Is a Resort REALLY a Resort & is a Park REALLY a Park or??

[Keeter59]

We all have probably run into this problem. We check a website and it looks great. We plan to stay 3 or 4 days and when we get there it is NOTHING like what it looked like on the website. I have been working for almost a year on an EXHAUSTIVE project that lists RV Parks & Resorts. I am tired of pulling into a "big-rig" friendly place that maybe go-cart friendly at most. If anyone is interested let me know. I might try to publish this project. It includes an Excel Spreadsheet cross-referenced to places I have marked on Google Earth. A Resort should be a Resort and a Park should be a Park and a Campground should be a Campground and a hell-hole should NOT be any of the aforementioned.
By the way, if any of you use Google Earth to check out a site, if you use the date of satellite passover tool you can see if the same vehicles have been there for an extended period. You can learn a lot with Google Earth and whether or not the site has long-termers or permanents.
Again, if anyone wants to help with this endeavor let me know. It is mainly for 40" and larger rigs which is where I feel "Big Rigs" start.

[BillMFl]

One persons happy park is another's dump. I have read park reviews and then wondered what kind of person wrote them. The park is often way better than the review and sometimes worse. I do agree that pictures on websites can be very deceiving. When on the road I mostly only care about easy access, level sites and reasonable cost. I seldom use the amenities. Longer stays make a big difference.

[Keeter59]

and I joined last year

[Keeter59]

Bill, I truly do value your input. This started as a project just for me and I was just wondering how it might help others if I shared it. One thing you may not know is that on Google Earth there is a tool that you can use to change the dates of the satellite passes over any site. In most cases I can get 2012 as the OLDEST pass so any view I have is at the oldest 2012 and most are up to date as of 2013. I was surprised to see some places I was researching had vehicles in the same place and appeared to be the same vehicles for 8 years. As a side note, I was an imagery expert for the Air Force Special Operations for several years so I can "read" the imagery better than most. It comes in handy!

Again thanx

[Bill_Satellite]

hardtobe wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:
It sounds like it would be too speculative to me since you would be using other peoples input and out of date info as would be found on Google Earth. If you feel like you would like to do it, do it but as you said, it would just be "just one more reference" and if you are looking to find that "Discriminating Motor Coach Adventurer" you have just cut your market again by about 99%. I pick a park basis upon my travel requirements. If I want to visit St. Louis and you don't like the parks in the area I am not going to stay in St. Charles because there is a park there for the Discriminating RVer!

?

While I do find your response to be a brilliant commentary on my post, I wondered if you could provide any further details that I might be able to clarify. :S

Wow, thought I would check out your profile. You joined 3 days ago and have made 69 posts (avg 23 per day). Hope 68 of them were not "?" Welcome to the group!

[Bill_Satellite]

Keeter59 wrote:
Bil Satellite - Good point about the 99% but thats ok with me. There are places to stay all within a half days drive or less anywhere in the US. Again, parks are divided into different categories dependent on what they offer and how they look. You may not be able to or want to stay in a Platinum location but you will be able to find somewhere to stay that for sure will fit your needs if you have a big-rig; TRULY Pull-Thru, TRULY Full-Hookups and TRULY Big Rig FRIENDLY. If you prefer a Coyote Ugly site just for the night, it's on there. Basically, all I have done is visited tons of sites that rate these parks & used their input, I also visualized them on Google Earth and gleaned as much info from that as well. I have done my best to ensure they fit the needs of Big Rig, Full Hookups and appear to be the nicest in their area. Basically, according to me as interpreted from tons of ratings these parks ARE the best of the best in the area they are located in.

Please don't confuse my post with any sort of a statement about whether I care what you do. However, you appear to agree with me that you have not visited these sites, you are using input from other sites and you are using Google data that is years out of date. The sites you are describing are the "best of the best" based upon information you cannot verify as you have not been there. While I also do not use the "Big Rig Directory" at least they have been to all of the sites they review.
If you choose to go forward, please do so and I really do wish you the very best.

