Reservations or not

in four years we've traveled over 25,000 miles, been on the road close to 300 days. We do make reservations at major destinations where camping spots may be full or an issue and we plan on staying several days or weeks. However, on the road, looking for an overnight spot we have never made a reservation. for an overnight stay it's been easy to find a spot good enough for the night. Many spots we have found in small towns, remote areas have been beautiful and we put them on our future stop list.

the nice thing with this is we aren't tied into a specific distance each day. some days we find things to do and don't travel very far, other days, longer.

Besides the obvious campgrounds, many small town county seats with a fairground have the fairground open all year for overnights, many times we and others have pulled into small towns, found a nice restaurant with a big lot, go in say we are hungry, and can we park the trailer overnight?? Never been turned down . Small town churches also are another option. And if you are an elks member, many elks clubs have campsites as well. Then there is the wallmart etc. And in some states they allow up to 12 hours in a rest area. we've done that, we don't put out the slides, don't put out the generator etc. go for an evening walk then hit the trailer.

also many smaller off the main road truck stops/gas stops have an overnight free camping area as do many tourist attractions/stores etc.

We tend to avoid interstates, don't really save us any time and we prefer the scenery of backroads anyway. We don't go any faster on the interstate than on secondary roads anyway. 60 or so on both.

gbopp wrote:
I make reservations at our destination. While traveling, we just wing it.
If you can't find a CG, try:

Free Campgrounds

Free Campsites

Casino Camper

There are other free/cheap overnight stops. Just do a little searching.

But remember, they're for overnighting. Not camping.

I always have reservation for a long stay. I like the casino camping along the way always eat good and play the machines

I can tell you this. There are several locations on the west side of the state where in the height of the season it would be impossible to get a site for the night. They are booked up several months in advance. You could drive for a 100 miles and not find a site. That being said, your fall back could be a Wal-Mart. But, if for some reason you "required" electrical service, you would be SOL. So I guess the moral of the story is - it depends. The where and the when being the most important factor and whether or not you would be open to a Wal-Mart as a last resort.

Just returned from a 9 week trip to Alaska and back to Maryland. Only made reservations for Seattle, the 4th of July and in Homer because we knew the dates we would be there. Other than that we "winged it". We only had trouble two nights because we hit western South Dakota the weekend before the Sturgis Bike Rally started. But even so we were still able to get a campsite for the night. Some days when we figured out how far we were going to be able to drive I would call ahead early in the afternoon to make sure we could get a site. We often drove farther than we thought we would so a reservation would not have been beneficial.

Reading this thread and similar ones I suspect once we get past the Mississippi River our reservation habits will change. As things currently stand I'll continue to make reservations far in advance.

We seldom make reservations with the possible exception of the final destination before returning home. ie: St Augustine SP is booked most of the time. That was our destination site and due to the popularity we made reservation for the time we wanted and/or could get.
We researched a perceived route with potential camping sites noted. Check their availability, if on ReserveAmerica or other sources with as many alternatives as we can find. Note their names, locations, highlights & GPS coordinates. Then head off to happy camping. Then return trip is basically the same routine with trying to find the last site within a couple of hours of home. For some reason the last day/return trip seams the longest to us, so we want a relatively short drive the last day.
Probably won't work for a lot of folks, but does for us. Besides, during the winter months when we don't get out, we plan, research and wish.

Enjoy and wing it!!!

Depends on the season. I like making reservations since I know there will be a space for me somewhere, preferably a pull through. Especially on the last night of a trip where I want to dump and flush tanks at my leisure, as well as get everything packed up for storage.

I like the RV Parky app, but I wouldn't leave home without the Good Sam directory. As a previous post said, I wouldn't want to drive an hour out of the way just to find a full campground, but, that is one of the positive benefits of cell phones. Good Sam gives you the phone number, Call them up and ask if they expect to be full.

We drive until about an hour or 2 before we estimate that we'll stop for the night. Then we map the upcoming campgrounds to see what's available, pick one and call them to book us for the evening. Has worked well for us so far. If it's a holiday weekend, you may want to book ahead, but otherwise you should have some options.

If you find yourself driving after dark looking for a campground, then you need to plan on stopping much earlier - before 4pm. We've never been turned away because of no reservations but we don't drive past mid-afternoon. We want to get something for our money - not pull in and go to sleep. :)