Traveling in the summer

[Snowman9000]

We have not done much camping in the summer. Instead we have focused on getting away from Illinois in colder months.

We are thinking about moving to the sun belt, and would probably be doing the opposite of the above. Namely getting out during the summer.

I read horror stories about the crowds in the summer. Of course, we don't like crowds. Who does. 🙂 So how bad is RV-ing in the summer? Or is this much ado about nothing?

[happynow]

Above posts are on point. Definition of "Horror stories" is different from one person to another.

Some campgrounds are spaced close together, others offer some privacy and that alone can make a big difference.
We enjoy taking our grandkids camping in the summer months and stay with them. A small number of kids in campgrounds run wild, act disrespectful and do whatever they want... but most are good kids.
Some adults (young and older) are on vacation and decide to use the campground as party place... loud/rude/up late etc. This happens anywhere, at any time.

If you have concerns about a popular area, do some homework to target Adult only Parks, stay a bit off the beaten track or whatever fits the bill.

From a personal perspective it seems to us the Western USA has more campgrounds/RV Parks available than the East and East Coast.
With that said, we have not done a comparison and this is not intended as a blanket statement.

We have lived our entire lives on the east coast. It can be frustrating that some beautiful area's in the East have few options to camp and in many cases few to no options to Boondock. With the few campgrounds available, those available can be prone to overcrowding.

Our travels in western states, it has been easy to find wonderful camping locations at all times of the year.

[wing_zealot]

That depends on where. If your talking about camping in August in Florida, you'll have the whole campground to yourself. If you're talking about Illinois in August, it'll be crowded.

[fj12ryder]

Crowded campgrounds during the summer is like what they say about real estate: "Location, location, location".

Used to be that traveling in the spring before school was out and in the fall after school started just about guaranteed that you'd have uncrowded conditions. Not no more. And summer is going to be worse, so I would figure if you're going anywhere fairly popular it's going to be crowded. How crowded is too crowded is up to you to decide. To me a half-full campground is crowded, but you may not feel the same way.

Just like old peoples' undergarments: "Just depends". 🙂

[Halmfamily]

We stay away from campgrounds on the major holidays. We usually go the week after Labor Day, 4th of July and Memorial Day and the campgrounds are almost empty. Also when go outside the holidays we arrive on Monday and leave on Sunday, always get the spot we want.

[3oaks]

Advance reservations are almost a must in the more popular parks.

Being retired, we mainly camp in the Spring time before Memorial Day and in the Fall after Labor Day. Nicest times of the year. But even that time of the year we are seeing more campers than we used to.

Summer time horror stories? Not really unless you really detest crowded campgrounds and noisy happy children having fun. :@

[2oldman]

Campgrounds are going to be busier, especially on weekends.

[Trackrig]

It all depends where you go. Expect crowds if you're going to the major tourist attractions, especially where parents would want to take kids.

Bill