UK Motorhome in USA

[Sam 3]

You have been given some very good advice. You can book state parks nine months in advance. WWW,Reserve America.com You can't just pull into a state park and get a site. It all has to be on line. Most people book Florida winter campsites one year in advance. Snowbirds. Perhaps some can share diesel fuel discount programs. It can easily get over 100* in most states. Perhaps someone can recommend a portable Air conditioning set up. Be sure to visit in New York,Niagara Falls. The best place to visit would be Four Mile Creek state park. Plan on a week as their is much to do in the area. In June their is a shuttle bus to take you around Niagara Falls. It is free. Best of luck in all your travels.

[larrymo]

Will there be a need for cell phone / internet access in US / CA?

[gglockner]

Note that a few national parks on your list are particularly crowded during peak summer season: Banff/Jasper, Glacier and Yosemite. Getting a campsite in these parks can be extremely challenging. Conversely, staying outside Glacier or Yosemite requires a separate pass if you want to drive in. Tip: there are several systems to notify you for campground cancelations including Campnab (what I use) and a new system directly from recreation.gov (US only).

Have a great trip!

[Bazou7101]

Hi John, I would just like to emphasize that stay south until end of March thing mentioned in the text below. My wife and I traveled to Texas from Nova Scotia for 6 years with a 33ft 5th wheel and we never headed back until the middle of April. There are a few reasons for that, 1st it is still quite cold as you get further north, campgrounds won't be open for the most part north of South Carolina, and then there's the odd surprise storm that can "trip" you, the roads can get really icy and treacherous at times. On our way back one year, we had to stop in New Hampshire and winterize the trailer again before going north any further, it was that cold. We slept in a hotel that night, we were back home the next day, but you get my drift; one year there were snow banks along I-95 and Trans-Canada Highway 2 from Woodstock, NB. Of course, you guys have a motorhome so the cold issue is not an issue for your sleeping and living, but it is still a problem when you're on the road. If you do get to Nova Scotia we would very much like to welcome you for an overnight stay, we have the room, and it is an easy turnaround on our property and level parking.
Just send us a text, a message, we are retired too, so we would likely be home. Happy trails, and stay safe.
Mike & Georgette
2015 Crusader
2011 F-250

Originally Posted by DarkSideJeep

Is your motorhome like this one? It looks really nice. I am surprised that the only difference between this and US motorhomes is the steering wheel on the right.

I hope you have an uneventful trip and be sure to take lots of photos.

Now for some advise, plan to stay south until late March while major highways like the Interstate system in the US do remain open year-round spring snowstorms often dump a great deal of snow, especially in the western states. Once you get through March you should be ok. Also remember we do drive on the wrong side of road here in the US and the traffic roundabouts go round anticlockwise.

[Apgaer]

I want to welcome you early to the US. You're going to have a great time and meet many friendly campers.
You've already been given great advice by fellow RV'ers. I'll just double down on a few,
Summertime is HOT. We set our AC's at 75F. In the UK I've heard that called a heat wave.
Distances are longer than you may expect. I try to follow the "Campers Rule of Three." No more than 300 miles /day. Off the road by 3PM. No more than 3 days of straight driving.
Harvest Hosts, Trip Wizzard, and Gas Buddy are very beneficial apps.

Great Britian conquered the world in search of spices. We like to use them. Be prepared.

What a great adventure awaits you. Please setup a blog so that your new American friends can follow you.

Art & Barbara
2019 Tiffin 32SA
2021 Ford Ranger Toad

[Bazou7101]

Originally Posted by Apgaer

I want to welcome you early to the US. You're going to have a great time and meet many friendly campers.
You've already been given great advice by fellow RV'ers. I'll just double down on a few,
Summertime is HOT. We set our AC's at 75F. In the UK I've heard that called a heat wave.
Distances are longer than you may expect. I try to follow the "Campers Rule of Three." No more than 300 miles /day. Off the road by 3PM. No more than 3 days of straight driving.
Harvest Hosts, Trip Wizzard, and Gas Buddy are very beneficial apps.

Great Britian conquered the world in search of spices. We like to use them. Be prepared.

