Do You Ever Drive Ahead

Do you ever drive ahead to check out a campground? We like to tour a state and will spend 6 weeks to 2 months in one state. We move the RV about once per week to a different campground to make us closer to the sites we wish to see. A lot of the times, we will take a few hours to drive to our next destination to view campgrounds and then decide which would be the best one for us.This has been very helpful in that we know the current road conditions, how to get thru any towns we might have to travel thru and know exactly how far out of town the campground is located. Are we the only couple who does this?

Emaline said:

Do you ever drive ahead to check out a campground? We like to tour a state and will spend 6 weeks to 2 months in one state. We move the RV about once per week to a different campground to make us closer to the sites we wish to see. A lot of the times, we will take a few hours to drive to our next destination to view campgrounds and then decide which would be the best one for us.This has been very helpful in that we know the current road conditions, how to get thru any towns we might have to travel thru and know exactly how far out of town the campground is located. Are we the only couple who does this?

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We have done the same thing. Sometimes the campgrounds look a lot better online than in person. Ken

I have never done it just to look at a park and probably would not. But we do keep our eyes out when traveling for potential good and bad parks. Now adays we generally try for the larger resort type parks anyway.

I am new to RVing, I just purchased my Cyclone last month and am heading to Gillette this weekend. Your idea of doing a recon of the next stop sounds great to me. I have my Harley in the back of my Cyclone and that would be a great excuse to go for a ride, checking out the next campground and road conditions.

I like to check out campgrounds when I travel an area. So many times website photos are misleading. I am new to towing a large TT so checking out areas before I tow it to a new campground really helps me out. I have been surprised at how much nicer or large an area is but have also managed to avoid campgrounds that are described nice but look like someone that packed sardines in a can all their life decided to start running a campground and packed the sites so close that some trailers are nearly touching.

Since we dont have our rv yet, we haven't done this re: going down the road to see what's coming up. We did however rent an rv to try it out and rented one night on the MS coast. Once we got there we drove around all the other campgrounds to see if there was anything better. There is nothing better than Majestic Oaks in Biloxi. It's incredible and we kind of figured that from the moment we arrived. We have also toured all the ones around Greenville SC since we have family there and we'll be staying there every so often.

I took some pictures and I was planning on writing up reviews on them. There were a couple of "no way in heck would I stay there." so that was something I felt like we should share with others. Insane turns getting in that was hard in our SUV, much less an rv. Giant pot holes, ruts, mud roads, and people who'd been living there 30 years. Yet they make it look wonderful on the website.

We've seen some other folks who've done drive throughs and posted reviews to the review sites. We find that very helpful as tHey are often more up to date.

We've even searched google images for parks. I wish more people would take photos of the parks they stay at and upload them somewhere with the name. Parks that post videos to YouTube gets extra points in my book. There are a few RVer's who post review vids on YouTube which I really appreciate.

So for anyone who does this predrive, please share the knowledge.


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Instead of driving ahead I walk there with my fingers on the keyboard. Do a google map search for the resort and zoom on in. most pictures are only 1 to two years old. You can even do a ground level side view of them. Just a thought.

When we start looking for a new place to set up I usually go and scope out the area, and put it into a spreadsheet with good and bad points, I also rate the parks from 1-10 with a 10 being the best. When we decided on spending the winter in Texas we stayed in Austin and traveled to the Rockport area to check out campgrounds. We do not rely on photos and RV Park reviews. There is a thing called Photo shop and also most of the reviews are close to being correct, but owners can put great comments on it. This is our take on it.

We usually use rvparkreviews.com along with google maps. Most reviews tell it like it is and so far have pretty much been right on. With maps it's easy to see how close the park is to industry, railroad tracks or highways.
If we don't have reservations and the park does not look to good we have no problem leaving for something better.

I also go on the internet to look up campgrounds. I use www.rvparkreviews.com , google earth and Bing satellite views. All though the satellite views can be a couple of years old if they are not brand new you can get a pretty good view of most campgrounds.

These are the campgrounds we stayed in to get here in Lusk Wyo.

Pine Grove, Greenwood NE


Cabela's in Sidney NE


BJ's In Lusk Wyo


BJ's is a little fuzzy but it is not in a well populated area and doen't get photographed much it would seem.
These pictures also help me see the best way to go to enter the campground. I have found a lot of maps & GPS's are way off.

This is how I do it.

BC

Like many of the others, we have used rvparkreviews.com for several years now. We also piece together info from the campground directories - but frankly, if there are negative reviews in rvparkreviews, that's enough to keep me away.

ILH said:

Like many of the others, we have used rvparkreviews.com for several years now. We also piece together info from the campground directories - but frankly, if there are negative reviews in rvparkreviews, that's enough to keep me away.

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I think some of the reviews in rvparkreviews.com are funnny and strange the majority are helpful. I was at a nice campground in Greenwood NE and a couple of reviewers gave it a 10, I made a review and noted that It was nice but not close to a 10. My Review. I have a tendency to read the reviews with a tounge in cheek. If you look at the reviews on Pine Grove the ones that gave a bad review had problems because they didn't want to use the campground like everyone else and others thought the pizza was nice and the restrooms were the best they had ever seen. I would be intrested in knowing what the campgrounds were like that they stayed in. I think the rvparkreviews.com is a good way to get an idea of what a campground is like and if all the reviews are bad I tend to pass it by.

BC

TXBobcat said:

I think some of the reviews in rvparkreviews.com are funnny and strange the majority are helpful.

BC

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I agree with you - what I forgot to mention is that I will read several reviews for a campground. If there is only one review, or one of the reviews is out-of-sync with the others, I will look at the reviewer's history of comments on other sites - to see if the types of comments they post are relevant. It may seem like a lot of work, but 10 minutes of reading (with laptop in front of tv), can make a world of difference on a vacation.

Looking up a campground in a hard-copy directory seems so old-fashioned. It reminds me of looking at postcard pictures of motels - where the pictures were taken 20 years earlier! Up-to-date comments from actual visitors is the only way to go.

I should also point out that last-minute reviews also alert you to changes in ownership of the campgrounds or other issues you need to be aware of.

We use RV Reviews website, but then, when the choice isn't obvious, ask HERE! on the forum! These folks are knowledgeable, have similar rigs, and I trust them.


On the flip side, we like to "stalk" RV parks, too. When out and about, we like driving through other RV parks, to see what they are like. (For example, we have not stayed at the KOA in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but we drove through when we were there staying at Cloud 9 RV Park (Recommended on this forum). The KOA is very hilly, tight, un-level spaces, and hard to navigate with a big rig. I would not recommend.

TravelTiger said:

The KOA is very hilly, tight, un-level spaces, and hard to navigate with a big rig. I would not recommend.

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I equate KOAs like the old Holiday Inns.... You know exactly what you're going to get - and while I don't normally plan a KOA as a destination, they can be good and safe waypoints along the way.

There are a couple of KOAs that I would definitely recommend - but it seems as though a majority of KOAs are too crowded, too tight, too noisy, etc.

Yes, we sometimes will drive ahead to 'scout' out campgrounds if it is within 75 miles of where we are. Usually we have a good idea of where we are going since our travel mainly is done to stay at a campground while working on their sitemap. Here is a 'new' website that will help and you can look at their sitemap before getting there. it is www.mobilerving.com, or http://www.rvingusa.com/ You can look for a campground in the area you will be going and see their sitemap before you get there. Safe travels.