Best way to make camp reservations

[SLO karen]

Hi all,

We're new to this forum, and new to Airstreaming... We were so excited to buy our Safari, but now we're dismayed at the process of making reservations at campsites!! Is it me, or is everything booked out for the next 6 months?

What is the best way to make reservations for campsites?
How do you find out about cancellations?

Can anyone recommend a good way of 'organizing' making reservations 6 months out?

Any help is great. Thanks so much!

[blmitch5]

What sites are you using?

[webspinner]

Different sites have different policies and popularity.

For example, Yosemite opens reservations one month at a time on the 15th of each month. Their server crashes all morning and many, if not most, spaces are filled by the end of that day. Reservations open up 4 months in advance, so you would call on May 15 for dates from September 15 to October 15.

Other places have different policies. If you can plan that far ahead, map out your summer travel plans, at least to the hot spots, in the dark, dreary days of winter. You can then research how to get the spaces you want.

[ASwifey]

Depends on where you want to go. There are lots of great places to camp within an hour of you there in SLO.

[SLO karen]

Mostly, we have been using Reserve America.
Is that the best one, or is there a better one?

[SLO karen]

@ ASWifey~
I know. We just did a 'practice' trip, very close by. (Lake Lopez)
However, we're interested in camping at Refugio or El Capitain this summer or fall. I'm flexible with our dates, but it still seems that everything is taken.

[blmitch5]

Here are some links.
Federal recreation, camping and tour reservation information - Recreation.gov


Campgrounds and Camping Reservations - ReserveAmerica

California Campgrounds and Camping - ReserveAmerica

Also many states have good reservation sites but some others are just plain bad.


good luck and post some pictures when you can,

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, we don't usually make solid plans, except for Rallies. Most always, we drive to where we are going and they always seem to have room for us. Some state parks we have gone to, we make reservations on the internet and choose the actual space that we want from their site map. So basically, we don't make reservations.

[SLO karen]

@ webspinner~
Thanks for your advice. But how do you find out what the policies are of each campground? How would I learn if the reservations are 1 month out, 4 months out, or 6+ months out?

Is the 15th of each month pretty 'standard' for opening up blocks of reservations?

[SLO karen]

@ BLMitch5

Thanks so much! I will bookmark those sites.

[blmitch5]

Most are open now and will take reservations for the season. It really depends where you want to go. On rec.gov they will have the policies on each campground page. Maybe try reserveamerica for California.

[SLO karen]

@ Robertsunrus~
Huh. So basically, you just go and hope for the best?

Did I mention that I'm kind Type A?? ha ha (but seriously. I am.)

[ASwifey]

It's hard to get reservations in a state campground unless you book 6 months in advance. But there are lots of privately owned campground to book in the meantime. You might think about purchasing a great campground book like the Moon guide for California, Washington, and Oregon. We camp alot in Pismo Coast Village. Or you can just do an internet search for campgrounds in the area that you interested in. There are lots of great options in the SLO area.

Like I said it depends on where you want to go. Reserve America is for governemnt
campgrounds, alot of these are first come first serve.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by SLO karen

@ Robertsunrus~
Huh. So basically, you just go and hope for the best?

Did I mention that I'm kind Type A?? ha ha (but seriously. I am.)

Hi, yes we do. My brother told us about a full hook up campground at the North Rim of Grand Canyon, but when we got there it was closed for the season. Right up the street we found a boon docking site and stayed there. We went to South Dakota in October and most camp grounds were closed for the season, but we found a nice place that had 120 spaces. We were the only ones there. We have never been without a place to stay.

[webspinner]

Originally Posted by SLO karen

@ webspinner~
Thanks for your advice. But how do you find out what the policies are of each campground? How would I learn if the reservations are 1 month out, 4 months out, or 6+ months out?

Is the 15th of each month pretty 'standard' for opening up blocks of reservations?

We're not ones to head out and see where we end up. Hopefully, we'll have that freedom later when we're not trying to cram our visits inside short vacations. I'm probably on the overplanning end of the spectrum at this point. I dont' want to get home and say "Oh, we missed X. I wish I'd known before hand."

