Trip planning application

[edbennett002]

Is there an application available or a website that entering a starting point and ending point the app returns with route information and all the camp grounds along that route? I suspect this question has been asked before but, a bit of searching didn't turn up anything here.

Thanx.
ed.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Allworth wrote:
I note that no one has mentioned the Good Sam Trip Planner.

Since you are already a member, it is free. Go to the GS Club website, log in and open it. Take the tour. The learning curve is not steep and you can tailor trips to your liking with a little practice. Set waypoints and it gives you total miles and "link miles" then you can ask it to display CGs.

The end product is downloadable to Rand McNally GPS systems (and possibly others).

A

ON EDIT: After I have an end point for the day I go to RV Park Reviews (which I believe now calls itself CampgroundReviews.com) and Passport America to see what "other" CGs may be available.

I used it last year on my trips to Zion, North Rim, Lake Mead and Vegas. It's clunky. I have to use 3 tools, computer, cellphone Google map and print-out to make it useful.

There is a discussion about it on another thread (mainly, complaint about how it's not working on his computer).

My dream single tool is my iPhone. I have suggested some improvements to benchmark RVSparky and tripwizard.com, the latter on the grid-radius features.

I am not holding my breath though.

[Allworth]

I note that no one has mentioned the Good Sam Trip Planner.

Since you are already a member, it is free. Go to the GS Club website, log in and open it. Take the tour. The learning curve is not steep and you can tailor trips to your liking with a little practice. Set waypoints and it gives you total miles and "link miles" then you can ask it to display CGs.

The end product is downloadable to Rand McNally GPS systems (and possibly others).

A

ON EDIT: After I have an end point for the day I go to RV Park Reviews (which I believe now calls itself CampgroundReviews.com) and Passport America to see what "other" CGs may be available.

[ependydad]

There is no one tool that really works well; though RV Parky's Trip Planner has grown up a lot since I wrote this:
Let’s go! Trip planning apps and websites

[Matt_Colie]

Is a radius tool any real value any place else in the country?

I ask because we live between a number of great lakes and any straight forward radius is pretty meaningless.

Matt

[richclover]

Accsys: Howdy in Green Cove Springs!

Right, I use several online tools, GS, AAA, Roadtrip, Gasbuddy, Google maps.

But... The simpler the better. I use Foreflight for flight planning. A truly great app!

I have great memories of skiing Black Creek during my time based at Cecil Field in another, Navy, life 🙂

[richclover]

tragusa3 wrote:
I have been using RVParky for the first time this winter. We're planning out 8k miles this summer. I do like it, however, online only is a problem as well as not having a measurement or radius tool. I end up using it in combination with google maps.

A radius tool would be nice. I use google maps for route options and sorta split the route for a shorter day. I really like all the layers/choices that show up on RVParky. Gasbuddy is also a must, but for $0.10/gl, 25 gl is what, 2.50? For that I look for ease and convenience.

Edit: I’m using my iPad now, wifi to my smartphone wifi hotspot. Should work anywhere I have cell service. RVParky does.

[accsys]

richclover wrote:
Thanks for the RVParky tip! Best I've seen for my needs.

Do you know of a way to modify/change the route that is mapped out between the start and end points? If there is I haven't found it.

Ah, you caught me as I cheat a little there, using another tab with Google Maps in it, and another tab with Dishpointer in it. I use Google Maps to plan my route and use its satellite view to actually see the campground (found in RV Parky once I have determined where I want to stop using Google Maps) and check for sites I think would be satellite friendly (that's where Dishpointer comes in as I can actually see the direction of the satellite from the sites). So I am constantly switching between the four tabs: find where I want to stop in Google Maps; put that info in both RV Parky and RV Park Reviews where I review the parks and determine one I would like to stay at; then check Dishpointer to ascertain how satellite friendly the sites in the park are.

So you might say "why use RV Parky"? It not only gives me a second source of reviews, frequently with additional parks not listed in RV Park Reviews since it returns parks a farther distance from the input location, but it also can be easily saved so I can just start off in my next session at my last stop I had added to RV Parky and that would also be my starting point in Google Maps. When I have finished the planning it provides a great memory tool showing the whole trip, how long at each location, and what dates we plan on stay at each.

I never export the trip from RV Parky to my GPS as I only input the next days trip in our GPS on the night before we leave a location, again using Google Maps to make sure we are going the route we desire AND it is big rig friendly.

