Advance reservations or not

Another newbi question to you experienced travelers.

We are planning our first extended trip of about 1,600 miles one way and wonder how you handle scheduling places to stay. I figure each day covered distance will vary depending on roads traffic etc. so figuring where we will be each evening will be difficult. Also, those unexpected side trips to something that looks interesting will throw a schedule off. Do you just go as far as the day allows and around early afternoon try to figure where will be by evening, then search possible RV spots and call for reservations OR, just show up and hope for the best? I am a wimp and don't like driving more than about 6-7 hrs per day, as in leave around 9am, set up camp around 3-4 pm.

That's what we will do a lot. We use the Allstays app and usually will start looking and calling ahead while stopped for lunch. I hate just popping in and hoping for the best. I'd rather keep driving towards a known good destination than to keep pulling off and back on the highway looking for a place to stay.

We only do around 300 miles a day when we are moving which makes it easy to call ahead for a spot to stay the night. That also allows for a stop to site see along the way if we so choose. We find this system a very relaxing way to travel.


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We've done all of those ways, and like has been mentioned we usually only go about 300 miles and only travel during the week. When we are traveling, the night before I'll scout out something about 300 miles out & have their info ready then DW will call sometime in the afternoon to see if they have anything open. We like to do it this way in case we see something "shiny" along the way and spend too much time looking. We've also just drove to the campground without a reservation, or calling. Sometimes with state/federal parks you've got to make a reservation a few days ahead & they won't save you a spot if you call the day before, or on the day of. There are exceptions to the rule, though. Around a holiday, or in an extreme touristy area, especially in the summer, we'll call & make reservations.

We always plan and make reservations ahead of time. We use rvparkreviews.com to help us pick out places. I can only think of one or two times in 8 years of rving where we had to change our reservations last minute due to unforeseen circumstances.

We still work so we have to get there and get back, so it's usually not a leisurely trip.

We try to go 250-300 miles if we can. We've pushed it before, we try not to!

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What you are describing is why my current rig is completely self contained. I don't have to find an rv park or hookups for the night. We like to "wing it" head out and see where we are at abt 3-4PM and look for a spot. Nothing found, no big deal. A parking lot or roadside park will do. Truckstop also, spent several night in those in a big rig so don't worry me. Lots of options if you are self contained.

avvidclif said:

What you are describing is why my current rig is completely self contained. I don't have to find an rv park or hookups for the night. We like to "wing it" head out and see where we are at abt 3-4PM and look for a spot. Nothing found, no big deal. A parking lot or roadside park will do. Truckstop also, spent several night in those in a big rig so don't worry me. Lots of options if you are self contained.

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Ditto...Rest stops, truck stops, and Casinos...All have good security in their own ways.

avvidclif said:

What you are describing is why my current rig is completely self contained. I don't have to find an rv park or hookups for the night. We like to "wing it" head out and see where we are at abt 3-4PM and look for a spot. Nothing found, no big deal. A parking lot or roadside park will do. Truckstop also, spent several night in those in a big rig so don't worry me. Lots of options if you are self contained.

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But you have a generator! We don't. Girl gotta have her ACs and guy gotta have his TV!


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The first thing you do after you take your pills in the morning is look at the internet and find out where you want to camp that for the next night and call them up and leave a message and tell him that you'll be there at 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon and then call him up around mid-morning and see if they're up and if they're hungover and confirm the reservation. It's a tried-and-true process.

R E Siemon 2015 BH 3875 with a 2015 F250 Diesel

TravelTiger said:

But you have a generator! We don't. Girl gotta have her ACs and guy gotta have his TV!


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Understood, just saying what was on my list.... BTW didn't you have the Elkridge last time I saw you, did you sneak in an upgrade???

Howdy!

We've been fulltiming for ten years now and we tipically only make reservations during the big three (Memorial Days, Fourth of July and Labor Day) as they will be booked up. Our travel days are Monday-Thursdays not weekends and start out about 0900 or 1000 and stop about 1600hrs somewhere about 200 miles or less. The stopping time lets us get off the road before five o'clock and get a good site before others reach their driving limits and also before all the good sites are booked up are the parks are full. We're not on vacation so we take our time and enjoy the trip. A good free app to find RV campgrounds, Walmart's etc.. is RVPARKY.COM it will show you what your looking for around you or on you route.

"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon

avvidclif said:

Understood, just saying what was on my list.... BTW didn't you have the Elkridge last time I saw you, did you sneak in an upgrade???

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No Clif, we had the Big Country in Quanah. Bought Jan of 2016.


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This winter we did approx. 2800 miles each way to Arizona and back. I planned our trip in about 300 mile segments and plotted anticipated stops accordingly. Trip down included stays at a Casino, a couple of Walmarts, a rest centre and several campgrounds. In the fall on our way down we did not make reservations as it was not busy camping season. We would call ahead on the day of arrival to make sure they had sites. On the way home in the spring there were a lot more rigs on the road so we would call a day ahead and make a reservation. We do avoid major cities on week days (for example we planned our return such that we drove through Dallas on Sunday rather than Monday) Weather can also affect your plans and indeed it did on our return so we stayed extra nights twice to avoid storms ahead of us. In those cases if the next planned stop was a campground we let them know we were delayed and moved the reservation accordingly.

Two days a week I get to drive on I-25 in Denver during the morning and afternoon parking lots (ie.- rush hour traffic), and I'm always amazed how many campers & RV's I see stuck in 'the parking lot'.

I generally plot my course of action to miss out on these traffic jams.

When we head out in a couple of weeks for an HOC Rally in New Mexico we'll be hitting the road around 10 a.m. after the morning rush is over and should get us through the other two big towns on that leg of the trip (Colo Springs & Pueblo) before the evening rush.

I also have the RVParky, KOA, Good Sam's and a couple of other good apps, plus my Rand McNally RV-GPS unit has campgrounds and lots of other stuff programmed in.

TravelTiger said:

No Clif, we had the Big Country in Quanah. Bought Jan of 2016.


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OTD, that's my story and I'm sticking to it....