How do you pick the RV Parks you stay in ...

I'm a working full timer, in sales/management (for another 9 mos anyway:)). The nature of which, affords me significant latitude on where I choose to work. Conversely, it can be restrictive with regards to the length of time working in a local area. I've found that, aside from some unique challenges in it's own right, full timing negates the stress of very long commutes, reservations, motels, restaurants, some of the costs and much of the time contraints of maintaining a sticks&bricks. It's quite conducive to following the money in my profession.

That said, 3 days-2 week(s) in many localities is generally sufficient time to maximize profits. Moving so frequently, I've become fond of government parks for their ambiance and price. Therefore, I use this site almost exclusively to locate campgrounds. I'm a card totin' member of the National Geezers Club and use Passport America occasionally while in transit.

There have been times when I've wintered on family owned acreage and commuted up to 50 miles out. And I've sometimes stayed 4-8 weeks in small commercial parks (@ a monthly rate) with the desired ambiance or government parks where allowed. I'm practicing for retirement... LOL:B

steve_sheldon wrote:
That's fantastic, we just signed up right now. This information just redefined how we will be travelling. We kind of expected to have to stay in one place for a month at a time to get the decent rates but now we are free to move as we see fit. This is a good day... Thanks so much!

Just be cognizant of the restrictions on the PPA parks. I am a member of the RV Parks Review forum and there was a thread over on that forum where a poster was complaining about a PPA park was misleading in regards to their amenities. The poster wanted a pull through site and wanted it at the PPA rate. When the campground told them the rate only applied to "back-in" sites they were unhappy. They paid the full rate for the pull through site and they posted their displeasure in the forum. The PPA site for the campground plainly states that the rate only applied to "back-in" sites. Most PPA parks have restrictions and some do not. Also a lot of the PPA parks are not five star resorts either but I am a lifetime member and I have only been in two PPA parks that I just drove through and chose not to stay. Some of the parks are really nice like the two in Beaumont, TX. YMMV.

Dutch_12078 wrote:
My first stop when looking for a park in any area is always RV Park Reviews.

x2. i look for a consensus among the reviews. that's to say i'm not put off if there are 1 or 2 negative reviews among a dozen or so positive review. i want wifi, wife wants cable. we gravitate to the GS parks as a tie breaker but as we're usually in a park for at least a week the 10% GS discount usually doesn't enter into the decision making.

for overnite stops we tend to return to parks we've used before...or avoid parks we've used before. but if it's a new place for us we use the same criteria as i stated above but add close to the highway but not right ON the highway. and in these cases we look for a GS park for the savings.

we used to overnite at wally and flying j but that was when we would drive 10-12 hour days. these days we only drive roughly 4-hrs per day and are in a park usually between 2-3pm in the afternoon.

Lay out the route in Streets and Trips
1 Look for military
2 Look for RPI
3 Look for 1000 trails
4 Look for Passport America
5 Check all of them at RV park review
6 Have DW check the Woodalls book

I usually find the area I want to visit. Say, Charleston. Then I hit the state website for Charleston tourism. The I hit lodgings and then campgrounds.
Get an idea of what is in the area first. THEN I hit the listings for state parks for that area.

then off to RV Park Reviews and Good Sam to see what other parks exist in the area.


then depending on weather or what type of camping I want (like a pool or such) I will kinda decide on a few and maybe come and post it on this site to see if anyone ever visited it or has another recommendation.

I first map our route on www.mapquest.com or Google Maps. I double check the route against my Walmart Rand McNally Atlas.
Then I locate where we'll stop (we only drive about 4 hours per day)
Once I get a city, I use www.woodalls.com
Then when I select a campground I check the reviews on www.rvparkreviews.com and look at their website and check for amenities, rates and discounts.
Once I get all the planning done, I input the route into our RVND 5510 GPS.
I asked Rand McNally to create an online mapping and planning feature on their website with the ability to transfer to their GPS's. Hope they're listening!!

Good Sam's Trailer Life Campground Directory and RV Park Reviews. If I'm looking for a NFS campground, I look here NFS Camping and if I'm looking to find any public campground in an area, this is a good source: All Public Campgrounds

That's fantastic, we just signed up right now. This information just redefined how we will be travelling. We kind of expected to have to stay in one place for a month at a time to get the decent rates but now we are free to move as we see fit. This is a good day... Thanks so much!

skipnchar wrote:
Passport America directory. The only time I stay in an RV park is when a campground is not available and then it's almost always a PPA park (50% discount). Annual membership for PPA is a tad over $40.00 so you usually save that much in just a couple of nights stay.

For what it's worth, you can usually get just as good a rate as PPA if you plan on staying somewhere for a month or so but with PPA you can get that rate for a single night.

Passport America directory. If it's an overnight stay when traveling I would NEVER waste enough time to get reviews or references. Even if the showers aren't clean I have my own and it won't bother my nights sleep. The only time I stay in an RV park is when a campground is not available and then it's almost always a PPA park (50% discount). Annual membership for PPA is a tad over $40.00 so you usually save that much in just a couple of nights stay.

For what it's worth, you can usually get just as good a rate as PPA if you plan on staying somewhere for a month or so but with PPA you can get that rate for a single night.

Thanks guys for all the great suggestions! Is that passportamerica for real, that's an amazing discount... We are about to start living full time from our RV, the passport america membership could literally save us a small fortune!