs to maximize the inside space. These preferences have now changed since we have used the trailer a bit, but I will get to that later. We hauled the trailer around for about 3 camping trips and then we decided to find a permanent place for it with water/power/sewege. Honestly we found hauling it around and dumping tanks to be a pain and it was damn expensive for gas. We actually found a gem of a spot down in Montana (4 hour drive) and the trailer sits there permanently now and we use it like a cabin. We can just hop in the car and zip down there super quick after work before the weekends and then zip home sunday afternoon with no packing up. It is amazing. I highly recommend the permanent spot but of course everyone's preferences are very different
. Anyways, now back to the features that we thought we initially wanted and what has changed... Well I would definitely not get the outdoor kitchen. We just don't use it other than the fridge for beer when we have a big group staying with us. We actually had a mouse nest in the outdoor kitchen early in the season and I think the fact that there was food smells but not much going in-and-out of it was just a perfect storm to get mice. We not would prefer to have that extra space available inside the trailer instead of out. We love having the bathroom and shower. It is great being parked permanently because we just dump the tanks directly into the pipes that are hooked up below. So easy. Our kitchen is super functional and we have an oversized fridge which is great. We have a microwave but we use it for storage because it tends to pop the breaker when we have the AC going. Works good as a bread cupboard. We don't use the oven either. It is where I keep my frying pan. But we definitely use the cook top inside and the hood fan sucks up all the food smells. Once feature that our trailer had was an extra wide kitchen counter. There is about 8 inches of space behind the sink and stove. This is great for the coffee maker and all that stuff that clutters up the kitchen. It was something we didn't really know we needed but love it. As for space inside we bought a 35 foot trailer that has the master bedroom at the front and a bunk room at the back. We are really glad we went with this option. The dogs sleep there and if anyone else stays back there they have their own door with a bit of privacy. The trailer actually sleeps 10 but we don't ever use the kitchen table as a bed or the pullout sofa. One last feature that I cant recommend enough is to have a second trailer access door in the bathroom. It is so nice to have people be able to access the bathroom through that door instead of entering through the main door and walking all through the trailer. As for the solar package, it is great but totally not being used since our spot had power. We might use it for winter camping when they turn the power off but if I could go back I wouldn't get it added. Sorry for the wall of text!! hope any of that helps