I also use a combination of sources including Trailer Life Directory, RV Park Reviews and USCampgrounds which is a very thorough directory of public campgrounds of all kinds.
I seldom have a single destination but will stay somewhere new each day even if I only have three days to spend. I like to roam and have always enjoyed the journey more than the destination.
2000 Born Free 24RB Class C
6.8L Ford V-10 Engine, E450 Chassis
2002 Honda CR-V toad
Roadmaster Sterling A/T towbar
VIP braking system
Eddyline Merlin kayak
I'm similar to Here'n'There except that it's not gastronomy for us; it's the cultural, historical, social and/or geographic magnificence that determines destination. All else, including accomodations, follows afterwards.
Finding places to go has never been an issue for us.
Visiting friends and family in AB every year. We know the destination and just need to choose the route. Varying the route is half the fun, except for a stop one way or the other at Herbies Drive in in Cache Creek.
Camping near water, fresh , salt does not matter, within a 3 hours of home, we just check which campground has room and go.
Fishing trips from the west coast are an annual occurrence.
The list of places we want to see is longer than our vacation time.
We travel with kids and try to ensure there is one fun kids day every trip. Whether it is a trip to an amusement park, country fair, or concert. Most the rest of the time is relaxing around the camp fire, visiting friends etc.
dave54 wrote: We look to see what the most popular places are -- where gets the most people, the trendy places to see this year.
Then go somewhere else.
Me, too, Dave! And it's helpful to look at those community events calendars carefully. Nothing worse than winding up in the middle of the annual Peanut Festival. (Now, don't get me wrong! A lot of people like these events. I just prefer to avoid them.)
Some times some of the best trips, are ones that are not planned out in advance. Thats part of the "Beauty" of owning a "Fully Self Contained RV".
Some of our best trips, have been just jump into the Motorhome and just go, and see where you end up at.
We usually do moslty all Boondocking. But on no plannned trips, we just go and have fun. We are never at a loss as to find a place to park for the night.
We also normally never make Reservations either. For us anyways, it the Journey that makes Traveling so much fun. It doesn't take much to keep us happy while traveling. We have been at it for a liitle over 45+ years now, and still feel like were going on our first trip.
Good Luck. Happy Travels. Dan & Jill
We also try our best to stay off of Major Roads and Freeways. As there is so much more to see on the back roads. Since we are retired, we don't have any time frames to adhear to, so just going is easy for us.
I just decide where I want to go, e.g., the Olympic Peninsula. The real planning is what do I want to see on the way there and back. I use maps, the net, my travel software, and any other literature for ideas.
Then I just lay out a route with driving time and how long I want to stay in one place. Invariably, I have to tweak the result to stay within the time parameter I have. I don't make reservations and I stay on public lands, no commercial parks. But I dry camp with a small TT so I have the flexibility to do that. My planning is very structured, but the trip itself is whimsical, I tend to wander and only follow the plan in the most general way.
If I had to SEARCH for someplace to go I'd ask if the trip was really necessary. I actually have the opposite problem, that there are so many places I'd LIKE to go and so little time to go there.
2011 F-150 HD Ecoboost 3.5 V6. 2550 payload, 17,100 GCVWR - 2004 F-150 HD (Traded after 80,000 towing miles) 2007 Rockwood 8314SS 34' travel trailer
US Govt survey shows three out of four people make up 75% of the total population