Are Reservations Required

[allenclme]

Hi - We're starting our cross country trip in a few weeks being new retirees. I'm not sure where exactly we'd end up stopping each night and was wondering if anyone has experience with last minute reservations being problematic, or if we should just wing it. Thanks in advance

 

[twindman]

Ahh, the good ole days! We started in 2006. We would call ahead anywhere from 24 hours to as little as 2 or 3 hours. Now, especially after covid when rvs, etc were selling like hotcakes, things changed. Pretty much any state park will book up to whatever their max ahead time is allowed. Same with the bigger National Parks. Many rv parks along interstates get almost full 2-3 days in advance. (and the nicer ones go for 70-100 dollars)

I am like you and would like to just call ahead a day or 2, but that is risky today.
I use //campgrounds.rvlife.com/ to see what parks are in a certain area. It has ratings and info for each park, including prices reviewers paid. This is generally up to date as opposed to a book like GoodSam parks listing.
Good luck.

 

[BB_TX]

You can also use google maps to zoom into an area where you think you might end up at the end of the travel day. Then search for rv park. It will show you all the RV parks in that general area. And you can click on any of those for a link to their web site (if they have one) and also see reviews for them.

I never liked heading somewhere without a reservation. So I would find a likely place and call the day before arrival, or at least early the morning of arrival, to confirm something was available. Last thing I wanted to do was to arrive at a destination after a long day of travel only to find no sites available and then start trying to find somewhere to stay, especially since we were not set up for boondocking. Some highly touristy areas are going to be more problematic than more out of the way areas.

 

[rames14]

Craig and Mary, congratulations. We spend about 5 months on the road each year. Our experience has been that we usually make reservations around noon the day of travel. State parks/national parks are a different animal. Usually those are booked months in advance, depending on time of year and location. We do a lot of Passport America, Harvest Host and BLM/National Forest since we are fairly self contained with Solar. It has gotten a lot easier to find campgrounds over the past two years since prices have skyrocketed. We do not stay at KOA’s ever. Cheapest we’ve found there is usually $70. We use RV Trip Wizard for pricing, reviews and to see time of year. Be sure to look at rallies along your travel routes. Enjoy.

 

[DutchmenSport]

If at all possible, book a reservation as far in advance as you reasonably can. Unless you boondock in the Western States on free camping areas, you are best to get a reservation.

We reserve, as soon as we know and then stick with the plan. We have, on a couple occasions, had to forfeit our campsites, sometimes lost money completely (no refunds at all). But, the assurance of having the campsite waiting is far much better than the once or twice we lost money completely.

We've gotten into a pretty good routine since I retired, especially since I got into camp hosting. So, we always have long-range plans, out a year and half most of the time now.

The important thing is to make your plans, then search out the campgrounds that fit your plans. Then secure a reservation. And last, don't deviate from the original plan. If it does not work out exactly as you expected, then the next time, make an adjustment at the "initial" planning stage. Every trip teaches you something new.

As a newbie.... make the reservations ... until you get a true feel for what your own camping style becomes.

 

[allenclme]

Reservations

If at all possible, book a reservation as far in advance as you reasonably can. Unless you boondock in the Western States on free camping areas, you are best to get a reservation.

We reserve, as soon as we know and then stick with the plan. We have, on a couple occasions, had to forfeit our campsites, sometimes lost money completely (no refunds at all). But, the assurance of having the campsite waiting is far much better than the once or twice we lost money completely.

We've gotten into a pretty good routine since I retired, especially since I got into camp hosting. So, we always have long-range plans, out a year and half most of the time now.

The important thing is to make your plans, then search out the campgrounds that fit your plans. Then secure a reservation. And last, don't deviate from the original plan. If it does not work out exactly as you expected, then the next time, make an adjustment at the "initial" planning stage. Every trip teaches you something new.

As a newbie.... make the reservations ... until you get a true feel for what your own camping style becomes.

