No Vacancy

[Luis]

21 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Prices and availability both vary by area with the highest prices and the most difficulty finding campsites both being most difficult near larger population centers. This past summer we made reservations ahead for most of our travels but I also watched closely to see if the parks we stayed in were full each night. When we traveled through Oklahoma & Missouri in May, no park that we stayed in was ever completely full, although the nearest to that was the Escapees, Turkey Creek RV Park. In July we stopped in 4 parks Kansas and 1 in eastern CO that were not full but had quite a search to find a site between Denver & Ft. Collins, CO when making reservations for July stay in late May. In WY we stopped in 2 different parks and neither were full. The lowest price was a self-service park near Abilene, KS that was $35/night, with most sites costing $45 or more. In Rawlins, WY  and in Genoa, CO we paid $40/night and neither of those were completely full when we were there.  

Hello Kirk. Their is miss emotions about this question but it doesn’t seem like it is as horrible as some RVers are putting it. Thank you for your post.

[Luis]

18 hours ago, Danfreda1 said:

If you have Allstays app you can find city and county parks with 2-4 nights free before paying. We also only make reservations for rallies or to visit someone at a specific place. If you don’t need a place with top of the line amenities we have found plenty of places we can find a spot at. 

Thank you Dan. I downloaded the AllStay App to my devices. No amenities needed all the time. We are seeing those trips in ours heads as Vacations. The rest of the year is only really about being able to hook up, or boondocks in a safe place. Thanks again.  

[Luis]

14 hours ago, Twotoes said:

Price depends on location and season. I have a big rig and live in it full time so National Parks are not an option except for a short 2 or 3 day stay. Most don't have any hookups. But with my Senior discount I can stay for less than $20. Most Escapee Parks and Co-Ops are around $25 a day. Most private parks with big rig sites and FHU are running $55 to $65 a night. You can get less with a P/A membership but they have lots of restrictions like only discount for 1 to 3 days and no weekends. Parks in popular areas (think AZ or FL in winter) are going for $75 to $85 for a night and some are over $100. Staying for a week or month will cost less per day but many Resorts are over $1,000 for a month stay. No more are the days of $25 to $35 a night.

We want to stay as long as we are able we want to make sure we take our time and enjoy the places we are heading too. But it doesn’t have to be a resort as we are open as long as it is a clean park.

[Luis]

12 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Just to add a little bit more information about the benefits of belonging to this RV club, here are the park rates, with nonmember rates in ( ). Listings are full hookup, 30a with 50a usually a few dollars more.  Dry camping at any of these is $7.50/night. Rates are as of 1/22/2022.

Raccoon Valley, TN            $23   ($30)

Sumter Oaks, FL                $28   ($32.50)

Rainbow Plantation, AL    $25   ($30)

Tra-Park, TX                     $23   ($30)

Dream Catcher, NM         $21    ($26)

North Ranch, AZ              $21    $(26)

Turkey Creek, MO           $20    ($24)

Rainbow's End, TX         $22    ($27.50)

So Escapee’s have there own RV resorts or just affiliations. 

[Luis]

12 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

We have been RVing about 6 months a year (3 months in the Spring and 3 months in the Fall) since 2004. Our experience has been similar to mptjelgin's. We rarely use to make reservations more than a day or two in advance. This past Fall was the first time that we had advance reservations for nearly every stay longer than one night. Heading West to New Mexico from the East Coast in August, we were able to get into the campgrounds we wanted by calling in the morning and making a reservation for that night. While campgrounds were not completely full, the available sites for longer rigs were often not available so we would have to unhook the trailer in order to fit in a site. We prefer not to do this when only passing through for a night. Pull throughs were often also in short supply or unavailable. Traveling through Kansas in 100 degree heat, we were able to get sites in some County, State and Corps of Engineers (COE) campgrounds on relatively short notice. Across the country, some of the State and COE campgrounds, had lots of dry camping sites available. At others whole loops or an entire campground were closed due to Covid. On the return to the East Coast in October, we had no problem getting sites travelling through OK, AR. AL and TN during the week. The large campground we stayed at in Sevierville, TN was completely full the entire week we were there. Every campground that we stayed at along I-81 through VA and WV was nearly full during the week and reservations could not be had a month in advance for weekends.

I am currently in the process of making reservations for our Spring trip to Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. So far, I have been able to book three two week stays in March and April. One is at a county park. The other two are at Thousand Trails parks with our Zone Pass (reservations cannot be made more than 60 days in advance).

