How much should a night of camping cost?

Here in Florida all state parks are 1/2 price for residents over 65.
So I can stay on the water in the Florida Keys for $14, with water and electric.
Beautiful beach state parks in the panhandle for the same price.
Probably one of the few advantages to being over 65.

If I can find a spot not filled by a Snow Bird. :)

I went on a cross country road trip a few years ago.. The highest priced campground was one near Niagara Falls at $75 (!!!!!) and it wasn't that good. There was also a really nice RV resort near DC at the same price. Lowest I paid was $25 for full hook-ups and a level concrete pad. Most places I stayed at was in the $35 range.

Just got from a 1800 miles and this what we seen. MO-KS State parks are $21ish. NM state parks are $14!! Stayed at another small campground for $18.. another large campground with wifi and everything for $21.50. The highest we paid last year was $37+ and a campground in Lincoln NE but it had alot of kids stuff. Sure sounds like it gets more expensive on the east/west coasts!

You should pay nothing when traveling to your destination. There are plenty of Walmarts, Flying Jays, and other such places to park overnight. When you reach your destination I always try to keep it around $50.00 or less per night. Nothing worse than pulling into a KOA for the evening with no plans to use there pool or other amenities and paying some outrageous price. We always look for a Walmart first, truck stops are ok, the last resort is an interstate rest area.

~$25 is abit much for power only SPs IMO but that, if not more, seems to be the new norm. Private CGs with WIFI & a laundry going for the same or a few dollars more are getting more & more attractive.

One thing that is very offputting are the CGs that have all of the add ons. No problem with paying extra for pool use, that sort of thing, but states like CO, which charge a daily fee for the TV or toad rub the wrong way.

Lantley wrote:

While I'm not from Indy. I don't find $26.00 overpriced. State Parks need to charge a fees and collect as much as they can so they can be as self sufficient as possible.
The days of relying totally on taxpayer subsidies are over.
State parks will always be low priority in the state budgets.
If state parks are to survive they will need tom pay their own way somewhat otherwise the bean counters will slowly defund them into extinction.

I am going to do something unheard of on internet forums, and go against my original position to agree with you.

I do still somewhat feel that $26 a night for electric-only sites is a little high, when coupled with the gate fee, pool fee, and firewood screw job.

However, I just watched a PBS documentary about Indiana state parks and Richard Lieber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lieber).

I learned that he was insistent that the parks charge gate fees, as he felt that would make the people appreciate them more. I definitely agree with that logic.

Indiana has fantastic state parks and I guess that means we might sometimes have to pay a little more.

I have never paid less than $35 a night at a campground and the campground that I paid $35 at three years ago now wants $55 a night. It all depends on what part of the country you are traveling in and what is around the area that attracts (or doesn't attract)people there to come visit.

pk1023 wrote:
Okay all, I pose that question to you. Now, I am talking about trailer camping, electric at least and more than likely water.

We live in Hamilton County, Indiana. It's a quite wealthy set of towns north of Indy. There's a campground here that is SUPER nice with 100 paved spots, on a river with nicely maintained everything. They charge 20 bucks a night for county residents.

I am starting to think that my tax dollars are paying for camping that I JUST started to use 2 years ago.

Now, the Walnut Ridge RV dealer in New Castle has a campsite, they charge 37 dollars a night. This blows me away a bit. Real Estate in New Castle was probably MUCH cheaper than Noblesville, even though the site here is in a flood plain.

But, I just think about 37 bucks and I try to parse out the costs to run and what the profit is. Is there really 17 dollars more overhead at Walnut Ridge? But, that can't be all profit either, no way.

What's the breakdown do you all think?

A night of camping should cost whatever you are willing to pay.

You said: "They charge 20 bucks a night for county residents. "

That's because it's partly funded by the taxpayers of your county. Can't really compare the price of that campground to a non-taxpayer funded campground's price.

Well now that you have all made it very clear why we travel in a self contained motorhome and do our best to never pay for a place to sleep, I will admit to paying 60+ for Fishing Bridge and 30+ to be on the grounds of the Balloon Fiesta (dry) and both were well worth the money. (Maybe not in Albuquerque, but we were still learning. We probably would not do that again.) It offends me to pay 15$ a night (dry) at some of the music festivals, but at least we can walk to a good shower.

I was supposed to be well prepared to retire, but about twenty years worth of scrimping and saving got "Redistributed" to people that more more money than I usually did. But, we still love our antique coach (paid for) and even living at the bottom right corner of a spreadsheet, I can tell you we couldn't possibly have traveled as we have if we paid for someplace to sleep. We don't need a pool, a weight room, mini-golf or any of that stuff. Sometimes I like a long hot shower, so I will pay for that.

In Short, our favorite campgrounds are the lots at Cabela's (they have potable and a dump), Walmart, Casinos, and lots of other places along the same line. Highway rest areas and truck stops will do, but tend to be noisy. We plan to keep working the freebies as long as we can. I think it is all just pay-back in our case.

Matt