Campgounds using RV Park Reviews...

TXBobcat

Fulltime
I just had a thought when posting to a question about what are the good campgrounds around Savannah Ga.

As we travel around the country, how many use RV Park Reviews website to check out a campground? Do you post a review.? Are you a member of their forum? How do you select a campground to stay at?

Each year DW and I pick a destination that we would like to see. This year it was Glacier National Park. For 2010 we were going to Alaska but some friends ask us to go to Maine with them. So we have Hermon Maine as our main destination. The park there is Pumpkin Patch RV. We have stayed there a number of times and enjoy the campground. They have the best WiFi of any campground we have stayed. We like to go to Bar Harbor and eat lobster at a little restaurant on the bay.

I will use MS Streets & Trips to lay out our overall route. I make a route for each days trip. To do that I look at the campgrounds that are listed on the route listed by S&T. I try to pick a number of campgrounds in the area we want to stay. I then go to RV Park Reviews and see what others have said about the campgrounds.

Many of the reviews are useless but a number have good information. It just amazes me when someone reviews a campground by saying... "Hated the campground so I gave it a 2 because there were no trees or grass. Just a lot of dirt and sand..." and they are staying in Arizona.. Or the same thing in Casper Wyoming.. .. Eastern Wyoming has no trees and is sand and sagebrush. No trees or grass.. What do you expect...

Then there are those that say... " Perfect campground rated it a 10 because the fireworks were outstanding"...

Darn.. Wish they would tell you about the campground...

Here is how I review a campground... I made up a sample template..
Shore Services: 50amp, Sewer good, Water @ psi
WiFi:
AT&T Cell Phone:
Sprint Air Card:
Verizon Air Card:
Cable:
Site:
Site Size:
Site Closeness:
Roads:
Restrooms:
Laundry:
Long term tentants:
Directv Satellite:
Discounts:
Payment:
Additional Charges:
Additional Remarks:

They don't accept a list like this so I have to fill it out and modify it to be in sentences and a paragraph..

Something like this one for Jim & Mary's RV Park in Missoula MT..
Shore Services: 50amp, Sewer good, Water 50@ psi - WiFi: Excellent Good Speed - AT&T Cell Phone: Good - Sprint Air Card: Poor - Verizon Air Card: Poor - Cable: Good - Site: A10 Gravel Reasonable Level Side to side and front to back. - Site Size: Long enough for TV to be parked on site. - Site Closeness: great. Plenty of room to put out awning, and walk around. - Roads: Gravel - Restrooms: Clean - Laundry: Clean - Directv Satellite: Good - Discounts: Good Sams - Payment: Credit card - Additional Charges: None - Additional Remarks: This is a great park. lots of grass between sites. If I return to this area I will be staying here. I would give this park a better rating if the sites were concrete and fully level. There is a lot of beautiful flowers all over the park. You have to stay here if your in the area.

I would be intrested in if you use RV Park Reviews or some other review websites and how you review the parks that you stay in.

This is how we do it...
BC
 

DougLynne

retired Alberta Chapter Leaders
BC, I plan trips similarily to what you do. Use MS Streets & Trips to get the initial plan. I have been reviewing parks using RV Park Reviews and your right you have to read between the lines on some peoples ratings. I use a Garmin GPS when traveling and have loaded a lot of Points of Interest, mainly campgrounds, from a site called the POI Factory. I have Good Sam, KOA's & Passport America as well as rest areas.

Your criteria is similar to ours, especially closness to the sites we wish to see. I do consider price and try to use our club discounts if possible.

Doug
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
We find Rvparkreviews to be very help as a tool, but you have to use it with some common sense. There are a lot of useless reviews so a lot of read is needed, but most of the time we are just looking for the facts. I also tend to ignore review saying the this park was noisy from people in pop-up tent trailers. We need "big-rig" park and like pull-through while traveling, 50 is require in hot areas, and Wifi is needed every few days. Since we are generally only staying long term at parks, we do not belong to any discount clubs, so price drives our discussions a bit too, We try to stay under $40 a night.