It will be interesting to see what if any impact the rising fuel prices have. The last time fuel was near $4.00/gal (I think it was 2009 or 2010) RV travel declined in popular out of the way places like Yellowstone (Diesel was $4.45/gal. inside the park that year when we were there in Sept.)

I have found the best websites for finding free or low-cost public campgrounds to be Free Campsites and The Ultimate Public Campgrounds Project. Local, county and state fairgrounds often have large no frill campgrounds that are virtually empty when there are no scheduled events. In some states like KS, free dry camping is available at many state fishing lakes. Many of these are listed in the above resources.

Thank you Trailer Traveler

[Dutch_12078]

45 minutes ago, Luis said:

So Escapee’s have there own RV resorts or just affiliations. 

The parks Kirk listed are owned and operated by the Escapees RV Club. There's another group of affiliated co-op parks that are member owned and operate under a member elected board of directors. There's also a third group of privately owned parks that have affiliated with the Escapees Club similar to Good Sam parks, and offer Escapees members 15% discounts with a few even offering 50% discounts with some limits on dates, days of the week, etc.

[bruce t]

Here in Australia the go to App is Wiki Camps. Has thousands of sites. Campgrounds to free sites. POI and fuel stops etc etc etc. There is a WikiUSA. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.angryrobot.wikicampsusa&hl=en_US&gl=US

I have no idea how well it is supported. I'm just passing on the information. If it's like the Australia version then the few dollars up front fee will be redeemed many times over. I read some of the reviews in the app store find it interesting that folk object to paying just a small amount for something that could save them a lot of money. We use the Australian one 100% of the time.

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by bruce t

[Kirk W]

10 hours ago, Luis said:

So Escapee’s have there own RV resorts or just affiliations. 

The parks that I listed are owned and operated by the Escapees RV Club. Looks like Dutch already answered your question. There are 11 of the co-op parks.  

RV parks are only part of the benefits gained by becoming a member of the Escapees so I suggest that you spend some time looking over the membership benefits page and then ask any questions that you may still have on these forums. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Kirk W

[Solo18]

Be careful about signing up with one or more of the commercial "camping" groups such as Thousand Trails until you have stayed at a couple of their parks and have read the fine print about when and for how long you can stay somewhere.  Sometimes they limit you to off season times in places you do not want to go, and also limit you to a specific number of days in specific weeks.  

I have known a few people who spent thousands of dollars on such plans, thinking it would save them money in the long run only to discover that they did not like the "resorts" and that they could not stay when they wanted to stay. 

Note: Escapees are excepted from this comment! 

[palmeris]

Just a question...can you stay at a thousand trails park without having a membership?  How do you check out the differnt parks in the zones without a membership?

[dblr]

15 minutes ago, palmeris said:

Just a question...can you stay at a thousand trails park without having a membership?  How do you check out the differnt parks in the zones without a membership?

Yes, they do have commercial rates but to me they usually seem really high for what they offer. We usually never try to camp at a Thousand Trails Park with friends who do not have a membership because of this reason. Some parks are very nice and some not.

[trailertraveler]

3 hours ago, palmeris said:

Just a question...can you stay at a thousand trails park without having a membership?  How do you check out the differnt parks in the zones without a membership?

As mentioned, nonmembers can stay. If you are in the area, you can stop at the office and get permission to drive through. We do this often with parks in areas we intend to return to not just Thousand Trails parks.

If you are going to travel and see the country, you will end up staying at many campgrounds that you have not had an opportunity to visit to check out in advance. In 2021, we stayed at 39 different campgrounds (18 that we had never stayed at before). I have not found a Thousand Trails park that is not listed in RV Park Reviews. The Campsite Photos Website has photos of many campgrounds. Not sure how many Thousand Trails campgrounds are listed or have photos. I use satellite views like Google Earth or Google Maps to check out many of the campgrounds that we consider visiting for the first time.

Edited January 27, 2022 by trailertraveler

[aknavy]

On 1/22/2022 at 3:40 PM, Rover said:

We’ve been fulltime for six years now and very rarely reserve in advance. We do of course make reservations for events such as rallies or festivals we want to attend or if we need to be in a specific area at a specific time for something, we will reserve a site to make sure there are no problems.

We are set up well for boondocking so we don’t worry about not finding places and often prefer to boondock. We also have a campground membership that allows us to stay free at many campgrounds but has to be reserved at least three days out. Sometimes we don’t know where we will be in three days or how long we might want to stay. But we try to take advantage of those full hookup stays for a few days when we can, especially after boondocking for awhile.

