Renting RV

While it's true that state and provincial parks tend to fill up early, commercial campgrounds will still have a few spots left. I found a site for the July 4th weekend on 3 days notice at a KOA near Cape Cod.

Let me ask, why this part of the US for an RV trip? I ask because while this part of the US has many RV owners, it is also somewhat less conducive to RV travel than some other parts of the Country. The north east of the US has very high population density, and many roads that are older and narrower than in the more recently developed parts of the country.

Having said that, traveling through upstate New York in an RV can be a nice trip, I have done it though, that was many years ago and the population of the region (and entire country) has grown since then. It just would be far from my first choice on taking an RV trip in America.

If you rent the RV, you'll also need to get sheats, blankets, toilet paper, cooking utinsils, pots and pans, dishes, lawn furniture, and anything else you want. These things will not come with the camper rental. Places like Cruise America will have rental packages for outfitting the camper with the pots and pans and dishes and silverware and such, but it cost a small fortune too. This is something you need to consider and understand before renting the unit and expecting it to be fully equipped like a motel.

Also, June and July, anywhere East of the Mississippi River, you'll need reservations, private parks and State Federal or you won't get in. June-July is absolute prime camping season, and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING gets booked months in advance. So do your reservation as early as possible.

If you go West of the Mississippi river, you'll have much better success at non-reservation camping because there are much more opportunities for boomdocking than there are East of the Mississippi river.

You may want to visit NYC for a couple of days basing from a Hotel, and then catch a commuter flight to another city, Boston, or Hartford, and rent the RV there for the remainder of the trip.

Edit add. The more I think about it the more the idea of flying in through JFK seeing NYC from cab and hotel, and then flying to Boston makes sense. You can rent the RV there, and make a circle, down to Cape Cod, then Conneticut, over to the Catskills and upstate New York then head back East through Vermont, New Hampshire and Up to Bar Harbor Maine, before catching I-95 back to Boston, turning in the RV and flying home out of Logan. The RV part of that is a workable, but active 2 week circuit.

fredrik wrote:
Should we book RV camping as well in advance or can we expect to find available place at RV campings in the second half of June/first week of July?

Without reservations in place I'd say you're already too late as you've picked probably the worst time of the year to camp here in Eastern Canada as kids are getting out of school for the summer around that time, both here in Ontario and in neighbouring New York state. July 1 is Canada Day, and July 4 Independence Day in the US. Here in the Ontario provincial park system the reservation window is 5 months in advance of your date of arrival, meaning folks today are reserving well into and through the month of August, so those wanting sites in June & July have already done so long ago. In most parks electric sites represent ~ 30% of the total number of sites and are always the first to go so chances are the only possibility will be dry sites, meaning no on-site services at all. During the week (Sun nt - Thurs nt) you may get lucky finding an electric site but weekends are pretty well a washout by now. None of this is to say you can't get any sites at all but certainly if you had wanted to be assured of a place to stay each night you should have reserved long ago.

FWIW, if you want to visit Niagara Falls most would recommend visiting the Canadian side but if you'd rather not drive across you could leave your rig on the US side and walk across. I'd also highly recommend 4 Mile Creek State Park as a great place on the US side to use as a base for your visit to the area - lots of sites but you can bet that most if not all electric sites have been spoken for, especially on weekends, so the more you're prepared to dry camp when necessary the better.

Western New York has lots to offer, including Niagara Falls. Two State Parks that are rated the best in the US, are between NYC and Buffalo.

Here is a link to anot her forum group about Niagara Falls.

Things to do near Niagara Falls

Enjoy planning your trip to the US!

Dupe

These guys
Clicky
are the biggest renters. Mostly class Cs but they are kept in good shape.

Campgrounds in the northeast tend to fill up on weekends starting late June, but you should be able to find a spot without advanced reservations. I would set a general route and look at stopping every 300 miles for a couple of days. When you're at campground #1, you should have reservations at #2 and be looking for #3. The only reservations I'd make now would be July 4th and it may already be too late.

I'd skip Canada. It'll be a reach from teh NYC area and who know what hassles you'll run into as a Swede crossing from Canada into the US with a US registered vehicle.