Hi!Well, the retirement trigger gets pulled end of the year, and so, I'm beginning to think about my RV travel plans for 2020. I'm not looking (here, anyway) for destinations, but rather, for your thoughts and ideas regarding getting started on the process.For example, what do you do first? Do you use the Good Sam Trip Planner? If so, how? Do you map out beginning, end, and mileage goals? How many miles a day to plan for, driving a Class A? Do you research your overnight stays using the GS RV book? Other software you like?On researching RV parks, what questions do you need answers to that the GS book doesn't provide? Do you have a list, i.e., too much or too little shade (satellite reception), site width (for slide-outs and SOME space between guests) where that info. isn't shown (like the GS website Trip Planner). I understand reservations are best, but would I be subject to disappointment if I simply winged it here and there? How much of a problem is this in less popular locations?This will be my first attempt at an extended road trip, and organizing an overnight stop every 300 miles or so seems to be about right, give or take. If I choose to stay a few extra days here and there, however, it renders the reservation issue somewhat moot. What's the difficult level in finding an overnight site on the fly?

I don’t over plan and limit my daily mileage to 230 or so. Then I can explore (walk, hike, bike or drive) after setting up camp. Since I prefer boondocking, reservations are hardly ever needed. I pick highways I haven’t traveled before if possible. I might not take them again but I tried them unless the DOT says no trailers.

lots of questions. I would recommend planning to get reservations for major stops where you know that you really want to be close to x, whatever x is for you. For us it is National Parks. For instance we may have reservations for 6 days at a National Park but not have reservations along the way. It is fairly easy to find campgrounds if your requirements are flexible. We have reservations for July 9- July 15 for a place approximately 1600 miles away but nothing until that. We try to only move from place to place during the week days instead of the more popular weekends.For non destination stops, we use casinocamper.com and passport america and campgroundreviews.com. Sometimes we travel 250 miles in a day, sometimes up to 475 in a day. We also use WalMart's about 10-15 nights a year if we are just going from place to place and it makes it easier to stock up on supplies.

We usually start by selecting our final destination and work backwards from there. Our daily limit is 400 mi, usually less. We select stopovers based upon this limit, preferring state or USACE parks (less $$$ and more like camping). We rarely attempt to stay anywhere without reservations.

I like to have the first night booked. Might seem trivial, but in all the running around getting ready to go, it puts my mind at ease to have one less thing to deal with on the road. Generally the roads I’m driving the first day are somewhat familiar and I may already have an idea where my gas stop is going to be as well. Once on the road, we figure out the route for the next day in the evening. Sometimes turn by turn and sometimes general. Once it gets to be lunchtime, we start looking for a spot for the night since we have a better idea of how far we’ll get. If we are looking in campgrounds, we check availability. If there seem to be openings we’ll hit the road and maybe book a site later in the day. If sites seem tight during our lunchtime search, we may go ahead and try to find something we can book then or expand our range.What I really try to avoid is finding out after 8 hours on the road that there’s no place good to stay, but 100 miles back there were plenty.We are still fairly new, so we are still learning the process. We had to improvise a few weeks ago when we got caught in traffic from a truck accident. We lost almost 3.5 hours. It was 7pm when we started moving again. Middle of nowhere. We asked a deputy sheriff if there was someplace we could camp nearby and he directed us to an old motel that had 7 RV sites behind it. Just 3 miles away and we found no hint of it in any of our online searches.

We deside what direction we want to go, tell the post office to hold the mail and then go. During the week there is always a camp ground close by that is not full. We never make reservations but don't expect to get into a national park when kids are out of school. We have found many places of interest where there wasn't supposed to be anything. Don't make your plans too strict, relax.

How do you begin to plan for extended road trips?

allen8106
Explorer
Jul 01, 2019
I begin by using Google Maps to determine my best route based on what I want to see on the way to my turn around point and how far I'm willing to drive or I guess I should say, how long my wife is willing to let me drive. I've not yet found my driving limit and my longest drive to date has been 1000 miles in one day.

Once I know my turn around point I decide what I want to see along the way and find camp spots close by using RV Park Reviews web site. if it's just an overnight stop I'll use freecampsites.net to find somewhere to stop for the night that is free or low cost, usually free.

Because my wife does have a limit on daily drive distances I try to keep my drive between 300-400 miles per day, maybe stretching to 500 if I can justify the extra miles to the wife.

I say all this with one thing to keep in mind. I'm not retired yet and have limited time so i'm usually on a mission to get somewhere.

Once I retire my drive day may only be 100-200 miles.
vtchris
Explorer
Jun 30, 2019
I fill the gas tank up and head out in the general direction of my destination.
Matt_Colie
Explorer II
Jun 29, 2019
cross21114 wrote:
Matt,

Another feature. When you add Favorites, they stay as favorites every time you open Maps. I've been adding spots we stop at for the future plus i have added locations I have been at since 2000 when I started saving waypoints. You must use the format xx.xxxxxxx -yy.yyyyyy. You can also share but I don't do that or know how to do it.

Chris

Chris,

Thanks for the pointer, and I have found that they made it easy to download individual states or "all regions" (~5GB). (The laptop is doing that now.) I would love to pull my address book over from SA that means I would have to translate it all to DD.dddddd and I hate working in that format. I also still can't make follow travel. So close, but still too far.....