[Keeter59]

Bil Satellite - Good point about the 99% but thats ok with me. There are places to stay all within a half days drive or less anywhere in the US. Again, parks are divided into different categories dependent on what they offer and how they look. You may not be able to or want to stay in a Platinum location but you will be able to find somewhere to stay that for sure will fit your needs if you have a big-rig; TRULY Pull-Thru, TRULY Full-Hookups and TRULY Big Rig FRIENDLY. If you prefer a Coyote Ugly site just for the night, it's on there. Basically, all I have done is visited tons of sites that rate these parks & used their input, I also visualized them on Google Earth and gleaned as much info from that as well. I have done my best to ensure they fit the needs of Big Rig, Full Hookups and appear to be the nicest in their area. Basically, according to me as interpreted from tons of ratings these parks ARE the best of the best in the area they are located in.

[hardtobe]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
It sounds like it would be too speculative to me since you would be using other peoples input and out of date info as would be found on Google Earth. If you feel like you would like to do it, do it but as you said, it would just be "just one more reference" and if you are looking to find that "Discriminating Motor Coach Adventurer" you have just cut your market again by about 99%. I pick a park basis upon my travel requirements. If I want to visit St. Louis and you don't like the parks in the area I am not going to stay in St. Charles because there is a park there for the Discriminating RVer!

?

[Bill_Satellite]

It sounds like it would be too speculative to me since you would be using other peoples input and out of date info as would be found on Google Earth. If you feel like you would like to do it, do it but as you said, it would just be "just one more reference" and if you are looking to find that "Discriminating Motor Coach Adventurer" you have just cut your market again by about 99%. I pick a park basis upon my travel requirements. If I want to visit St. Louis and you don't like the parks in the area I am not going to stay in St. Charles because there is a park there for the Discriminating RVer!

[Keeter59]

J-Rooster - Thanks, I have them all listed and you are right they are really great parks
Thanks again

[J-Rooster]

Just want you to know that all 3 RV Resorts out on the Island here in Lake Havasu City, AZ. (The Islander, The Beachcomber & Crazyhorse) can easily park RV's 40' or longer. Were on a double lot with a view of the Lake with a cement patio here at the Beachcomber RV Resort. The RV sites are boat and trailer friendly also along with Clubhouse, Pool and Hot Tub. On the Northeast end of the Lake you have The Refuse RV Resort and it is also long RV friendly and is built around a Arnold Palmer Golf Course. Hope this helps you!

[2gypsies1]

Our first choice is always a public park for our 40' motorhome - national, state, national forest, COE, county or city and even boondocking off a remote gravel road. We would classify this as a 'Platinum' site! Yes, everyone is different.

[Keeter59]

First I meant to say 40' and not 40" ! LOL. What I have done is classified the parks in the categories of Platinum (The Refuge near Lake Havasu for example), Gold (Bella Terra), Silver, Bronze and Coyote. The Coyote is a reference to the Coyote Ugly movie, When you wake up you want to "chew your arm off" so you won't wake her. In this case you wake up look outside and say, "did I really stay in this dump?" Obviously, as MANY of you have stated it is all subjective but it works for me. As I travel, I can look on my Google Earth map to locate where I am then see places on my route. I can then see which RV places are on my route and decide if I will need to stay in a Bronze overnight or is there a better place down the road. With this project, I don't have to worry about making a trip through the joint (Unless I really want to). I have used ALL of the Review sites mentioned and others to help me in distinguishing these places as well as the Google Earth idea of seeing if they are nice or not. Sometimes Google Earth can't see much but many times you can & especially on Street View. Again, this was my project but I think I nailed it for how would one say the "more picky traveler." Or as my cousin said," it seems to be more for The Discriminating Motor Coach Adventurer."
If published, it could be just one more reference for everyone else!
Happy & Safe Travels

[hardtobe]

fredbon wrote:
If it's my first visit, I use RV Park Reviews

Fred

well I agree that's quit the Rv park review system for sure
but after reading the reviews and write up on DHS skyway there seems to be a major descrepancey in reality and fiction

[fredbon]

If it's my first visit, I use RV Park Reviews

Fred

[hardtobe]

Heres a great example of what the OP is alluding to.Look up http://skyvalleyresorts.com/rv/index.php and view it online
THEN drive over and see this gawd awefull place in person
digital pictures etc are pretty misleading.and so are many web sites