Small town parking. Suggestions /tips

[frisbeekev]

We are in the new England area and driving around we want to hit some small towns in route. Any suggestions/tips for parking with the rv in these areas? We currently have a 33ft travel trailer.

[Camsmom]

Google maps street view can be your best friend. We try to plan out ahead of time when we want to visit more populated areas.

[travelnutz]

One campground owner who posts on this forum argued with me when I had mentioned in a post that in many cities and towns you can overnight in school parking lots during the summer when school is out for the summer. The largest high school of the 3 here parking lot has just over 1800 car/vehicle parking spaces and around 500 are kept open for summer school students and adult classes etc. It's very commonly done in the region where we live.

Just had the huge national U.S. Coast Guard Festival which has 350,000 to 500,000 attendance yearly in our city of around 11,000 and the local metro area of approx 70,000. Lots of RV's staying in school parking lots (hundreds) all over town for a week or more. Totally legal!

A drop in the bucket compared to the huge number staying in church parking lots or city parking lots around the edges/rows leaving the centers of the lots for vehicle parking and business customers. This has been going on for as long as I can remember and I'm nearly 77 years old. There is no charge for parking and staying there either. Hurt the local campgrounds bottom line? Not a chance as all 12 are booked full always.

Can't have fires of course or fasten anything to the ground or dump anything on the ground and the city puts some dumpsters for refuse. An RV must have it's own contained toilet facilities to park there and it's required.

The city has an ordinance code prohibiting RV's overnighting in store parking lots such as Walmart, Meijer, Home Depot, etc as they are a business owned parking lots and not controlled directly by the city. No overnight truck parking allowed either.

It works out great for all and has for decades now. Yes, the local police, county sheriffs, and the state police do cruise thru these lots am couple times each day looking for violators.

[TexasShadow]

out west, most small towns have city parks and many of them are on the highway that passes through the town..or there will be a road sign pointing to the park.
you just have to be sure the trees are pruned high enough for your rig to park under 🙂

[Merrykalia]

We have used hardware stores, churches, school parking lots (if not during school times) and sometimes, even municipal lots if they aren't busy.

[rbpru]

Once or twice we have used the city park. They had a half dozen electric spots and rest rooms next to the ball diamonds and soccer fields.

They showed up on the Good Sam's Camping list.

[Y-Guy]

Trackrig wrote:
look on the web to see if they have a Fair Grounds or call their Visitor's Center.

Ditto! Visitors Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce are a great place to start. I've had better luck with the Chambers myself

[Tvov]

"New England Area" is a pretty big area. Any part in particular? Are you looking for touristy things? Just passing through?

There are plenty of Walmarts around now, and other big box stores in large shopping areas (even in small towns) with large parking areas. Probably the biggest concern is getting in and out through the tight entrances.

Also try looking for "commuter parking lots", they are next to a lot of highway exits. They are usually regularly patrolled by local and state police, but you should be fine for a few hours during the day - if you try to overnight, I think you definitely will be told to leave.

[midnightsadie]

most churchs will let you stay , even got a invite to a supper one time.

[Trackrig]

look on the web to see if they have a Fair Grounds or call their Visitor's Center.

Bill

[downtheroad]

We often park on the outskirts and pull the bicycles out of the bed of the truck..

[WayneAt63044]

A lot of small towns have commercial properties that have plenty of gravel drive area in front. Not nearly as difficult to park in a small town as it is in a populated/developed urban area.