How do you choose where to stay?

[FreshAirStmr]

We've been full-timing for 17 months now, but luckily we don't have to work. I second Rocinante's list of resources for camping, but I check Campendium first, AllStays second.

If you plan to work remotely on the road, your first consideration will be adequate cell signal. Forget park wifi, as it mostly doesn't work. We have both AT&T (DH's phone & unlimited Mobley plan) and Verizon (my phone & Jetpack with a grandfathered unlimited plan that we purchased from a reseller last year). Between the two services we almost always have a good signal, yet we still encounter places with no signal (such as here on the Oregon coast in Yachats). Luckily we don't depend on it for work.

This summer, we are beginning to find that often a week in one spot isn't enough time to do everything we want to do. (Remember, when you're full-timing and it's your life, you can't go-go-go every day like you can when you're on vacation.) In winter (November through March), last year and this next year, we stay for at least a month at a place. It's a good time to get things done you can't do when traveling more frequently.

Unlike most of the people who have responded to this thread, we do reservations, even if we ditch them if something better comes along. As the person in our partnership who manages where we'll be, I find that 1) not having to worry from day-to-day or week-to-week where we'll be staying allows me to live more in the moment and to relax, and 2) having reservations has allowed us to stay in the places we want to stay when we want to stay there and in the nicer sites. Often if you don't have a reservation, you take what you can get and for the number of nights you can get it.

It's my impression that the RV life has become much more popular in the last few years and getting good spots has become more competitive. For example, in January, knowing that we wanted to spend the summer months on the Oregon & Washington coasts, I booked every night for June through August and, given the crowds we've encountered, am very happy that I've done that. However, once the kids have gone back to school in September, I won't need so many reservations to feel relaxed. YMMV.

Joanne

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by FreshAirStmr

For example, in January, knowing that we wanted to spend the summer months on the Oregon & Washington coasts, I booked every night for June through August and, given the crowds we've encountered, am very happy that I've done that.

This is good advice, overall. BTW, we found that in WA and OR state parks, even in the peak of summer, if we arrived on a Sunday afternoon and left on a Friday morning we could usually get a decent site without reservations. However, unless the park also had non-reservable sites where we could stay on the weekend, we had to go somewhere else on Friday because the state park campgrounds are absolutely jam-packed Friday and Saturday nights.

[FreshAirStmr]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

This is good advice, overall. BTW, we found that in WA and OR state parks, even in the peak of summer, if we arrived on a Sunday afternoon and left on a Friday morning we could usually get a decent site without reservations. However, unless the park also had non-reservable sites where we could stay on the weekend, we had to go somewhere else on Friday because the state park campgrounds are absolutely jam-packed Friday and Saturday nights.

So what would do on those Friday/Saturday nights? Having to worry about that during the summer when families are out on the weekends in full force would stress me out too much.

But you bring up a good point about non-reservable sites. We discovered how great a concept that is when we ditched our Bullards Beach SP reservation a few weeks ago in favor of a first-come, first-served site at Cape Blanco SP. Yes, we were charged for the first night of our reservation anyway (as I said previously, this cost is worth it to me for peace of mind because if Cape Blanco had been full, we would have had our reservation to fall back to.) But Cape Blanco is truly stunning and we liked it better. And once you're in a site, you can decide every morning whether to keep it another night for a max of 2 weeks. Which we did, so we ended up canceling a second reservation, again at the cost of one nonrefundable night. Again, worth it.

[TravlinMan]

Originally Posted by FreshAirStmr

So what would do on those Friday/Saturday nights?

Head for the hills.

[FreshAirStmr]

Originally Posted by TravlinMan

Head for the hills.

Beautiful!

[FreshAirStmr]

As an addendum to the reservations discussion, we have some friends who arrived yesterday (July 3) in Newport, Oregon without reservations. Now not many people would do that, but they can be forgiven because they're British and forgot about the holiday.

After many calls, they end up for $20 a night in (and I quote) "the overflow of the overflow of the dump area wedged in between the dumpster and the porto john parked next to the crazy family with 3 trucks." But they had a great view of the fireworks tonight!

