Holiday weekend camping

Tkotis5 wrote:
We are so new to this but I was surprised how many camp grounds are filled up already for memorial weekend how early are people booking in advance

We learned quickly to book as much in advance as possible. But being retired we don't have to choose weekends and holidays when the CGs are zoos. We go during the week if only for a few days.

I don't camp major holidays or the summer months. I'm currently building a 4x4 camper van so I can boon dock miles away from campgrounds.

We always camp on the big three weekends if hubby is off. Of course we got to our seasonal site.....that way we can enjoy driving the golf cart through the craziness of the overnighter/weekender section and return to our humble abode in the seasonal section of the park. So nice!!!! We do tend to avoid our campground atv trails on those weekends though.....outsiders don't always ride too safe.....usually take the pontoon out though.

We camp on all the holidays. This allows us to camp with our girls who have a class c. We are retired and our girls still work.

We still enjoy all the sights and sounds of holiday camping. In Indiana state parks the window opens
6 months to the date you want to reserve. So it's November for Memorial Day and January for Independence, etc. also, you must occupy your site within 24 hours of reserve date. You can't just set up something on site you must be there.

During our six-month travels, I always book the 3 holidays right after the
first of the year--Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. Tried to get a site
at a State Park in Ohio yesterday for a week beginning on July6, and there
were no sites available at that time. Better safe than sorry!

tatest wrote:
Not just the weekend. For many public parks with a 14-day stay limit, folks will book the 14 days with the weekend they want at the end of that period, blocking availability for a couple of weeks on a site they'll occupy for 3-4 days.

Having that weekend for them is worth paying $150-200 to hold a camp site they are not using. They even do this for unreservable sites, come out a couple weeks ahead, pay for the two weeks, put up a play tent to "occupy" the site until they are ready to come use it.

If you want to go RVing on holiday weekends, you'll need to learn how the game is played in your area.

I knew this was a fellow Okie when I read it. lol
This is what we do at Thunderbird, it's only 7-8 miles from my house.

Last year when we were at Branson, we went ahead and booked Memorial Day weekend & Labor Day weekend for this year.

We try hard to avoid holiday camping. Not only the filling up but it's often more of a party, noisey group; not really "campers".

tatest wrote:
Not just the weekend. For many public parks with a 14-day stay limit, folks will book the 14 days with the weekend they want at the end of that period, blocking availability for a couple of weeks on a site they'll occupy for 3-4 days.

Having that weekend for them is worth paying $150-200 to hold a camp site they are not using. They even do this for unreservable sites, come out a couple weeks ahead, pay for the two weeks, put up a play tent to "occupy" the site until they are ready to come use it.

If you want to go RVing on holiday weekends, you'll need to learn how the game is played in your area.

....and there are many public parks that are finally wising up to this terrible, selfish practice and are not allowing it. Their new rule is that you must occupy the site the first and subsequent night and some won't hold your reservation past noon of the next day. That's when we've gotten nice sites without having reservations - when people don't show.

There are definitely ways to not be left out on holiday weekends.

- do you really have to go to a specific place? There are many parks available that you can easily get a site.

- don't go to a place that has 'water activities'. Stay away from rivers, lakes and even pools.... unless those are an absolute 'must' for you and then you'll just have to deal with trying to get a site.

- find someplace new to explore

We full-timed for 16 years so we've survived many holidays and not just the 3-day ones. Also, we rarely make reservations except if we really need to be at a certain place at a certain time, such as visiting the kids. We always got a nice quiet site somewhere on the holidays.

It can be done. :)

When the DW and I retired we made a pact that we would not camp on holidays. The reason being was that we had all the time we needed now and that the working men/women did not so we decided to give up the holidays and let working folks enjoy them.