Any ideas on finding campsites without reservations?

[campfire7]

We live in Florida and my wife and I we are planning to go west next spring, (leaving first of April), Going West to California and then north to Oregon and then work our way back zig zagging from one point of interest to another. We will pulling our 29 Ft. travel trailer ( 40 Ft. overall length) But it seems that making reservations for campgrounds is hard and would most likely get in the way of going and doing what we want to do, We feel that we may get someplace and need another day or so before moving on. How difficult is it to call head to find a campground on a daily bases, even if we have to dry camp. We would rather have full hook-up, but boondocking is not out of the question. any suggestions would be of great help.


P.S. My wife refuses to stay at a Wal- Mart parking lot.

 

[Gary521]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

I use RV Parky on my phone. I strongly suggest that you do make reservations. The days of winging it are just about gone. The time of the year is also important as the late spring and fall are more flexible depending upon where you go.

 

[travelin2]

Finding campsites without making rseverations

We use various apps to find stops. Seldom make reservations especially for overnight. If we’re dead set on a destination then we’ll reserve at some point. Holiday weekend reservations are a must
Have made numerous cross country trips and once to Alaska. All depends on your comfort level


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[pegmikef]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Make Reservations, especially around any popular areas especially in California and Oregan. We, with two other couples, just completed a four month journey of the northwest (from Branson, MO to Seattle, WA, then down to Santa Clarita (sp?), CA) staying near and visiting all the popular sites along the way. In some places we had trouble getting reservations three months out, but in others we didn't have a problem. We made reservations at all the places we planned on staying three or more days (up to two weeks). The other two day and overnighters we made a week or two in advance and in some cases had to call two or three parks to get a reservation.

 

[mlpeloquin]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Just got back from a three month 10,900 mile around the country trip. I make a spread sheet with possible RV parks with projected cost with millage and projected fuel cost. I adjusted this as we went. That way I had an idea where and when we were going to stay. I call and make reservations up to four days in advance, but most of the time one to two days. That way we know that we have a park to stay at. Several times we had the last space that would fit out 34" 10" Big Horn. With all the changes as we went we still came in just $300 over our projected cost.

One thing that can cause changes to your plans is weather. Hurricane Michael was one. In North Carolina we found a nice RV park secluded along the eastern base of the Appalachian Mountains in a one mile deep long valley. It came over the top and blocked almost all of the wind. Cold temperatures 19F forced us to divert south to avoid the cold. Staying longer may or may not be a problem depending on how popular the park is. So don't be too disappointed if you have to move on. So do call ahead for reservations prior to taking off and I would advise to do this at least two day ahead.

 

[travelin2]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Just got back from a three month 10,900 mile around the country trip. I make a spread sheet with possible RV parks with projected cost with millage and projected fuel cost. I adjusted this as we went. That way I had an idea where and when we were going to stay. I call and make reservations up to four days in advance, but most of the time one to two days. That way we know that we have a park to stay at. Several times we had the last space that would fit out 34" 10" Big Horn. With all the changes as we went we still came in just $300 over our projected cost.

One thing that can cause changes to your plans is weather. Hurricane Michael was one. In North Carolina we found a nice RV park secluded along the eastern base of the Appalachian Mountains in a one mile deep long valley. It came over the top and blocked almost all of the wind. Cold temperatures 19F forced us to divert south to avoid the cold. Staying longer may or may not be a problem depending on how popular the park is. So don't be too disappointed if you have to move on. So do call ahead for reservations prior to taking off and I would advise to do this at least two day ahead.

Wow!! I am certainly impressed with your diligence but that process sounds too much like a job.
Most trips we only agree on which direction to head in on departure. In the 6 yrs we been traveling, 6-7 months away, we’ve only been turned away maybe a dozen times but then again we travel mostly from just after Labor Day to Memorial Day.


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[kowAlski631]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Everyone's different. We like having an itinerary knowing where we'll be when. We usually have visits that we schedule with friends and work out a route around that. We make reservations and have only had issues with cancellations in Colorado when there was a snowstorm causing us to reroute. What we do isn't for most people, but it's worked for us over the past 6 years.

 

[campfire7]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

So iam getting the feeling that I can feel fairly safe making reservations 2 or 3 days out except for the major campgrounds, But I understand that nothing is 100% .

 

[carl.swoyer]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

We live in Florida and my wife and I we are planning to go west next spring, (leaving first of April), Going West to California and then north to Oregon and then work our way back zig zagging from one point of interest to another. We will pulling our 29 Ft. travel trailer ( 40 Ft. overall length) But it seems that making reservations for campgrounds is hard and would most likely get in the way of going and doing what we want to do, We feel that we may get someplace and need another day or so before moving on. How difficult is it to call head to find a campground on a daily bases, even if we have to dry camp. We would rather have full hook-up, but boondocking is not out of the question. any suggestions would be of great help.


