How do you search for your destination?

[James75]

Just wondering what resources you use for finding a new park to visit. Are there websites that share good info on parks by state? Maybe ones that have reviews by the Rving community themselves? Where do you all share your favorite spots at here?

 

[thelazyl]

I use Good Sam's trip planner and have been reasonably pleased with it.  It takes a bit to get used to it and I just read that on April 1 they are rolling out an easier to use version.

 

[Joezeppy]

http://www.campgroundreviews.com lets you narrow your search by state and then city or just zoom in on the map near your destination to see the individual campgrounds.

 

[Larry N.]

I've been using Allstays Camp & RV for years, but it's no longer available on Android, last I heard. It's still available for iThings, to the best of my knowledge.

Update: I just looked at the Allstays web site. They're iOS only, now.

 

[jackiemac]

There are several.

We use Good Sam too. Also try

https://www.campendium.com

https://freecampsites.net

https://www.forestcamping.com

https://www.blm.gov/tag/camping

Or go to Google maps with your destination and type in camping or RV Parks in the search field.

Most State and National Parks have their own websites with information on the area and camping.

TripAdvisor etc. Can be good tools for what to do....

 

[HappyWanderer]

I think campgroundreviews.com has pretty honest reviews, due to its focus on camping. Sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor is where people go to complain about stupid little things.

Campground websites are a mixed bag. There are some great mom and pop campgrounds with little or no web presence. There are also plenty of flashy websites, often with extreme close up photos that don't actually show anything, where the campgrounds are nowhere as nice as portrayed.

 

[jackiemac]

I think campgroundreviews.com has pretty honest reviews, due to its focus on camping. Sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor is where people go to complain about stupid little things.

Campground websites are a mixed bag. There are some great mom and pop campgrounds with little or no web presence. There are also plenty of flashy websites, often with extreme close up photos that don't actually show anything, where the campgrounds are nowhere as nice as portrayed.

I think TripAdvisor can be handy for finding things to do once you decide where you are going, although course, you have to take a balanced view of the reviews.

I normally look closely at the dates as often the complaints are old as the business has bucked up their ideas or changed hands. I also like when the businesses respond to complaints as it shows they are keeping an eye on how their customers feel about their service.

 

[Isaac-1]

I just wanted to add google and ultimate campground guide to this list

 

[docj]

I think TripAdvisor can be handy for finding things to do once you decide where you are going, although course, you have to take a balanced view of the reviews.

I normally look closely at the dates as often the complaints are old as the business has bucked up their ideas or changed hands. I also like when the businesses respond to complaints as it shows they are keeping an eye on how their customers feel about their service.

One relative advantage of campgroundreviews.com over TripAdvisor is that TA is "city based" in that if you enter the name of a city it will give you back all the campgrounds, hotels or things to do in that city.  We use it a lot for "Things to Do" but if you're in an area with lots of small towns or even named jurisdictions around a major Metro area it often will not return those on a search unless you know to search for it in that named area.

As an example, there's a National Videogame Musuem in Frisco TX which is on the north side of the DFW metroplex.  If you use TA to search for museums in Dallas it won't come up as a result unless you know to search in Frisco or already know the name of the museum and search for it.  There's no way that I'm aware of to display a map view of all the "things to do" in a particular area.  (If you're wondering why I chose this absurd example, it's because my son lives in Aubrey TX which is near Frisco and we've been to that museum! ;D )

By way of comparison, CampgroundReviews is map-based and you can expand or shrink the map to see CGs and RV parks in whatever region you are interested in.  The text search feature also provides all parks in whatever search radius you provide regardless of the named area they are located in.  I simply find this an easier way to discover CG's and RV parks near me.

 

[ChasA]

I like the RV PARKY app a lot.

 

[James75]

I?ve had the chance to look through some of these so far. Thanks and I like the campground one. Lot of links to look at!

 

[blw2]

I've been using Allstays Camp & RV for years, but it's no longer available on Android, last I heard. It's still available for iThings, to the best of my knowledge.

Update: I just looked at the Allstays web site. They're iOS only, now.

or online with a browser.  that's the way I access it now.

 

[docj]

I?ve had the chance to look through some of these so far. Thanks and I like the campground one. Lot of links to look at!

FWIW if you're talking to other RVers about this, most of them will know it as RVParkReviews.com because that's the name it's been known as since it's inception.  The change to CampgroundReviews was rather recent.  The links to the old name still work and some users may not even notice that the name has been changed.

 

[jackiemac]

FWIW if you're talking to other RVers about this, most of them will know it as RVParkReviews.com because that's the name it's been known as since it's inception.  The change to CampgroundReviews was rather recent.  The links to the old name still work and some users may not even notice that the name has been changed.

Didn't know that!  We like that one too...

 

[Joezeppy]

LOL - I actually typed "rvparkreviews.com" into Chrome to be sure I got the right link and did not even realize it redirected to the new name when I pasted the link in my post. Shows you how much I pay attention!  :

 

[Lou Schneider]

or online with a browser.  that's the way I access it now.

I find Allstays' online interface to be clunky and almost unusable.  When I've tried to search for a campground it often resets to the default view instead of what I've zoomed in on, forcing me to restart the search from scratch.

I prefer using campgroundreviews.com and freecampsites.net.