Realistic campground costs for our budget

We're a couple of years out from moving to a full-timing lifestyle and, after working through the income side of things, the budgets people have posted online are very helpful for the expense side.

I'm a bit concerned with the campground costs. At this time, I think we'll start out moving maybe three times a month for 6 months a year and then land close to "home" for the rest of the year. During the longer side of things I can see us paying under $400 a month.

When I look at the areas we'd like to explore during the gypsy six months I see lots of campgrounds that would cost us $30-$35 a night, even with 10 day stays. I see people talking about corps of engineers campgrounds, etc. and they might be just right, but we do want to do some serious sightseeing during those earlier gypsy months of our full-timing. Do I need to budget up over $800 a month during those travels or will we be able to find nice (I'm not talking about high end resorts or anything like that) reasonably priced, 10 nights or so stay campgrounds in, say the New England portion of the country?

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

I suspect you will get a lot of answers to this, probably all over the map (pun intended).

In fifteen months of full timing across the South and West, we have been as low as $12.00 per night (super Corps of Engineers with Golden Age Pass) to $45.50 per night in Moab at the Forum rally. We have found inexpensive, great parks and expensive not so great parks, and everything in between. We do not boondock or park at Wal Mart for no other reason than we have a budget for campgrounds and we pretty much hit it over time.

The costs will be a functions of where you "have" to be, how much you want to shop, length of stay, and what you "have" to have in your campground. We do much better by staying longer for the better rates, and spending a lot of time in a good area, i.e. Yellowstone, the Rockies, etc.

It's a very personal preference, and the more you get out and see, and the more you use other's recommendations and experiences, the easier it gets.

We don't travel New England, but I hear many complain about the prices, sizes, and availability of good sites which will make you shop a bit more than we seem to have to do. No doubt there are many great places to fit your budget constraints and I am sure the others with experience in your area will be able to help you find them.

Good luck and have fun!

Have you looked at Passport America which has CG's that give a 50% discount? The membership when used saves for itself very quickly. Take a look: www.passportamerica.com/campgrounds

Combining Passport America, federal campgrounds with 50% discount, parking in friends and relatives driveways and curbs, and boondocking, we average less than $10 per night. A lot of folks here average less than $15 per night, many using weekly and monthly rates.

Wendy

Thanks for the helpful replies.  I appreciate hearing from people who are really out there and doing it!

I've been a Passport member in the past and had mixed results on campgrounds.  One concern I have is all the restrictions.  For instance, I've been looking at Maine Passport America campgrounds.  Almost all of them have restrictions, including not accepting PA during the months of July and August!  Others limit PA stays to just a few days, etc.  I'd be okay with the PA discount Monday-Thursday and then regular rates on the weekends - the average would still make my planned budget.  I guess I could end up moving around from one campground to another to keep the discounts coming, but I'd hoped to stay put 10-14 days before hooking up and moving.

Again, thanks for responding to my question - I'm still trying to transition between thinking that "someday" we'll fulltime to actually crunching the numbers as to just when that will happen for us.

hi

we have been full timing since july of this year
i keep a spreadsheet of all rv parks we stay at
our average per night cost is $34.95

regards, pdq

We've been full-timing for 11 months and virtually never boondock.  We make our decisions as to where to go without predicating it on the costs of staying in a particular area.  We have used a mix of commercial campgrounds, Corps of Engineers parks, and state parks.  We even splurged on a month in Naples FL and a couple of weeks in Grand Teton NP.  We use Quicken to keep track of our expenses and it verifies that our average over the 11 months has been ~$26/night which demonstrates how $12-20 campgrounds average against those few that cost us more than $40.

If you can get by without hook-ups National Parks, National Historic sites, National Forests, etc. can be the key.  With a disabled or senior pass these sites and many others can be in the $7.50 range. 

If you plan to do New England in the peak summer months, be prepared to pay top dollar. Even June and September will be pricey. Their camping season is very short, consumer demand in summer is high, and usable land is expensive, so RV site prices are quite high with few discounts. Campground owners couldn't stay in business if they gave many 50% discounts, so it ain't gonna happen often. Ditto for places like the Florida Keys, Washington DC area,  South Florida in the winter, etc. If you want to be in the most popular areas, odds are you are going to have to pay the freight.

