RV Trip Wizard - anybody have any experience with it?

Hi -
Well, some of you may know (and be sick of my questions about) that I am planning our first big trip.  Starting in Toronto area,  it was going to include Indy, IN, Memphis, Nashville, Greenville, Washington, and Finger Lakes, but I'm taking the advice I received here and not trying to fit all of that into 16 days.

I found this site on the web - it's a subscription service - www.rvtripwizard.com and it looks like the kind of tool that is right up my alley.  Has anyone used it?  Any pros or cons?

This is not trolling for customers, in case anyone thinks that.  You can just see from my questions lately that it's a legit question  ;D

Michele

Michele-

I followed your link to their website.  It looks interesting, but I wouldn't pay 37 bucks a year to subscribe.  I use the Allstays Camp & RV app on my iPad, which seems to provide most or all of the same info in an interactive map format, but it doesn't plan your trip for you.  But it's also just a one time $5 fee (or whatever the current price is).

Perhaps someone with more direct experience will respond.

I bought the thing a few months back. Figured to test it out and see how it works.
Well, one thing of note. Almost every single park that I found with the thing and tried to look into arranging a stay seems to be no more. Admittedly, I was limited in the area, looking for something along the limits of first day out from Boulder County, CO, but of 15 sites I checked, only 3 appear to be still in operation. Most of the others, the website is now defunct, and several that I called were wrong numbers. Many show a Good Sam logo, but they do not show up in the Good Sam directory. Same with KOA - There were two that are indicated and KOA sites, but they are also defunct.
Not a good start.

Google Maps has, so far, proved to be far more accurate for finding active sites.
The only thing useful that I have identified, so far is that you can set your expected daily range, and it will show your range (minimum, maximum and middle on the map. This can be useful.

I would NOT recommend paying their fee, based on what I have, so far.
 

Wow, surprising the negative comments.

I'm in my second year and I love it.  But I'm a compulsive planner.

Just completed a trip from Alabama to Yellowstone and back.  Planned every stop before we left.  Of course it changed the minute we rolled, but we had good dates to make reservations for the key places (Durango, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Moab, Yellowstone.)

I used to use Streets and Trips.  They put little symbols on the map for where your planned time came up.

With RV Trip Wizard, you have concentric circles to see where you want to stop, and icons for the various campground, Walmarts....

Yes, occasionally there is a missing campground or a campground that isn't there.  The more we use it and report those things, the better it gets.  They are pretty responsive in adding missing campgrounds. 

Then when you add the stop you get a mileage between stops.

So if you are a compulsive planner like me, you will love it.

If you wake up in the morning, check the weather and then decide where to go today, then start thinking about a campground around 2PM- then don't waste your money.

joelmyer said:

Wow, surprising the negative comments.

I'm in my second year and I love it.  But I'm a compulsive planner.

Just completed a trip from Alabama to Yellowstone and back.  Planned every stop before we left.  Of course it changed the minute we rolled, but we had good dates to make reservations for the key places (Durango, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Moab, Yellowstone.)

I used to use Streets and Trips.  They put little symbols on the map for where your planned time came up.

With RV Trip Wizard, you have concentric circles to see where you want to stop, and icons for the various campground, Walmarts....

Yes, occasionally there is a missing campground or a campground that isn't there.  The more we use it and report those things, the better it gets.  They are pretty responsive in adding missing campgrounds. 

Then when you add the stop you get a mileage between stops.

So if you are a compulsive planner like me, you will love it.

If you wake up in the morning, check the weather and then decide where to go today, then start thinking about a campground around 2PM- then don't waste your money.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that feedback. Will give it a little more time. (I paid for the year, after all.) and see if it is just the area I was targeting. But my first impression tells me that there is a huge learning curve to the app. I won't give up on it too soon.

I use it for routing on long trips easy to rearrange stops, I can import into Google maps, I have found all recourses have some old data, it's not a perfect world. Just another tool in the box. regarding cost, some people spend that on RV toilet paper.

Have used Street Atlas since 1998 but since they no longer update it, bought RVTW. The more I tried to use it, the more headaches I got. They did return my money.

RedT said:

Have used Street Atlas since 1998 but since they no longer update it, bought RVTW. The more I tried to use it, the more headaches I got. They did return my money.

Click to expand...

It is not the most intuitive tool that I have used.