When planning a trip for us, it means we are moving to another city for a new contract, so the start and end points are set, and we can determine how long we want to take, but generally try to keep it below 2 weeks. If we're not working, we're not getting paid. We try to find National Parks and other great attraction that we want to see, and let those define the rest of the route. We like to have a full day to explore most large parks, but can fit some into a good day of driving. We are also concerned with with getting from point A to B, so sometimes we end up staying in the middle of nowhere, so we can be closer to something the next day.

When I am writing reviews I try to stick just to the facts and describe the sites, unless something was just so outstandingly good or bad the it warrants its own description. I have given an very clean all gravel park just as high of a nice grassy park, and one of my worst reviews was a beautiful park in Oregon, that had terrible management.
 

SilverRhino

Well-known member
BC;

Our criteria is very similar to yours.....we usually use Trailer Life Directory & RVparkreviews. As you and others have stated.....most of the time you have to read between the lines.

One thing we try to do.....is visit RV parks in the area we are staying & then compare how they have been rated. We have used these visits to determine the best place to stay on future trips.

Travel Safe!
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
I went through the motions to post a good review of the CG we use for the summer, but it's not showing up....after about 2 months. The other reviews for it tend to be lukewarm to negative for picayune stuff that is not really true. FWIW, the Indian River RV Resort & Campground is a class act. And getting "big" rigs in and out is no problem, if you know how to handle your rig. The owners continually prune the tree branches and have removed some trees that might have been a problem. But then, some people might expect four-lane access to their campsite.
 

boatto5er

Founding VA Chap Ldr (Ret)
When using the RVParkReviews website, you also may want to take some time to look at a poster's others reviews. There are some posters on the site that won't give a CG anything over a 5 unless they get a personal escort to their 75' long, 25' wide fully concrete site with 3 strategically placed trees to provide shade, but not block the satellite access just in case they can't find a good channel on the CG provided 99 station cable, and didn't get full 56MB wi-fi access 24 hours a day.:confused:
 

bill40

Well-known member
Gus you are dead on. On our trip we stayed at afew CG that received a low rating and found them to very good for our needs. They had great wifi and lots of cable channels. They were clean and the help was frendly and helpul. I guess its all in what you are looking for. After three months we found a lot of good places to return to.
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
I use RV Park Review for my destinations but not for overnight stops. For overnights, I check Passport America, Camp Club USA or Happy Camper for my discount because I figure I can put up with just about anything for one night. Keeping costs down as much as possible is more important than trees, cable, wifi, etc. I do pay attention to possible danger in a park, such as location or loose aggressive dogs.

I still write a review of the parks as I stop but thats more for others to make a decision about the park.
 

SmokeyBare

Well-known member
We do our research for our next destination with many tools. RV Reviews as already said... is a tool... but I find it very limited as to the number of parks offered... by using Google Maps or Yahoo Maps, I can get a visual of the area we are considering... by expanding the area... Zooming out on the map I then type in on their search line... RV Parks or Campgrounds. Doing that brings up several locations to select from. Many do have Web sites now but not all do.

When I have found a RV Park I am interested with, and it does not link me to their web page... I then try locating the park once again with a Search Engine such as Google. Many times I get lucky and find their web site. If not, often the search finds other sources to learn more about the place in question.

Since We get our Internet Connection by using HugheNet Dish on a tri-pod, the RV site we are looking for requires a clear southern line of sight to our Satellite. The Map program helps us to make a decision on selecting the RV Site. The Tri-pod allows us to move it around to get that view of the southern Sky... but We still want the equipment on our own site so we don't encroach our neighbors...

One other tool I often use is other forums or travel blogs. It's rare I pull out Woodalls directory for information... more often we use Escapee's book... Passport America book and the "Free Camping" books that we picked up at Camping World. They are not really all free... many times we find Fair Grounds Camping... or County Parks in those books.

I'm for ever thankful for the Internet... for many reasons.

Marv
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
These are some great responses. Thanks. Like indicated above I go to Google Map or use the MS Map and can see what the campground might be like from a Satellite view. Only problem is the photos are usually a couple of years old. I found one that was just a number of tire tracks but when I arrived it was a pretty nice place..

