we usually know where we're going to stop, locate the city and find 2 or 3 campgrounds on www.woodalls.com. Then we check them all out on www.rvparkreviews.com and select the 2 that get the best reviews. We try to plan our stops from Sun-Thurs and arrive at the campground early in the afternoon. The only time we make reservations is for popular tourist areas like Yellowstone, or if we arrive on a Friday or Saturday, or holiday weekend. For popular areas in Florida for the winter also an example of when you might want reservations. We're flexible so if our top pick campground is booked, we find one that is more of an overnight stop off the interstate hwy and can usually find a spot and then we move when the popular campground is less booked.