Rookie Looking For Advice on Creating Travel Plans

[spalmisano]

I recently purchased a 2014 Entegra Anthem (my first RV) and have been using the RV around my hometown for the past month or so to get the hang of it. My wife and I would like to travel West of Mississippi beginning in March.

My plan is to use the RV for getting to a fully equipped campground, then my truck (which I will be pulling) for transportation to sites we wish to see.

I have been unable to find a site or tool that would allow me to plan my trip (e.g.. Southern Rim, Grand Canyon) and take into account Full Service Campgrounds that allow 43ft RV. It seems I am spending quite a bit of time researching each campground. Is there a simple tool, site or tip to planning a trip whereby all CLASS A RV Parks with Full Hookups is easily displayed?

Thanks in advance for your help in planning my Rookie Trips.

[427435]

We like to travel in the fall--------RV parks are rarely full. The night before we are ready to leave a place, I look forward 150-300 miles and use a site like this to get a feel for what's ahead.

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/


We'll also use the internet to do some checking. Then I will list the phone #'s for a couple of the parks. The next afternoon, when we are pretty sure of where we will get to, I'll call ahead and make a reservation.

As someone else mentioned, some places you may need several days to get a reservation (maybe weeks).

Oh yes, get a good GPS and learn to how to use it.

[WILDEBILL308]

Lots of good advise. All Stays is god and RV Reviews is a good source.
http://www.rvparkreviews.com/
Passport America is good for discounts and location of parks.
http://www.passport-america.com/
If you are going to the Grand Canyon make reservations NOW. Try to get into the RV Village with full hookups was there this summer.
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/cg-sr.htm#CP_JUMP_153556
The great thing is the free shuttle bus picks you up in the RV park and takes you every where including places you can't take your toad. Don't mind the peskey Elk wandering through your campground.
The reason I say to make reservations NOW is it is a busy place last year 17,980 a day visited the park in July.
It sounds bad but really isn't bad in the park just hard to find a camp site. Have stayed in Williams at the Rail Road Hotel RV park.
Let me know where else you might be looking at visiting.
Bill

[Lantley]

Check out All Stays .com camping directory.
It is a very complete list of CG's by state.

All Stays

[DSDP_Don]

A word of caution. Some say they hit the road and look for a spot the night before or the same day. That works well in areas that don't have any special attractions. If you're looking to stay somewhere like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, etc, you better plan in advance. In the past year, RVers are hitting the road in great numbers (baby boomers) and it's getting tough to find campgrounds in certain areas.

[spalmisano]

Wow, this information that everyone has provided is invaluable. I plan to take all your advice into consideration. My first thought was to do the 150-250 miles a day and stop and smell the roses. The things that I feel a bit anxious about are (1) height restrictions on certain roads/overpasses and (2) mountain driving (being from Louisiana where it is flat with a little bit of flat mixed in).

I truly believe the only way to overcome these anxieties is to face them head on and get out on the road. I realize I won't have all the answers ahead of time. I am realizing that many of the commercial campgrounds will require reservations in advance. I think I am slowing coming around to the attitude of plan, but don't stress about it, but instead, enjoy the ride.

Thanks again everyone for the wonderful information. I am a new member of Good Sam's, AAA and the America the Beautiful Land Pass. Hope to make good use of them especially the Good Sam's tools that I just learned were available from you guys.

Thanks again!!!!

[2gypsies1]

There is one RV park reference book called "Big Rigs Best Bet" that you might want to order. Of course, it's not all-inclusive but it will give you a start:

Big Rigs Best Bet

[tropical36]

spalmisano wrote:
I recently purchased a 2014 Entegra Anthem (my first RV) and have been using the RV around my hometown for the past month or so to get the hang of it. My wife and I would like to travel West of Mississippi beginning in March.

My plan is to use the RV for getting to a fully equipped campground, then my truck (which I will be pulling) for transportation to sites we wish to see.

I have been unable to find a site or tool that would allow me to plan my trip (e.g.. Southern Rim, Grand Canyon) and take into account Full Service Campgrounds that allow 43ft RV. It seems I am spending quite a bit of time researching each campground. Is there a simple tool, site or tip to planning a trip whereby all CLASS A RV Parks with Full Hookups is easily displayed?

Thanks in advance for your help in planning my Rookie Trips.

We pulled out from home one summer and everyone wanted to know where we were going. I said 150 miles up the road was the plan. Three and a half months later and after 9200 miles we returned home.
We usually look for a campground the night before on the net or GPS and sometimes by word of mouth with other campers or at a interstate welcome center. We have pulled into a few and left, but not often after talking on the phone with them. Some only stay in Good Sam or KOA parks as a general rule and with the latter, you'll always pay more than it's counterpart and still be somewhat disappointed on occasion. Some look for Government owned parks and we like those too. And then there's always Walmart and a favorite of many with a camp store that can't be beat. Price for a night's stay, can't be beat anywhere, either.
To sum it up, we break it up and have stayed everywhere, including scenic areas off the side of the road, with a good example being along the southern coast of Lake Superior.

