Trip Planning

Updated 10/30/16 – I’ll be back later to better organize these into sub-categories.

What we did on our first long trip was use several different sources for trip planning and created a Microsoft Word document for each stop to include the camp site phone number. We did have a day or two with no reservations and just called ahead for a spot from wherever we happened to be. At the time I wished I had a paper highway map that would give an overview of the highway leading around major cities. I could have checked that prior to the days drive however.

Here is a good blog post on finding camp grounds.
Snowbirds.com: Listing by popular states with suggestions where to stay in winter. (11/12/17)
Low Clearance.com: over 7,000 low clearance locations. You can install the database on a GPS as a point of interest. This has to be worth the money I’d think.
Trucker Path: Free app with all kinds of details such as fuel stops with price, low clearance, truck washes, Walmarts and more.
Roadside America trip planning. Find attractions and oddities
Good Sam Club Trip Planner for members.
Atlas Obscura web site to find interesting attractions.
Road Trippers.com: (thanks to On the Move Blog)
Campgrounds.com is another campsite search site.
RV Parky.com is a site to find places to park overnight. I played around with their trip planner and found it easy to use. I started with a trip I knew the best directions for (KC to Branson, MO) and it was accurate.
Mountain Directory: Might have to check into this guide.
Recreation.gov: Federal parks such as Corps. of Engineer camp grounds.
Travel Advisor.com: Tons of top 25 places to visit with reviews. (5/29/15)
RV Park Reviews: As of August 2015 this is the site I’m using to post reviews. I started a thread in the RV Dreams forum to see what others are using. (12/23/14)
Escapees Club: Map of affiliated parks for discounts. (6/1/15)
Passport America: Map of affiliated parks for discounts. (6/1/15)
Ultimate Campgrounds: Over 22,000 US public campgrounds on an easy to use map that is informative such as phone numbers and rates. Favorite of RV Dreams (6/12/15)
Walmart Locator Directory: To find overnight RV parking. (6/16/15)
Guest Rated.com – Another RV park rating system. Enjoyed looking through their top rated parks list. (6/21/15)
BringFido.com: Trip planning and attractions for dogs. (7/2/15)
Campendium.com: Campground locator, National Parks and more. (7/20/15)
Freecampsites.com: Another favorite of RV Dreams. Easy to use map which includes some inexpensive places to park/camp. Can give permission to use your location. (7/24/15)
Bing Maps: A simple Microsoft product on the internet. Helps to check distances . Added benefit is gives roads under construction. (7/24/15)
Elks Lodge: Or Database: RV Parking for members (7/2615)
Rover.com: Finding a pet sitter where you can drop the dog off. (8/9/15)
Casino Camper.com: Camping directory sorted by state and more. (9/15/15)
National Park Senior Pass: Yearly fee if under 62 years old, otherwise lifetime pass for $10. Saves camping fees at Corp,. of Engineer locations and park entrance fees. (9/21/15)
USAcampgrounds.com: 13,000 public camp grounds. Also a good place to gauge what size camper you might want as size limits are listed. Their user interface takes getting used to so don’t get frustrated. (10/5/15)
US average temperature and rainfall by city (1/4/16)
Way Cool Google Street View player. You put in a starting and ending location and it shows a virtual drive of the route – amazing. (1/4/15)
Reserveamerica.com: Reservation system for state parks and more campgrounds. (3/21/16)
Restaurant.com: Buy discounted coupons. (3/27/16)
Allstays App: I keep hearing people think the $10 price is worth it and this is a main resource they use for checking spots along their route.
WunderMap: Excellent map of everything weather related to include forest fires. (8/10/16)
Freecampsites.net: Easy to navigate and great lists with reviews of free or nearly free places to camp. (10/30/16)
Flattest Route.com: Net way to plan a route with the least hills. (11/28/16)
CoPilot Mobile Navigation: Built for RVers. Read about it concerning what people use to avoid low clearances. Only issue I have is the annual subscription and no windows support. It says you can do route planning off-line. Has turn by turn navigation. (4/16/17)
RV Trip Wizard.com: Just starting reviewing this all-in-one source. Its online so you have to have internet access to use it. Lots of cool feathers. Here is a longer review video. Cost is $39 a year which may be a reason we will not use it. Includes fueling stops, 17,000 camp spots, low height restrictions and more. Really is a one stop planner that even allows you to set preferences such as gas mileage, rig height, road preferences, link to a GPS and way more. Even checks fuel prices. You can print the trip which include a lot of information such as phone numbers. 6/18/17)
Outdoorproject.com: Website with tons of information on outdoor journeys and tips to include campsites, national parks and more. (8/1/17)
Only In Your State Website: Excellent list of locations by state. (8/12/17)
Find RV Parks: November 2019 I was contacted by a blog reader who is a programmer and RVer. This is his free website. He says he was frustrated by the slow and laggy campground websites so he created the one he would have wanted.

Camper Chronicles blog posted this for trip planning: “For route planning we use Good Sam Trip Manager to create the route and then I use Ultimate Campgrounds (favorite resource for public campgrounds and BLM land), Passport America (favorite resource for half price one night stays), and All Stays (favorite resource for Walmarts, Cracker Barrels, etc that allow overnight stays) to find places to stop.”