Camp ground books

Alll good ideas, thank you so much. I'll have to pull everything and join.

Late to the party.

I joined Good Sam. Gets you 10% off camping just about everywhere and also saves you money at Camping World.

I joined Passport America and it paid for itself really fast. It's only about $40 for a year and gets you half off at many CGs. In fact, I think it's just about impossible for it NOT to pay for itself.

I carry a copy of The Next Exit. It shows what's located at every exit of every interstate highway in every state. Fuel, food, motels, police, hospitals, etc.

Gas Buddy is the app of choice to find cheap fuel. Can be downloaded to smart phones or accessed via a computer. It's free but will save you a lot of money. Right now it is telling me that I can go to one local station that sells diesel for $3.59 or one other local station that is selling diesel for $2.47. Decisions, decisions . . . .

Tim

doxiemom11 wrote:
Passport America -- and they do have some higher end parks/resorts also where your half price cost is $35+ per night - still a discounted stay in a very nice park.

I am with you I have been using PPA for going on nine years full timing and have stayed at some nice places, some pretty good ones and in some eyes not so good. Its all what you make of it, its a good tool for the price IMO.

All great info and I"m going to go thru each message and write them all down. YOu guys ROCK!

The longer you RV the less you will use those books! :W
They are a security blanket at first and then you realize that you don't need them and that they don't help you.

I joined ALL the clubs when I hit the road full time.

Passport America you have to jump thru hoops, be in the right state at the right time when the moon is in a certain phase to ever get a discount. And trust me unless you are planning a year in advance it won't happen and my guess is they will have removed the discount by the time you arrive!

The only one that works fairly consistently is the Good Sam Club for a 10% discount ==IF== you don't mind a mountain of junk mail you can't stop when joining. Took me over 5 years to stop that insanity. I now belong to NO clubs.:C

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
Some essential 'books' I keep are:

Passport America - at times on the road we make the decision to change our schedule - and PPA is a best source to find an alternate campground for a quick night stop.

Camping With The Corps - a book I usually find at Camping World which list Corps of Engineers campgrounds.

Escapee's Travel Guide - list of commercial RV parks which offer Escapee's discounts. Relatively compact. I also keep a .PDF of the guide on my computer.

It's just sometimes in the truck on the road, we need to get some CG info without connecting to the net or opening a computer.

I agree that most of our is done online and we also have several maps/books/pamphlets. Camping with the Corp is a goo book, but don't put entire trust in it. Have found several errors in GPS coordinates and directions in general. Site info is also flawed in my opinion. A good starting point, but not a bible.

Books we travel with and use:

"RV Camping in State Parks". by D.J. Davin Has about 99% of the state park RV sites.
"Good Sam Trailer Life Directory" Has thousands of RV parks, but misses half the small ones.
"National Park Service Camping Guide" by William Herow
"RV ers Guide to Corps of Engineers Campgrounds" by Jane Kenny
"National Forest Campground and Recreation Directory" Old and out of print
"The Next Exit" Listing of services at every exit on Interstates in the country
AAA maps and Tour Books as needed.

Regards,
Doug

The problem with directory type books is that they are out of date the day they are printed as it is a snapshot in time that freezes on the print date. You would do better to Google campgrounds and you are more likely to get up to date information/prices etc.

We like to camp at Forest Service campgrouds. One of our favorite books or guides is "US National Forest Campground Guide" by Fred and Suzanne Dow. It has regional editions.

I use www.woodalls.com to locate campgrounds, then check reviews on www.rvparkreviews.com
don't carry books anymore.
We have the following cards: America the Beautiful pass, Good Sam, Passport America and KOA.