Do I need to reserve in advance?

[Alexum]

I'm planning to start my first rv trip in May.
I have already read information about some locations that are booked in advance in minutes, but what about parks (private and public) that are not in the top and also not 1 or 2 star places. Will it be hard to get place 3-10 days before arrival in summer, not taking into account holiday?

I don't what to plan 2-4 months ahead, it's braking the whole idea in my head - that rv traveling let you go whenever, wherever you want. I have 25 days and I just what to travel North.

[mycamperfriend]

Depending on where you go camping, you may need to book your campsite months in advance. We typically stay at state parks. Therefore, I don’t have too much experience when it comes to boondocking (that is camper language for camping without hookups) or dry camping (that is camper language for staying at a campground without hookups). Especially boondocking typically does not require you to reserve a spot in advance so the “book early” advice does not really apply here anyway. Our state parks here in Washington State allow you to book online 9 months in advance. There is a huge demand for the peak summer weekends and campsites for those are always sold out fast. Most state park reservation systems have a mechanism to roll over the reservation window at a certain time in the day. So if they, for example, roll it over at 7am their local time and you want to book a campsite in exactly 9 months from now, you have to be online at 7am their local time and hit the reservation button. Note that you will be in good company as other experienced campers will be doing the same. A lot of those guys know which campsite they want because they stayed there before or they saw a campsite they liked last time they were there and they made a note to book it next time. We do the same thing. How about this? When you go to a campground, look for sites you like and which you would like to book next time you come to this campground. Write down the campsite number or take a pic with your phone/camera. Anyway, that’s how it works for some state parks, national parks and bigger campground chains. Some reservation systems are better than others. Also, smaller and privately owned and operated campgrounds sometimes only allow reservations by sending them an email or giving them a call. In cases where you won’t be able to book online, they will probably ask for your credit card number or ask you to send them a check. Some of them even go so far to (snail) mail you your reservation conformation and campground information. Obviously, for those guys, having an expensive online reservation system is not worth the expense. Just go online and explore the exciting world of campsite reservations. Regardless if you book through a reservation system, email or phone, sometimes it’s not clear which type of campsites are available and how they look. In this case, you can email or call the contact and ask them if they can show or send you a campground map with pics to explain what the sites offer, how they look, how easy they are to get your camper parked, etc.

[garmp]

Depending on where and when we're going we'll make reservations. But with that being said, we are not destination campers. We will not drive to, say, a Florida campground and spend a week. 3 days is about our max and we get happy feet, or wheels, and gotta see what's around the next bend.
Example being that we are going to Ft. Pickens the end of February and sites are hard to come by that time of year. We booked for 3 days and found an opening down the coast for another 3 days. After that it's away from the coast where sites are more available and we'll see what we can find.

[myredracer]

We don't go anywhere without booking every CG well in advance, private or memberships CGs. You only have to find yourself without a place to stay once and won't travel without pre-booking again.

If you want to go free-wheeling gypsy style, wherever, whenever, it'd be a really good idea to have a laptop and a mobile hotspot like Verizon mifi. Also very helpful to check out road conditions (traffic, construction, road type, etc.), wildfires, weather, tourist attractions and much more. Wifi? Fuggedaboutit - it's usually pretty unreliable. If you can't get into a CG en route for some reason, it'd be a good idea to be prepared to have a plan B like a Walmart, rest stop, etc.

When we go on longer trips, we've always pre-booked everything based on length of stay and travel time. Never been a problem except when there was a forest fire in Montana and we had to change plans on the fly or the time we tried to add a couple of days on the Or. coast and they just laughed at us.

I would try planning a hypothetical route now and find places where you'd want to stay and contact the CGs and see what they say about booking in advance. Consider a membership in Coast-Coast, Good Sam, Passport America, Thousand Trails, etc. We're T/T members and it's worked great for us. Not everyone's cup of tea tho.

[Newbie_J]

I am new to RVing but I have already planned several trips and have made reservations for every stop through the end of November 2018,
That way I can plan and know the cost and amenities up front.