[traveylin]

Great first post from a new rver from Covington. I grew up in st Charles Parish.
Your intent to go west is very well placed. The views are much longer.

Out of 130 days a year on the road we will make a reservation for about 5 of them. Must have locations or 2 hrs from closure and the cell phone calls ahead for a secure spot.

We also locate nodes to camp at and use the toad to travel out. moving areas about every 4-5 days.

Starting out in March watch the spring wind storms west of Dallas. Terlingua early in the summer is good. Utah is the best state. Limit the amount of travel, slow down and enjoy.

research RV .net for your many questions. They have all been answered before and a search can get you a rapid response. Do ask the ones you cannot find..

There are lots of good applications on line for planning use them. We also carry a hard copy of Woodalls western campgrounds because you will find lots of road without wifi/cell service going west

[DSDP_Don]

We have Microsoft Streets and Trips on our laptop. You bring up a U.S. map and type in your home address as starting point. You can then click on places along your route where you think you might like to stop for the evening. As you set these on the map, Stop #2, Stop #3 etc, Streets and Trips will give you the mileage. When you right click on the area where you want to stop, it will show all campgrounds in a radius you determine, 5 miles, 10 miles etc.

From there, we go to RV Park reviews website and type in the town and look at the name of the campsites in that town/campgrounds in that area. RV Park Reviews will give you a good idea of the park's quality. We pick the best two and call for a reservation.

This sounds complicated, but once you're comfortable with doing it, you can look up many sites in a few minutes.

When going to someplace like the Grand Canyon, it's best to come on here and ask. For example....I think the best campground at the Grand Canyon is Trailer Village. It's in the park, takes large RV's and you can walk about 100 yards to the park shuttle. It's hard to get a spot there and takes some advanced planning to get a reservation. About a mile outside the park entrance is another place called Camper Village in the little town of Tusayan. It's not a luxury park, but can accommodate large RV's and always has a spot.

Lastly, you can stay in the town of Williams, gateway to the Grand Canyon South Rim, where they have several nice RV parks, including two KOA's and another called Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. Here is a view of how RV Park Reviews comes up. RV Park Reviews

[tatest]

I don't know of anything that specialized. I've always had to research the RV parks and campgrounds independent of my general travel planning (which I used to do with Streets and Trips, rather than a web-based resource). S&T did have the Woodall's database of locations included, and linked online to the Woodall's directory.

Woodall's and Trailer Life RV park and campground directories have been replaced by the Good Sams directory, contents of which are linked to the Good Sams travel planning tool. But you may still need to click on each park or campground, to find the information about it.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

I use Delorme Street Atlas on a netbook, plus online info at

• RV Park Reviews . Com
• POIFactory . Com
• Discovery Owners points of interest file
• Ultimatecampgrounds . com national public campgrounds
• Passport America . Com
• Recreation . Gov COE and NFS campgrounds

[janstey58]

Google searches: XXXX Tourism Guide. Where XXXX is the state/area that you want to travel to. Either on-line or hard copied mailed to you issues are a great way to plan/gain ideas for travel. The Good Sam (or other versions) CG Directory books are good also, especially for impromptu CGs at the end of a long travel day. This time of year, i spend a few on-line hours ordering hard copy tourism guides to plan my spring/summer/fall trips. A great way to pass the winter months!

[10forty2]

If you haven't already, get you a good roadside assistance program for the eventuality that you will need it in a foreign land. If you decide to go with a Good Sam membership for that, you can also access their travel assistance for trip planning, etc. I'm sure there are other services out there as well, so search around. My DW is my trip planner and navigator. She LOVES researching campgrounds and everything along the potential route. Since I'm the one that always drives, I get to choose what roads are suitable. To me, that's part of the fun of traveling with your loved one....each has a part on the trip and it's not pre-scripted by someone else.

Have fun!! That's what it's all about!

[fla-gypsy]

There is no "one size fits all" option because RV'ers have widely different tastes. I'm a state park/COE camper and use sites that feature those over commercial parks. It will depend on how far you will travel each day, how long you will stay in each location and what interests you have, on how you plan your trip. Perhaps questions about specific states/regions will get you better answers on what to see and where to stay.

[Dick_B]

You will get ideas from real Class A owners (we are not) but we carry a Good Sam Campground Directory to use in finding campgrounds/resorts. For that size rig I would look at the bold print locations which are more likely to have room for you. Their descriptions should help also.
To determine where to go I always suggest doing a Google search for `_______ tourism' and put the city, area, state or whatever in the blank space and read what the experts suggest for their area.
You can use www.maps.yahoo.com or other mapping device to plan the route. Put the extreme locations in the program to determine the suggested route then you can choose intermediate locations to sight see along, or close to, that route.