I'm going to keep trying, but these days, I have to keep going on the coach repair.

Matt
bigred1cav
Explorer
Jun 28, 2019
I use maps to find where I want to stop, then look for Cracker Barrel, Walmart or other no charge for the overnight stop. I hate to pay $40 for a place to sleep when my unit is self-contained. By stopping time my wife and I are ready for a served meal anyway.
tomman58
Explorer
Jun 28, 2019
myredracer wrote:
Membership CG networks like Coast to Coast, Passport America, Thousand Trails can be a very economical way to get around. We bought a used T/T membership for just $800 on CL and can stay in any of their CGs across the US at no extra cost per night and only have to pay annual dues. T/T however doesn't any CGs in a big chunk of the US in the center.

Memberships often have different plans with different terms and conditions so do your research before buying one. Sometimes you can only stay in one CG for 2 weeks max and the must be "out of the system" for a week before getting back in. Top of the line memberships can have no restriction on length of stay.

If you want to be a travelling nomad with no plans on where you want to stay, note that many of the above CGs and many others whether a membership type or one-owner, in the busy season you often have to book 60 days in advance otherwise you won't get a site. If there's specific CGs you want to stay in along a long route, you need to stay on top of booking. Otherwise you may find yourself having to stay at casinos, Walmart, rest stops, etc.

A few CGs have dry camping areas where you can park yourself for a day or 2 or 3 until a site comes available.

Make sure to have a laptop and a mobile hotspot or mifi like Verizon so you can research upcoming places on a trip. You could also find yourself having to make last minute changes on a route due to wildfires, road closures, bad storms, etc. Definitely have a good GPS.

On hours per day, I agree with 3-4 hours max a day. 5 or even 6 is do-able but you want a day or two at least to rest up. I recently did a 10 hour trip to retrieve our TT when we had to leave it behind due to a truck breakdown. I drove 5 hours one way without the TT over a long mountain pass and 5 hours back with the TT. Couple of weeks later now, I'm still getting over that...

3 to 4 hours a day! I am older than many and I limit out at 10 hours if I have a destination across the US. My first drive from home is my longest at 12 hours ( Detroit area to Tunica Miss.). I drive a lot because I travel a lot ...... bum de bum bum.
myredracer
Explorer II
Jun 28, 2019
Membership CG networks like Coast to Coast, Passport America, Thousand Trails can be a very economical way to get around. We bought a used T/T membership for just $800 on CL and can stay in any of their CGs across the US at no extra cost per night and only have to pay annual dues. T/T however doesn't any CGs in a big chunk of the US in the center.

Memberships often have different plans with different terms and conditions so do your research before buying one. Sometimes you can only stay in one CG for 2 weeks max and the must be "out of the system" for a week before getting back in. Top of the line memberships can have no restriction on length of stay.

If you want to be a travelling nomad with no plans on where you want to stay, note that many of the above CGs and many others whether a membership type or one-owner, in the busy season you often have to book 60 days in advance otherwise you won't get a site. If there's specific CGs you want to stay in along a long route, you need to stay on top of booking. Otherwise you may find yourself having to stay at casinos, Walmart, rest stops, etc.

A few CGs have dry camping areas where you can park yourself for a day or 2 or 3 until a site comes available.

Make sure to have a laptop and a mobile hotspot or mifi like Verizon so you can research upcoming places on a trip. You could also find yourself having to make last minute changes on a route due to wildfires, road closures, bad storms, etc. Definitely have a good GPS.

On hours per day, I agree with 3-4 hours max a day. 5 or even 6 is do-able but you want a day or two at least to rest up. I recently did a 10 hour trip to retrieve our TT when we had to leave it behind due to a truck breakdown. I drove 5 hours one way without the TT over a long mountain pass and 5 hours back with the TT. Couple of weeks later now, I'm still getting over that...
ppine
Explorer II
Jun 26, 2019
I have a degree in geography. I have been planning trips since 1965 and I use maps.
cross21114
Explorer
Jun 26, 2019
Matt,

Another feature. When you add Favorites, they stay as favorites every time you open Maps. I've been adding spots we stop at for the future plus i have added locations I have been at since 2000 when I started saving waypoints. You must use the format xx.xxxxxxx -yy.yyyyyy. You can also share but I don't do that or know how to do it.

Chris
cross21114
Explorer
Jun 26, 2019
Matt,

Biy I hear you. I used MapPoint (business version of Streets) and miss it terribly.

Maps is hard to figure out. Try a simple test. Enter an address (like your home) and search. Expand and see if it is where it should be. Switch to aerial view and check again. Switch back to road view. Click the direction tab on the right side of the information box. Enter another address you know. Click "get directions". You can change settings to avoid toll roads, etc. (see the Gear button).

Here's an output map from a route I just calculated.

From here, you can add locations and recalculate.

Hope this helps.

Chris
ependydad
Explorer
Jun 26, 2019
I generally start with a general destination in mind and work backwards from there. See if this article helps:
https://learntorv.com/lets-go-trip-planning-apps-and-websites/