[NY24]

For Safari Streamer (and others who need help with AllStays): Chris and Jim Gould are the "Geeks on Tour". They have a WEALTH of tech related tutorials and videos on their website:

http://geeksontour.com/2015/08/using...bership-parks/

For a basic start with AllStays, in the upper LEFT hand corner, click "Manual Lookup". You'll get a kist of states and provinces. Click on the state you're interested in and, you'll get an EXTENSIVE list of campgrounds and resources. Click on what intests you and you'll get a list of cities in that state. It's a "Drill Down" system. In the upper RIGHT corner, click on "Filter" and, you'll get a list of resources. Here, you click on the resource you want to appear on your map (KOAs, Walmarts, etc, etc, etc). You do need to play with it to become comfortable BUT, once you spend some time with AllStays, you will get the hang of it. NOTE: you will find it MUCH easier to use AllStays on a large screen tablet rather than squinting at a small phone screen. There is an AllStaysPro that you can use on any browser (on a computer or phone) so, I get to use the 17" HiRez screen on my laptop. The Pro version also has more features than the standard version.

Here's a link to YouTube where you'll find several how-to videos on AllStays:

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ys+Camp+%26+RV

I hope this helps!
John

[DaddysBus]

The ParkAdvisor App on iPhone and campgroundreviews.com are my two go to resources. I toggle between the two to get the most information.

[AnnArborBob]

You've been given lots of good advice so far. In addition, I would encourage you to read some blogs of people who have done what you are contemplating. Below is a list of some good ones that I've found. Go back and read their old posts, poke around a bit and have fun reading all about these various experiences. Some of these are Airtreamers and some are not. The brand of RV is not important to the experiences these people can impart to you. I think you might find this quite informative.

http://www.watsonswander.com/

http://wheelingit.us/

http://www.technomadia.com/

http://rvwanderlust.com/

http://snowmads.blog/

https://nealysonwheels.com/

http://longlonghoneymoon.com/

[urnmor]

First I pick a location to include a RV Park. Then depending on the distance I will pick an area for an overnight stop but not an RV Park. I will look on one of the many sights that do a review of RV parks and pick out one or two to make an overnight stop hoping that there will be availability when I get there. On the ride to our location I will call the parks to see if space is available but will not make a reservation. So far this has worked for me and for the most part has received the anxiety will there be a park or not available.

[Lily&Me]

I think it is most important to plan and reserve ahead if you have a larger rig that cannot get into just any site, and/or if you are particular about your site or want/need certain amenities.

We have always traveled in this rig pretty much without reservations....looking in the morning at what was available where we were headed, calling ahead the day we were due in for a site that night. Rarely an issue, but reserve ahead for a weekend, holiday, or special event.

An advantage to being small, and deciding not to be picky about what we get...in favor of the freedom of less planning. We like that.

Wandering and flexibility are good for some of us.

Sometimes that also means spending a night dry camping somewhere, if nothing is available that we want to spend our $ on. I recently opted for a WM overnight as opposed to $40+ for a Wisconsin State Park.

Further in advance reservations are for areas we know we want to spend time in, special events, etc.

It depends on what you want and need, is what it comes down to, and if you are new to RV'ing it may take a little time to figure that out.

Just get out there...and go.

Maggie

[TravlinMan]

Good thing about holidays is most people like to be around lots of people. So if ya go to the middle-of-nowhere, there's a good chance you'll be all alone like I was this 4th of July. I still saw a spec of fireworks in the distance, but nothin spectacular. Just me, the sound of the rustlin trees and my good friend, solitude. Perfection in my mind.

But ya gotta be the type. I also found bein the type that don't mind heat opens your options a lot. Most folks can't handle not havin ac below 76 degrees so if ya got tougher skin, you'll find a lot of spots that others ain't takin. Works out great for me. Believe it or not, the human body adjust to heat if ya let it.

[Rocinante]

Oops, forgot a couple of helpful apps:
* RV Parky
* RV Parks

[Hans627]

Originally Posted by TravlinMan

Head for the hills.

May I ask where this picture was taken? What a beautiful spot.

It would make a great ad for Airstream and/or RAM.

[TravlinMan]

Hi Hans, thank you, it was a perfect home for the July 4th holiday it is near Mancos, Colorado in San Juan NF. Details in my 'tell me where to go' thread.

Thank you.

[TravlinMan]

Whoops wrong thread. But here's a nice pic for y'all cause I don't know how to delete it.