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Great Destinations
Folks,
We are new to the site and anxious to learn. We travel with our 3 teenagers and are always looking for new adventure spots. Is there a place on the site where “have to see” locations and great campgrounds or RV parks are listed? Does the calendar include must see events – outdoor concerts, venues, etc.
One of the areas we would like to share is on suggested parks and campgrounds. Our bus is an XLII on an entertainer chassis. We are careful in picking campgrounds and always ask the “are you big rig friendly, easy to get into, etc” questions. The answers are almost standard and we are almost embarrased to explain we can’t just get in anywhere – and not because I can’t drive the thing. I’m a pretty good driver and have probably had our bus a few spots I should not have. That said, we’ve backed out of a few spots and those “big rig friendly” sites that you can’t get into when you are 13 1/2 feet tall, 60,000 lbs, and your axles are 30 feet apart seem more common than not. I’m guessing this is a common problem and we are looking to share. Also, any tips on hotels, locations, or other spots that are bus friendly would be great. And, is there any place to look for locations to stay away from (muddy roads with trees sticking into the drive
We are anxious to learn and share. We’ve been Rver’s for years but we’re only a year old at being Prevost owners. We’re not the retired full timers as we’re still pretty young (as long as under 50 still counts as young) and have a bus full of teenagers. We don’t think there is a better way to spend family time and we love it! Wide open to any and all suggestions and we’d be happy to list our favorites too.
Paul
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17 Replies
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Hi Paul,
I don’t want to drift your thread, but I’m very curious about your motorhome. There’s five of us; the kids are 2, 4, and 7 years old. I’ve been looking for a conversion that has bunks or that has a floorplan that can easily accomodate bunks. I’ve stayed away from entertainers because they typically lack the motorhome features that I’ve come to enjoy. I’d really like to talk to you about how your entertainer is working out. This could be a topic for another thread or if you’re inclined perhaps you can email me: dmb993@earthlink.net. Thanks!
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Paul
We use Big Rig Best Bets http://www.big-rigs-rv.com book often when traveling because of the reasons you have pointed out. Asking the folks here is another great way to find campgrounds all over that someone has had experience with. My kids favorite places included Cedar Point Park in Ohio has a nice campground attached and it’s a very large roller coaster park and can accomadate you easily. A hidden jem in Pa they liked is Nema Collin resort. It’s 2, 5 star resorts with about 30 large RV sites between them. Golf, trap shooting, bowling, mini golf, zip line, ect plenty to do. Our kids loved blue water key in fl, Acadia national park in me. The national parks were great as well plenty of things to see and do lots of hiking. Finding acceptable campgrounds for the national parks can be tough but that is where this group has been great.
David
We decided that a bunk coach would better fit our family’s needs and started looking a couple of years ago for a bunk coach on a Prevo RV conversion. My findings were that not very many have been built. Liberty had made one bunk coach I believe was a 07 or 08 I do not recall and was only on the market for a short period of time back October of 2012. I believe Marathon made a few bunk coaches as well. I know it’s not the popular thing on this site but our decision was to build a Newell to fit our needs. Newell has a bunk layout as a standard floor plan and part our decision was that a bunk cosch with Newell would not be an anomaly when we decide to do something different. Good luck with your search
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The Black Hills, near Rapid City, SD, is a great spot to vacation with
kids/teens as long as you’re not in the area during the Sturgis M/C rally. The official Sturgis rally dates for 2014
are August 4-10, but the area begins filling up the week before.If you like Christian Rock music, the Hills Alive music festival will be held at Main Street
Square on Friday, July 19, and in Memorial Park on July 20 & 21 in Rapid
City. This event is free for all, great
music, and good family fun.The main roads through Bad Lands NP are easily
suitable for a bus/RV. Custer State
Park is a must see just for the wildlife; but don’t drive your bus/RV on the Needles Highway or the Iron Mountain road. These are extremely scenic drives, but a bus
won’t fit. I have seen tour buses,
(seated buses), on the Needles Highway, but there is absolutely no room for
error. Bus/RV parking is available at
Mt Rushmore. -
Paul,
We have been on the road for 260 days with our three kids… 13,10, 8 we have an 07 marathon conversion with two bunks and an extended booth dinnette for 5-6. We looked for the perfect bus for around 3 years. Marathon has made a fair amount of bunk coaches and even more that are easilly convertable to them. Like others have told you we use big rigs, RVparkreviews.com and confirm what we read by looking at Google Maps satellite images.