You won't find many Corp of Engineer parks in New England either, so that source of senior discounts is pretty much out too.

You are better off to arrange your schedule to visit tourist areas in their off season. For the northern US, that's usually before July 4th or after Labor Day. Still lots of nice weather, though.

Gary RV Roamer said:

If you plan to do New England in the peak summer months, be prepared to pay top dollar.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the good information Gary.  I picked New England as my example for two reasons, first, we've only visited there once and got only a taste of the beauty of the area and second, because my limited research turned up only pricey places to stay.  Of course, that's only one destination of many we expect to explore.

On the New England side, it appears to me that instead of the "stay longer/pay less" rule of thumb that due to the Passport America limitations that it may actually be better to move down the road every week to the next campground so one can start the half price deal for another week (even that won't work in several I looked at - they don't offer any breaks in July and August).  If I combine that idea with yours of arriving in June and staying for the leaves to start changing in the early fall, it might be doable on our budget.

If I look at things over the long term of years, knowing that we plan to spend time in the west and northwest where prices are lower, the cost average starts bending down a bit.

Also - geodrake - thanks for the boondocking reminder - we have had very limited experience with boondocking, but what we had was terrific, camped by a mountain stream in Smoky Mtn, NP - so it's on the agenda, for some 7-10 day stays.

Thanks - everyone for the helpful replies!

Passport America is not intended for the RVer that wants to stay in one area for any length of time, it's intended for the traveler that needs an inexpensive campsite for one or two nights before moving on.  For longer stays, many campgrounds have weekly and monthly rates that are significantly lower than the daily rate.

I hate to say it, but unless you boondock quite a bit, I'd expect that $30 per night is a realistic cost estimate. We run somewhat higher than that, but don't really pick spots based on price, but amenities (but rarely resorts). Some State and National parks offer good rates (Texas comes to mind), but most mid range parks are in the $25 to $40 range.
Just my experience,
Ernie

What Gary said. The sites that open in the off season do offer discounts, better a reduced income than none at all, but during high season it's full pop and who can blame them. Still,that is only for a few months.

GRC, There is an ongoing thread that gives us a new method for finding potential inexpensive places to park while we tour, this thread about CA County Fairgrounds: http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=48513.0

If those of us that use this process create a template from the original Excel spread sheet for the fairgrounds we utilize, we will have information helpful to us all.

Wanting to tour in Maine, I Googled Maine County Fairgrounds  and found this from the US Censis Bureau for all states:
https://www.google.com/search?q=maine+county+map&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

I then chose Maine, for a quick list of counties: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/maps/maine_map.html

While there is a great National Park where we stayed in the past, I chose to look at Hancock County in another tab to see if there was a Hancock County Fairgrounds. I found nothing about a County Fairground but the list included Blue Hill. I Googled the Blue Hill Fairground and found this in satellite view: http://maine.hometownlocator.com/maps/bigmap,n,blue%20hill%20fairground,fid,1911423.cfm

I would then call them as it looks like one or more areas are places where RVs might park.

In Kennebec County, I found the Fiber Fair -Alpacas, et., here: http://fiberfrolic.com/index.shtml. It is worth researching further and with a lot of minutes, it is like calling next door. I found that no dogs are allowed during the fair and we travel with ours. I see a trend here but the  Common Ground Organic Fair sounds very interesting and worth checking out.

I have MS Streets & Trips 2010 and the downloaded the free overlays avail in threads on the forum that list many informative locations from Passport America to KOA and COE. This gives me the tools to do more of the trips I want to take. I'm learning to love the hunt and saving $$

Start checking out the fairgrounds ahead of time and happy trails! We also have a site available at our house for framily.

As mentioned above, your cost can be "all over the map" depending on your style.

We are not Fulltimers but Here is ours:

Over the years we almost always boondock (at Wal-Mart, Truck Stocks, free parking lots, parks, etc) when we are traveling and intend to stay only over night and leave early.