I've been using mine for about three years and it works great for me, especially since they upgraded it.I plan 7 month trips with over 30 stops and 10,000 miles. Easy to adjust days and routes (move them up or down) if you put your fuel requirements in it will tell you it will tell you when to fill up. It's not perfect, but I haven't found anything that is. We also use Allstays and like it a lot also. Rv Park Reviews just put out an app with camp grounds but no trip routing. Will check that out before we leave here.

Revisiting RV Trip wizard.

Seems I must re-learn the thing since the last set of updates.
As before, It is NOT the most intuitive app that I have used, but they have added some new features.
Elevation mapping for your route. That can be VERY useful, particularly out west.

I renewed for another year, and will play with it on our coming road trip to South Florida, then up to Maine.

I started using RV Trip Wizard when I learned that the Good Sam planned was going away and they didn't announce a new date for the replacement.  RV Trip Wizard is an improvement and we are real happy with it.  It's much easier for us to plan a route and "what if" scenarios.  I only have 1 nagging problem - it's calculation for driving time is way off on routes we drive slower because of curves.  I think it uses a static, user entered mph (i.e. 55mph) whether I am driving freeway, highway, or windy narrow country roads.  I am doing to dig in a see if I can figure this out..

thelazyl said:

I only have 1 nagging problem - it's calculation for driving time is way off on routes we drive slower because of curves.  I think it uses a static, user entered mph (i.e. 55mph) whether I am driving freeway, highway, or windy narrow country roads.  I am doing to dig in a see if I can figure this out..

Click to expand...

In the SETTINGS option, there is a tab called DRIVING, where you can set the average speed, it is static indeed.

We are in our 3rd year of using RVTRIPWIZARD and love it, once you did a few trips using it it becomes familiar and easier to use. I always use my start and endpoint to see when I have to reserve the site we want to stay a longer time. When I fill in the campsites in between, the endpoint date will change.

After my trip planning is completed I will print the sheet and keep that to use as a reference so I do not have to load it all the time. (There could be a lack of internet to see my next reservation)

You can change the campsites it will show you (change in settings) and the feature I love most is the radius of miles I want to drive as a maximum.

I started using RV Trip Wizard when I learned that the Good Sam planned was going away and they didn't announce a new date for the replacement.  RV Trip Wizard is an improvement and we are real happy with it.  It's much easier for us to plan a route and "what if" scenarios.  I only have 1 nagging problem - it's calculation for driving time is way off on routes we drive slower because of curves.  I think it uses a static, user entered mph (i.e. 55mph) whether I am driving freeway, highway, or windy narrow country roads.  I am doing to dig in a see if I can figure this out..

Click to expand...

Figure out what your actual average speed is and use that figure instead 55 mph. For me I drive around 62 mph, but at the end of the day with all the slow downs, construction and stops that figure could be closer to 55 mph. Start at 9 am drive 300 miles and stop at 2:30 pm is 55 mph average speed for that day. Instead of using mph I think you can use the number of hours you want to drive.

After about 3600 miles, I think I am beginning to get how to make the best use of RV trip Wizard.
There are some odd limitations to it, but they are mostly easy to get around.

The Elevation tab, a wonderful help. You can use it to find a route that minimizes the hill-climbing. I LOVE that.

I have had problems exporting my route from RVTW to my Garmin. I will have play with it some more while we are hanging out in Maine this month.

the interface between campground info on RVTW and Campgroundreviews.com helps when looking for a campsite.
Every campground we have gone to has been pretty much as we expected.

There can be a problem when you set it to avoid major highways. The definition of "Major Highway" seems a tad fuzzy, and we have encountered some rather interesting detours. Nothing quite as bad as trying to use Garmin in the same mode, but still a bit of an adventure, now and again.

I have found that it can get bogged down when planning a trip and trying to do too much at one time.
After you have settled on a couple of POIs, it seems to work best if you save and logout, and then log back in.
(Though, I think it may also be affected by having other mapping tools open in the same browser session (RV Trip wizard, And Google Maps at the same time.) Experimenting with that a bit, now.

(in my past life, I was a Software Test engineer. So it seems natural to kick the thing around and see what breaks it)

Love it! Been using it for about a year. Indispensable for full timing. The Elevation tab alone is worth the yearly fee, especially when you're traveling out West. It's also linked to the Campground Reviews (http://www.campgroundreviews.com/) website which is very handy, and a recent update makes it easier to plan "What If" routes.

I have found that RV Trip Wizard seems to work much better with Firefox, than with Chrome.
I suspect that it has to do with the latest updates Chrome initiated.