Planner Plodder vs On the Fly

[charming]

Reading the topic about how people reserve campgrounds I was surprised at the number of people who don't reserve in advance.

I am the picture in the dictionary of the planner/plodder. I usually have all reservations made several months prior to leaving on a trip, if I have trouble with determining the best location it will worry me until I have the reservation made.

For our April trip to Florida I was in a panic because I was having trouble deciding on a campground near Tallahassee and finally made a reservation in early February.

Oh, this also includes where we're going to stop on the road when we're in between campgrounds.

What is your style? Planner/plodder, On The Fly, or somewhere in between?

[Veebyes]

Call it planning to plod but that is happening right now. Better to sit out weather & wait than take a chance on risking unpleasant & avoidable conditions on the road in the name of keeping to a schedule.

[mjd190]

I am a planner. Sometimes well in advance, other times only a week or so. After losing out on sites of places we wanted to go, I think it is better to thoroughly research your trip and plan your stops. Yes the weather might cause some hiccups, and you might have to skip some things you found on your travels, but overall I prefer having booked sites. Last year I had to call 5 places for both Moab and Zion areas. This was in April with a 3 week lead time. Our next trip will have all stops planned.

[1stgenfarmboy]

If I had all the time in the world I would not plan, but as it is I have a few weeks to go exactly where we want to go, so for me it is on the exact day of open reservations for the CG we are wanting I make it.

some places it is even hard to do it this way as more and more people are doing the same.


once we were going to hike up to Mount LeConte in the Smokies and stay at the lodge on top of the mountain, they have a few cabins, we set the days and then 4 of us started calling on the very minuite the reservation window opened for the year, it took us 2 hours of nonstop calling to get threw.......we got the days we wanted.



so yes I am just like the OP, and will do it this way untill we retire and have the time to just meander about.

[katleman]

I used to be a plan/reserve everyday kind of traveler.

I’ve evolved to just reserving for destinations that are difficult, like anything within three hours of population centers in California, Yellowstone in July & early August, etc. For example, got reservations for Yellowstone around the Eclipse 18 months out. Or 6 months out if I want to camp in Yosemite valley (which is well worth the effort)

That said, I was quite successful with an impromptu week early August visit to Yellowstone in 2015 without reservations. Only drawback was spending extra time focused on finding sites instead of viewing the park. But then I enjoy primitive campgrounds, which helps considerably with finding places.

[2gypsies1]

If we would have had to make reservations for every night of our 16 years of full-timing (5,840 nights) we would have never gone full-timing!!

We even got into the popular national parks without reservations. We rarely made reservations.

[patbac]

Definitely a planner - Oregon state and county parks are too popular to leave it to chance, for us.

Sounds odd, but the biggest advantage is having to pay the camping fees up front, during the winter planning stage. It spreads out our adventuring dollars over the whole year and makes our trips "seem" cheaper at the time we're traveling.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

I’m a planner extraordinarily. To the point of a year in advance.

As full-timers, we have a rough idea of which relatives / friends / places we want to visit.

Summer 2018 - DW best HS friend in upper Michigan
Fall 2018 - my family SW Missouri, Dallas, SW Arkansas
Winter 2018-19 - DW son, grandkids, great grandkids south Florida
2019 - DW brothers family Connecticut
2020 - DW daughter & family Oregon

Our doctors are in the Dallas area, so we pass thru to here Mar/Apr and Oct/ Nov

That puts the MUST stops on the map, then we try to see what is an interesting route

I will make reservations with Thousand Trails, sometimes as far in advance as possible. There is no charge if I have change my reservation far enough in advance.

I just made reservations a couple weeks ago to spend Labor Day weekend on Land Between The Lakes at a COE campground.

I always make sure I have Memorial Day, July 4th,!Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the week after Christmas/New Years planned or booked. (In the Deep South and Southwest - Thanksgiving and the week after Christmas can be bigger camping weekends than July 4 or Labor Day if the temps are right)

I enjoy planning and working out schedules during those days the weather is too bad to be outside. Fitting it all together, researching sights and activities along the way and at destinations.

I even type out our daily drive/ route and go over it with the DW the night before we drive.

Then as the DW says, we have everything planned, until we pull out the campground gate.

I’ve been known to throw out several months of plans at the last minute because something catches my attention, we want to stay in an area longer, want to leave sooner.

Planning is fun, but it is not mandatory. Nor is it ironclad.

[wxtoad]

Being retired we have plenty of time for our travels and pretty much always go on-the-fly. We did an 8-month round the USA trip and made reservations only twice, both just a few days before 3-day weekends. Never had a problem. Although we had a vague idea of where we wanted to go, I can't tell you how many times we changed plans at the last minute and struck off in a new direction. T'was the greatest trip of our lives.

Ted H.

[Sgeorge]

I am still working so planning is a must to take advantage of vacation time. Changing plans at the last moment can adversely effect a trip. Not willing to take a chance on that happening. By nature I am a serious planner, I even plan out our gas stops and research the stations using Google Earth to make sure the access is good. Planning the trip is part of the vacation experience for me. I love looking up campgrounds and activities in the area. The DW says I missed my calling, I should have been a travel agent. We are going to retire in a couple of years, and I think my planning will be drastically reduced as flying by the seat of your pants will be much easier when you are free to do whatever whenever you want.

[charming]

johnhicks wrote:
We make winter reservations because if we don't we'll end up much farther north and colder than we want to be.

Last summer we also learned to make reservations well in advance because otherwise the locals will have every weekend reserved. Just the weekends. We hadn't run into that problem previously.

In transit we usually call potential stops to reserve a couple of days early.

We wanted to take a few days prior to our April trip at one of the local state parks. It seems one is booked entirely for the next couple of months and the other is very limited on available full service sites.

[johnhicks]

We make winter reservations because if we don't we'll end up much farther north and colder than we want to be.

Last summer we also learned to make reservations well in advance because otherwise the locals will have every weekend reserved. Just the weekends. We hadn't run into that problem previously.

In transit we usually call potential stops to reserve a couple of days early.

[sgfrye]

a planner. i started booking reservations last november for trips thru this coming october. mainly because my wife has to get approved for vacation time well in advance. plus for campgrounds that allow for specific site reservations i use google earth to pick sites. state parks book fast even in north carolina so i do those way out in advance. doing that has allowed me to get "lake front" sites. i even use google earth to plan fuel stops on trips. our tt is 33 ft so not all gas stations are convenient to fuel up. we will mix in other weekend trips along the way on do those on the fly but still book reservations a few days out.

[jplante4]

Nothing ruins a trip faster than needing to be in a certain place at certain time. Having said that, we make reservations when need want to be somewhere (relatives and friends over the holidays for instance). On our winter trip, we only made advanced (more than 2 weeks ahead) reservations twice. The rest we just looked at which way we were going, set a reasonable driving time and went to RV Park Reviews or allstays to find a park.

Those places that fill up over popular weekends we tend to avoid because of the crowds. Plus, we usually move mid week.

I might add that if all the new RVers that the industry says are there all go camping on the same weekend, the Wal*Mart parking lots will be full.

In Lafeyette, do not miss Poche's Fish and Camp in Breaux Bridge or the market with the same name.

[charming]

Great posts, thanks, I'm feeling much better about our fall trip.