Actually, being fulltime is an advantage in that we can be very flexible and adjust our schedule or our direction to go wherever the vacancies are.

Happy Travels!
 

Vicki 

This is pretty much the same for us.  Fulltime for 5 years, setup for boondocking.  We also prefer that, but like to take a break and enjoy unlimited water.  We reserve ahead of time for events, but mostly fly by the seat of our pants.  We stay flexible, and if we have a specific place we want to be, we check for reservations repeatedly, as there usually is a cancellation that we can snag.  Just have to get on it.

For us, we plan out stays/reservations based on families/events/locations that we want to go to, then fill in the blanks with whatever works and is available.

Boondocking allowed us to do August/September at three different Yellowstone entrances with zero planning...and didn't pay the exorbitant campground fees in the area.

[kb0zke]

We checked into Thousand Trails, but decided that a lifetime membership with Passport America suited us better. We generally aren't interested in the resort parks. Like others, COE is our first choice, State parks second. We've stayed at some decent city parks that were either free or very low cost.

We've been stuck here since July, 2020, but hope to escape again in July and get back on the road. We didn't have any troubles last summer on our big trip, but then we had a specific route and dates set, so we were able to make reservations in advance. We'll see what happens this summer.

[Vladimir]

Due to COVID I have limited my travel the past two years.   But it did seem more crowded, much more crowded than the previous years.

I just completed a 1200 mile trip down to Arizona.

Some observations....

County Park in Eugene, Oregon.  

Normally, pretty empty, but this trip pretty much booked solid.  Price was $45/night.

COE campground in California.

Normally, I am the only person camped there.  This time, over half the campsites were taken.  NO onsite service, you must reserve through REC.GOV for the night.  Lots of road rage on that issue from campers.

Orange Grove, Bakerfield, California

Booked totally solid.  In overflow, for $49 a night.  One of the best managed RV parks.  Where else do you get put into overflow for $49 and feel good about it??  Oranges were past prime, but still much better than store bought.

BLM lands outside of Parker, Caliornia or Arizona.

Almost all "dispersed sites" taken.   Pretty crowded for BLM lands.

SKP Park in Arizona.

Almost all lease holder lots are booked, but plenty of room in dry camp.

So it seems, that campsites are much, much more limited this winter.  EXCEPT for the Escapees Campgrounds.  This seems to indicate that NEWBIES are flooding the market.  The SKP park did say with COVID lots of folks bailed to be closer to their kids.

Oh....diesel prices on I-5 and I-40 at $5.90 a gallon in California.  $3.93 in Arizona.

 

 

[sandsys]

Thanks, Vlad. It is good to see specific places and prices.

Linda

[CountryCoachFan]

On 1/22/2022 at 5:47 PM, Luis said:

Thank you for your honesty. I did a trial run on RV Trip Wizard and there were parks that I could not even see a reservation almost one year out. 
 

This is the reason why I posted the questions as it has been a hot topic. I don’t mind planning. I just couldn’t really get a clear answer when I was doing the trial run as I can do the travel, is just not probably the route I want to take. 
 

Thanks again. 

We were just looking for a site on the Oregon coast for spring break, a month out. Several private sites showed no vacancies. I tried adjusting the dates from single nights to the entire week with no luck on at least 2 different locations. Our friends with more experience told us to call, when I did I found out they had quite a few openings, some for the entire week!

I wonder if these parks are paying a commission to a third party reservation system and reserving a number of sites for call in's so they don't need to pay the commission. 

Regardless, there's a good lesson, don't rely on online results, there are often unreserved availability to those who call. 

[Jinx & Wayne]

We've been full time for just short of four years.  All of our travel has been the eastern half of the US with longer stays in Maine and Florida most years, and family in Maryland. We start travel in the spring (this year end of March) with 1-3 week stops until the end of July. August and September we spend in one place in Maine. October finds us traveling south, arriving in Florida in December. Here's what we found.

We haven't found a lot of boondocking to be widely available in our travel area, particularly for a moderately large fiver. We plan on getting a smaller Class A next year and swinging west for a couple of years, so that should change for us with more areas available out there.

We had PA, TT and GS. The major problem we found with TT was that their park locations did not match with the things we wanted to see. The membership just barely paid for itself. PA discounts did not help much because we stay 1-3 weeks on most stops. Their discounts do not apply to weekly rates at most places we visited and they are not as common as GS parks. GS spots are more frequent, especially along larger highways. Since we usually travel two days in a row, we use GS frequently on the road night. We also have a KOA membership. We use it almost exclusively when visiting grandchildren in the DC and Charleston areas. it pays for itself by a bit.

