Reservations?

[vairman]

We are ready to embark on our full-timing adventures starting in July. I have followed this forum as well as many other blogs over the years and find that many people do not make advanced reservations. Coming from the Northeast and being primarily weekend and short vacation campers until now going without reservations has my wife very nervous. Are there rules of thumb on when to make reservations and when to wing it? Your advice would be appreciated.

Mark and Catherine

[traveylin]

An irritation and opportunity....Very popular state/fed parks will be booked about 364 days ahead of time as soon as the computer roles over the date. Folks have no problem paying the min reservation fee and then not cancelling if there plans change. There is some gaming the system that could be fixed by making the deposit substantial.

The opportunity is that the unclaimed reservations provide last minute openings. Talk to the camp host to id when/how these are released and you may find that a morning check in has openings as a result of no shows the previous afternoon.

pops

[MTPockets1]

We make reservations well in advance. The travel plan is decided and made, then we go. No pressure to leave early to get a spot or need to think about it during the day. We know where we're going and that there is a site waiting regardless of when we decide to get there. On rare occasion we have deviated ftom the plan, and that's always an option; but like the comfort of knowing our spot is there where we planned.

[Jayco-noslide]

You will learn from experience when to make reservations. Depends on the area, time of year and type of campground. For example, Florida southern and costal state parks; even now some are full for parts of next winter. Really big national park campgrounds without hook-ups usually don't fill early. I guess, when in doubt, reserve?

[MarkTwain]

Reservations are plans to deviate from:)
1. Always ask for the cancellation policy details, cost etc.
2. Generally, RV areas that are popular, i.e. yellowstone, Oregon coast, calif. coast, state parks, lakes, etc. are where reservations would be in your best interests.
3. You have everything to gain and nothing to loose by making a reservation as you can always change your reservations and/or make new ones.
4. Making reservations does not restrict, control or lock your RV life style or adventures.
5. Nothing worse than starting to start looking for a RV park at the end of day when you are dead beat and tired:)
Just my opinion:)

[Old-Biscuit]

Monday was our travel day.
We made reservations........holidays, destination areas (tourist places)

[RFCN2]

Depends on how picky you are. The more we travel by RV the pickier I have become. I do not like noisy places right on freeways. Many if not the majority of well rated parks out of Woodalls or similar book are on busy roads. If this makes a difference to you check out the next few places you are going to be with one of the map systems on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

In demand places in the Summer like Yellowstone, Oregon Coast, and other public parks should be booked WELL!!! in advance. WA State parks booked months and months ahead for summer. Same with CA State parks.

[rfryer]

Rule of thumb? Your rigs pretty big and doesn’t lend itself well to impromptu stops. So I’d say if you’re going to popular national parks in prime time, reservations would be the best idea. Weekends will be more crowded than weekdays in the camp grounds. There’s a lot of public land in the west so odds are you can dry camp and get by without any reservations at all.

I pull a small TT, usually use public land, and can get in anywhere so I never make reservations. But on rare occasions there hasn’t been any public land close by and I’ve had to use a commercial park. Even then, when we see where we’ll be by evening the DW just calls ahead to a cg and we’ve never once failed to get a site.

[vairman]

Thanks for all of the great and quick responses. I forwarded the post to my wife! I particularly like the hybrid solutions.

Mark

[sdianel_-acct_c]

we usually know where we're going to stop, locate the city and find 2 or 3 campgrounds on www.woodalls.com. Then we check them all out on www.rvparkreviews.com and select the 2 that get the best reviews. We try to plan our stops from Sun-Thurs and arrive at the campground early in the afternoon. The only time we make reservations is for popular tourist areas like Yellowstone, or if we arrive on a Friday or Saturday, or holiday weekend. For popular areas in Florida for the winter also an example of when you might want reservations. We're flexible so if our top pick campground is booked, we find one that is more of an overnight stop off the interstate hwy and can usually find a spot and then we move when the popular campground is less booked.

[Jay_Pat]

When we go one extended trips.
Daily, I locate 3 or 4 possible campgrounds, addresses and phone #'s.
The morning of arriving, I will go down the list till one has room at the inn.
Pat

[the_bear_II]

It's a whole 'nother world when fulltiming. You arrive during a weekday and the Campground or RV Resort is empty and sites are easy to get.

However if arriving on a Friday or Saturday or plan to stay through a weekend (or holiday week) then I usually make reservations.

[2oldman]

vairman wrote:
I have followed this forum as well as many other blogs over the years

Keep following.

reservations

[traveylin]

Wing it west of the Mississippi. For assurance, investigate the town/area for festival schedules that would load up facility usage. A simple computer search.

pops

[powderman426]

When by myself, I only make reservations for holiday weekends. When in a group where we need three or more sites we reserve.