I think you sold me. I just made the reservations for the first week and used the RV Trip Wizard which is pretty nice. There's one night depending where we end up it could be a rest area or Walmart parking lot, but the other 6 nights we found a spot. I hope we can do the 400 miles a day we think we can.

 

[rames14]

Craig and Mary -
Best of luck. Your 400i with lithium batteries should be fine for boondocking. One thing about lithium batteries - they charge quickly. We went from carrying two Honda 2000’s to one. You will find that you can do 400 miles, but you will find out over time the rule of 3’s. No more than 300 miles, in by 3 and stay at least 3 nights. Enjoy your journey. Plan on making it to some rallies. The Fall rally registration opens next week.

 

[DutchmenSport]

rames14 has it right referencing the rules of 3 if doing long term travel. For a week, you'll do fine. But, after a week you'll be tired and worn out.

If traveling to a destination where you will stay for a while (3 days to 1 year type of stay), then driving long days and short overnight stops works OK. But, my wife and I have found that 3 days of hard travel is about all we can handle. Even when we were younger, 3 days was about it.

One thing you do not want to do (and this took us a few years to figure out), you don't want to push so hard with the physical intensity and mind awareness that driving a hundred thousand dollars of truck and trailer brings, that you arrive at your destination so physically and mentally exhausted that you cannot enjoy the destination.

We did this multiple times, especially when the kids were little. We pushed so hard to reach the destination, that when we finally got there, I was so exhausted from the long drive, I could not enjoy the first couple days. They kids wanted to "go, go, go!" My wife and I were so "pooped" we just wanted to vegetate and recover. And actually, the activities we engaged in with the kids .... today in memory ... is just a blur! Our minds were so exhausted, we couldn't absorb the moment we drove so far to see and do.

When the kids no longer traveled with is, we slowed down. We found longer trips, like distances of a thousand or two thousand miles or longer worked a LOT better if we traveled day 1 and stopped. Day 2 stayed at that destination. Day 3 travel to the next stop over and stay put. Day 4 enjoy that rest day, and day 5 travel again ... and keep repeating. Of course, this works well if you have the time.

Another thing ... in all your best laid plans... on an average, you will actually travel only 50 miles an hour. If you plan on 400 miles a day, you should plan your actual time between campsites to take at least 8 hours. Your driving speed may be 65 mph, but in reality, it will all average 50 mph because of breaks, fuel stops, food stops, and ..... don't forget ... along the journey you may want to stop and see something you didn't expect.

I remember clear one time traveling, my wife was snoozing and I kept seeing this sign, mile after mile for a restaurant that served "foot high pie". She was still snoozing when I pulled into that little restaurant. She was surprised I stopped and when she found out why, she was delighted.

Well, the pie was not a "foot high", but it WAS a good 8 inches!

 

[allenclme]

Long Drives

rames14 has it right referencing the rules of 3 if doing long term travel. For a week, you'll do fine. But, after a week you'll be tired and worn out.

If traveling to a destination where you will stay for a while (3 days to 1 year type of stay), then driving long days and short overnight stops works OK. But, my wife and I have found that 3 days of hard travel is about all we can handle. Even when we were younger, 3 days was about it.

One thing you do not want to do (and this took us a few years to figure out), you don't want to push so hard with the physical intensity and mind awareness that driving a hundred thousand dollars of truck and trailer brings, that you arrive at your destination so physically and mentally exhausted that you cannot enjoy the destination.

We did this multiple times, especially when the kids were little. We pushed so hard to reach the destination, that when we finally got there, I was so exhausted from the long drive, I could not enjoy the first couple days. They kids wanted to "go, go, go!" My wife and I were so "pooped" we just wanted to vegetate and recover. And actually, the activities we engaged in with the kids .... today in memory ... is just a blur! Our minds were so exhausted, we couldn't absorb the moment we drove so far to see and do.

When the kids no longer traveled with is, we slowed down. We found longer trips, like distances of a thousand or two thousand miles or longer worked a LOT better if we traveled day 1 and stopped. Day 2 stayed at that destination. Day 3 travel to the next stop over and stay put. Day 4 enjoy that rest day, and day 5 travel again ... and keep repeating. Of course, this works well if you have the time.

