Listings in Good Sam campground guide

[Bob_Vaughn]

We are finishing up a 12,000 mile trip and used the GS book a lot. We found a lot of campgrounds that were not in the book. The latest campground had been in business since the 70's. It was a nice campground with a very nice pool and a large split lake with catfish in one side and trout in the other. With a nice babbling brook running down one side of the park. My question is how do parks get listed in the book??? Plus why are parks shown as having wi-fi and cable and you have to pay for these amenities.......especially when the per night cost is over the top.....

[ncrowley]

I just use rvparkreviews. If I cannot find what I want, I go to a web search. Between the two of them, I have found the parks where I needed them.

[rk911]

martipr wrote:

Bob Vaughn wrote:
We are finishing up a 12,000 mile trip and used the GS book a lot. We found a lot of campgrounds that were not in the book. The latest campground had been in business since the 70's. It was a nice campground with a very nice pool and a large split lake with catfish in one side and trout in the other. With a nice babbling brook running down one side of the park. My question is how do parks get listed in the book??? Plus why are parks shown as having wi-fi and cable and you have to pay for these amenities.......especially when the per night cost is over the top.....

Why are there so many nice parks that are not listed and so many crappy parks that have a good listing?

some of the former may not want to pay for the listing or have been overlooked. as for the latter, crappy is in the eye of the beholder.

[Bigdog]

I have been to two campgrounds where I have actually seen the GS reviewers and they have a major checklist that they fill out. I go to one cg south of Portland,only because the one I usually went to succumbed to an offer that they couldn't refuse and sold the property, that every year is rated a full ten and is in the top ten rated cgs in the country and I can't for the life of me figger why. I have been to a lot of better cgs than this one. You have to unhook your toad at the office and when you're solo that's a PIB as you have to park your rig and come back for the toad,it is tight getting to your site and then really fun getting into and out of it. A large part of the park is dog UN friendly as are some of the full time residents. You gotta watch what you are paying as they put me in a premium site w/o my asking a couple of times and then once changed the rate for the season and didn't tell me when the res was made.

[martipr]

I don't believe a CG has to pay Good Sam to be listed but there is nothing to say the reviewers are not taking a little on the side. The reviews often seem to be at least slanted if not downright lies. Good Sam says that the reviewers actually visit the CG, but does Good Sam actually verify that they do or that they review accurately?

[martipr]

Bob Vaughn wrote:
We are finishing up a 12,000 mile trip and used the GS book a lot. We found a lot of campgrounds that were not in the book. The latest campground had been in business since the 70's. It was a nice campground with a very nice pool and a large split lake with catfish in one side and trout in the other. With a nice babbling brook running down one side of the park. My question is how do parks get listed in the book??? Plus why are parks shown as having wi-fi and cable and you have to pay for these amenities.......especially when the per night cost is over the top.....

Why are there so many nice parks that are not listed and so many crappy parks that have a good listing?

[Dtaylor]

If you have a smart phone or tablet, try RVparky and Mobile RVing apps. I do not know of any publication or app that is going to 100% as there are just too many

[rockhillmanor]

Albiet it starts a bashing war. My 'go-to' is the KOA book of CG's. They are ALL listed by state with a short description AND a nice actual picture of a map for directions. Short sweet, small magazine type book with BIG type the size you can actually read.

After 'numerous' times of following directions from the Woodalls book that said a CG was 2 miles from an interstate and turns out to be 20 miles and THEN find out the CG has been closed for 2 years after finally finding it......that was the end of using it for CG's.

When RV'ing for the weekends maybe it doesn't bother campers to run across bad info from the woodalls book but when you are on the road full time and CG's are a necessity on a daily basis, and it happens over and over and over again you ditch the big book.:W

The woodalls book BIGGEST problem is if you don't know the surrounding cities where you are at you won't ever be able to search for additional CG's that might be just a mile down the road. And who knows while RV'ing what the name of all the small surrounding towns are called?

6 years full timing and KOA is now my first pick for a no surprises stay for the night. Directions that are accurate, CG's are really there and phone numbers that actually work. :C

[aruba5er]

To be in G S directory you have to PAY. It must be a lot or more campgrounds would be in it. It really bothers me to be needing a campground and blow right by one on the highway with the next exit 20 miles down the road. Googleing dosen't work all the time but it seems the best way in most cases. Many old Mom and Pop campgrounds don"t have websites so that leaves them out. I wish "like the state you are in could have a site that gives all licensed campgrounds adresses and Phone #'s. But I bet there are more campgrounds than the state knows about or maybe they don"t have to have license?

[rockhillmanor]

tatest wrote:
..Then there are the places that are members only, or cater to particular groups, like church campgrounds and clothing optional campgrounds, to cover a couple of the extremes.

