Has anyone rated Walmart parking lot experiences?

[wrenchnone]

Thinking about staying in a couple "no charge" lots heading to our destination Wondering if there is a thread rating these types of places. Feeling of safety? quiet? outdoor lighting?

[hokeypokey]

We do this occasionally and it's been alright. For lack of a spot out of the way, we had to park on the side of the lot near the entrance. It was Friday night and before long, vehicles drove in and out like it was Black Friday. They kept it up until 10 pm, then it quieted down.

[bdetviler]

My husband and I parked at Walmart with our Sundance 5th wheel in Williston ND and got kicked out because of the oil workers living there in their cars.
https://driver-start.com

[stevemorris]

we stay at walmarts lots, not to save money but to save time and aggravation

nothing worse than looking for a campground late afternoon after a long day of travelling, site seeing on the way etc etc

walmart is so easy, no backing in, no hookups, no fees to pay. great for a night or two when you're on the road

a week in a walmart? no way!!

[JimK-NY]

I have stayed at dozens of Walmarts. No way could I rate them. Once or twice there have been some noise or activity in the parking lot. That is rare and usually over with quickly. I would rate all my stays at least "good". I could not do excellent because there is never any water or dump station. Truck stops often provide both but typically there is also a lot of noise and constantly moving truck traffic.

[Hemi_Joel]

I have not experienced any websites or services that rate walmart RV parking. But I have done a lot of nights at Wallyworld. I just look at the satellite view on the google map. If it looks like inner city, I stay out. If it looks like small town or suburb, I program it into the GPS. If still in doubt, I look up the town on wikipedia and check out the demographics, or look at at online interactive crime rate map. I do the same before selecting a motel when planning a trip.

[Christopher4510]

Stayed overnight at the Walmart in Junction City, KS and have not stayed at another Walmart since then.

Of course all stores will vary, but since I have a trailer and it was warm out, I had to leave some windows and blinds open, therefore I had light shining in from the lot lights, and noise from the parking lot which had a surprising amount of traffic all night long.

There were also busy railroad tracks nearby, and at least one crossing as the engineers always blew the horn when passing by.

Just as the sky was beginning to get light in the morning, I was finally able to start drifting off to sleep. That is when a street sweeper truck came in to clean the lot.

I stayed for free, and got what I paid for.

[DallasSteve]

downtheroad wrote:
None that I have seen look like this, but they are free....:C

Oooh! Can you tell me where that RV park is located?

[Grit_dog]

lakeside013104 wrote:
First trip out after retiring a narcotics detection K-9. Stopped at Wally world in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Dog had to go for a walk. Dog was officially retired, but try telling her that.

Before we completed the walk, we had two hard alerts. One for a MJ roach that had been discarded on the pavement. The second was a very hard alert complete with dragging me to the low hung blacked out vehicle playing loud hip hop music that had just pulled into the parking lot.

As I attempted to "praise off" the dog, which she was having no part of, two young men sporting dreadlocks got out of the car and looked at me with their mouths hanging open. I just smiled and explained that my "puppy" loves rap music. She runs to it every time she hears it. Have a nice day, fellas.

Come on, "puppy", your retired.................

Lakeside

Haha awesome!

[Nutinelse2do]

Freecampsites.net has some Walmart reviews. Look at the map there in the area you want to stop.

We have been back and forth from West Coast to Michigan and Wisconsin. We have yet to stay at a Walmart. We find Cabelas to be much quieter. Some have kennels, dump stations, and water. They all have 24 hour security, and most have huge pull through areas so you don't have to disconnect.

We have also stayed at Home Depot, Lowes, a couple churches, and bunch of casinos for no charge. Try casinocamper.com and freecampsites.net. There are reviews on both of those sites.

Great story btw Lakeside. Love it!

[ro_sie]

Kusani, Thank you. I wasn't posting, but I appreciate your handling of the board. I want to tell you, I lurk a lot on here, reading, and the major reason I do NOT post is because of some of the more aggressive comments. thanks!

[ventrman]

We have overnighted several Times at Walmart. We have had no problems. Once on the Eat Coast, we were told that Overnight Parking was not allowed because of a City Ordinance. They told us of another Walmart close by, where we could park.

[skipbee]

We have stayed on single nights on many occasions.We carry a Walmart Road Atlas that provides all National map info and Walmart locations and zip codes ( needed to aim satellite dish). Often if the Walmart is located in a resort area signs will note."No overnight parking." On a few occasions we told to park in the back with delivery trucks.

We discovered a bonus, parking directly under the mercury vapor lights will charge our batteries from our solar panels, as we watch TV. There are video cameras in all Walmart lots, we have never experienced any problems, it has been a very convenient way to stop enroute.

[lakeside013104]

First trip out after retiring a narcotics detection K-9. Stopped at Wally world in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Dog had to go for a walk. Dog was officially retired, but try telling her that.

Before we completed the walk, we had two hard alerts. One for a MJ roach that had been discarded on the pavement. The second was a very hard alert complete with dragging me to the low hung blacked out vehicle playing loud hip hop music that had just pulled into the parking lot.

As I attempted to "praise off" the dog, which she was having no part of, two young men sporting dreadlocks got out of the car and looked at me with their mouths hanging open. I just smiled and explained that my "puppy" loves rap music. She runs to it every time she hears it. Have a nice day, fellas.

Come on, "puppy", your retired.................

Lakeside

[Gdetrailer]

I will admit it, I do stop at Walmarts when the distance is too great to safely drive in one day..

They serve a purpose, gives me a little bit of rest before continuing on..

Typically easy to find, easy to get to from many Interstate roads and pretty much everywhere.

For me, much faster than finding a open campground, then paying for a site, then finding the site then parking and then hooking up at a min electric (if I am paying for a patch of land I may as well use the amenities that I paid for).

As far as safety goes, no better and no worse than say a truck stop or even a rest area.. Walmarts do have cameras everywhere and even security folks but hey, anything can happen..

They do have lots of lights..

If you feel uneasy, then move on, there are more out there to stop at.

Noise, this is something that does bother me a bit I often sleep lightly when not at home, lots of cars, trucks with loud pipes and or loud music at all hrs of the night..

Used to stop at one regularly that was a race track until about 2 AM with folks burning tire.. Last couple of visits there were much quieter, makes me wonder if the Police cracked down or those folks grew up and moved on.

29 cent ear plugs typically take care of that problem for me and I sleep better..

We typically will get a few doughnuts when we pull in at night, then in the morning we can get moving quickly..

The only downside I have found is the nightly parking lot sweeper, typically 4AM and on.. Pretty loud.

Typically we pull in at 10 PM, leave about 6 AM, just long enough to get a safety break.