We do the State Park thing, so yes, we make our reservations 9 mos ahead of time to be able to get our pick of sites.. We only go on long 4 day weekend trips because that's what we like to do.. Would love to be able to simply hit the road and be gone for a month or so, but that's not in the cards yet..
Anyway, we just pick a weekend and reserve it. If something comes up on a weekend we are camping, well.... We go camping... I've only had to cancel a reservation one time in 9 years, so it works for us..
Mitch
*Anything I post is for entertainment purposes only and what usually works for me.. Your Mileage May Vary..
We make reservations like others do for particular spots that we like and are also very popular with others.
One of the advantages of making reservations for a planned extended trips is that you will always have a spot for that evening and you can spend extra time on route stopping at points of interest or things that you see along the way without having to be off the road by a certain time of day to assure yourself a spot.
A holiday is not a holiday if you are hurrying from one spot to another(to assure yourself a place for the evening) without seeing all the things you may enjoy along the way.
If in areas where boon docking is allowed than reservations are not a requirement.
AC09 wrote: Do you make reservations everytime you hit the road with your RV? I work alot and have very few days off that are cosecutive. Sometimes when I do have days off I feel like telling the Wife pack up and let go!! IMO sometimes planning a trip too much and too far out kind of takes some the fun out of it, but on the other hand not planning or reserving a spot can be a real pain too.
when younger hubby and I worked very hard to pay off house and all that, not alot of days off. volunteered for overtime alot.
I had a list of top 10 cgs within a 2 hr drive. When the time hit and we realized we had X days in a row off, one of us would say---lets go. a 2 second phone call got us a reservation in one of these places and off we went in a split second.
reason we didn't wing these trips was because time was so short. I didn't want to drive around trying to find a place to land. I wanted to land and have fun/relax
if we have longer trips we make the destination reservation, in between who knows and we don't care. there is always somewhere to stop and sleep/rest.
We always make reservations. Some of the campgrounds near Tucson even have pictures of each campsite. We usually get to the campground after dark on a Friday night after the rangers go home for the night. It is much more relaxing to just drive up to a prepaid reserved campsite. We still have to go up to the visitor center the next morning to let them know we have arrived and fill out paperwork.
As a boy on the western Kansas farm , my Pa had a saying, 'if you want good clean oats, they come with a price. If you are ok with oats that have been through the horse, well, they are cheaper.
Equate this philosophy to camping. Call ahead to reserve a fine site, or wait and get leftovers. Except that the Leftover will be pricier, due to demand. You get less for more.
Also consider that when you visit areas more than a few hours drive away from large cities, that weekdays could be as busy as weekends.
Well sometimes we make them an hour or two ahead. Other than that, almost never make reservations. In over 200,000 miles, that was only a small inconvenience ONCE. We had to go to next CG down the road.
Chuck
Wonderful Wife
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2010 Outback 230RS Toybox, 5390# UVW, 6800# Loaded Not yet camped in Hawaii, 2 Canada Provinces, & 2 Territories I can't be lost because I don't care where this lovely road is going
Ok thanks to all for the replies... I have made up my mind that although sometimes I wold love to wing it I believe it is best to make resvervations. So I have 5 days off coming up the second week in April. The wife has never been to Vegas so since I am a DOD employee I found areally nice, inexpensive CG at Nellis AFB gonna be kind of a long trip (300 miles) but we are going to stay for 3 nights so it should be nice.
The need seems to vary inversely with gas price. I haven't been someplace popular this time, but the last time gas prices were this high I noticed a definite drop in the crowds, so I stopped making reservations.
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