A new RVer question

[BeerBrewer]

My wife and I are just planning to get into RVing and we have questions about making reservations at campgrounds and parks.

We've been talking about buying an RV (travel trailer) site seeing the country at for years. Now that we are both newly retired we figured now is the time. Odds are that we'd be doing a lot or most of our traveling in Fall thru spring and not too much in the summer.

How difficult is it to get reservations at a campground or park? We're being told that some campgrounds are booked 9 months to a year in advance and that its almost impossible to be spontaneous with our travel plans. Is this true? I would tend to think that this more of an issue in the summer, no?

We do have some big summer trips that we'd like to do, like visiting Alaska and some of the northern parks (those that may get early fall or late spring snows). These trips would be well planned and WAY in advance, so making reservations early would not be an issue. We are more worried about the impromptu trips that we'd like to do.


Thanks

[BeerBrewer]

Wow....what a relief! You folks are doing just what we'd like to do.

Thanks for your prompt responses!

Bob

PS: I too agree, weekends should be for workers and I promise to stay out of their way whenever possible.

[enblethen]

Reservation are not always required.
Reservations can put you on a schedule. Retirement is time to move slower. You may find you want to stop other places that can ruin reservations you have scheduled.
We normally travel with no reservations. When a place is popular, we call a day or two before arrival and have gotten in without any issues.

[jplante4]

We're on a 10 week trip from New England to the prairie states and back. We haven't booked anything any more than a week in advance. Some places we just show up. If we want to be somewhere at a certain time (like Lees Summit MO on Sept 29 to visit the DD), we book that and filled in to end up there. Nothing ruins a trip like ours (or the one you're planning) like needing to be somewhere at a certain time.

We did the same thing on our retirement trip - 6 months around the southeast. We stayed at most places a week and moved on Wednesday. We booked 2 weeks in advance at the most. We never got any further south in Florida than Ft Myers because spontaneous got real expensive.

Now, if you're talking about the Florida Keys in Jan and Feb, then yes, you need to book out in advance because most of those sites are booked when people leave the previous year. You can catch cancellations, but the involves hours on the phone calling around. You will have better things to do.

There's a lot of hype about the 500,000 RVs sold last year and where will all those people camp. etc etc. They will camp at the most popular parks - state and national - on summer weekends in July and August. The rest of the year belongs to us.

[garmp]

Edd505, pretty much nailed it. Any place with a beach will be crowded, be it the Gulf, ocean and even many lakes. Timing is also a key. As Edd505 said weekends are for workers, as a rule, but lately it seems that all of the retired Baby Boomers have gotten RV's and are hitting the parks. Trust me I know, I'm one of them!
Enjoy and if you plan your trip and don't have reservations as we most often don't, have a couple of back-up sites on your itinerary just in case.
Travel safe and enjoy our planet.

[Mandalay_Parr]

It all depends on a lot of factors I’ve never had any real problem.
Call me if you wish

[Edd505]

No it's not true. I am on an extended trip right now (8 months) and only made reservations a few times at popular places. Most of the time you can call the day of or a day ahead and get a spot. If you want a popular site or longer stay (weeks) make reservations, most can get you in for a few days. Plan moves on weekdays, those still working fill site on weekend. After school starts, where ever you are, it becomes even easier.