RV Campground Booking: Plan Better Stops

A good day in the RV can unravel at 6 p.m. There’s only one site left, but it’s 40 miles behind you. There’s a sharp turn in the road to the park. Your family is getting hungry. Good campground planning for your trip could well prevent that night from becoming the highlight (or lowlight) of your trip. It would give you somewhere to pull over. And it would open up the possibility of the pie shop on the side of the road, of the byway, of that quirky place you didn’t realize you wanted to check out.

It’s not about booking a campground night months in advance. Nor is it about leaving each stop open. Rather, it’s about thinking about which nights would benefit from being nailed down, which ones could be more flexible and how your trip, route and rig affect that.

Start With the Nights That Matter Most

Some nights at the campground are worth booking as soon as you know your trip dates. Think of peak summer at a national park, coastal campgrounds, big events, the first or last night of your trip and holidays. Sites at these places tend to fill up fast. And a backup could be an hour or two away.

First, book those nights. Then build your driving days in between. That way you’re preserving what brought you on the trip. And you won’t be trying to fit every night of your trip into a fixed schedule. Often it’s the campground that trips up a trip to Yellowstone, Acadia, the Smokies or some stretch of the Pacific Coast. It’s not the drive.

Between those nights, consider leaving yourself options. More often you’ll find open sites at rural campgrounds, small towns and places that welcome overnight travelers. And in midweek, more than on the weekend. With a flexible night in the middle, you could drive off on a detour to check out a historic bridge, a swimming hole or that diner with a bunch of locals in its parking lot.

Know Your Reservation Window

Not all reservation systems open up at once. Some public campgrounds open up six months in advance. Others open up by season, through a lottery or over a shorter period. And rules can vary widely at private RV parks. Often, around holidays, they require minimum stays.

Add to your calendar any key dates when sites might become available. At high-demand parks, being ready when reservations open matters more than refreshing availability later. If your dates are full, keep checking back. People cancel plans in the weeks leading up to their stay. And sometimes they cancel at the last minute. Don’t plan a cross-country trip around one of these.

Filter for Your Rig, Not Just a Pretty View

A picture of a campsite doesn’t necessarily show whether it would work for your camper van, a truck and fifth wheel or a 36-foot Class A. Before you book, look at features of the site that will determine whether you could use it.

Check the maximum size of the site. Compare that with the size of your rig (and tow vehicle, if you have one). A 35-foot site won’t work for a 35-foot trailer and pickup. Check what kind of site it is. Is it pull-through, back-in, angled, gravel, paved, level or narrow?

Pull-through sites can make things easier on arrival. But even if you feel comfortable backing into one, the layout of the campground may well let you use a back-in site. Look at the hookups. If you plan to stay a while, need hot water, do laundry or have a big family, full hookups would be useful here. But they aren’t essential for every night. And if you have sufficient battery and water in your rig, you could do without them.

Then think about the practical extras that can make or break a site:

• Check the electrical service. You can’t use 50 amps where only 30 is available, and vice versa. And does the site have water, or do you need to use a fill station?
• Check breed restrictions, pet policy, walking options, showers, laundry, dump station and bathrooms.
• Quiet hours, hours for using a generator, shade and surface conditions after rain

Check reviews of this site. They often add value to what’s on the site. Look for comments from someone with a rig size and travel style similar to yours. If someone says they didn’t like the Wi-Fi, that would be more important to a working traveler than to a family planning to unplug for two nights.

Make RV Campground Booking Part of Route Planning

The campground should fit the route, not just the map pin. A campground near a destination might sit at the top of a hill, on a narrow road, in a canyon, or 20 miles into town. That might be fine for some rigs; not so great for others.

In planning a day of travel, pick an arrival time that takes into account how travel tends to work in an RV. Don’t think of it in car time. Lunch takes longer in an RV. So does fuel. And sometimes a nice overlook along a route could easily add two hours to a stop. Weather or construction could upend the plan.

If the goal is to get to a campground before dark, there will be daylight to check in, back in, connect utilities and check out the site. Use a map tool that is aware of RVs during the drive in. And read up on the directions to the campground before leaving.

Lots of parks have a recommended route to their campgrounds. Often, the turn off the highway that seems obvious wouldn’t work well for a trailer or motorhome. In Roadtrippers, the route could include the campground, stops along the way, the rig, and points of interest. That way a booking would match the planned drive.

It also helps to look beyond the campground gate: is there a grocery store on the way in? A gas station where a rig could pull in? A beach, trail, museum or main street of the little town nearby? Often the best place to spend the night isn’t the one with the most amenities. Sometimes it is a quiet park within minutes of where the traveler would want to be in the morning.

Keep a Backup Without Overplanning Every Mile

Even when a reservation is made, things can go wrong. Maybe a rig breaks down. Maybe there is a road closure, wildfire or storm. Maybe it is just one of those days when nobody feels like driving.

For key stops on a trip, think of one or two other places within reasonable driving distance. Write down their phone number, whether they will let travelers in late, and whether they will take same-day reservations. This is especially important if driving long stretches of rural road or in peak season.

That way, even if something happens with the original plan, the traveler could drive over to one of the other places. That is what having a backup means. In that case a sensible decision could be made if circumstances change. And there would be no scrambling at day’s end from the side of the road.

Possibilities for a second campsite could be a campground, a city or county park, a fairground or RV parking. They each have advantages and disadvantages. A campground might have hookups and be more peaceful. A parking spot might be useful for a night, but could be noisier, have fewer facilities and would require permission.

Read the Fine Print Before You Commit

Check the rules for each, look at posted limits and don’t assume a traveler could camp in a business lot. There is usually a cancellation charge on bookings, the park might charge one, or changes might need to be made to a booking before arrival. That could well matter if, for example, a trip involves long driving days, a ferry, sensitive weather or other such considerations.

Look at check-in times and what needs to be done to arrive late. Some campgrounds will let travelers in after dark if they speak to the host. Others will close their office and want instructions picked up beforehand.

If planning to arrive late, let the park know. And don’t assume they will have the gate open. Look at minimum stays, fees for extra vehicles, resort fees and visitors or tents.

It is easy, when looking at hookups and dates, to overlook these. But they could well affect a budget and whether a group would be comfortable at the site.

Build in Breathing Room

The fastest way to turn an RV trip into work is to head to a new campground every night. To move camp, travelers have to break down the RV, check the tanks, pack up the inside, drive or tow it, set it up and repeat the next day. Over a weekend, one or two moves could be great. Over a longer trip, two- or three-night stays at one campground could make the trip more enjoyable.

In one place, it is possible to dig deeper into a destination than its most obvious attraction. A traveler could drive the scenic route, unburdened by time. One could stop at the local market. Or a person could spend a free afternoon at the water. With a move every night, the trip is just checking off campgrounds. With a longer stay, there could be a road trip to remember.

Often, people will have long driving days and then lighter days. It depends on the passengers, the driving ability, the range of the RV and whether the traveler likes setting up camp. And there’s no reward for driving more miles.

Often the best campground is not the one nearest the route, or the one with the best photos, or the cheapest. It’s one where a traveler could drive up safely, sleep well and then wake up ready for another part of America.

Plan some time in the trip for that brown sign off the road. Maybe it’s not on the route. But it might well end up being the highlight of the drive home.