Camp Reservations

[Yosemite_Sam1]

What's your best practice for campground reservations.

Do you reserve ALL the campgrounds prior to starting your trip?

Or, do you just reserve the campground at your next destination?

I guess the latter gives a lot more flexibility at the risk of ending up sleeping in the Wal-mart or rest stops in some really busy full-booked campgrounds season.

Or being out there with no WIFI or cell reception (even the famous Yosemite have a lot of these blind spots).

And I'll admit I hate the administrative work and would rather minimize it with the least work and efforts as much as possible.

[Trekkar]

ken56 wrote:
Personal preference is what it comes down to. I don't like the restriction of reservations for just an over night stop because I don't know where or when I want to stop exactly. We are retired so we don't have time constraints so I can deviate off route anywhere I want to. Never been shut out of a campground.


We have pulled into campgrounds for a night and have extended our stay many times because it was an area we wished to explore a little more and the CG was nice. Our primary travel area is the southeast from NC and all the Gulf states to TX. Never a problem getting in somewhere.


We use the RVPARKY app when on the road to find places to stay. We start looking around 2pm for a place to be off the road around 4pm. Easy enough to make it by a phone call. For stays of a week or more we do make reservations for our destination.

We also use RVParky on the road. Start checking after lunch, and normally find sites easily. We go to do stuff, not sit at the campground.

[Busskipper]

Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
What's your best practice for campground reservations.

Do you reserve ALL the campgrounds prior to starting your trip?

Or, do you just reserve the campground at your next destination?

I guess the latter gives a lot more flexibility at the risk of ending up sleeping in the Wal-mart or rest stops in some really busy full-booked campgrounds season.

Or being out there with no WIFI or cell reception (even the famous Yosemite have a lot of these blind spots).

And I'll admit I hate the administrative work and would rather minimize it with the least work and efforts as much as possible.

When on the road we look at lunch and call around 3 or so to see where we may stop.

For the annual Family reunion at the beach we reserve a year ahead.

More fun on the road and we can boondock for a while so no real problem.

JMHO,

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Thanks everyone for the very useful information.

I read them all and now got a good idea on how to tackle these multiple campgrounds in our multi-state routes.

The longest we had was 3 weeks in Lake Mead, Zion and Grand Canyon and made all reservations in advance.

But what I noticed with this advanced reservation is that it forced us to keep a very structured and precise schedules and did not allow flexibility when we actually want to stay longer in an area to visit other interesting sites.

[JesLookin]

Last year for our Alaska trip we made four reservations at places where we wanted to be at certain times. Otherwise we winged it, or made reservations a day or two at a time as we moved along.

[bikendan]

Nv Guy wrote:
Because the DW and I don't like surprises I make reservations for all of our planned stops along our route. For me it's less work than trying to find a place to set down for the night after a day of driving.

Same for us!

[Roy_Lynne]

When we first started RVing I made reservations, but we had a breakdown and through our schedule off. KOA kept our money and I never went back and never made reservations far in advance again. I will call ahead.
But we don't RV in the summers or on holidays so we avoid those hassels

[bukhrn]

Nv Guy wrote:
Because the DW and I don't like surprises I make reservations for all of our planned stops along our route. For me it's less work than trying to find a place to set down for the night after a day of driving.

X-2, I like site specific reservations, I don't want to get somewhere just to be stuck in some unlevel, low tree, narrow, short site that is basically all that's left.

[docsouce]

We like to make reservations 2 or 3 days out. We reserve Friday and Saturday stays 5 days out because the campgrounds are usually full those days. Most often I try stay at one campground both Friday and Saturday. Just easier. That said we only like to drive 200 or so miles a day and avoid the interstate highways as much as possible.

[ppine]

I make reservations mostly for events. The rest of the time I just show up. I like to avoid peak season for popular destinations.

[Dutch_12078]

We usually make most of our reservations for next winter in Florida while we're here this winter. We favor state and national parks, and getting in early on the 11 month state park reservation windows gives us the best chance of getting the sites and parks we prefer for the time frame we want. The national parks have shorter windows, but we hit them as soon as they open as well. For this winter, we were late reserving due to some medical questions that determined if we were coming at all, but we did still manage to fill out a near 4 month schedule by choosing central and northern Florida locations plus a few weeks in a southern Georgia state park. During the rest of the year we also make far ahead reservations at places like upstate NY state parks for popular holidays like Memorial Day, the July 4th, and Labor Day. In between, we're a lot more flexible, often making last minute decisions or changes. For those, we might only make reservations a day or two ahead, or not at all in areas where there are several park choices.

[ken56]

Personal preference is what it comes down to. I don't like the restriction of reservations for just an over night stop because I don't know where or when I want to stop exactly. We are retired so we don't have time constraints so I can deviate off route anywhere I want to. Never been shut out of a campground.


We have pulled into campgrounds for a night and have extended our stay many times because it was an area we wished to explore a little more and the CG was nice. Our primary travel area is the southeast from NC and all the Gulf states to TX. Never a problem getting in somewhere.


We use the RVPARKY app when on the road to find places to stay. We start looking around 2pm for a place to be off the road around 4pm. Easy enough to make it by a phone call. For stays of a week or more we do make reservations for our destination.

[linnemj]

This is a personal choice and you will get all kinds of opinions. A lot depends on the popularity of where you want to camp, the days of the week, the size of your RV, and what hookups you want.

[Airdaile]

We do about the same as doxiemom. We may have reservations at the next place and I'm looking for where we'll be after that. The only time I got tripped up was over a holiday weekend when I had to call a few places before I found a site.

Nothing ruins an RV trip faster than needing to be somewhere at a certain time.

[doxiemom11]

IF we make reservations, it's just for the next location , or if it's a holiday or real touristy area. We are full-time almost 9 years and have probably made 9 reservations in that time. Sometimes it's just a phone call to see if there are sites available and not really a reservation.