Virginia State parks new site specific policy
Anyone here who camps at the VA state parks have an opinion on this? One of the reasons we enjoy the state parks was the fact that the reservations were non-specific. We like camping 4 or 5 nights ...
Forum Discussion
We're firm believers that all public campgrounds should be half reserve and half show up and get a site.
Problem will always be at least two groups: Families that have specific plans, vacation days, or family issues want to reserve (and often that gets abused) ... and families that want the freedom to stay longer or arrive at a 'convenient travel time' without a forced arrival and departure date ...
Unfortunately, many of the public CG's look at budget only, and say it costs less to allow a web service to reserve sites (altho' that's debatable) ...
We seems to have a movement towards subcontracting jobs that once were employment in the public agencies. I can't imagine it's less costly in the long run to contract it, but that's what's happening in a lot of venues. And it allows service performance to degrade (as in RA).
It means one segment of the camping public is often left out in the wind - those that want the freedom to arrive and get a site vs. those that want a site date in advance. We should always have both, but it looks like that may be a thing of the past coming at us.
Problem will always be at least two groups: Families that have specific plans, vacation days, or family issues want to reserve (and often that gets abused) ... and families that want the freedom to stay longer or arrive at a 'convenient travel time' without a forced arrival and departure date ...
Unfortunately, many of the public CG's look at budget only, and say it costs less to allow a web service to reserve sites (altho' that's debatable) ...
We seems to have a movement towards subcontracting jobs that once were employment in the public agencies. I can't imagine it's less costly in the long run to contract it, but that's what's happening in a lot of venues. And it allows service performance to degrade (as in RA).
It means one segment of the camping public is often left out in the wind - those that want the freedom to arrive and get a site vs. those that want a site date in advance. We should always have both, but it looks like that may be a thing of the past coming at us.
