Which book to buy

[larryherrington]

Here I am again. We just started and we have found some RV parks on line. Is there a book we should buy? We plan to do lots of camping, but it takes time trying to find somewhere on the internet. Do any of the books tell of things to do, flea markets, etc.?

[larryherrington]

Thanks to all for the excellent advice. I have always hears campers are special people and now I understand why.

[garmp]

A good book, one that we carry, is "Camping with the Corp". Do yourself a favor and buy last years copy at half price. The COE parks don't change that much, but are always good campgrounds. The book is especially good since their web site is so screwed up.

[RambleOnNW]

I would do an Amazon search for “rv camping book”. We have books published by Moon but they may be the West only. I find the books to be more useful than online searches although we use both.

The books we have are organized by regions of a state and have a uniform description and rating of each state/federal/county/private campground or rv park.

[DutchmenSport]

Just do a simple Google Search. Type in the name of a city, state and the word Campground, and you'll get a list as long as your arm.

Out of curiosity, I just typed in Phoenix, Arizona. Up popped a bunch of hits and a map on the right side of the page. Identified on the map are:

Pleasant Harbor RV Resort
Riverside Campground


Well, shoot! There's too many.

Just click here and you'll see what I mean.

Then you can click on any of the links and get more info. It's faster and easier than fumbling through lists on pages in small print that takes a microscope to read with.

Search by "State Park" or "Private Campground" or even "Boondock" or "RV Resort" and the lists are almost endless.

[Dick_B]

We have the Good Sam RV Travel and Savings guide which has, among good information on travel and destinations, a nice photo of Marcus in a red sweater; just like one of use might wear.

[Harvey51]

Ask when you get there? It can be very nice to have a conversation with local person.

The best one I had was on a trip through Washington into Oregon. We pulled off the highway into a little town to pick up some groceries and look for a campground. I asked a guy on the street and chatted for a minute or two about what kind of campsite we liked. Then he said, follow me, and headed down the street in his car. We followed him for something like 20 minutes on backroads and he left us at a fabulous local campground around a meteor crater. Lots of room, good swimming and quiet. I wish I could remember where that place is. I see meteor crater parks on maps of those two states but they look like tourist destinations rather than a quiet local park.

[ron_dittmer]

A published book cannot keep up with the things you are interested in like flee markets and other scheduled events. Even places to stay overnight gets outdated very quickly in paper fashion. I advise to do your research on the internet. Your best resource on the road will be a smart phone. Personally my #2 is a current year paper Rand McNally Road Atlas, their real big book easily found at Walmart and such places.

[ronfisherman]

If you are a Good Sam member they have a trip planner. Layout out you trip then click on the campground link.
FMCA also offers this option.
We used a book called Next Exit. It works on the Interstate.
Pick Up a Rand McNally map from WalMart.
I used a Garmin GPS for my routes. Installed POI (points of interest) from POI Factory in it.
There is one the almost 23,000 campsites in it. Nice feature when you are at end of day and need a campsite. Select the POI and up comes all the closest campgrounds. With phone numbers and directions. Works with other GPS's also.

[stickdog]

Freecampsites.net is another app we use.
Unless your just cruising the highway you are most likly headed somewhere in which case you have a route planned. I always look at the options I have for making that trip and any places along it we would like to stop. If there are I just google RV parks in Whatever City and State. You can also do the search in any of those apps.

[DrewE]

If you're going to Alaska, get Church's book ("Traveler's Guide to Alaskan Camping")...and the milepost. Church's book is one of the best campground guide books I've come across, quite complete and not completely dry reading.

If you're interested in state parks, many states have some sort of a guidebook or pamphlet or something with the state parks listed available for the asking.

If you want KOA campgrounds, I think they have a directory available as well.

For things to do, if you're an AAA member, the tourbooks are a reasonable starting point. They are certainly not complete lists of everything one might want to do, but at least describe some of the attractions of the area. I think you can still get Woodall's or some other campground guide from them as well (for free) as a member, and of course a variety of good road maps.

Generally, though, online searching is often more productive than a lot of printed guides these days.

[donn0128]

Forget books. There are several web sites like RVParkreview.com and allstay.com that offer pier to pier reviews of camp grounds. They are updated constantly as people post their reviews.

[Lwiddis]

Larry, calm down. Try the free RV Parky app. Don’t be afraid of dry camping/boondocking too.

[azdryheat]

Trip Advisor will tell you things to do in the locations you visit but it's not a book.