How do you begin to plan for extended road trips?

[obiwancanoli]

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?

[2chiefsRus]

Another post made me re-read your original post looking for the answer to this question - What do you consider an extended trip? I should have asked that first before replying. My original reply was written with the idea that an extended trip is at least three months if not 6 - 8 months. In my experience, the shorter the trip, the more likely folks are to make reservations.

[bikendan]

When we retired in 2014, we decided to start leaving for the late winter/early spring, for sunnier/warmer climes. We are gone for 7-8 weeks and use Passport America and RV Park Reviews. We almost always make reservations since more and more Baby Boomers are doing the same thing.
Living out West, there's a lot of competition for campsites especially coastal ones, which are often booked year-round.

[ncrowley]

We are planners. We decide where we want to go and plan the trip based on no more than about 400 miles per day. We look at maps and the trucker atlas to look for the roads we want to take. We also use the Mountain Directory to look to see if there are any extreme ascents or descents. We reserve all the RV spots. We used rvparkreviews extensively for places to stay. We have a larger RV (39 foot class A) so we look for long pull throughs for overnight stops so we do not have to unhook.

Our trips are usually 2 weeks to a month long. Yes, we risk not making it to a place where we have a reservation, but for us, the piece of mind is worth occasionally losing a deposit.

[tomman58]

I agree with most here but we normally have a mission, our son lives in Tucson AZ and we also have friends in Las Vegas NV so we travel by favorites camp ground or casinos. I like to drive, love it! sit back listen to an audio book or some music the miles roll on as does the daylight. I will drive between 260 and 550 miles to reach a destination. Same trip many years Michigan to AZ to Fl. Put no less than 6800 miles on truck in roughly 7 or 8 weeks. At 72 I am approaching the "been there done that" mode of my life. We hope to still do a 6 month or so trip in a year or so but been there done that once already. It is easy when are retired been that for 14 years now.

[campigloo]

Plan?
We don’t plan much. After the kid stops the plan pretty much ends. We’re retired. The race is over. We pack clothes for cool and hot weather. Do the maintenance on the vehicles and go. We remain VERY flexible. We require no outside utilities. We have never camped at a Walmart and most of our rent is free or under $10.00. We travel between 50 and 200 miles a day. Get a place we like, stay a few days, don’t like it leave the next morning. If you prefer paved pads and manicured lawns by all means make reservations. At least for us, the fewer amenities, the fewer campers and that means more space
Above all, you’re retired! Take full advantage. Take your sweet time and have fun!

[jplante4]

Here's what we did for our retirement trip. It ended up being 6 months, 16 states and 6000 miles. We left New England Nov. 1st and returned the following May 4th.

The overall theme was "We don't want to see any snow". 2014 was a brutal winter on the Cape and we were wondering why we were putting up with it when we had a motor home and were planning to retire. I was already there and the DW would retire the same the next year.

That pretty much set us up for southeast or southwest. Seeing that we had friends and relatives in Florida, we went southeast. Friends and relatives in the Palm Beach area, Sarasota, the Villages and Destin got us into the end of January. We made advanced reservations in the places we wanted to be at a certain time and winged it in between. We continued to follow the Gulf coast to Galveston and then headed north eventually to visit the DD in KC Mo in early April, then home. We had very few "have to be there" legs. We found that 5 hours on the road was about the limit. We tried to stay at each stop a week.

I had mail forwarded to my son and called him once a week to sort out the junk and forward what I needed. I set up electronic bill pay for everything I could.

Last summer's trip was 11 weeks and we got as far west as Williston ND. We were headed for Glacier NP, but fires closed the campgrounds before we got there. On this trip we had a vague idea of a plan and made no advanced reservations. The SIL got the mail duty this trip. I did most of the planning using RV Trip Wizard. This app allows you to enter your travel days in miles or hours and draws a circle around you current position. Go to the edge of the circle, find a campground that looks good (trip wizard links directly to campgroundreviews.com - the same company owns both) and call them for a site.

Nothing ruins a trip like you are planning faster than having to be somewhere at a certain time.

[JimK-NY]

Last year was the first time I did any planning. I traveled for 4 months and I made a single reservation for 4 nights in Arches NP. The campground in Arches is usually booked well in advance and it had been years since I was able to stay for more than a night or two.

Otherwise, I usually have some vague idea of the National Parks and areas I want to see. It also makes it easy since I rarely stay in RV parks and I do not need hook ups.

[2oldman]

obiwancanoli wrote:
I wonder, is there option to open mail, review, and deal with individual pieces? Or is that better handled with an outside service such as GS, FMCA, or PA?

Escapees.

[time2roll]

obiwancanoli wrote:
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?

We book the key destinations only. Then fill in the rest as we go. If we plan a long day (400+ miles) we may make reservations so we can roll in and not worry. Or just scout a few potentials and see how the day goes.

[Horsedoc]

On the other hand. . . don't over-plan. Have some wiggle room for spur of the moment side trips of interesting things you might see or hear about on the way. When your trip plan says 'arrive CG XXX at 3 PM' and you decided to sleep in that morning and departed 4 hours late, you might be pushed too much. You are retired, relax and take it easy for a while. This is not a vacation where you have 14 days to get there, see the sites and return home.

[paddykernahan]

K Charles wrote:
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.

We do the same.
Sometimes we just decide to turn left and see what we find.
Sometimes we pick a place to head for and find stuff on the way there and back.
We travel in the fall and have never needed reservations.
Correction, almost needed reservations at Yosemite NP but it all worked out. Wasn't on the radar to go there that trip until we saw it on the map.

Relax and enjoy the ride.

[obiwancanoli]

This has all been very helpful, thanks to all for your input, especially the Informed Delivery! I wonder, is there option to open mail, review, and deal with individual pieces? Or is that better handled with an outside service such as GS, FMCA, or PA?

[Veebyes]

We are multi month extended trippers. Minimum reservations made for events & over busy weekends only. Still use MS Streets & Trips for route planning. Most travel days are well under 300 miles. The last Alaska trip averaged only 110 miles per day. Before a major trip truck & trailer get a good going over. Basic spares are carried along with tools needed.

[BarneyS]

In our planning, I always use the MS Streets and Trips software (no longer made) to plan out the route. I'm sure the Good Sam trip planning software would do just as well. I think mine is 2013 which is the last year it was published.

The software lets me choose how far to travel in a day (usually 300 miles or 6 hours), how fast to travel (62mph), what kinds of roads to take, and things to avoid (ferries etc.), plus many other options.

After the software picks a route, I go over it to change any roads i feel are not what I want (usually edit around large cities), put in any side trips, check where it wants us to stop.

I then click on each night stop to see what campgrounds are in the area. I can choose how far in a circle from the nights stop I want to look (5, 10 up to around 50 miles). I will then look up the available campgrounds on the internet to see what their website looks like and also usually check the Campground Reviews (formerly RV Park Reviews) for user recommendations.

After about 3 or more revisions ( usually - sometimes more :R) I send the trip to my GPS and print out a couple of copies.

Sounds like a lot of work but it is actually quite enjoyable and fun. Have been doing it this way for over 25 years and have rarely been disappointed in the route we have chosen.
Good luck with your planning.
Barney

[ppine]

The simple answer is to chose some destinations you want to see, then connect them with a road that you like.
Some like reservations, some don't. If it is new, I like to wing it. Best in the shoulder seasons. It helps a lot to call ahead when you are on the road a day ahead of time.