I ran across a church based CG once by accident.

The CG is church based but by no means do you have to be church goer to stay there. Everyone is welcome and gotta tell ya all it was the nicest place I've ever stayed at. CG rules are enforced and it was filled up with a whole bunch of real nice well behaved people camping to have a good time. I had a very nice peaceful stay at that CG!

But if you are finding places you think should be listed, suggest to them that they contact GoodSam (or other listings services) about getting inspected and rated for a listing. The listing is free, and they would certainly like to sell an advert.

When I find those I keep them to myself. Sure wouldn't want them listed in a CG book. That way they STAY as nice as they are! :W

[tatest]

I'm always finding campgrounds and RV parks that are not in anybody's book or listing. Woodalls/TrailerLife now merged into GoodSams is not the only listing, there are others published, and many more online, but some places fall through all the cracks.

Campgrounds that are not suitable for RVs, or do not meet typical expectations of RVers, but are just fine for campers. RV parks that do not allow camping, mostly serving long term or permanent residents. Nor will you find necessarily find a listing for the motel with four RV parking spaces, three of which have been been occupied by the same hunters' trailers for the past eight years.

Then there are the places that are members only, or cater to particular groups, like church campgrounds and clothing optional campgrounds, to cover a couple of the extremes.

But if you are finding places you think should be listed, suggest to them that they contact GoodSam (or other listings services) about getting inspected and rated for a listing. The listing is free, and they would certainly like to sell an advert.

[rk911]

rockhillmanor wrote:

rk911 wrote:
.....many CG's listed in the Good Sam book that are not affiliated with GS.

That's because so many of the CG's have DROPPED their GS affiliation. I am running into more and more of them the past few years.

I got real ticked off with that issue. Pull in to a CG sporting the big GS logo on their sign and expect to get the GS discount...not.

They say they dropped GS. Well take down the dang sign. And after a year when the new CG books are published take them out of the darn GS book.

By the 2nd year out full timing I stopped searching out CG's that have discount cards, don't use CG books, no reviews. All those methods netted me some real crappy CG's.

I now am finding REAL nice pleasurable CG's to stay at. CG's all now have there own websites and one quick and easy google search will show you all of them where you are at.

In my traveling experience on the road, I found over 50% of CG's are NOT listed in RV books. As like I did when I first started out, you all are missing out on some real nice CG's to stay at if you live and die RV'ing by the so called golden book of CG's!!:W

we've been using the GS directory since we started this RV thing back in 1986 and there have always been unaffiliated campgrounds in the book. I doubt that the book was ever intended to show just the GS campgrounds. heck, the GS website will display both GS and unaffiliated CG's when doing a CG search. we've run into former or never-affiliated GS parks that will honor the card but never the other way.

[rockhillmanor]

rk911 wrote:
.....many CG's listed in the Good Sam book that are not affiliated with GS.

That's because so many of the CG's have DROPPED their GS affiliation. I am running into more and more of them the past few years.

I got real ticked off with that issue. Pull in to a CG sporting the big GS logo on their sign and expect to get the GS discount...not.

They say they dropped GS. Well take down the dang sign. And after a year when the new CG books are published take them out of the darn GS book.

By the 2nd year out full timing I stopped searching out CG's that have discount cards, don't use CG books, no reviews. All those methods netted me some real crappy CG's.

I now am finding REAL nice pleasurable CG's to stay at. CG's all now have there own websites and one quick and easy google search will show you all of them where you are at.

In my traveling experience on the road, I found over 50% of CG's are NOT listed in RV books. As like I did when I first started out, you all are missing out on some real nice CG's to stay at if you live and die RV'ing by the so called golden book of CG's!!:W

[kalynzoo]

I find Trailer Life, the GoodSam directory, to be an excellent first source when traveling. It may not list EVERY RV park, but those not listed may have a reason for not listing, such as not being public. Once I have a few parks in mind I check RVParkreviews.com for peer to peer comments. I also check the campgrounds website for location, direction, and photos. The entire process only takes a few minutes. Finally a phone call to the park verifies that they have available a site that fits my need. I'm not afraid to ask: "Is the pool heated? Are the pull throughs level? Do you get cell phone signal? Park WiFi is always nice, if it works, if the park is not full crowding the bandwith. But we travel with a hot-spot.
Many RV parks are expensive, but give me a super clean park, with a well planned comfortable pad, and I'll pay the rate.
JMHO

[rk911]

rockhillmanor wrote:

aslakson wrote:
RVParkReviews.com - pretty much all you need.al

This doesn't list all the CG's either. Only ones that someone has posted a review on.

neither does Woodalls or AAA but there are many, many CG's listed in the Good Sam book that are not affiliated with GS.