Reservations for popular campgrounds
I have tried multiple times to book a national park campground when the booking window opens and found the sites already booked. I have tried to time it to the second but no luck. I suspect that t...
Forum Discussion
VAHillbilly wrote:
Actually the campground I am trying to get reservations are reservation only and do not have first come first served sites. Recreation.gov reservation site shows availability and allow 14 day reservations which can be booked 6 months from the date of the first reservation. For instance I tried to book a site 6 months from today (July 9) for January 9, 2016. The site showed a couple of sites available and the second the window opened I tried to book the site and the response was "no inventory available" and when I checked availability I found the campsite had already been booked for January 9 thru January 22.
This is very frustrating as I have tried this multiple times and found I was a fraction of a second late in attempting to reserve. Maybe I am doing something wrong but I don't think so as I have used the same reservation site previously for booking other less popular campgrounds.
No you are not doing something wrong. You must be on the rreserve space page ready and push the button right on the second. If you have to go to another page that is waiting too long. You must be at the Final step of booking. I know it;s frustrating.
However even campgrounds that are reserve only will take walk ups in my experience to fill spaces left vacant by no-shows and people who leave early (and a surprising number do).
Dont give up, staying in the Natl Parks imo is much nicer than any RV park.
PS it helps to have very fast internet and a fast computer. And many of the most popular parks are booked on the FIRST day they open the system for reservations for the system. This means the entire season will be booked in seconds.
