What's the price "tipping point" for you?

If I plan ahead I try to get under $20.00/night. If I am just moving along I avoid anything over $30.00/night if I can. I do make good use of the federal senior discount at COE and National forest and parks. Passport America has more than paid for itself.

It's almost always about location, location, location. If it's a state park with just electric then the mid-$20 range is fair. When snowbirding in Florida in a nice warm area with amenities $50+ isn't too bad. We paid somewhere around $70 down in the Florida Keys in Marathon, but you expect it.

A typical campground in anywhere USA should be in the $35-$42 range, but then again, the location is almost always going to affect that range. We've found a nice campground in Alabama on our way to/from Florida with FHU's and cable TV for just under $30. That's always a plus and a place we've return to again and again.

Weekly/monthly rates are another issue all together and maybe for another thread, possibly snowbirding.

There hasn't been one yet. No, I'm not made of money but If I want to be somewhere at a particular time, then I'm willing to pay for it. I can't put a price on memories.

In Southern California at the coast it's not uncommon to hit $60 - $75 per night at RV Resorts. These are full amenity resorts.

To us it's worth it for the view, sound of the waves, fresh air and cooler daytime temps in the summer.

I would draw the line at $100 + then you begin to hit 3 & 4-star hotel pricing.

In the lower 48, $40 with a great location/view, $30 without. In Alaska, $50. Everything is more expensive up here...

Location causes prices to vary widely. Finding a decent private CG in Mass for example, is difficult for less that $60/nt (with FHU). Some of the state run CG's can be had for $20-$35, but you had better book way ahead of time.

For me, a lot depends on the amenities and the location.

For amenities, as others have pointed out, if there's a full service RV resort, such as the ones mentioned on the CA coast, you're paying a premium for both amenities and location. And one would need to decide if it's worth it. In many cases it is. The way I would look at it, how much would it cost me to fly there and book a hotel with the same or similar amenities?

As for location, I'm perfectly happy staying in USFS campgrounds and paying $20-26/night and take the senior discount to drop it to $10-16/night. If I'm travelling across country and looking for a place to stop and relax (not a WalMart type guy here), then $35-45/night is not unreasonable, depending on location. I go to Estes Park area a lot and the prices up there have gotten out of hand for what one gets for amenities. Cheapest place other than RMNP is Mary's Lake and that's $40/night for water/electric, $45/night for FHU. That's reasonable still, given the location and competition.

We are also a self contained A. Unless needed because DW wants to wash hair and like more hot water than we usually make, we seldom buy a campground at all.

Otherwise it is all situation dependent.

For us 15$/n is all we will pay for 0hu and then only for special events. (30$ at the Balloon Fiesta was worth it.)

I don't mind 30$/n for FHU, but that will only happen as stated above or if we really need to dump and fill and there isn't any alternative available.

We were once offered a 60$/n at an RV Resort and just laughed at the poor fool.

Matt

Just as some folks stay at the Ritz, others are happy at Hilton or Marriott and others again are happy at Super 6. It's no different in the RV world, and to each their own.

If we are in a specific area and need to we pay for the convenience to experience what we are there for assuming no dry camping or boon docking options are available in the area - ie; Anaheim for doing Disney, Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica, LA etc etc and needing to hire a car as we don't tow. We limit our time in these type of locations arriving early to utilize day 1 fully. We are totally self sufficient with residential fridge, solar, good size tanks, so will typically boondock/dry camp unless absolutely have to be in a campground. If staying longer than a couple of nights in Vegas for example and having others onboard with us for a vacation, we will book into the Oasis and pay a premium for accessibility to use public transportation and walk a lot. If just staying 2 nights/3 days enroute in our travels, we dry camp with permission at the back of Bally's/Paris.

At the end of the day, you pay your money, you make your choices as to what enables you to do/achieve what you want to. We have very little need for CG facilities so first option always is dry camping/boondocking and if not available for convenience then generally lowest price, safest parking space to visit the area works for us.

In our vacationing amongst work commitment years with kids younger, we have been known to pay 3 x $75 a night (total waste of money in late 90s/2000 era) at Newport Dunes Resort - been told summer it's now over $200 and even over $300 per night on some sites. Now that's somewhere we definitely won't be staying today.

Totally against my better judgement two weekends ago we excruciatingly paid $33 x 3 nights for a Provincial Park CG with electric hook up we didn't need and an additional $6 to dump just so hubby could get his walleye/pike fishing fix. This place is in the middle of nowhere and they were complaining how it was only half full compared to other years. I wonder why when your rates have quadrupled plus add ons and the place isn't being maintained as well any more. We feel this is totally out of whack today to use the land of the people that is managed supposedly by the government but now they put out to private contractors to manage. In future we discussed we will go down to the dock area early in the morning and stay up until 11pm, and then find an area within a mile or less to boondock overnight. Day use is totally free access and we don't need no other facilities so why waste our dollars, to just park an extra 7 hours. At the end of the day we all have our budget/dollars and chose where we want to spend them.

If we stay at an RV park, it's normally because we are doing something other than camping, and using our rig as an alternative to a motel. So I will suck it up and pay up to about $40 a night.

But it's a different story camping. I will gladly pay $25 a night if I get shore power(just to not have generators near by). When dry camping at forest service campgrounds, with nothing more than a picnic table and fire ring, some of the per night costs have gotten up to about $24 per night and that is too much for me.