Class A vs. B 4.0 - Campgrounds and Campsites
With a small RV, you can camp in many great places that big ones can’t - either because they can’t get there or the sites are too small. This is a big plus for traveling in a Class B or similar. Many of our best experiences have been in places like this, often without hookups, where RV’s over 24 ft. are not recommended. Examples are the Chisos Basin at Big Bend NP and the campground at El Morro National Monument.
Unfortunately, most commercial RV Parks are dumps. There are exceptions, such as Goulding’s in Monument Valley and Fort Wilderness at Disney World in FL (excellent!). There are some very nice RV resorts in FL and along the Gulf Coast for snowbirds and we stayed in one, Bentsen Rio Grande Valley in Mission TX, out of season. However, most commercial “parks” are really just big RV parking lots with the flavor of a trailer park.
Our preference is to stay in state parks or national parks and monuments in a real campground. We see big rigs in these places sometimes, but more commonly they seem to ride the major highways and interstates and stay in a KOA or something like it. Part of our RVing routine is a walk after dinner around the campground and on the trails nearby. We have enjoyed the wildlife on these evening walks and have seen deer, elk, bear, javelina, alligators, and other birds and animals. This is not the scene at a KOA. Who wants to walk around a bunch of RV’s?
In some places, we have been allowed to camp in the tent area because we have just the one small vehicle and don’t tow anything. We did this in Sequoia NP, Rocky Mountain NP, Disney World and this year at Colorado Bend SP in Texas. The tent areas are nicer than the RV parking area. At Disney World we camped in the tent/van campground. I had to go over to the RV area to empty our waste tanks and I could see that our campsite was better.
The long and short of all this, in my observation and experience, is that smaller RV’s tend to stay in more attractive places.
Unfortunately, most commercial RV Parks are dumps. There are exceptions, such as Goulding’s in Monument Valley and Fort Wilderness at Disney World in FL (excellent!). There are some very nice RV resorts in FL and along the Gulf Coast for snowbirds and we stayed in one, Bentsen Rio Grande Valley in Mission TX, out of season. However, most commercial “parks” are really just big RV parking lots with the flavor of a trailer park.
Our preference is to stay in state parks or national parks and monuments in a real campground. We see big rigs in these places sometimes, but more commonly they seem to ride the major highways and interstates and stay in a KOA or something like it. Part of our RVing routine is a walk after dinner around the campground and on the trails nearby. We have enjoyed the wildlife on these evening walks and have seen deer, elk, bear, javelina, alligators, and other birds and animals. This is not the scene at a KOA. Who wants to walk around a bunch of RV’s?
In some places, we have been allowed to camp in the tent area because we have just the one small vehicle and don’t tow anything. We did this in Sequoia NP, Rocky Mountain NP, Disney World and this year at Colorado Bend SP in Texas. The tent areas are nicer than the RV parking area. At Disney World we camped in the tent/van campground. I had to go over to the RV area to empty our waste tanks and I could see that our campsite was better.
The long and short of all this, in my observation and experience, is that smaller RV’s tend to stay in more attractive places.