I have life memberships with Good Sam, Passport, KOA, State Parks, etc., and we schedule longer camping using Trailer Life, Passport Directory, etc., to get the best options in most areas. When we stay more than a few days at any campground, we get the discounts, often even more for the first few days, sometimes a discount for longer stays, and often when we stay at campgrounds where we are repeat customrs, we ask for and get an additional discount. We always ask for any discounts.

I believe by using these ideas we have saved considerable costs over the past 50+ years. Your life style may allow you to do some of these.

Ned said:

Passport America is not intended for the RVer that wants to stay in one area for any length of time, it's intended for the traveler that needs an inexpensive campsite for one or two nights before moving on.  For longer stays, many campgrounds have weekly and monthly rates that are significantly lower than the daily rate.

Click to expand...

Good reminder on PA Ned. Thanks for that.  I was mostly responding to the suggestions that PA needs to be in the mix if one is budgeting their camping expenses.  Yours is a good point. Obviously, a campground would go broke if they gave non-expiring PA half price nights. 

Bob Maxwell said:

GRC, There is an ongoing thread that gives us a new method for finding potential inexpensive places to park while we tour, this thread about CA County Fairgrounds: http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=48513.0

Click to expand...

Great heads up on that threads and on using fairgrounds for camping.  That's a whole new idea for me.  I've bookmarked the thread and will add that information to my collection of budget possibilities.

Rancher Will said:

I have life memberships with Good Sam, Passport, KOA, State Parks, etc., and we schedule longer camping using Trailer Life, Passport Directory, etc., to get the best options in most areas. When we stay more than a few days at any campground, we get the discounts, often even more for the first few days, sometimes a discount for longer stays, and often when we stay at campgrounds where we are repeat customrs, we ask for and get an additional discount. We always ask for any discounts.

I believe by using these ideas we have saved considerable costs over the past 50+ years. Your life style may allow you to do some of these.

Click to expand...

We've been RV-ing, or in the early days tenting, for a long time, but our preferred destinations have always been state or national parks.  Because of that the discount clubs haven't been on our radar.  I joined PA one year because we were taking an extended camping trip and I knew we'd be on the road several nights during that trip.  Frankly, our results weren't all that great.  To get the discounts we had to call ahead and take a spot sight unseen.  We ended up in some "parking lots" or worse that disappointed us. 

However, there's a lot more information on campgrounds on the internet that there was even a few years ago.  Also, as full timers we'll have a bit different dynamic than we did on that one extended camping trip.  I think we'll follow your approach and get multiple discount club memberships.  I have the idea that they will pay for themselves for a full timer.

Thanks for responding to my question.

    We are not full timers, but over the past 4 years we have set up in one location for 3 to 4 months, and traveled for the next 3 or 4 months.  We rarely boondock, other than on our way south to get out of the cold as quickly as possible.  Also, over the years we have RV'd fairly extensively throughout New England, and it can be pricey.  However, they have an extensive array of National and State Parks that are inexpensive, and offer great sites and locations.  One of our favourites is a State Park in Hingham, MA, a quaint suburb of Boston and less than 12 miles from the Boston Commons.
    Through PA and State Parks we usually average less than $20 per night, but we have found that will vary between areas.  There is no doubt that the western rates are less expensive than the east, but there are exceptions in areas like San Diego, or San Francisco.  I just looked at the ME State park website, and new rates effective Sept 2011 are $25/per night for elec & no sewer, so I guess it may be getting pricier.

Ed

Ed is correct in that state parks are increasing their prices and also closing some state parks.  For example, Arizona and I believe California have closed some.  It's sad, but they just can't keep them open with staffing and maintenance during these hard economic times.  Even the Bureau of Land Management sites like the one we use at Quartzsite AZ increased their rates last year.  It's expensive to provide garbage pickups, toilets, showers, electricity, nice clean sites, dump stations, water, security, and all the other things we like to have available.  Even the minimal places require most of these things so you should plan on higher rather than lower costs just because....

ArdraF