To plan or not to plan?

We are travelers, we rarely stay more than a few days at one place. My planning consists of choosing a general plan of where we want to go and what we want to see. As our trip progresses, we make changes as we learn about things near our proposed path.

A couple of hours before we want to stop, we start looking for a campsite, usually using Streets and Trips on our computer. Very rarely have we had to go to a second choice. On long weekends, or in crowded areas, or if there is only one campground in the area, we might phone ahead.

Usually, our campsites are little more than a place to sleep. As a full timer, you may want more from your campsite.

Depends on the area, the time of the season and the overall availability of campgrounds in that area or travel zone. We sometimes make a list of our travel zone and use it to call ahead. If we pass that area it gets crossed off the list.

I think it all depends where you go and when. Go to a popular place during a popular time of the year, the. You might want to make reservations. Otherwise, unless you have somewhere specific to be at a certain time, the. I wouldn't bother.

Best to get routing first then plot out stops for fuel and potential spots to stay over. That makes it easy to have options open as you then can tell how far you are and what exit to take to get there. Then when near and ready to stop call ahead or reserve on line so your place is ready as some RV sites fill up fast. You don't want to be driving when you're tired!

WE spend most of our time at places in the off season so we just go.While we are not full timers we go south and travel around.
Seems to me very few parks are full anymore for short term stays.
WE can always find a place to park a few days
Dave

We're "longtimers", rather than "fulltimers", but we too never make advance reservations except for a few state park visits where we have specific site preferences, or the occasional holiday weekend when the CG's in the area we'll be in are often packed.

We don't make reservations most of the time. We like to see what a park is like in person before deciding how long we are going to stay. Sometimes parks aren't exactly like described. By not having a reservation I have had to move spots a couple of times. Now if we are going to a very popular area we have booked ahead out of necessity.

I think if you really tie some body down for an answer you will find that 95% fly by the seat of their pants