How to find RV parks
What tools do you use to find RV parks? What criteria do you look for to help make sure you end up in a safe location? Do you plan ahead and reserve your spots or do you show up and hope for vacancy?
Forum Discussion
pawatt wrote:
Went on this site & briefly looked around my area, & found rest areas on the Interstate, which are illegal to overnight at, as well as Wal-Marts that have local ordinances banning overnight parking, and even a CG that always rated poorly, and is even closed, I'll stick with Rvparkreviews.com.
Smart Phone RVPARKY- Thanks all! Some great resources here!
- The best website that I have found for trip planning and finding campgrounds of all types is
http://www.epgsoft.com/CampgroundMap/
You start on the map with where you are planning to stop and then move around the map to see all of the campgrounds near and far to that spot.
Each campground has links to reviews (if any) and the campground's website.
It makes things very easy because you can start with a general vicinity and then look all around that point to see what is there. And it is on a map with highways so you can see where on your route it will be. - Smart Phone RVPARKY
rexlion wrote:
I prefer the apps AllStays and CampWhere over the big paper directory (which I do have). I rarely make reservations; only if I know for sure what day I'm going to be somewhere and if that place is usually full (like Yosemite). But I like to have only a rough outline of my vacation rather than a hard and fast schedule, because the latter makes the vacation feel like work! Fortunately I have all summer off so I don't need to be anywhere at any time. YMMV.
Exactly what we use, Allstays is the best!- We find the approximate area we want to stop and then on google maps search box indicate "campground or rv parks near _____" They will show up on the map, click and many will have a connection to the parks website. Some smaller parks will not have one so there is limited information. State parks are not included, but you can easily see symbols for the state parks on the map. We also use passport america locate a campground and good sam's site. A general internet search will turn up other, and then allstays. I look at multiple sources to narrow down which campgrounds we want to consider. We have never made a reservation in 3 years of full timing.
- I prefer the apps AllStays and CampWhere over the big paper directory (which I do have). I rarely make reservations; only if I know for sure what day I'm going to be somewhere and if that place is usually full (like Yosemite). But I like to have only a rough outline of my vacation rather than a hard and fast schedule, because the latter makes the vacation feel like work! Fortunately I have all summer off so I don't need to be anywhere at any time. YMMV.
- After deciding what general area we want to be in, I use Recreation.gov for the federal sites, Reserve America for the State Parks, COE website, Good Sam, (for location only) & Passport America website.
I use Rvparkreviews.com exclusively for ratings, as the reviews are done by actual people, rather than a company like Woodall's or Good Sam. AcademyRoad wrote:
I use AllStays Camp & RV app. Gives you a map of your area (or any you choose), has filtering so you can choose the type of campground you are looking for. I also use Campwhere, an app listing non commercial campgrounds, however it is no longer available.
What tools do you use to find RV parks? What criteria do you look for to help make sure you end up in a safe location? Do you plan ahead and reserve your spots or do you show up and hope for vacancy?
For paper, I use the AAA versions of Woodalls guides. Much preferred the older AAA camp books, but they discontinued them. No matter how I find a campground, I will usually also look up reviews using the RV Park Reviews app.
As to reservations, I rarely make them unless I'm in a popular area on a weekend or attending a rally. I do sometimes call a campground where I'm interested in staying the morning of the day I plan to arrive to see if there is space available. One important point - I usually stop by 1:00 - 2:00. If you plan to travel until dark or later, you may have more problems finding empty sites...Captain_Happy wrote:
All the above answers are great. But here's another one that I found: RV PARKY.COM
I think it's RVparking.com. A great graphic tool that provides a ton of info and is easy to use.
