Experience with RV park reservation

[pawntan]

Hi All,

I just want to learn about the experience on a long road tripping .

Sometimes when we cross state to state we don't know where we going to end up 3 weeks ahead as we may decide to stay longer in the current RV park . It is getting hard to make reservation 1 month in advance when the days involve long week end like the upcoming memorial day . RV parks are fully booked everywhere in memorial day in north east area ( new hampshire especially).



What do you guys do if you have to leave your current RV park on let's say Thursday and you end up with no RV park available within reasonable driving distance the following Friday / Sat / Monday ?

Do you guys just park at walmart parking lot , and wait until all of the week ender leave Monday ? Even if you can get in Tuesday, the cycle repeat again on the next week end.

So how do we go for long RV trip this summer when we have a weekend reservation limitation like this ?



We can not stay in the hotel either since hotel parking lot may not accept RV.

We are just concern that we will be stuck in the interstate with nowhere to park on the week end during this upcoming long summer RV trip.

[NavyLCDR]

Look for casinos. Many casinos have designated overnight RV parking lots with water and dump stations. Usually you just have to join their gamer's club which is usually free. Also look at US Forest Service Campgrounds. They tend to be less booked. It will more than likely be dry camping (like at the Casino parking lot). Also there may or may not be water at the campground.

There is also a website called hipcamp.com that lists private party campsites (people's fields, farms, barns, etc.)

freecampsites.net is another resource.

[Trailer traveler]

The internet has made trip planning and finding stopovers so much easier than the days of the Woodall Directory and looking for signs along the side of the road. When planning and researching a trip, I search for the possible overnight stops along our most likely route. I bookmark those that have real time online reservation systems (many of the smaller parks do not). As our trip progresses and plans firm up, I will check these websites to see if sites are getting in short supply. This lets me decide whether to make a reservation or even rethink the route or timing. Reserve America now includes some private campgrounds. The few I checked out seem to show the same information that they do for the public parks in their system letting you see site by site and day by day availability.

Some public parks are first come first serve. Arriving Wednesday or Thursday can often yield a spot to stay through the weekend. Fairgrounds are often a good choice for overnights if there is no event scheduled. In addition to the Free campsites website, the Ultimate Public Campsite Project lists a lot of public campgrounds.

In some states, camping is allowed in other than designated campgrounds on state forests, wildlife management areas, fishing lakes and public trust lands (school trust lands). Each state is different. Some require permits, others do not.

Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts provide opportunities to stay overnight or a few nights on private property.

[sherman12]

What we have found on our most recent trip to Florida is just keep calling campgrounds near your destination and you are bound to find something. Sure, it can be a PIA but that's just how the industry is now with the number of new campers flooding the system because of Covid.

You have to be flexible in the CG's you are looking at. What we found was the lower-rated the CG was, the better chance of finding a site. This did not bother me as long as we had good hookups and a level site. My DW, who is a bit pickier than me was put off at a couple of places we stayed.

Besides some of the excellent suggestions in prior posts like Hipcamp, casino's and so forth, many folks are joining Harvest Hosts which lets you stay at wineries, farms, brewpubs, and more. For this coming Memorial Day weekend, we had a hard time booking anything for more than three days. So, what we did was book a Harvest Host location as the first stop, and then book another HH stop for the last day giving us a nice five-day getaway.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by sherman12

What we have found on our most recent trip to Florida is just keep calling campgrounds near your destination and you are bound to find something. Sure, it can be a PIA but that's just how the industry is now with the number of new campers flooding the system because of Covid.

You have to be flexible in the CG's you are looking at. What we found was the lower-rated the CG was, the better chance of finding a site. This did not bother me as long as we had good hookups and a level site. My DW, who is a bit pickier than me was put off at a couple of places we stayed.

Besides some of the excellent suggestions in prior posts like Hipcamp, casino's and so forth, many folks are joining Harvest Hosts which lets you stay at wineries, farms, brewpubs, and more. For this coming Memorial Day weekend, we had a hard time booking anything for more than three days. So, what we did was book a Harvest Host location as the first stop, and then book another HH stop for the last day giving us a nice five-day getaway.

Agreed!

While the internet has made finding campgrounds a whole lot easier, our experiences are even when online reservation systems indicate nothing available, a phone call almost always gets us a spot for a night or two.

Also, look for small campgrounds with no pools or few amenities. Family's don't want to go there because there's nothing to baby-sit their kids so they are often less crowded but typically nice places nonetheless.

[Homebrew]

Practice staying in your driveway, this will help understand the systems and find issues.

[sherman12]

skip, when you say a "van", do you mean a class B RV that is built on a Mercedes, Dodge, or Ford platform and provides RV-like amenities like power hook-up (shore power), water, cooking, toilet/shower, and so forth?

No matter what though with your size and virtually zero limitations you can head anywhere that attracts your interest. The more amenities you have gives you a greater range of freedom in regards to where and how remote a stop would be, whether for a night or several.

[slammer]

I think the overbooking is as big a problem as the new campers coming in. It amazes me that some people have so much money they can afford to pay for sites they don't even use just to make sure it's available if they felt like being there.

[Homebrew]

Many don’t read the cancellation policy and have a tantrum when there charged a fee.

[Oaklevel]

Some cities have city campgrounds with sites that are on a first come basis too.

As was mentioned the internet is great help.

Stay away from tourist areas like beaches as unless you get lucky, reservations are often needed a year or more in advance.