for all those of you that plan your trips enroute, are any of you single travelers? I prefer being able to stop when I am ready, and not to have to plan exactly where to stop. However, I can't do as many say they do of having their navegator/travel partner look for somewhere to stop. do you drive for several hours and then stop and spend some time on smart phone? Make lists of possibilities before starting out, and then call depending on where you are?Please provide suggestions for a single traveler, who would like to travel with a few less plans.

I check out some options along the way, ahead of time, when I have a good cell or wifi service and some time. I book mark them & save them to a favorites folder. If I don't expect to have data connections when travelling, I will print out the contact info and directions to take with me. Then when I get an idea for what the day is going to look like, I will call and verify availability etc.

We travel till we decide to stop and look for places based on experience of the area or on the road side signs we see. Sometimes I look over a map the night before. Has worked for us since '82 including a 7 week, 7kmile trip last year. I don't use a trip planning program. Never have since '67. Just the way I travel.

When we decide to stop we ask the GPS to find a place or we read the road signs. We don't use a smart phone or a trip planer. We are leaving in a week and don't know where we are going other then south. Sometimes the places we find by accident are the good ones.

We have found it a bit more difficult to treavel without plans now than a few years ago. In the past, State Parks, COE, and others were available as walk-ins about any time. Now, especially on weekends, reservations are almost a requirement, for weekends, as much as a year in advance. Won't get into it much more than that, but now we spend a couple of days in research before we travel. Stop in the evening wherever, stay the next day resting and planning route, then travel the next day. Like we said about, weekends can be difficult trying to find walk-ins.

Most of the time when I'm traveling it on my motorcycle. I have the most out of the way, small paved roads I can find ahead of time and pot those into the GPS. Where I stop is anyone guess. Camp or motel. When traveling in the camper, it's almost as flexible.Now that I have a huge toyhauler, that might change a little bit. 42 feet won't just park anywhere. That's 42 ft plus the truck. Although I've never camped at Walmart or a truck stop yet and that is now an option.

trip planning enroute | Good Sam Community

19 Replies

rockhillmanor
Explorer II
Nov 02, 2015
We ALL have to stop to use the restrooms and to fuel up while traveling whether it be with one person or 4 people on board. Actually probably more pit stops with more people. :W

So there really is NOT a problem driving solo. When you stop for a pit stop and/or to fuel up that's the opportunity to sit back and relax in the RV and check into your smart phone or laptop for CG's, added directions, attractions where you are traveling thru, etc.
mgirardo
Explorer
Nov 02, 2015
Even with a co-pilot, I like to know what is in the general area that we'll be traveling before we leave. The last time we did this, neither of us had a smartphone and our laptop died after the first night of the trip. We took I-10 from its start in Jacksonville, FL to Houston, TX, so I checked out all the campgrounds around were we'd be likely to stop each night. I plugged them into Streets and Trips and saved each day on the laptop.

Like I said, the laptop died after the first night, but I had enough familiarity from setting those maps up, that I had a general idea of where we could stop when we got tired of traveling. We didn't have any reservations except for our destination. We found a few really nice campgrounds along the way and had a great trip.

-Michael
Tom_Diane
Explorer
Nov 02, 2015
Part of the adventure is being a free spirit! We make reservations for our destination and the rest has to take care of itself.
LadyRVer
Explorer II
Nov 01, 2015
I try to have in mind where my stop will be for the next night. By lunch of that day, I check my options and will either call or driveup. So far, working out for me.I just did a 1200 mile trip and was fine.
YC_1
Nomad
Nov 01, 2015
I punch a couple of buttons on my Rand McNally to see what is available along the route or at my destination. It pops up with tons of information and often with phone numbers. If I need fuel or a rest stop a couple of button presses and there they are in order of distance. Select one and it will take you right to it.
Billinwoodland
Explorer
Nov 01, 2015
Recently returned from a 2500 mile round trip. I planned my stops ahead of time based on cost and reviews. When my planned stop doesn't work our for whatever reason (weather, fatigue) I use rvparky with the nearby function to plan my next stop.
Matt_Colie
Explorer II
Nov 01, 2015
Fortunately, I rarely travel alone and rarely do we "free style". What you are doing is as hard as single-pilot IFR. There is just too much to do while driving. At least a light plane will fly itself for a few moments.

I see you are a truck and trailer. That makes things a little harder, but if you can set up the cab to have a laptop in view or at least at the ready, you can run Street Atlas (with a GPS) and have lots of things from the Discovery Owner's site on the screen. I used to do this in a Dakota cab, but I built a table for the laptop. That way, you can at least look over at the little arrow on the screen and see what it is near.

My only other answer would be to over plan. That also requires that you rewrite you plan every night. We have done that too, but we are again traveling as a driver and navigator and that does make things easier.

Matt
wingsfan20
Explorer
Nov 01, 2015
We used Next Exit and Later a better solution Exit Now until it stopped publishing. Found the best replacement. An Android app called iExit. It locates you and provides information about all services, hotels, campgrounds food and fuel at exits along the route you are on. You can scroll ahead to check out upcoming items.
Captain_Happy
Explorer
Nov 01, 2015
I'm one of those who over the last few years has just "WINGED IT", That way I don't have to be at any one place at given time or date. Theirs a lot of RV Park out there.
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Nov 01, 2015
I paid $9.95 for a smart phone app called "Allstays". It works with the phone's GPS, and will tell you every place ahead of you where you could stay, including WalMart, city campgrounds, private campgrounds, etc. You can pull up a park, read reviews, and if it sounds good, the app lets you connect directly to the campground via the phone. So far, has not steered us wrong.