Where do you search for parks?

I generally start withAll US Campgrounds and fine tune from there. As mentioned earlier check google maps for the green areas.Rec.gov is another good starting point. /And my very best favorite site for checking the campground is Toad Hall. This gentleman has compiled one of the most complete informative site I have ever seen. He may not cover every campground or area that you seek, but the ones he does is spectacular. (Great RailRoad info also).

Campgroundreviews can be hit or miss. Was searching around for info on a GA CG today & ran into a terrible review for it. Seems the camper wanted to cut short his stay because of the weather & the owner refused to give a refund. Unhappy camper gave a 2/10 review. Say what!!!!!

Checked on the camper. Sure enough, only a few other reviews. Problems everywhere he went.

I start with 10/10 then deduct 1 for every item not happy about. Poor value for money, no table, no fire ring where expected, no WIFI if expected for money, poor WIFI if WIFI does not work as expected, really bad roads or site. Each is worth a point deduction. If the person at check in is not Mr/Mrs Congeniality I don't much care. They would have to really rattle my cage to earn a point deduction.

I use google maps and look for little green patches in the area I want to go. That usually will find most all the state and local parks. For a national forest, I go to the forest website.

Doesn't help find rv parks, but we almost never stay in them.

jplante4 wrote:

mdcamping wrote:
I always start with Campgrounds reviews.com

If I'm not comfortable in what is written in the reviews or just to few I will then research trip adviser or google.

There are a couple of tools on the campground reviews web site that will help you in this. First is the number of reviews. If there are 2 reviews, well one is the camp ground and one is the nearest competitor. So you cam pretty much throw out the high and low.

The other is the previous reviews by the reviewer. If you see a bad review and discover that particular reviewer basically hates everything, that would lead me to disregard that review. Some people aren't happy until you aren't happy.

Finally, my cutoff is a rating of 7.5. This is from personal experience.

Sometimes if I see a reviewer who is constantly scoring low scores on their review history, maybe the reviewer is miserable but at the very least the reviews are consistent. So in some cases there is valve to those reviews as I know its the reviewer and not the campground.

A reviewer who's score history is all over the place I find it very hard to find any value in the reviews, especially if there is few reviews and the reviewers profile has little additional information. :C

Mike

mdcamping wrote:
I always start with Campgrounds reviews.com

If I'm not comfortable in what is written in the reviews or just to few I will then research trip adviser or google.

There are a couple of tools on the campground reviews web site that will help you in this. First is the number of reviews. If there are 2 reviews, well one is the camp ground and one is the nearest competitor. So you cam pretty much throw out the high and low.

The other is the previous reviews by the reviewer. If you see a bad review and discover that particular reviewer basically hates everything, that would lead me to disregard that review. Some people aren't happy until you aren't happy.

Finally, my cutoff is a rating of 7.5. This is from personal experience.

I always start with Campgrounds reviews.com

If I'm not comfortable in what is written in the reviews or just to few I will then research trip adviser or google.

In addition if I need more specific information on a particular campground or area around the campground I will post here, iRV2 forum or sometimes some of the smaller camping forums.

Mike

Campgroundreviews.com is as good as the people who take time to post on it. There are more than enough reviews on Disney but not enough on some little town CG in MT, if it is even listed. The little ones that take some finding tend to be the real gems.

I do a Google search in the area where we are planning to stop, then see what the various reviews that come up when I click on the campground. I really like campgroundreviews.com (formally RVparkreview.com) but I'm finding that many of the reviews are older. Now this could be because we were in some very "off the beaten trail" locations this summer.

RVParky and http://www.campgroundreviews.com/

Trip planning and future reservations: Individual State DNR web sites.
On the road, unplanned, an hour or two in the future: Google search: "Name of city and state, Campgrounds" Hits all over. Select one, call. Spend the night.
We also use the Good Sam directory (Find a Campground) on GoodSam.com