We rarely plan the one-night road stops further ahead than a day or two. Longer stays, however, we find require reservations. Our travel model is to make a list of places/things we want to see and people we want to visit around the country. We then cobble together an itinerary and make reservations. Right now I have all long stays reserved through next spring with the exception of two campgrounds that do not start taking reservations until March 1 and April 15, respectively. If we made our itinerary based on park locations instead of want-to-sees TT would probably be worth the money for us.

As for what to expect from here, your guess is as good or better than mine.

Wayne & Jinx
2017 F-350 diesel, dually
2006 Carriage Carri-Lite 36KSQ

[Ray,IN]

When these folks began full-timing in 2010 Don did a lot of research, and continued that until last year when they got off the road.  http://ddwt.us/

 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Ray,IN

[Star Dreamer]

What we have found in our travels and trip planning is it really varies depending on location and time of the year. For example, Southern Florida in Jan and Feb is getting really hard to find places for short term stays and even month long spots are sold out by May of the previous year. State parks which allow reservations 11 months in advance are already booked up for January of 2023 with maybe an opening or to for one day during the week.   In general State Parks across the country in various areas will be booked up on the weekends but sometimes you can get in during the week as long as you leave by Friday morning. Surprisingly I found a State Park near Yellowstone that had availability but again it is for during the week. We are too big for most National Park campgrounds so usually our size prevents finding a spot no matter what day we try. Private or chain campground blocations are even getting hard to find spots in but so far we have been pretty successful for weekends but we are doing our reservations months in advance

[sandsys]

10 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

PA discounts did not help much because we stay 1-3 weeks on most stops. Their discounts do not apply to weekly rates at most places we visited

One PA place I camped near Austin, TX, took PA for Sun-Thur then gave me 10% off using AARP for the weekends. I just gave the guy at the desk all my discount cards and asked him to pick the best deal for me. If I had just given him my PA card, I would have paid full price for the weekends. I was thrilled with what he chose to do.

Linda

[Dutch_12078]

5 minutes ago, sandsys said:

One PA place I camped near Austin, TX, took PA for Sun-Thur then gave me 10% off using AARP for the weekends. I just gave the guy at the desk all my discount cards and asked him to pick the best deal for me. If I had just given him my PA card, I would have paid full price for the weekends. I was thrilled with what he chose to do.

Linda

A couple of years ago I laid out my discount cards for the check-in lady at one campground and asked if any of them worked there. She slid a couple of them around and then picked up the library card I had inadvertently included and said, "This will work for a 10% discount." It wasn't till we got parked on our site that I noticed the receipt said "Senior Discount".

[rickeieio]

I could be wrong, but I think if fuel hits $5 or $6 per gallon, there will be plenty of sites available this summer.

[Vladimir]

Not sure about that.

There is LOTS more MONEY floating around than I remember when I was working!!!

I just paid $5.90 a gallon in California.  The traffic was unbearable coming down I-5.

Canada is pushing $8.00 a gallon.  

My guess is people will pull back in other places, but continue to travel locally.  Next year, might be different if international travel becomes "safe".  

In that case, there are going to be some great deals in RV's, not to mention camping spots.

[trailertraveler]

13 hours ago, Vladimir said:

There is LOTS more MONEY floating around than I remember when I was working!!!

This may be true. But who has all this money?  Is it the Seniors on fixed incomes and the families that like to RV on weekends and for vacations? In my past experience, these groups made up the majority of RV travelers that we met.  It is not just the cost of vehicle fuel that has increased. Energy in general has increased dramatically.  Heating oil was $3.69/Gal in early Feb. Propane is as high as 4.50/gal in some places in the mid-Atlantic Region. Electric rates have also increased. Aside from the shortages, food prices have increased significantly. Yesterday at Publix, the rotisserie chicken that was $4.99 not long ago was $8.99 if you could get one.

Finding campgrounds is not the only challenge facing travelling RVers. Parts and services for repairs are in short supply. It took six weeks, starting in December to get a new Dexter axle. It took a month just to get an appointment with the service facility. Not a trip stopper, but it took 3 weeks to get an awning motor and switch. Many mobile RV techs are booked two or more weeks out. How long these conditions will persist is anyone's guess at this point. How long Rvers will continue to travel at the current numbers is also unknown.

One thing i did notice on our Southern journey down I-95 this week was that the two Camping World/Gander RV dealerships we passed had lots packed with RVs. So perhaps demand has slacked off a bit.