[tragusa3]

I have been using RVParky for the first time this winter. We're planning out 8k miles this summer. I do like it, however, online only is a problem as well as not having a measurement or radius tool. I end up using it in combination with google maps.

[richclover]

accsys wrote:
Go to RV Parky, Sign Up (it's free) and start a new trip. Put in a starting location, then put in your ending location. It will then give you a map in the right pane showing its proposed route. On the left pane you will see your two stops. You will notice your last stop has a "Find a Place to Stay" button. Clicking on that will show you every place you can park an RV near that location. I normally filter that list at the top to remove all Stores, Gas Stations, and Other so that I only see campgrounds and RV Parks. You can then find your desired park by reading reviews, etc of the different parks.

So that would have the ending location set! Then you figure how far you want to drive and put in the location of your first stop by clicking the Plus symbol between your starting and ending location. And just keep doing this until until you have your trip configured. You input the city and it will list the campgrounds in that area for you to select, all the time showing your progress in the map pane. You will notice that it allows you to put in howmany days you want to stop at each location and will keep your dates current and also tell you the distance between stops.

We have used this for our last three summer trips and love its simplicity. We also have the RV Park Reviews site in another tab so we can also use their reviews for parks we are looking at.

Thanks for the RVParky tip! Best I've seen for my needs.

Do you know of a way to modify/change the route that is mapped out between the start and end points? If there is I haven't found it.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Test run it!

It's workable -- although I would have preferred the mileage grid-radius because my target day's trip to next campground is about 180 to 250 miles and click the next line up of campgrounds like the Allstays apps in the vicinity.

The campgrounds will only show up when you key in your destinations. Then do a trial and error if the first inputted area is beyond your driving radius.

It's useful rather than accessing 3 websites and apps to do your planning.

And dang, my test ran data got lost when I signed later because it would allow you to save your trip before you sign-up.

[Matt_Colie]

I didn't know RVParky could do that!
That is neat.

It does still have the problem with being an online only thing. That just does not work for us and the way and places we go.

Matt

[edbennett002]

Yes, RV Parky, that looks like what I'm looking for - perfect. Thanx for the tip. I'll play around with it a bit to see how I can use it to benefit ourselves.

Thanx.
Ed.

[harley-dave]

accsys wrote:
Go to RV Parky, Sign Up (it's free) and start a new trip. Put in a starting location, then put in your ending location. It will then give you a map in the right pane showing its proposed route. On the left pane you will see your two stops. You will notice your last stop has a "Find a Place to Stay" button. Clicking on that will show you every place you can park an RV near that location. I normally filter that list at the top to remove all Stores, Gas Stations, and Other so that I only see campgrounds and RV Parks. You can then find your desired park by reading reviews, etc of the different parks.

So that would have the ending location set! Then you figure how far you want to drive and put in the location of your first stop by clicking the Plus symbol between your starting and ending location. And just keep doing this until until you have your trip configured. You input the city and it will list the campgrounds in that area for you to select, all the time showing your progress in the map pane. You will notice that it allows you to put in how many days you want to stop at each location and will keep your dates current and also tell you the distance between stops.

We have used this for our last three summer trips and love its simplicity. We also have the RV Park Reviews site in another tab so we can also use their reviews for parks we are looking at.

This is exactly how I do it also. Export the trip tp GPS and off we go. Simple.

Dave

[accsys]

Go to RV Parky, Sign Up (it's free) and start a new trip. Put in a starting location, then put in your ending location. It will then give you a map in the right pane showing its proposed route. On the left pane you will see your two stops. You will notice your last stop has a "Find a Place to Stay" button. Clicking on that will show you every place you can park an RV near that location. I normally filter that list at the top to remove all Stores, Gas Stations, and Other so that I only see campgrounds and RV Parks. You can then find your desired park by reading reviews, etc of the different parks.

So that would have the ending location set! Then you figure how far you want to drive and put in the location of your first stop by clicking the Plus symbol between your starting and ending location. And just keep doing this until until you have your trip configured. You input the city and it will list the campgrounds in that area for you to select, all the time showing your progress in the map pane. You will notice that it allows you to put in howmany days you want to stop at each location and will keep your dates current and also tell you the distance between stops.

We have used this for our last three summer trips and love its simplicity. We also have the RV Park Reviews site in another tab so we can also use their reviews for parks we are looking at.