It would be interesting if we might be able to include a list of campgrounds and show pictures of the ones where we stay. Might not be something that the forum would like to incorporate but it would be interesting to see what and where we stay.

Thanks for the responses..

BC
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
I keep a visual log of all of the campgrounds we have stayed at. That way I can always refer back if we pass that way again. Use all of the other mentioned resources also.
 

rvn4fun

Well-known member
We basicly just use the campground guides to find the campgrounds. The ratings are not important to us, usually some of the higher rated campgrounds are beautiful but they have so many rules that you don't like to camp there. Before I stir up a hornets nest, my wife and me work at a busy campground in the summer and have for 10 years, so we know why there are rules. I will not stay at any campground that ask when we make reservations, how old is your rv? Even though are's is a 2011. Through the years I have found many great campers who have older rvs. Bye
 

SilverRhino

Well-known member
Age Discrimination

We basicly just use the campground guides to find the campgrounds. The ratings are not important to us, usually some of the higher rated campgrounds are beautiful but they have so many rules that you don't like to camp there. Before I stir up a hornets nest, my wife and me work at a busy campground in the summer and have for 10 years, so we know why there are rules. I will not stay at any campground that ask when we make reservations, how old is your rv? Even though are's is a 2011. Through the years I have found many great campers who have older rvs. Bye

I agree....rules are neccessary.....but I also have a problem with the age of the unit discrimination. Age does not always equate to condition.....I have seen many older units.....both trailers and motor coaches that look as good as the day they rolled of the lot. One perfect example of this are the "classic" Airstream trailers that are out there.

Just my observation :eek:

Travel Safe!
 

RoadJunkie

Well-known member
I keep a visual log of all of the campgrounds we have stayed at. That way I can always refer back if we pass that way again. Use all of the other mentioned resources also.

What do you mean by a "visual log"? Pictures? Video? I would really like to see reviews that have pictures included. You know what a picture is worth...
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
I have always used TL directory. At least for me, they seem to have more of an objective rating system than the free lance reviews on line. I would like them to include an age discrimantion clause on the parks they review though. Save the trouble of calling them.

I have only been asked twice about the age of my vehicle/trailer, and like rvn4fun I will not stay there. Over thanksgiving, there was a guy who had a mid 80's Holiday Rambler. These were beautiful trailers with rounded lines on the front and back and nice stripes down the side. This guys trailer was all original and looked like it just came out of the showroom.

I would be proud to camp next him.
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
I have always used TL directory. At least for me, they seem to have more of an objective rating system than the free lance reviews on line.

But sometime it is nice to have the freelance reviews, because I have never seen a TL review that made a comment on how friendly or rude the management was at check-in. For some stays that can make or break a stay. I have been to one park in Oregon that was a really nice park with good sites and hook-ups, but the manager was so rude I will never stay there again, and TL rated them as 6.5/8.5/8.5
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
I take digital pictures of parts of a campground for my use, but it would be nice to see photos of the campgrounds in a review.

I have posted some pictures when someone asked about a campground where I have stayed. It would be interesting if we could use somewere on our fourm. May take up to much space.. Hum.. don't know...

BC
 

katkens

Founding Illinios Chapter Leader-retired
I take digital pictures of parts of a campground for my use, but it would be nice to see photos of the campgrounds in a review.

I have posted some pictures when someone asked about a campground where I have stayed. It would be interesting if we could use somewere on our fourm. May take up to much space.. Hum.. don't know...

BC

Bob....here is a thread I started on the subject.....been a while back ....//heartlandowners.org/showthread.php?t=4100
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
Ken, maybe its time to revive that idea you had for the campgrounds and post pics in the HOG. Make a post so people know that a new campground has been added.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
What do you mean by a "visual log"? Pictures? Video? I would really like to see reviews that have pictures included. You know what a picture is worth...

I take a digital photo of each campsite where we have stayed. Then I label it with date name of CG and place. I print the photo and put it in a scrapbook. I guess I could store it on the computer but I like to look through the photos from time to time and show people sometimes. It just helps me remember what the sites are like at a given CG if we ever decide to return there. Also helps us remember when we traveled to where.
 
Top