P.S. My wife refuses to stay at a Wal- Mart parking lot.

We live in Florida as well.
We never make reservations!
Because now you have to be there.
We use Passport America, Army Corps parks, roadside rest, Wall Mart, Sam's, Country kitchen. We always dry camp but I also have a generator and a large dry camp inverter and batteries.
11 year's into the RV and over two hundred thousand miles never a problem not having any plans on where we are staying.

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[MTPockets]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

We travelled extensively full time for over four years and 80% of the time had reservations many weeks in advance. Cancelling was always an option if things changed, but the peace of mind having a site of our choosing meant we weren’t compelled to get an early start and spend time trying to find a spot. We could have a leisurely travel day, stopping on the way if we wanted, and be assured of a site regardless of our arrival time. That’s how we rolled, planning well in advance, and would do it all again.

 

[Shortest Straw]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

With more and more parks filling up with trade workers, we do not wing it anymore and plan out trips out about 8 months in advance. I understand you wanting to be flexible, that is nice, but it is not really a realistic option anymore. It is not fun to travel all day to get to where you want to be and they are full. It also can get annoying if you wait until the day of and try to get a reservation on your way somewhere, but cannot go because they are full. You can spend a ton of time planning and over analyzing, or you can just pick your reservations, plan a route to them, and go. It is better to know where you want to go, what you want to see, and plan your stays and length of stay at that time. Every place we go there is more to see than time to do it all so go see what is most interesting and move on down your list.

 

[GK2018]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Hey, my wife and I usually wing it when we go on a roadtrip so far it has worked out for us pretty well but theres a few times we've had to divert and some of those times put us staying somewhere pretty late at night. We go back and forth on reservations too but you never really know if you'd rather keep driving past where you get a reservation or if you want to stop before you make it there. We put in reservations at a campground for veterans day to find out that we could've stayed at the campground we really wanted to stay at as a walkup but all the reservation sites were booked lol.

 

[campfire7]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

So iam going to make reservations, and that brings another question. I know everyone is different but I would like to hear How many miles or how many hours do you drive per day on your driving days.

 

[carl.swoyer]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

So iam going to make reservations, and that brings another question. I know everyone is different but I would like to hear How many miles or how many hours do you drive per day on your driving days.

We try to drive 150 to180 miles per day. We like to be off the road no later than 4 to 4:30 pm

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[travelin2]

Finding campsites without making rseverations

That’s a BIG variable...
We’ve traveled as little as an hour or as much as 10 hrs!! Most of the time however we have a goal to stop after 6 hrs regardless of the distance. This is usually predetermined the evening before. I’m an early start-early quit guy so we’re usually rolling by 0900 at the latest and looking to park it by 1500.
We’re not parking lot campers (although we can) so I like to stop early enough to relax, prepare our meal and chill out afterwards


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[MTPockets]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Well, we’re retired and never in a hurry. Our rule of thumb was 150 miles, give or take 50, plus we always stayed a minimum of two nights. That gave us time to explore the area, eat out, relax. Our goal also was to stay in State Parks wherever there was one somewhere on our route. If you are on vacation or have time constraints, you’ll just to decide on what works best for you.

 

[carl.swoyer]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

Well, we’re retired and never in a hurry. Our rule of thumb was 150 miles, give or take 50, plus we always stayed a minimum of two nights. That gave us time to explore the area, eat out, relax. Our goal also was to stay in State Parks wherever there was one somewhere on our route. If you are on vacation or have time constraints, you’ll just to decide on what works best for you.

We do the same thing, stay two days so we can explore the area.

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[Chippendale]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

My rule of thumb is that no matter what, I am going to average about 50 miles every hour, that includes rest stops, traffic, etc. Yesterday morning, I left my hometown, Uvalde, TX about 10:30 AM and arrived at home in Georgetown, TX, about 2 PM. It was a non-stop trip on US 90 to San Antonio and then up I-35 through Austin at about 60 to 65 MPH all the way. About 188 miles in about 3 hours and 30 minutes. Figures out to about 50 miles every hour.

 

[Shortest Straw]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

So iam going to make reservations, and that brings another question. I know everyone is different but I would like to hear How many miles or how many hours do you drive per day on your driving days.

We try to stay between 250 and 300 miles a day. That number increases when we have a final destination in mind where we are going to stay awhile, but not often. We also usually only travel on Sundays, and we usually stay two weeks whenever we can.

 

[carl.swoyer]

Re: Finding campsites without making rseverations

We try to stay between 250 and 300 miles a day. That number increases when we have a final destination in mind where we are going to stay awhile, but not often. We also usually only travel on Sundays, and we usually stay two weeks whenever we can.

Shortest Straw , we used to travel the same way and eventually realized we cleared a lot of territory and didn't see as much.
So for for the most part were looking at 150 to 180 and happy hour by four.

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