We generally pick one or two main places we want to visit and start doing research just on those places. If I can't find the information on how fast they book up from looking at the campsite webpage, I find an online forum where I can ask questions. We are usually planned and booked for the year by March at the latest.

If there are only a few places to research, it doesn't take that much time. Thank goodness for Google.

[Road Geezer]

We're new AS owners; bought ours in February. Next weekend will be our 7th weekend trip. While we're TT newbies, we've tent camped for more than 40 years. It's not rocket science, so here are some suggestions:

1. Dry camping opens locations such as FS campgrounds--buy a guide at Amazon--whose facilities consist of water spigots and "vault"--read pit toilets. Some of these campgrounds are in beautiful locations; they're just not particularly popular because they don't have amenities. Consider dry camping at places like these, particularly for a weekend. Managing your gray water will allow 2 to 3 people two days easy w/out dumping. A gen set helps; if you don't need AC, get a 2kw ultra quiet model to charge batteries. We have a Yamaha.
2. Don't plan to visit popular campgrounds in high season, pick out-of-the-way sites. There are many coastal campsites that may have openings; we reserved an ocean view site at Salt Point near Jenner three weeks ago for this coming weekend. I hadn't even heard of Salt Point until I saw it when scanning a AAA road map.
3. Research, research, research. We have probably 5 or 6 RV and camping guides. You'll finds listings in one that are not in others. Surf county and city web sites in areas of interest; I've found small RV parks not listed elsewhere. Augment web surfing with real, old fashioned maps from AAA; I continually find locations I missed on the www.
4. Some--I don't know how many--campgrounds on Reserveamerica don't take reservations for all their sites. They save a proportion for walk-ons. Kirk Creek is an example; I believe they only allow 1/2 the sites to be reserved in advance. Experience tells me that the reserved are usually the best, but it's still Kirk Creek and I don't think there's a bad site in the campground.
5. Until the NPS gets control of the ticket scalpers, Yosemite's a lost cause. There are private campgrounds outside the park, but I have never stayed in them.

Hope this helps ...

[Road Geezer]

Pardon me if this is a duplicate post; I'm still learning how to reply and the original instance of this post is attached to another message "out there" somewhere ... With that said, here goes again...

We're new AS owners; bought ours in February. Next weekend will be our 7th weekend trip. While we're TT newbies, we've tent camped for more than 40 years. It's not rocket science, so here are some suggestions:

1. Consider dry camping, particularly for a weekend. There are many many FS campgrounds with minimal amenities--read pit toilets and water spigots that are in beautiful locations. Managing your gray water will allow 2 to 3 people two days easy w/out dumping. A gen set helps; if you don't need AC, get a 2kw ultra quiet model to charge batteries. We have a Yamaha.
2. Don't plan to visit popular campgrounds in high season, pick out-of-the-way sites. There are many coastal campsites that may have openings; we reserved an ocean view site at Salt Point near Jenner three weeks ago for this coming weekend. I hadn't even heard of Salt Point until I saw it when scanning a AAA road map. You can get inexpensive park and FS campgound guides at Amazon.
3. Research, research, research. We have probably 5 or 6 RV and camping guides. You'll finds listings in one that are not in others. Surf county and city web sites in areas of interest; I've found small RV parks not listed elsewhere. Augment web surfing with real, old fashioned maps from AAA; I continually find locations I missed on the www.
4. Some--I don't know how many--campgrounds on Reserveamerica don't take reservations for all their sites. They save a proportion for walk-ons. Kirk Creek on Hwy 1 is an example; I believe they only allow 1/2 the sites to be reserved in advance. We stayed there just before the washout without a reservation. We planned our travel to arrive there in the morning around 10. Got a beautiful site. Experience tells me that the reserved are usually the best, but it's still Kirk Creek and I don't think there's a bad site in the campground.
5. Until the NPS gets control of the ticket scalpers, Yosemite's a lost cause. There are private campgrounds outside the park, but I have never stayed in them.
6. Visit city and county web sites in areas you want to visit. You may find descriptions of small private, city and county campgrounds--parks--that are not listed elsewhere.

