What Campground Finder Book?

[johnnyringo]

We need to get a Campground book to help us plan our trips and where we can stop/stay. What do you folks like?

[Dixieray53]

We use the Passport America website and Iphone app. There are also sites like Good Sam and KOA that will help you plan your trip. The best paper book IMO is the Trailer Life directory and RV Road Atlas both available at Camping World and I believe there are others available at CW also ..
.Peace and Safe Travels..D

[w6pea]

The Trailer Life Directory and the Woodalls and the Good Sams are all part of Affinity Group. So your guess is as good as mine. The Woodalls also has regional directories.
My suggestion is if you carry your Laptop computer with see if you can get either one of them on CD otherwise you will be carrying 20 pounds of paper in your RV

Go to Wal-Mart and buy one of their Road Atlases it has Good Sam's Campgrounds and Cracker Barrel, and I think Camping World locations oh and I think they include Wally World locations.

Good Luck

[wagon217]

Am not big on books but use computer software and websites to plan my trips. Goodsams, MS street and trips software along with passport America websites. I do use KOAs book sometimes.

[RickO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wagon217 Am not big on books but use computer software and websites to plan my trips. Goodsams, MS street and trips software along with passport America websites. I do use KOAs book sometimes.

Ditto except for the KOA part.

I don't remember the last time we looked in a book for a CG. We'll begin by checking out rvparkreviews.com for parks near where we want to stay and then look at the parks web sites and read their reviews. We may even go to google earth and get a bird's eye view of the place and it's surroundings before deciding. Then, 90% of the time the campground is listed in our GPS so we push the button and we're set. We also usually do this on the fly and within a couple of hours of the CG. So many cool tech toys available now.

But, if you're set on using a book, I think Trailer Life is right up there.

Good luck.

Rick

[ralper]

Trailer Life Directory, National Forest Camp Grounds directory, Passport America directory, Army Core of Engineers CG directory, Gypsy Journal free or almost free directory, Gypsy Journal Fairgrounds directory, Web site: Free or Almost Free CG's. Some small towns have a few spots in their parks, some with electric, and some of them have water and a dump.

I have used all of these and also just stumbled on CG's in small towns. I rarely make reservations. I do sometimes on major holidays.

[Jeff and Cheryl]

I Second rvparkreviews.com. I look at maps to determine a route then figure out about where natural overnight stays are then look up reviews for parks in that area. This site is the best source of good information I've come accross.

[MaverickBBD]

We used paper books for years. We still refer to some that are years old on rare occasions. Even if we found one we would always check rvparkreviews first so now that is the first place we start to look for a place.

[Yondog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyringo We need to get a Campground book to help us plan our trips and where we can stop/stay. What do you folks like?

We downloaded a couple pubs on our iPad from the app store RVPARKING.COM, allstays CAMP AND RV, and NATIONAL PARKS. Also downloaded TeleNav as the GPS. Having said all that ( and paid about 10 bucks for the apps) we have WOODALLS 5lbs book.

Good luck

[mfire1339]

Back in 2008 we went to local Autoclub office and told them we would be doing a loop of US. They had a series of 8 or so books of camping in every state. It was free and very useful.

Mike

[Cat320]

We use the hard copies of TL Directory, Passport America and KOA (as a last resort), and check Woodalls on line...it's free.

[WheelingIt]

We completely stopped using books since we stay mostly at public campgrounds. What I do now is use:

PUBLIC CAMPGROUND FINDER (uscampgrounds.info)

to find my potential sites, and then

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/

to see which one to pick

[ga traveler]

Trailer Life is my favorite. they are by far #1 in sales.

[Wayne M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyringo We need to get a Campground book to help us plan our trips and where we can stop/stay. What do you folks like?

As you can see from the posts, there is no one solution to finding a campground. Every book you purchase will have more or less than any other book. There is no "One-stop-shop."

RV Park Reviews is a very good source for determining the ratings for people who have stayed in a specific campground, but even it is limited to whoever has put in a review for that campground. There are missing campgrounds for cities in the RV Park Reviews. When ever I stay in one of the missing parks I add it to the RV Park Review web site.

I also like planning 90+ percent of the time. I basically know where I'm going next, and where I want to stop. So here is what I do (Beside looking at all those other books if I have the chance.)

I prefer http:/www.bing.com/maps but Yahoo maps can also be used. I like the "Birds Eye" view in Bing.

Open up the Bing map page. Once there you will see a fill in blank next to the blue Bing, and an orange search button at the end of the fill in. Put the name of the location that you think you will be stopping at and click the orange search button. You location will appear. Now, in that same fill-in area, back out any location you had in there and type in the word "RV Parks" without the quotes. You locations will be populated with RV Parks. You can use RV Park Reviews in a different tab to see what is said about and specific park, or in some cases reviews will be available through the "balloon" that marks the RV Park. You can zoom in and out and the map will change accordingly.

Also, you can now drag the map in any compass direction and the map will re-populate with RV Parks.

There are some quirks to this and it is based on whatever business has provided the search engine with it's requirements. So if you see a mobile home park, it may not have camping provisions, but it is in their provided search criteria. Also, sometimes you will see a state or county park office but there is no campground there. For the most part it is an easy way to look for a quick stop along the way. Of course, you do have to have internet access.

Happy trails. It's just another method.

Edited: Oh, you can also put in the words Mexican Restaurant, or Italian, or Chineese, or other key words, like campground, state park, national park, etc., and get some type result. Hopefully it is what you are looking for.