Spontaneity or structure? Or: how important are reservations, really?

[jamiecattanach]

Hey all! So I just purchased a Casita (straight off the factory floor, which is NOT usually my MO when it comes to vehicles, but they hold their value so well I couldn't resist). I pick it up in Texas at the end of July, and then I'm headed east to Florida to set up domicile and also wave hi to my family before I get back on the good side of the Mississippi. (Sorry, east coasters -- after living there for 25+ years, I'm over the humidity!)

However: I'm having trouble deciding whether I want to plan things out and make reservations or just wing it. I want to spend as little as possible on campgrounds -- which makes a monthly site rental attractive -- but I also don't know exactly what the rest of the year is going to look like. Also excited to suss out whether I prefer developed camping or boondocking, and hesitant to make too many commitments until I try out both. All of which is to say:

How do you guys operate? Do you boondock more than renting developed sites, or vice versa? Do you make reservations ahead of time, or go with the flow? How likely is it for me to encounter the worst case scenario and show up somewhere and have absolutely nowhere to park?

Thanks for your feedback, all!

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

I'm a planner - mainly because I enjoy working with mapping software, doing Google research, etc.  If you don't want to plan and only intend on doing shorter stays you can probably just wing it.  If you want to do monthly stays or plan on camping during busy weekends in popular areas you may want to make reservations.

Regardless, most people find that they need reservations over long holiday weekends in popular areas.

Here's a blog I did on "Planner or Freelancer."

 

[trailertraveler]

Here are some links to discussions of this topic: thread 1, thread 2, thread 3

[sandsys]

Are you thinking of monthly stays as you make your way west? If you want to "get there" would you be OK overnighting at Walmarts along the way? The second was my preferred way of travel when moving from one location to another. But, I also stayed in a lot of campgrounds that offered Passport America discounts. They aren't free but your first stay or two usually pays the annual fee and you can get into some petty nice parks for a decent rate if you pay attention to the terms of each park. I often just pulled into a park late afternoon but they have become more crowded the last few years so it would be good to call ahead, one park at a time, to see if they have room for you. I would not like making all my reservations ahead because, to me, that would be a loss of the freedom RVing provides. But, I did have lists of potential stops along my route from which I could choose depending on how far I traveled that day.

Do you have a generator? Or solar panels? If so, once you get to Arizona you can stay on free BLM lands as long as you move every two weeks. If you then decide you really like that way of life you can buy a pass that includes the Arizona and California BLM long term visitor areas for $180 which is good from fall to spring and includes the right to dump, fill, and put your trash in the dumpsters. But there's no electrical hookups so you need to be able to provide your own electricity. And there's no showers and the few toilets are port-a-pots so it helps to be comfortable using your trailer's facilities.

It probably won't take you long to learn if you prefer boondocking, staying in private campgrounds, staying in public campgrounds, or some mix of those. I liked a mix but I like variety in most areas of my life. Except my husband; I have hung onto the same one of those for more than 50 years.

Linda

[NDBirdman]

Heading to FL right now I seriously doubt you would have finding a site to stay except around major attractions.  Winter when the snowbirds head down is when I here you need to make reservations a year or so in advance.  You could probably find a site or 2, inland away from attractions.

As far as reservations and my merry band of old pharts, we have only made one reservation, I knew it would be hard to get into, sits on a popular pay fishing lake and not far from my mom, south-west of Indianapolis.  We'll go there again as the other options was staying atleast an hour from mom so I will reserve and pay the price  We have a farm 1.5 hours away from mom I can stay at but we like staying on the paylake, it's interesting to say the least and 15 minutes to mom.  Every-where else, we wing it and have not had a single day/nite we could not get into a campground.  If you sit down with a map and figure out how far you drive each day, it might be possible for you to call/reserve 2,3 or 4 days ahead of your worried about where to stay along your route.  Also, check around/look at Famcamps (military), there are some, and I think in FL a couple that are open to the public, military has priority but not hard to get into some of these also.  I will state for the record, we don't go to touristy areas, boon-dock in the sticks, no major attractions near by so we get in easily every night we travel.

As a last ditch effort, you can *usually* find a Cabela's/Lowe's/Menards/Walmart to spend a night parked when all else fails.  We so far, knock on wood, have not had to do this yet BUT I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it as a lot of ppl on here will do just that when traveling from one spot to another.  In my neck of the woods, I can always find you a place to stay a night or 2 but I must get along with ya... .LOL, I don't share my homebrew with just anyone.

[rynosback]

It all depends on where and when. I make them to insure that I have a place to park. There are some places that you need to book a year in advance. Again it goes back to where and when. 