Hope this helps ....

[SLO karen]

@ everyone~
Thanks for all the helpful feedback and advice.

**I will buy --not one, but several-- guide books. So interesting (and aggravating) that different information is in different books.

**I will continue to troll and surf www. sites but won't rely solely on them.

**I have accepted the fact that some of the places we really want to see will have to wait until next year and beyond. In the meantime, we'll 'practice' and have fun along the way.

**Word of mouth. I'll continue to ask around (on forums and people in real life) for recommendations on popular and obscure campgrounds.

Thanks!!

[Davern1]

A few years ago here in California, it was our practice to go to our destination on a Wednesday or Thursday without a reservation. We would always get a spot and could generally stay a few days or up to the two week maximum. We typically do a lot of camping in the Sierras. At that time, maybe 15-20% or each campgrounds spots were reservable. Now the US Forest Service has contracted with Reserve America and most campgrounds we frequent have at least 80% of their spots reservable. It's too much in my opinion as people don't show, you cant just go and find a spot. If there is a spot open its reserved the next day and so on. It's much harder to find spots nowadays.

Anyway, if you are looking to get away later in the month. Camp Edison at Shaver Lake is nice at this time of year. Probably a couple hours from you in SLO.

[TBRich]

You'll get the hang of it with a little practice...when we first started camping we felt we had to know where we'd land every night of a trip... Now, after some experience, and comfortable with dry camping and boon docking, we are more relaxed in some in our scheduling and we don't feel we have to make reservations everywhere we are headed, and don't have to have hookups if it doesn't work out. You will learn to know when you need to make reservations and when you don't really need them.

For instance, we are going to be in Flagstaff to meet some friends over a specific weekend in June. We made reservations at a KOA where we are all meeting. After that weekend with friends, we are moving to a campground near Flagstaff on our own, where we have camped several times before. The first time we went there we made reservations...then then the next two times we did not...and barely go in, even though half the campground is first come first served and we arrived there early in the week. It's a popular place, so now we know that if we really want to be sure we have a space at that campground for a specific period, we know to make reservations ...

After that campground, we are going to shift into "play it by ear mode", moving to another area of Arizona where there are lots of national forest campgrounds, several of which do not even take reservations. We will arrive on a Friday because we know it will get busier as we get closer to the weekend, but we are fairly certain we will have no trouble finding the perfect site. If it's a holiday weekend, that changes and we know we must get there by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest to be sure to have a site since most do not take reservations. It can sometimes be a little more stressful in situations where the campground is strictly first come first served (especially if it's a favorite destination for folks from a nearby metro area).

Another trick we use is to make reservations for one of the destinations we want to hit, then scout neighboring campgrounds, either for a future trip to the same area or for a move in a couple of days...find out how busy they are, etc, etc. We often call a campground the day before (if it's a state park and there is a way to contact the folks manning check-in)...

Much of what your asking for guidance on depends on where you want to go and whether you need to be somewhere at a specific time...and of course, how much time you have to play with. We have been turned away a couple of times, but it's usually been because it's a holiday situation or there is something going on in the area and campgrounds are especially busy because of it.

If you go to the campground's website you can read about their policies, if they take reservations — and sometimes important — how many campsites they have and how many of those are reservable and how many are non-reservable. If it's a large campground with lots of non-reservable sites, your chances of nabbing one is better.

A good thing to remember is that in first come first served situations, you always have the option of extending your stay there if you decide. We usually pay for 2 or 3 nights, and then pay for more if we decide we want to stay longer ... (This may not be so easy if it's a reservations system, because the day your reservations ends someone else's may be starting.)

It can be a balance of several factors, but you will learn the ropes...especially if you spread your wings a little, be willing to play it by ear when you can, and set out to have an adventure! Research, research, research ... and try to have a plan "B"... in case the campground you are aiming for is full when you get there.