We have been to around 28-29 states and our plan is to cover all but HI before we end the adventure in August.
It has been an amazing trip and we have seen and done a ton… For us it’s been about getting the bus close to what we want to see or do… so far the consensous is that Acada National Park in Maine and Big Bend TX are the two favorite spots for destinations… in terms of favorite parks. MCC in Indio CA is amazing and we will be spending a month there in March while I travel on business…. next to that would be Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort where we own a lot.
I’m in the production business so we have a blog with pictures and videos of most everywhere we have been…. I would be happy to share a link to our blog if you are interested.
Good Luck
Bill
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Paul
I’m not sure what “adventure” spots are, but you have a great opportunity to visit some really fantastic places that define our country. We have managed to visit every one of the 48 contiguous states and while the places we have visited are fantastic, the friends we have made with other bus owners is perhaps the best part of ownership.
Places that come quickly to mind as go-to locations range from the Mt. Rushmore area to New Orleans and its history and the surrounding plantations, to the Rocky Mountains, to Washington DC, to the Northwest and to New England and a lot of places in between. There isn’t space to list all the neat things to do or visit.
I know kids like to go to amusement parks and there are plenty to visit around the country, but I will bet they will enjoy such diverse things as visiting the Air and Space Museum in Washington, Alcatraz near San Francisco, the redwoods north of there, visiting factories all over the country such as automobile plants, or air boat rides in the Florida swamps. Don’t forget Disney World, or the Grand Ole Opry. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn is a must see, as well as the Alamo and Riverwalk in San Antonio. One thing we learned to do was to pick an area to visit and ask the local people for suggestions on where to eat and visit.
I would agree with using the Big Rig book as a guide, but a standard Woodalls is almost as good if you learn to read the code words. Look for phrases like big rig friendly, pull through sites and 50 amp power. If you see that combination of words and phrases you are likely OK. We usually decide a few hours before we are ready to quit driving for the day where we would like to stop, we call to make a reservation and during that conversation we make sure the site will accomodate us. When we started RVing there were few big motorhomes so we got into some tight places, but with one exception in 24 years we have always been able to get a site. Today with a lot of conventional RVs being 45 feet there are a lot more RV parks capable of handling our coaches.
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Lake Rudolph Camp ground. Next door to Holiday World off I 64 Souther Indiana Has transport every 1/2 hr to park–ck it out on internet. waterpark and world class roller costers ..clean as disney or cleaner.. much cheaper.. best time june-august.(weather wise).. In area Lincoln Boyhood memorial (national) many caves–Plus the small town is X-mas. Large facality but don’t plan on last minute trip unless you get lucky and someone cancels in busy season.. Is area alternative to long trip to Orlando… Bob
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Thanks for the tips. Would love to see the link for the pictures and video – sounds like a great adventure.
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Many thanks to all for the great tips and suggestions. I have already purchased and receieved the big rig book. Some of the spots mentioned we’ve already hit and some are now on the list. Here’s a list of some of our favorites so far too:
Disney Fort Wilderness – cant miss spot Pure Disney and everything is done right. Bring your checkbook, they are pround of the spots.
Carabelle Beach Resort FL Panhandle – This is a little hidden gem in the FL panhandle. The roads in are not bad, but do it in the daylight (I didn’t). The park is right across from the Gulf and the sights are great. Check in advance as some are a bit tight if you are on an extended wheelbase rather than a motorhome wheelbase.
Emerald Coast RV Resort -Panama City, FL- A wondeful park. Easy in and out and the sites on the lake are wonderful. All set on pavers with a grill and umbrella table. Great spot but a little secluded. It’s not on the beach. If you are a golfer there is a great course almost next door where they play Q school rounds.
