Camping on Holidays??

[reubenray]

What is the draw for so many campers during the Holidays?

We thought about doing this the week of Thanksgiving to get out of the house. But the state parks are full. Being we never had any kids I am imagining an invasion of kids at these parks. I don't think I have ever seen a totally full campground. Being we don't have kids we usually avoid the campgrounds that cater to them.

[loulou57]

Also travelling a little further away might be a benefit for you.

We prefer to be in a less populated camping area. We don't mind if there are kids...just not a lot of people in general.

We have been known to leave sat morning 4 a.m. And drive 13 hours straight through. We stay sat night, sun night and then leave 4a.m. mon morning for the 13 hr drive home.

A lot of driving but to a place where there is nobody else, no cell reception, no stores..not even an airplane in the sky.

Perfection is worth it!

[gbopp]

Maybe you should consider boondocking during holidays to avoid the draw of campgrounds?
I chose to stay home and not travel/camp on holiday weekends. It works well for us.

[reubenray]

I guess being I was not raised up in a camping family and the holidays was always at either the parents or grandparents is why I am surprised. Being the parents/grandparents are all gone plus not having any kids we was looking at another option for the holidays. I was just surprised that there was this many.

[the_bear_II]

For holiday weekends if we can't leave by Thursday (for a 3 day weekend) we don't go. In addition we don't return until Tuesday. This avoids the traffic jams here in Southern California. We made this rule after spending 8 hours stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on a Friday trying to get to a lake that is less than 100 miles away on a memorial weekend.

[RoyB]

We always like to arrive on a Wednesday night before the Holiday so we can get our favorite camping spot and leave the following Tuesday morning or sometimes Wednesday.

The camp ground is a GHOST TOWN until Friday afternoon. Then it is like the streets of Gatlinburg Friday evening,Saturday, and Sunday and starting to clear out on Monday before noon. The kids love to run their bicycles all over the place with lights on their heads.

Actually alot will leave on Sunday evening. Then it is a GHOST TOWN again and the deer come back out.

Everyone including us has had a great time...

Roy Ken

[2_Retired]

We took our boys camping every holiday we could! Happily, most of the campers we met along the way weren't "allergic" to children! We met many couples, some who were parents, some who had never been, and they were always friendly and helped our sons learn how to associate with a wide variety of individuals. We camped on holidays for the obvious reason, as stated by everyone, that it gave us more time to do so. Another reason is that we then did not have to do the "holiday merry go round" between households, dealing with who went where which holiday and who was cooking what and what to wear and the whole hassle of it all. The Easter Bunny always found our camper, as did the Thanksgiving Turkey, the flag on the 4th of July, even Santa at Christmas a few times! We camped then because it was fun - probably the same reasons you like to camp!! As for state parks - they're almost always CHEAPER than those privately owned!! REally, a no-brainer for us! We still choose them whenever possible!!

[Markiemark32]

uhhhhh.......................Time off of WORK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm just thinking this may be it.





Markiemark:C

[HappyKayakers]

You could be making a bigger mistake by going to a park with mostly adults. At least the kids don't stay up until 4 AM, drinking, playing loud music, and generally annoying everyone in a 5 mile radius. It just seems to be the nature of major holidays. People want to squeeze in all the partying they can before they go back to work.

[washley1]

reubenray wrote:
What is the draw for so many campers during the Holidays?

We thought about doing this the week of Thanksgiving to get out of the house. But the state parks are full. Being we never had any kids I am imagining an invasion of kids at these parks. I don't think I have ever seen a totally full campground. Being we don't have kids we usually avoid the campgrounds that cater to them.

Forgive me, but you must be new to camping, and not only did you never have kids of your own you must have been isolated from everyone else's!. The draw of the state or provincial parks is the same for the rest of us as it is for you. The difference is that those with kids are also those with jobs. The weekends and holidays are the only time they have to use the RV or tent. So yes, parks are full and kids will be everywhere. Summer comes and they are full all week. We have been campers for the last 40 years, and it has always been this way. Now that we're retired we have leaned that Sunday night through Thursday night is the best time in any campground, before the weekend warriors settle in.

[paulcardoza]

Long weekends is the draw! It's a lot more fun to set up for 3-4 days than setting up Friday night and breaking camp Sunday morning.

[loulou57]

The draw?7....the same reason you go.

Here in Ontario the provincial parks have to keep a certain percentage of sites that cannot be reserved. If you do not get there by noon on a friday the chance of getting a site is poor.