Reserve America vs Recreation.gov?

[RonLC]

Confused. What is the difference between these two web sites? Are they both booking/reservation sites? Are they primarily for government owned parks? When would one use one or the other system?

[Spk64]

What I have noticed is it depends on the state. Some states use ReserveAmerica and others use Recreation.gov

Indiana uses ReserveAmerica for state Campgrounds.
Kentucky uses Reservation.gov for their state COE campgrounds.

[sbleiweiss]

I don't do much public site camping, but I'll take a stab at this since no one else has yet. Yes, they are both public site reservation systems. But where you want to go probably only uses one or the other. So you have to use the one they use. In my limited experience one is for state parks and the other for federal ones.

[dnbgould]

Typically state campgrounds are reservable through Reserve America.
Reserve.gov is the site typically used for government owned/operated sites (Corps of Engineers camping, National Parks, US Forest Service, etc)
They’re so distinct federal campgrounds won’t appear on Reserve America and vice versa.
I say “typically” because Ive found nothing is absolute...but 99% of the time, this is correct

[Agesilaus]

It's https://www.recreation.gov/ not reserve.gov. Fed Parks are on rec.gov and some state and private cg are on resAm and other states have their own system.

[DRvt]

Both are great sites

Recreation.gov= National forest\Parks\COE ect
ReserveAmerica.com= Some State parks and private camps

[twogypsies]

Just look for the park you want to stay and you will have found the site to use. There's no consistency.

[twinboat]

There is consistency.

" Recreation.gov " only handles US Federal Government recreational facilities.

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by twinboat

There is consistency.

I meant that both have government reservations but both may not have the same parks in their database.

If you first go the the specific park website it will steer you to the correct reservation site.

[garmp]

DRvt

Recreation.gov= National forest\Parks\COE ect
ReserveAmerica.com= Some State parks and private camps

This is correct to my knowledge. Rec.gov takes the geezer pass (America the Beautiful) for 50% off. ReserveAmerica does not.

[Bigd9]

We have been using Reserve America for Kentucky state parks and it has been useful. You can see a picture of each site, and they also indicate how flat the site is how long and what utilities are at the site. There have been a few hiccups but overall trouble free. In Kentucky, you can save the Passport America fee by booking directly with the park.

[mdcamping]

Some states have dropped Reserve America and have gone over to their own reservation services, MD and ME come to mind, I think there is a few others.

Mike

[Spdracr39]

Recreation.gov has the contract for federal parks such as Corps of Engineers. Reserve America has private parks and some states parks that don't utilize their own reservation system.

[ArtJoyce]

Reserveamerica is a private company, they partners with many public entities such as states and private business.

Reserveamerica (RA) installs and provides support for the reservation system. The states users the same system when you wake in. Big saveings compared to RYO (roll your own) and tech support.

So the system makes it very hard for a state to divorce RA. The only thing the state owned is the transaction database and customer data base, except usepaswords.

Ohio fired RA in early 2020. The ohio system still is subpar to the RA. The good thing is reservations fees are less. Accept there is no walk-in with the virus, you have to use the reservation system and pay the fee.

For us that does not work well. When we are not traveling we like to just head to a SP from to sunday through Friday when ever we like. We can always find a nice CS. We get a a 50% discount for those. It ends up the reservation fees are about a 1/2 camping fee.