To Plan or not to plan campgrounds

We're planning this same thing for this winter in the south. The only hard reservation we'll be making is Thanksgiving near Boynton Beach FL.

I've read a number of threads on the topic and I'm convinced that the uber-planners have less fun and when life gets in the way, they cancel a reservation at the last minute. If you're flexible as to where you stay, and don't try to get a primo spot during school vacation week, I believe it's doable.

DW is not too enthused about wally-docking. I equate it to a night at anchor on a boat (instead of a nice secure mooring). I never get a good night's sleep at anchor. The last time we did this I stayed in the pilot house all night so I wouldn't wake her up every 1/2 hour. I'll bet wally-docking will be the same. I'll probably end up sleeping on the fold out bed.

Anyway, I'll let you know for sure in April.

As you can see from my signature we have moved around a lot over the past 6 years

I think you have the right idea on the major venues to make reservations - I personally make short term reservation using the good sam trip planner so I know where at least for the next night

I am not a big fan of Walmart but it is used by many - I have turned into a foo foo camper in my old age
Security, utilities and grass for the dog are big with me

On a big trip I will try to get a weekly rate wherever possible - generally you pay for 6 and the 7th is free which is a discount of 14% note most campground do have a weekly rate even most KOA's

We don't make reservations, we are fulltimers, we stop early and in five years only once had to change our planned stopping point. Didn't know an air show was nearby. We have just spent a month traveling Alaska without reservations life is more flexible that way. We will call early to ensure that a site is available on the day of arrival but we are usually not more than 3 hrs away.

I've not gone into any long (3-6 weeks for me) RV road trips with plans that included reservations. However, many times we would make reservations the same day, usually early afternoon, for where we expected to be for the night.

When I want to be at a certain place for certain days, yes to reservations, always. Even if the place is the COE park 15 miles from my house.

Your instincts are probably right on. The more popular the destination the more you ought to count on a reservation. Also factor in the time of year and kids being in/out of school. You probably ought to try the Walmart thing to see if it suits you. We have done it a few times but not in a few years now. I don't sleep well in a discount store parking lot with hearing car doors all night. Won't answer for others for us it's worth what you pay for it.

We just returned from a 70 day trip. We made one reservation before we left home (Yellowstone). In mid June, we made a reservation in Polson, MT on the Flathead Lake for the 4th of July weekend.

We've traveled every summer for nearly 3 decades and have made less than 10 reservations before leaving home. Neither of us like having fixed date that we have to be at a particular location.

Our normal traveling style is to decide, around 3 PM, how far we plan to drive for the day and then call ahead to see if a campground in the area has a spot for us. Only once this summer did we have to choose a second campground, and once we stayed in an overflow site.

Tom

We try to not have a schedule so that we can travel at our own pace. Sometimes, that creates a problem for us but not often enough to make us change.

We, generally, only make reservations for 'destination' points. Otherwise, we just wing it and call about 2-3 hours before we land; 99% of the time that works just fine.

We have never stayed at a Walmart......yet. I like full hook-ups but will boondock if need be.

Safe travels,
MM.

Our on the road time is limited. Full time jobs have a way of limiting options. Pretty much every where we go are with reservations. I like knowing the place we want to go will have room when we get there. Summer vacation in particular. Already have next year planned and the calendar is marked when the various reservation windows open.

We usually end up boon docking the first night of summer vacation. We'll leave after work and drive until we're tired to get a head start. Wally World isn't your only option. Cracker Barrel has been out lay over lot of choice but I'm thinking maybe Elk Lodges might be a good choice also.

A lot depends on your time constraints.

We just did a one-month loop to the West coast and back. We were limited on time and wanted to pack as much in as we could. We also had to be in San Clemente, CA for a wedding on July 4th weekend. This would be our only trip west with the kids most likely. They travel well, so to speak. The MH makes covering ground relatively easy on them.

Holiday weekends dictate having reservations just about anywhere.

We estimated the day we would reach our first "stop" in our tour. We left home on Friday and made the reservation for Moab on Monday. We had reservations from that point until we started our 3-day trek home.

This plan allowed us to squeeze in some extra sight seeing between destinations and know we had a place to land at the end of each day. Otherwise, we would have stopped many of our days short to start the search for accommodations.

For example, at Bryce Canyon on the day of departure for Zion, we got up and moved the RV to the shuttle bus parking lot. We went on a pre-planned horseback ride to the bottom of the canyon, returned to the RV and took off for our Zion area CG. We checked in and took the Toad into the park. We checked out the Visitor's center, did some sight-seeing and planned our next day's adventure of hiking the Riverside Trail on the Virgin River. The horseback ride at Bryce required reservations. There were people waiting standby in the hope to catch a cancelation.

So, some things require pre-planning. Some of the busy parks require reservations. I was worried about deposits and such but am happy to report that we did not miss a single reservation.

Most of the stops were two nights. We had a few single nights and Yellowstone was four nights. This also required us to stick to a plan.

We ended up wasting a day (in our opinions) at Monument Valley. We think we could have done a drive by or single overnight. We stayed two. This could have given us more time at Grand Canyon where we basically did a drive by on the way to our next over night at a family member's house in Kingman, AZ.

If you are retired, take your time and stop early enough in the day to find your next CG. If you are on a tight schedule, pre-planning is suggested.