1st time from NY to Florida in late Feb

[Gddim8]

At the end of the month I'm towing my recently acquired (June 2011) beautiful 25' 2001 Safari from Upstate New York (New Paltz) to Naples, FL. behind a F150 V8. I think it'll take me 3 days at 400+ miles per day.

I'd like some advice on how to arrange overnight stops. Do I plan the trip and make advance reservations? Is there a guide I can obtain that will tell me of stopping places near wherever it is I am ready to stop? I'm not sure I can exactly plan it to look up stopping places on-line ahead of time and make a reservation.

Looking forward to your help!

[MrUKToad]

We did SW Ontario to Orlando in the summer ( on the I75), driving around 400 miles a day and it took two nights, three days. Because that was our first trip we pre-booked our stopovers but I think we may have been OK if we hadn't, both our overnights were in State Parks and they were half empty. Your problem at the moment will be finding campgrounds that are open in the winter. Still, there are truck stops and even Walmart, so I'm sure you'll find somewhere to rest up.

[lewster]

Where are you staying in Naples? That is my main service area........

[karenjude]

If you decide not to make reservations and u have a smart phone, download the All stays camp and rv app. It has built in GPS that follows you on your route and maps out campgrounds, truck stops, gas stations, walmarts on your route. We use it when we don't want to make reservations but go as far as we feel like. We can look ahead and see what's coming up as far ahead as we want. Gives information on the campgrounds including phone number if you want to call for availability. The GPS directs you right to the campground, gas station etc.

[Midnightmoon]

400 miles a day is a good rate to plan for. Just keep in mind that the pace can be drastically altered this time of year due to weather conditions. It wouldn't hurt to have a few intermediate stops at least roughed out before you leave just in case.

[au_ee]

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We hardly ever make reservations very far ahead. We have an iPad and laptop. When we have a better idea how far we might make it for the day we begin looking for nice campgrounds in the area we are likely to stop at. Once we have one located that sounds good we call ahead to see if sites are available. If they sound like they might fill up before we arrive we go ahead a book a reservation. Has worked great for us.

[Wingeezer]

We too are headed for Florida at the end of next week. Wew eiter go to Arizona or Florida each winter for about seven weeks.

We generally don't make any reservations for our trips and certainly not for the travel down.

Pretty much every trip, we try to cover a really good distance on day one - sometimes up to 1000 miles, but Im getting oder now and slowing down! (Don't enjoy night driving as much!)

We invariably stop at a Flying J truck stop for our first night and usually get to territory where it is warm enough to do that without running the furnace continually all night!

I was a bit nervous the first time we tried it but have never (touch wood!) had any problems at Flying J's. They can be a bit bright and noisy, but we are usually so tired it presents no problem.

Second night on the road we can generally find a campground that is open so we get full hookups, flush the plumbing antifreeze, etc.

Sometimes though we have stopped at truck stops two nights running.

If ever we had a problem getting into a truck stop we would just stop in a motel the first night - likely out in the country a bit so they would have room for us to park the trailer.


Brian

[AldeanFan]

We use the NextExit book to keep track of where we are and what's comming up. That way we always know where we can get Gas, Food and a place to stay. I don't like getting way off the highway to buy fuel in a busy downtown so we stop at truck stops. I don't make reservations unless it's a holiday weekend, or I have to be guaranteed a spot.

There are some parks on the way that stay open all year but they won't have the water turned on.

[Paul Ouellette]

Gddim8 : In early Dec, we hauled our C34 from Windsor Ontario, to Bradenton Florida & returned home on the afternoon of New Years eve.

Although you're quite a bit east of us...& our route was totally along the I-75...you may find our method of breaking up the trip useful.

Our first consideration, was that we wanted to travel (as much as possible) during daylight hours...and secondly, as we have mountains to deal with in Kentucky & Tennessee, our first planned stop was to overnight in a Walmart parking lot in Georgetown Kentucky.

It took us about 9hrs to reach this first stop.

The Walmart lot was apparently a popular stop, as we had other RV's beside us when heading southbound & northbound...and I suspect that this is likely because it lies just at the foot of the Kentucky mountains.

Our #2 stop is actually the reason why I'm responding to this thread, because somewhere along your route, you'll be travelling on the I-75 just as we did.

Our second stop is the Fair Harbor RV Park in Perry Georgia Georgia RV Parks - Ga Campgrounds - Ga RV Camping - Pull Thrus WiFi Cable TV

Fair Harbor is south of all the mountains...& the big cities of Atlanta & Macon (both of which we're glad to get past..) and close enough to the Florida border, that our Bradenton destination (& in your case Naples) is within a day's drive.

We find that by splitting the long drive up into three manageable "day hops" & planning meals in advance (I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Popeye's chicken..) a challenging drive becomes manageable & something we're no longer overly concerned about.

Oh, just one more thing...always keep in mind that "Attitude is the difference between an ordeal & an adventure"