Choosing Campground and site

[SandyMO]

Can anyone tell me the best way to find a Campground with appropriate site for our Travel Trailer? I have been looking online on multiple sites and am having a hard time figuring it all out. Is it easier to just show up for open spots when you want to camp? or to have a reservation when you've not been to any of the camp grounds?

Sandy

[davel1971]

how big is your camper? Larger it is, less chance of just showing up finding a spot. I always have reservations. Some websites give better info that others on site sizes. When looking at unfamiliar campgrounds, I always use Google Earth to check it out. Gives a good perspective of what's available.

[Sbryant]

Buy a Trailer Life book. It lists campgrounds all over the country, by state and by city. You 'll pick up on the legend very easy. If you are still working, reservations are the best way to go. That way you know when you get there you've got a place to hook up. If you are not working, first come is ok cause you can set your own schedule.
Enjoy yourself! You'll soon find out that camping is the best vacation a person can take!

[Capt. Mike]

Originally Posted by SandyMO

Can anyone tell me the best way to find a Campground with appropriate site for our Travel Trailer? I have been looking online on multiple sites and am having a hard time figuring it all out. Is it easier to just show up for open spots when you want to camp? or to have a reservation when you've not been to any of the camp grounds?
Sandy

Sandy,

I think it depends on when and where you are wanting to camp. Weekends, especially holiday weekends, almost always require a reservation. Very popular spots like national parks almost always require a reservation. Mid-week, usually you can find both private and/or public campgrounds with space. Being retired, we have the luxury of travelling most ant time and we like before Memorial Day and after Labor Day. We went all through Texas last fall with only three reservations in a month of travelling, and didn't have any problem finding a spot, but it was late September into October.

[Wiscampsin]

Call the campground, tell them how big your camper is, ask them if they have a site that would accommodate you. Here in Wisconsin state parks fill up very quickly with reservations, but most have a few non-reservable first come-first served spots. Private campgrounds fill up for holiday weekends so reservations are a must.

[speedcat]

I always make reservations as most campgrounds fill up during the camping season and especially on holiday weekends. If I have not been there before I do as much research as I can to find what sites are best for my fiver as it's 42ft long. I prefer full hookup and concrete pads. An un level site, trees, positioned near bath house or close to the dump station etc..can make a difference. My RVing friend says we are camping snobs when it comes to choosing a campground. If you can not find info on line call the campground and tell them what type of RV you have and hopefully they will put you in an appropriate site.

[ependydad]

Wiscampin and speedcat took the words out of my mouth. When I'm not at a Thousand Trails park, I often will call campgrounds to make sure they can take our size and they're big rig friendly.

The Thousand Trails (TT) parks are all first-come/first-served parks (*mostly). For some of their smaller parks, I'll call when we're a couple of hours away to see how many "big rig" sites they have currently open and if it's getting tight, if they can help us hold a site.

[ependydad]

Oh, and picking a campground- 99% of the time, we shoot for something near a destination. I'll browse campground websites and then hit up Reviews of RV Parks and Campgrounds - RV Park Reviews (which is transitioning ownership to the same folks who run this form) for reviews from other campers. I ignore the awful and glowing and try to find the middle-ground of reality, but really- we're very easy to please.

[SandyMO]

Thank you all for your responses. i found another thread that also gave a phone app called Allstays and have already purchased. Looks like a great app. I don't usually spend $ on apps but thought this might be beneficial.

[kz08h5]

Allstays is a great app. More than worth the price. It take some practice to interpret the web site descriptions and reviews. What I might tolerate you might not. My wife and I don't always agree. As for reservations, it depends on where and when. Florida from Jan to Apr you'll need a reservation. In Aug you can have your pick of parks and sites. The same with areas around popular destinations, like national parks, during the summer.

[dalford]

Originally Posted by SandyMO

Thank you all for your responses. i found another thread that also gave a phone app called Allstays and have already purchased. Looks like a great app. I don't usually spend $ on apps but thought this might be beneficial.

I love Allstays. I really like the hybrid mode where you can not only see the roads but you can also see the layout of the campground and what it is close to by a satellite view.

Well worth the $10 or whatever it is today.

You can't know what you don't know. But with Allstays you can look at a map and see all camp grounds and camping services along the way or at your destination and then drill down from there. Have fun...

[rawlus]

Originally Posted by ependydad

Oh, and picking a campground- 99% of the time, we shoot for something near a destination. I'll browse campground websites and then hit up Reviews of RV Parks and Campgrounds - RV Park Reviews (which is transitioning ownership to the same folks who run this form) for reviews from other campers. I ignore the awful and glowing and try to find the middle-ground of reality, but really- we're very easy to please.

good to know ownership of that site is transitioning, its presently a very illogical site in organization and tools for finding, filtering sorting. should behave more like a yelp or tripadvisor. it now behaves too much like a state CG brochure.

now if they could only integrate campsitephotos.com into the merger then youd really have something.

[Oaklevel]

Reservations are a good bet to getting a site. Different times of the year in different areas can make a difference. In Virginia & NC mountain areas reservations are needed in Sept & Oct as the Fall leaves & Fall Festivals book campgrounds full. One campground we like first week in Nov is always booked. Do your homework, call ahead, some is just trial & error. Some places after going once looked good but were just not for us. Word of mouth info friends & family is probably best.

[Timex]

First of all, The BOSS doesn't do trip planning. She has a few expectations such as: "reasonably" near places of shopping, eating, and sights to see, and if momma ain't happy, I won't hear the end of it.
Right now, at this point in time in our lives, we are only able to take a week long trip 2-3 times a year. So I have to plan trips that are within 10-12 hours from home.
The first thing I do is get a map, atlas, or google map and try to find places we have never been with tourist sights and the like. Next I start looking for cities than will be centrally located and within 100 miles or so of the tourist spots. Then I start gathering information on rv camping places using the Trailer Life Directory(which is on my Magellan GPS), RV Park Reviews and if I'm lucky, CampsitePhoto.com will have pictures of the park(s) I'm studying. Most parks will have a website describing their facility with pictures. But beware of old pictures(look at the vehicles) that might give you a false reality of how the place actually is. If the park does not have a website, (in MY opinion) they have not got an updated facility and will not be gaining my attention or my $$. I place word of mouth recommendations at a small consideration because what I like may not be what you like and vice versa. But I will take what is said and do a thorough investigation. Hence, I take someone's negative review lightly unless every review is negative. Sometimes it doesn't take but one thing to turn someone off to a park. And somebody may just love everything! I know this has been around the block before, but when I drive 800 miles, I'm not sitting, I'm driving around and seeing what is going on around there. I can sit at home plus I only have 1 week to get it done. So my considerations of the park would be: do I need full hookups if I'm not going to spend much time in the park, will it be convenient to the sights I want to see, will I feel safe in leaving my TT parked there, if no full hookups, does it have clean showers.
I contrast, if I am "camping" will it have: full hookups, nice clean sites, be quiet away from hiways and industries. Usually, I only will do this type of rving within a few hours of home.
One of the things we do while we are out riding around on these trips, I make a list of parks we want to look at and I jot down a few notes good/bad and whether we might want to stay there one day.
I usually make reservations in advance if it will be a busy time of the year. A helpless feeling is not having reservations and getting to your destination and there are no open spots and no place nearby and you are dog tired from driving all day.
Planning is half the fun in taking trips. I learned a long time ago about planning your work and working your plan. It's true.
But there will be a day too where we'll have no plan other than to have fun and see what is around the next bend in the road!

[Mark and Linda]

Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky have the Pocket Ranger Apps...some good ones if you are in this area.