[2gypsies1]

Passin Thru wrote:
We make reservations where ever we go. My wife has to plan everything down to the roads etc. I can't get off the beaten path so to speak. Must take interstate. 2 land is too slow. She's been driven all her life, won't change her.

Wow! I'm really sorry to hear that. 🙂

[Passin_Thru]

We make reservations where ever we go. My wife has to plan everything down to the roads etc. I can't get off the beaten path so to speak. Must take interstate. 2 land is too slow. She's been driven all her life, won't change her.

[Veebyes]

As much as I hate to do it, it looks like I will have to make some reservations for our upcoming Alaska trip. Unfortunate timing but our daughter will be flying into Fairbanks right in the middle of their June 21st Summer Soltice Festival. Been there before at that time. It is a real big deal to the locals & CGs fill up. We are off to Denali right after that & the Teklaneka CG is always in big demand so reservations will be needed there too. Except for a couple of music festivals along the way the hope is to wing it for the rest of the trip.

[LLeopold]

Please stick to topic. Political posts and references are not tolerated in this forum as per the Forum Rules.

The "seasoned" members know this and should be able to police themselves.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[crk112]

I'd like to pitch in and clarify the Wifi thing...

Any Wifi that does not have a password should be considered unsafe. No password means the network traffic is not encrypted and can be "sniffed" right out of the airwaves by a hacker.

Obviously having no password makes it much more convenient but nobody is really doing you any favors this way.

My personal rule is to NEVER connect to an unsecured Wifi. (Must be WPA or WPA2... WEP can be hacked too). I bought a cellular hotspot and I use that instead if no secured Wifi is available.

(I'm an IT system admin)


Ok sorry to go off topic... no comment on the stock market though. 😉

[ncrowley]

If I need to be in a certain place on a certain date, I always make a reservation. Also, if it is a popular spot, I make a reservation. I have gotten to RV parks many, many times with a reservation and found that there were no more sites to be had. I would have been out of luck without the reservation.

[fallonator22]

We did our first long trip in the RV to Orlando from Houston this past Thanksgiving. We left not knowing how far we would make it that day driving, so waited until about 2pm to call around. What I learned - you have to keep in mind the popularity of the city and the time of year. I started calling at 2pm due to most close at around 5pm, earlier on the weekend. We ended up stopping on the way in Biloxi, MS at a casino RV park which was pretty empty and then drove the rest of the way to Florida the next day. It was just a standard, no perks, park. You had a gate to go in and they gave you a code when you called, and a gate to go out when you left. Never saw anyone that worked there the whole time. It was probably a 5 on the scale, but it was only $23 a night, and was empty. We drove the rest of the way the next day, and on the way back stopped at that same park (it was about the same - empty), and then stopped once more in Lake Charles, LA. THAT was hard to find a park. We were about to have to dry camp at Walmart, I must have called 6 different parks who were full. Finally I was referred to a newer park that wasn't online yet and we were able to stay there.

Point being - depending on where you are going and when, it could get pretty difficult to find one, BUT you can always dry camp for a night and try the next day. If it were me, I would call ahead of time and try to set up places where you would LIKE to stay rather than having a chance of being forced into the only one available. It is a learning experience, so, good luck!!

[badsix]

here in Oregon you'll need reservations in the summer. most are reserved a year ahead. Oregon lets people reserve I think a year ahead and if they don't show up the site sets empty. privet camp sites are the best bet. but if your on the road in Oregon and no reservations you might look for a wide spot along the road, if you can find one that's not being used. and Wall Mart is a no anymore.
Jay D.

[drsteve]

Here in Michigan, the state parks are always booked solid months in advance. However, a lot of those early bird reservations end up being cancelled for various reasons, so someone who keeps an eye on the reservation site can usually find a spot, even in popular parks, without planning their trip six months in advance.

I would suspect this is true in many places.

[Alexum]

Sure I would prefer to have a great mountain/lake/beach etc., but it's not essential for me. Up to 30 min from main POI are okey, not taking into account big cities. You can't hike or swim with your RV anyway. )
I'm much more interested in clean, relatively quite and just nice place to stay.