Edited June 13, 2019 by rynosback

[Kirk W]

I suggest that you get yourself a membership in one of the half price camping groups to save money and use that guide to travel by. Take a look at both Passport America and the Happy Camper Club as both are discount groups, and Escapees has some of those as well. We use Passport America more than half of the time when traveling and do not usually make advance reservations but around mid-day when we know where we will stop, we then select a park and call by cell phone to make sure that they have a spot for us. If you expect to be near a major tourist attraction, or in any location with seasonal heavy use, then you probably will need reservations. Many people save money by spending nights in parking lots and similar locations, but we rarely ever do that as we don't fine that a lifestyle that we enjoy. On rare occasion we do that but that also means no air conditioning or amenities. To me there is a difference between dry camping, meaning spending a night without hookups and boondocking which means spending the night out in a remote area where there are no facilities or people. I do occasionally "boondock" and enjoy that for soltitued but dry camping in a busy parking lot isn't my thing. 

[LindaH]

We usually boondock, but occasionally stay in an RV park.  Whether or not we make reservations depends on the circumstances.  When traveling from one place to another, we normally don't...we just pull in early in the day (by 2 or 3). 

But there are times when we do make reservations.  For example, we had a wedding to attend in Oregon south of Portland this spring and we did make reservations at an RV park because there was really no place to boondock for 4-5 days in the area.  We also are attending a high school graduation in Tacoma and we made advance reservations there, too, because again, there's no place to boondock for several days in the area.

[LiveWorkDream]

It really depends on what you end up enjoying the most: 

• boondocking in faraway, remote places
• or the conveniences of living near or in towns

In our 12 years fulltiming we've shifted from almost all boondocking to a 60/40 blend of dry camping and park stays. Along the way we discovered that:

• Reservations near and in any popular area (e.g., anywhere on the west coast, in the Sierras or in larger college towns) are pretty much mandatory during summer, sometimes during winter as in the case of the west coast.
• Boondocking in remote areas is great if you're set up for it (solar, etc). You can enjoy tons of free stays in the west, but during summer it's not exactly fun when the temps are high. In winter, you'll have company but it's still nice.
• Monthly RV park stays are almost always a better deal than weekly or nightly.
• Escapees parks offer wonderful deals for enjoying either boondocking or hookups.

I think your first year out you'll be finding out what you enjoy the most and for us, it was our most expensive year. The more we slowed down, and discovered the camping methods we liked, the more we were able to cut back on rent.

Have fun out there and experiment. That's what the full-timing adventure is all about!

 

 

 

 

[richfaa]

We are planners. When on the road we make reservations as we like to have a place to stay kick back and relax shower have a nice meal, etc. When at a destination we usually stay for a week or so using Passport America when we can but it is still pull through  full hookup, 50 amp service We do not boondock use parking lots for stay overs. Our choice.

We did purchase a lot in Central Florida  for our summer stay. We have not in 14 years of travel as long timers had a problem with finding a C.G but we do plan ahead.

[FL-JOE]

I think from reading all the above posts you have gotten some pretty good perspectives.  

If you have an iPhone you may want to download the RVParky app.  It is free and one of the most complete campground apps I have found.  As far as discount memberships, we maintain membership in Passport America each year and Good Sams.  With both of these you will easily re-coop your small fee within the first month or so.

We preplan all of our nights several months in advance.  Our total length with toad though is 73' long so we have to know in advance where we can park it and can we get to that parking spot on the correct designated roads.  You obviously won't face those types of issues.  

I suspect what you will find is that any place you may want to stay a month or longer, that will be a place you will want to reserve in advance.  We have stumbled upon some campgrounds that might charge $40 per night but if you dig deeper and ask them about a monthly rate they might give you a site for $300 or $350 a month.  Usually when they give you a monthly rate they will meter your electric usage but you will still be averaging $12 to $13 a day.  

Good luck and safe travels.

 

[jamiecattanach]

These are all amazing responses -- thank you guys! I am going to be rigged for solo and definitely plan on experimenting with boondocking. I think for now I'm just going to play it by ear and figure out what I want to do once I land in Florida.

[richfaa]

Let  us know where you might want to land in Florida. We are in central Florida near Disney world. If you may need  to find employment it is usually pretty easy to land a job at WDW. We can also help you find a affordable CG in that part of Florida although it won't be real cheap. Both wife and I worked at WDW for a while and although the pay is not high it paid for our most of our  Florida winter stay of 6 months. This C.G is a example .We stayed there for a couple of years. It is clean, well managed and @ 20 mins from WDW       http://mousemountainrvresort.com/the-park/pricing

[remoandiris]

20 hours ago, jamiecattanach said:

Hey all! So I just purchased a Casita (straight off the factory floor, which is NOT usually my MO when it comes to vehicles, but they hold their value so well I couldn't resist). I pick it up in Texas at the end of July, and then I'm headed east to Florida to set up domicile and also wave hi to my family before I get back on the good side of the Mississippi. (Sorry, east coasters -- after living there for 25+ years, I'm over the humidity!)