Camp Gulf – Destin – – have not been yet but it was suggested by someone else. We’ll be there for Spring Break.
Twin Creek RV park in Gatlinburg – Very nice but also shaded and COLD if in certain parts of the park. We were on the front lower portion that faces the road. It has a cliff behind it and in front. It is very pretty but got about 3 minutes of sun. Perfect in July probably.
Point Mallard Park – Decatur, AL – This place is great for kids. It’s tough maneuvering for bigger rigs but they have a few spots that work. The park has golf, archery, a water park, ice skating, and endless trails. It is very cool. And, it’s only $20 bucks a night. In the middle of the summer they do not do reservations so that’ an issue.
Caney Creek West of Knoxville – Great spot on the lake. Nice open park with good amenities.
Here are some on our list that we are curious if anyone has been:Kentucky Horse Park? Jimmy Buffet concert where they have RV access? Deer Run or Spring Lake in Crossvile, TN? River Plantation in Sevierville, TN – From the road view it looks like the entrance is over a cliff, is it a godd and easy access spot?
Many Thanks, Paul
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The Kentucky Horse Park is electric and water only with a fairly convenient dump station at the entrance.
Beware: Some of the sites are very off level, and I mean significantly sloped. Also, unless they did a lot of tree trimming last year, you may need to take your chain saw with you.
You can find an acceptable spot, assuming you have a fair number to choose from. On busy weekends, you may be out of luck. It is hard to tell which spots are level and which are not from the pictures on the website.
I really don’t consider it big rig friendly. If someone knows exactly which spots are acceptable, then you could reserve it with a little more confidence.
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Top Sail Hill State park– need to do now ! Hard to get into..Also Henderson Beach State Park there is nice..No lights at nite because they confuse the sea turtles after they hatch. Bob
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Welcome Paul & Lisa,
We go every year to Camping on the Gulf in Destin and love it… we take our daughter and grand daughter… we try to go twice every year but once is a promise !
We stay on the front row always, but you can’t stay on the front row if you have pets… there is no sewer on the front row but the “honey wagon” comes by for a few $$.
The park is very well run and there is a lot to do in the area, try to stay as close to the beach as possible as its so pretty.
It may still be cool there in March we went a couple of times at Spring Break then moved it up to the first week in June due to the cooler weather in March although the days weren’t too bad but it wasn’t swimming weather by any means.. also we are from Texas and we like it hot, people from the North might think 65 is hot… not us Texans.
Be sure to venture over to the Boardwalk area one evening, it’s very nice and the “outlet shopping” is almost across from the RV Park and your teenagers will love that.
If you have carpet, you may want to buy a roll of the clear stick-on carpet cover to use to keep the sand out, and keep a pan of clean water to dip feet in, on entering the bus.
We will be there in June again this year, right out n the front row !! Can’t wait!!
Enjoy & safe travels to you.
Diane
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David,
We have an entertainer/family motorhome hybrid. It is built with both entertainer features and MH features. It has three bunks in a room with it’s own door and closet for the kids. Very cool setup.
I have found that most of the entertainer features are more industrial/commercial feeling than the other options. It is built like a tank and no frilly tassles etc that seem to end up in most of these conversions I see.
I am guessing that maybe 5 – 10% of the buses have bunks that suit a family. Most have no bunks or are true entertainers that have 12 bunks.
Check out http://www.kleininteriorspecialists.com They did the conversion on the bus we own.
As for great parks: Tiger Run in Breckenridge, CO.
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I’am not up to speed on the Klein conversion.
What are there interiors like ? Any pictures ?
AL
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Paul and Lisa,
There is one venue that has something for everyone and it is family friendly and affordable. It is Branson MO. Stay at the Branson KOA and you will be reasonably close to all entertainment, restaurants, shopping, plus plenty of venues for kids of all ages.
Even if you spent a week there you would not run out of shows to see or things to do.
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I will get some pic’s up soon. Bus is getting an outdoor entertainment/TV upgrade right now.
They actually built a mini bedroom mid-coach, with 3 bunks and a closet. Perfect setup for kids.
As soon as I get it back I will post a video or pictures.
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