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Campground Reservations
Just a general question……how far in advance do you reserve a campground space (not a National Park or high end resort) for your travels. I have plotted a route home to travel….for my soon to be announced Liberty purchase (paper work to be completed next week). Thanks for your answers and I will formally announce my full fledge arrival to the Prevost Community hopefully next week.
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14 Replies
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A good book to use in traveling is the Big Rig Best Bets. Its well put together, very accurate as all RV parks in the book have been visited.
I buy it every year as parks are added and removed. Don’t forget to look at RV Park advertisers on PC forum as most have discounts for PC members.
There address below is hot, direct to web site.
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It depends on the resort/park, its popularity, its size, and what is going on around it.
We made reservations this past Thursday (Aug 8) for a RV Park/Resort in Woodruff, Wisconsin to arrive Aug 16th and they had room. They had room for a 45′ coach. We’ve found that the RV parks at state fair parks (Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana) have lots of room EXCEPT during the state fairs and other HUGE events.
It varies from park to park. I suspect that RV parks in Sturgis, SD are booked a year in advance by repeat customers.
Obviously the earlier the better.
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Very good advise given so far – especially the Big Rigs book/website.
I also use a website called “rvtripwizard.com” for planning many of our trips. Very versitile and identifies your pritoritized camping parameters along your selected route(s). You can go directly from the “wizard” to a pretty comprehensive campground review site, so you can see what the general consensus is for a cg you may be interested in, and/or directly to the campground’s website for additional info or reservations. Fuel stops, Walmarts (overnite and non-overnite), and attractions, along with a long list of things you can prioritize to suit your own interests are also identified. It also has a trip cost/budgeting feature if you choose to populate the basic data required for the function. You can maintain a large number of trips in your account…both future and historical. All in all, a pretty sweet website, IMO.
One of the things we have found is that a good many campground folks (unless you are staying at a top tier resort) don’t have a clue as to what is important when manuvering to/thru their campground. We always stress repeatedly when we make reservations that we are a 45′ bus – not your typical Winnie or Tiffin, but we still run into problems with low limbs, limbs that are hanging/growing in the lane, very tight turns, narrow cg streets, etc. We’ve on more than one ocasion refused to enter a cg after a long day on the road because I didn’t want our roof line rearranged by low trees or limbs that would customize our paint more than it already is. If there is any question, I walk to the site and leave the coach in the registration area until I’m satisfied I can get in AND out unscathed. Just a FWIW…
And congrats on your pending purchase!! Looking forward to seeing some pics & potentially meeting you “out there somewhere”…
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I was going to the Rig out next week. i have a 5 day weekend . I tried to fine a place on the olympic pennsula for a 45 foot …. 3 weeks out i had no luck …. i am going to take the car and do the trip … the Boss wants to go along the coast .. so we will be doing the hotel thing…… GRRRRRRRRR
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I use Big Rigs a lot since most CGs listed have been visited by the authors and I am reasonably sure that I will fit. I also use an app called Overnight Parking Finder. It lists all of the well known places like Wally World, Cracker Barrell and others, but also includes Rig friendly Malls, rig friendly grocery stores, all rest areas that will overnight, etc. Yes, it is dry camping, but many times I just want a long nap or a place to stop for a sandwich and a place to water the dogs.
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Dave, hop in the bus and go. Forget about letting a listing of 45 foot sites determine when you take the coach.
If we can’t find a suitable RV park there is always a willing restaurant or business that will allow you to park over night. With fuel so cheap it almost makes sense to just run the generator instead of hooking to shore power.
You are self contained so take advantage of the freedom the coach gives you.
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We use a combo of Big Rigs Best Bets (always good) and RV Parkreviews.com. We usually only call a place the day before unless we’re going to be in a popular tourist area during the busy season … eg: Nat Parks during summer, FL during winter. We usually don’t travel during summer ’cause most stuff is too busy.
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I do the same as Doug and usually call the day before, or many times just before arrival. An app I ise and have enjoyed is RV Parky. Silly name, but useful app.
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So, no one pays any attention to the PC Map, that has campgrounds visited by PC members!
I’ll put my money on the PC Map, I know a member has been there and it either is good or bad. You’ll get a hell of a lot more information than you will from Big Rigs who’s main focus is on advertising and whether your bus will fit on a 70′ site. Good luck with the tree’s.
A lot of people have spent a bunch of their time to populate the map for everyone to use.
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That reminds me,
Tom, when are you going to move the campgrounds listed in China and Tibet back to the U.S.? All of them are lacking the minus sign on the longitude. Also, I put in the Blue Heron RV park in California, but it never appeared on the map.
The PC map is great, but doesn’t have enough entries in some locations. As an example, we’ll be heading back to Ft Worth for another try at fixing the tag axle seal, and the one listed on the map in Santos is a bit further than I care to travel. So, I’ll probably try out the one in Ranger.
I use the Big Rigs book, and crosscheck with the Good Sam “bible” and the Good Sam nav system. -
Which one are you buying Allan? We just arrived in Stuart tonight for our yearly PM next week. Congratulations.
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GIGO – Garbage in, garbage out.
I corrected the China lat/long errors, I didn’t see it because I have no interest in looking at campgrounds in China and focus on the US and Canada.
Don’t know what happened with your campground entry, you could try again.
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Per, Oak Creek RV , Weatherford is a lot closer than Ranger.
Have not stayed there as it is too close to home, but it looks good from the highway.
Jim
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Jim,
Appreciate the tip, but we were actually looking for a campground closer to where we are now in Ruidoso, NM. Ranger is a little over 400 miles from here, which is a good daily travel distance for us.
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