If you're going to use a mail forwarding address to establish domicile, you need to read the first post in the thread I linked below.  As of now, Fla is no longer issuing driver's licenses and registering vehicles to  mail forwarding "residents".  But there are other options, like SD and TX.  If you're NOT using a mail forwarder as your domicile address, no reason for you to read further.

 

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, jamiecattanach said:

I am going to be rigged for solo

Do I detect a former member of the US Navy in your choice of terminology? 

[kb0zke]

We learned about reservations and holidays the hard way. We had attended a conference, and then decided to go to a State Park near where some relatives were - over the Independence Day holiday. Called the relatives and told them our plan. They told us that we wouldn't get anything and to camp in their driveway.

We made our reservations for Labor Day weekend a couple of weeks ago and got one of the last spots in that park. We'll be campground hosts over Independence Day this year, so that's taken care of. The park where we are now is a first-come, first-serve one (city park), so we got here about a week before Memorial Day and paid for a month.

If we don't have reservations we like to arrive as early in the day as possible. Once or twice we've had to wait until the current occupant left, but usually we can get a spot right away. Part of that is arriving during the week, rather than on a weekend. If we don't have reservations, we figure out where we want to land, and Jo Ann starts working the computers and phones.

We have yet to stay at a Flying J/Pilot, Cracker Barrel, or Wal-Mart, but I suppose that some day that will be our only option.

[LindaH]

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 8:15 AM, FL-JOE said:

If you have an iPhone you may want to download the RVParky app.

 

There's an android version, too.

[FL-JOE]

21 minutes ago, LindaH said:

There's an android version, too.

Makes sense, I suspect it is a popular free app for most.

We have a run coming up in a week or so that will be around 900+ miles, ending in the Black Hills area for about 3 weeks.  I hadn't pre-planned or booked anything in advance because we were undecided on if we would do it in 2 days and boondock or maybe split it up and use a couple campgrounds.

After determining my exact route my next resource I turn to was RVParky.  It is so fast and simple to type in the area you are looking for a spot to camp.  It shows me everything, even Walmarts, Cabelas, Cracker Barrels, Rest Areas, all campgrounds, etc.  By using the app I was able to pretty much narrow down where I wanted to stay and then start making the calls.   EasyPeasy.

[Kirk W]

If you route near to Chadron, NE you should spend at least a night at Chadron State Park, which is one of the most intact of the Indian war ear forts.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Kirk W

[NDBirdman]

2 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

Makes sense, I suspect it is a popular free app for most.

We have a run coming up in a week or so that will be around 900+ miles, ending in the Black Hills area for about 3 weeks.  I hadn't pre-planned or booked anything in advance because we were undecided on if we would do it in 2 days and boondock or maybe split it up and use a couple campgrounds.

After determining my exact route my next resource I turn to was RVParky.  It is so fast and simple to type in the area you are looking for a spot to camp.  It shows me everything, even Walmarts, Cabelas, Cracker Barrels, Rest Areas, all campgrounds, etc.  By using the app I was able to pretty much narrow down where I wanted to stay and then start making the calls.   EasyPeasy.

Enjoy!  We love that area but last time we were their we had kiddies at home and tent camped.  Was a very fun trip!  I put this app on my iphone, seems pretty good.  Have not traveled using it yet but it shows most campgrounds, etc.  I looked at the route we take from ND to WA, looks like a lot of choices.  I think it will be easier than stopping, loading up laptop and messing with different web-pages.  It shows locations and will load up that website if they have one.  I like the option it has for calling the campground from the app also.

Have a great trip!

Edited June 15, 2019 by NDBirdman

[Chalkie]

19 hours ago, Kirk W said:

If you route near to Chadron, NE you should spend at least a night at Chadron State Park, which is one of the most intact of the Indian war ear forts.

That is not Chadron State Park. I suspect you are thinking of Fort Robinson State Park. Fort Robinson started in the Indian Wars in the 1870's and was in continuous use through the end of WWII.

[Kirk W]

26 minutes ago, Chalkie said:

I suspect you are thinking of Fort Robinson State Park.

You are correct! Chadron state park is also a nice park with many campsites, but Ft. Robinson is the one that I should have linked to. Thanks!