Another thing ... in all your best laid plans... on an average, you will actually travel only 50 miles an hour. If you plan on 400 miles a day, you should plan your actual time between campsites to take at least 8 hours. Your driving speed may be 65 mph, but in reality, it will all average 50 mph because of breaks, fuel stops, food stops, and ..... don't forget ... along the journey you may want to stop and see something you didn't expect.

I remember clear one time traveling, my wife was snoozing and I kept seeing this sign, mile after mile for a restaurant that served "foot high pie". She was still snoozing when I pulled into that little restaurant. She was surprised I stopped and when she found out why, she was delighted.

Well, the pie was not a "foot high", but it WAS a good 8 inches!

That is an awesome story! What I remember when traveling with the kids were all the potty stops. I'm hoping that with this first trip being mostly interstates, and adding time for going through major metro areas like Dallas, 400 miles will work. I'm going to do almost 500 on day one, but we're going to stop there for two days. The next 4 days are at or under 400 miles. The RV Pro app is saying 6-7 hours. We are early risers and if we leave a place at 0700, we should get to the next place by 3 or 4.

I do want to hit a rally but this year, we already booked a week at Petaluma for our annual wine-country stop

 

[Jerart]

Hello Craig and Mary
We usually use google and figure on driving about 6 hrs 7 max and look for campgrounds in the morning while on the road and call them as we get closer in case we get tired of run into a problem we don't have to cancel never had any problems a lot of campgrounds have an over flow area for 1 night
Stay

 

[bigred715]

We've made 2 cross country trips of 2months each. I always made all my reservations AHEAD of time so I know where we would be. Never went more than 300 miles per day and were set up by late afternoon. We were retired and didn't want to rush our trip and knew what things we wanted to see. Sometimes we could have used more time, but usually 3-5 days in one spot was enough. 7 to 8 hours of driving would have been way too much and we did not want to be looking for a RV spot late afternoon. I researched the spots we wanted to stay at by using Good Sam RV campgrounds that listed amenities and star ratings. It worked fine for us.

 

[JABURKHOLDER]

A line from The Hunt For Red October, “the ruskies don’t take a dump without a plan”

I don’t travel anywhere without a plan or a reservation. Spontaneity is for the young. At my age, I don’t need the stress of not knowing where I’ll spend the next night or two or three.

 

[Maury-MOC]

Another Thought -

Hi - We're starting our cross country trip in a few weeks being new retirees. I'm not sure where exactly we'd end up stopping each night and was wondering if anyone has experience with last minute reservations being problematic, or if we should just wing it. Thanks in advance

We discontinued full time RV'ing after 15 years and agree with nearly all of what your other respondents are suggesting. Never heard of the "Rule of 3's" but seems a good idea!

One cautionary I did not read was that many, if not most, absolutely discourage RV's leaving before 8:00 as doing so was thought to be inconsiderate of those who would be awoken due to noise being generated by those leaving early.

Finally, do not expect do get through large cities easily just because you are on an Interstate.

 

[GCA-5TH]

Our trip will begin in April 2025 and end next March 2026. Since we don't like surprises we planned the entire year, including campgrounds, harvest hosts, fuel stops, and many of the activities and places to see. For us, planning reduces the stress and we do not like overnighting at truck stops, Walmarts, and Cracker Barrels.
We used a spreadsheet, Google Maps, Trip Wizard by RV Life, RV Parky, and Harvest Host. Seems a bit involved but you can do it all on Trip Wizard.
Were able to get some discounts and now have reservations made for all stops including most of the attractions and parks we want to see.
We'll send the spreadsheet to our family friends so they know where we are or supposed to be at any given time. Most places we stay 3-5 days with a few at 2 weeks and 1 at a month. We tend to limit our time on the road to 6 hours with 4 hours or less being the norm. If you would like a t copy of the spreadsheet, send an email to jkxtreme@hotmail.com.