Best travel guides

Flapper wrote:
...One additional question about scenic by-ways: Are there ones that you would advise leaving the fifth wheel in the campground, whether due to the route itself, or lack of available space to pull off to enjoy the scenery?? And, the opposite - which ones have you driven that are great for use as ways to get to new places?...

In my opinion, just as you mention, there are some in each category. I use the Mountain Directories, Wikipedia descriptions, and Google Earth to get a sense of the grades, switch backs, etc.

For a small fee and transportation to and from your home, I would let my travel event planner (aka DW) visit with you and help. She has plans for our DGD to follow and the DGD is only 14 abet a real travel bug.

Thanks All! I appreciate the variety of sources cited so we can begin identifying dream trips/locations. One additional question about scenic by-ways: Are there ones that you would advise leaving the fifth wheel in the campground, whether due to the route itself, or lack of available space to pull off to enjoy the scenery?? And, the opposite - which ones have you driven that are great for use as ways to get to new places?
For example: I love the Beartooth highway, and Going-To-The-Sun road. But on neither would I ever pull a fifth (which might be banned, anyway....)
On the other hand, the North Shore Scenic by-way here in Minn. is great for camp-here, drive a bit and camp there, type travel.

I love reading travel blogs by real RV travelers. A Florida RV company just released a cool list of the 50 Best RV Travel Blogs in America. It is a great list and a tremendous resource for RV travel. Our blog is pretty good too:)

Here is the list of the top 50:

http://www.floridaoutdoorsrv.com/top-50-rv-lifestyle-blogs/

I am the trip planner/navigator. I use Benchmark atlases of individual states plus their fold out maps for an overview of the state. I also have a few deLormes and the detailed maps of specific areas/national parks published by National Geographic. I have Laurent Martres books on photographing the US West, rockhounding series for individual states and several off road guides like Tony Huegel, Charles Wells and the excellent series by Peter Massey, Jeanne Wilson and Angela Titus. We usually decide how long we will be gone, what areas we want to see that we haven't before and which ones enroute that we want to revisit.

I plan a route avoiding interstates and big cities (we get enough of that living north of Seattle). Then, I connect the dots of the big POIs and destinations and look at maps and books for those in the vicinity or along the way. We have at least 4 trips for this year and it is fun to choose where we will go. I like Benchmark for its geographic labeling to find interesting places to photograph.

I bring the maps and some of the books but make copies of info from some of the books which we won't use as much. We don't always follow our plans. The government closure last fall had us eliminating Yosemite and Mono Lake in favor of eastern Sierra canyons and lakes.

Have fun.

We have visited a number of places we found in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. If you are interested in the countries most scenic roads, checkout America's Scenic Byways. You could follow one of the National Historic Trails such as the Lewis and Clark Trail or Santa Fe Trail. Trip Advisor is a good general website and usually is listed in a Bing or Google search for things to do or attractions in a location.

There are many many websites that list places of interest of various types. Some of the ones we use are:
National Parks,
National Wildlife Rufuges,
State Parks,
Legends of America,
Roadside America,
Ghost Towns,
Slot Canyons,
Pow Wows,
Flea Markets,
Rock Art,
Native American Ruins,
Factory Tours,
Waterfalls,
Scenic Railroads,
State Fairs,
Lighthouses,
Breweries in the United States
Wineries in the United States

We don't use any books like you describe, but rather begin our trip planning with deciding what our ultimate destination will be for that trip (we generally take one 30+ day trip a year along with several week-long trips locally).

Once we have a general idea of which direction we are heading, one of our first stops is the Find a Park section of the National Park Service website. We pick which states we will go through and then decide if any of the parks are someplace we want to spend time. I then research the State Parks for the states we will go through, both for scenic spots and campground ideas. I then check to see if my route goes near any of the various Scenic Byways. To pick camping spots, I generally go to this Campground Map, enter the nearest city or town, and scout out our campsites for various stops along the way. Once we have our route and stops selected, I search Trip Advisor to see if there's some very special restaurant for dinner every few days (gives me, the cook, a break!). Don't forget to visit the website of the National Forests you might travel through. They often had a link to "Special Places" that will give you more ideas.

Want to travel to some of the more out-of-the-way places? Check out this link for lots of trip reports on RV.net from those who own truck campers. It's broken down by region. For those of you who haven't seen it, check it out. They sure like they have fun over there on that forum! (Note: not all of the trips are on rugged back roads, so check out several different authors.)

Check out apps if you have a smart phone as well. iExits is a good app similar to the Next Exit book. RVParky, Good Sams, Gas Buddy, Fuel My Trip, etc can come in handy. Roadtrippers is a really good resource for finding attractions, etc. The myPilot app is pretty good for Pilot and Flying J info as well.

We have found NEXT EXIT invaluable when we're on the road. Each exit off all the interstates are shown giving restaurants, rest areas, lodging, and gas stations. Makes it easy to schedule our stops. This is copied from a post about 10 past yours as a link ... http://rvbookstore.com/shop/detail.aspx?p=319&m=2 Camp on!

Road Trip USA is an enjoyable book:

Road Trip USA

WoodGlue