What a great adventure awaits you. Please setup a blog so that your new American friends can follow you.

Art & Barbara
2019 Tiffin 32SA
2021 Ford Ranger Toad

So true, we travel the same way, but I didn't know it was a rule. We start around 8am, we go 300 to 350 miles, start looking for a place to park by 3pm otherwise there might not be any place left in certain areas. You know after all you have all the time in the World. 3 days of driving, then you rest for a couple or more days and enjoy the place you're at. Texas has some very nice places to boondock, Magnolia Beach is one of such place.

[rdk59]

Since you will be using diesel, check into the Open Roads app. They offer an RV Fuel Discount Program. 1-800-275-5089 Email - support@myopenroads.com
I saved 87cents/gallon last week when I fueled my diesel pickup. Looking forward to following your adventures!! Safe travels. Also, great state park program in Virginia and Shenandoah NP has campgrounds on the Skyline Drive that lots of folks favor. Virginia State parks have water/electric, Shenandoah NP campgrounds have no hookups but I believe a dump station.

[calgpayne]

Welcome to the forum!


Visiting Canada in June - Sept sounds like a great plan. The weather on the Prairies (AB, SK, MB) can get hot (>30C) then, but we can still get snow storms in May and usually October. Only Coastal BC and the mountains stay relatively cool (mid 20sC). Diesel is usually less expensive than gasoline in the summer but not all gas stations offer it. I use the GasBuddy app (https://www.gasbuddy.com/) to check availability and prices in Canada and the US.



Our National Parks require a visitor pass which you can buy at the 1st one you enter. Decide in advance if it will be less expensive to buy day passes or an annual pass. Reservations open in January and Summer bookings for Banff and Jasper go fast (within an hour) https://reservation.pc.gc.ca/. Jasper had a forest fire wipe out 1/3 of the town last month so it might not be rebuilt in a year. You can usually get a reservation in Banff but it might be a shared site. Most Provincial Parks have 90 day reservation window and each Province has its own website.



I suggest entering Canada in Saskatchewan from the mid-West US and heading west either on Highway 1 to Calgary or Highway 16 to Edmonton. If you go on Hwy 1 plan a stay at Dinosaur Provincial Park (https://shop.albertaparks.ca/camping...Id=330136#sr_a) and visit the Drumheller area. There are so many interesting places to see, and lots of spacious campgrounds. Plan to take BC Ferries and drive the length of Vancouver Island and out to Tofino. If you are really lucky in January you can book a campsite at Green Point in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.


Have fun, enjoy your trip.

[navitravlrs]

Originally Posted by JohnKing

@DarksideJeep. Thanks for the suggestion. We have planned a rough route, but intend to be flexible, bearing in mind we want to stay in some NP and SP campgrounds, so need to make reservations well in advance. As cancellation is possible for a small fee, our intention is to make reservations for our planned route, and ride with the changes that real life will no doubt bring.

Our interests are fairly broad I think and include hiking, history, culture, events, sport, food, music, etc.

Our planned route covers approximately 10,000 miles (probably 17,000 with day to day travel included) over 10 months and in very big handfuls is:

March - Florida
April - Travel north, Eastern seaboard
May - Travel north, New England
June - Travel West, Rockies
July - Sep Travel North, British Columbia
Oct - Travel South, North West USA
Nov - Travel East, Mid West (National Parks)
Dec - Travel East, South USA.

On our list of places to visit are:

Orlando - family meeting us there.
Everglades NP
St Augustine
Charleston
Washington
New York
Boston
Salem
Cape Cod
Plymouth
Boothbay Harbour
Acadia NP
Smokey Mountains NP
Nashville
Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone NP
Glacier NP
Calgary (Stampede)
Banff, Jasper NP
Vancouver
Olympic NP
Napa Valley
Yosemite NP
Death Valley NP
Las Vegas (hotel break)
Utah NPs
New Orleans
Brunswick to return to UK

The route is ambitious, but not fixed. Any advice or suggestions are most welcome.

Don’t go to Death Valley during any season without air conditioning. It could be very dangerous!

[fxblf]

Welcome to the forum and to your traveling adventures in the US!


We live in Alaska. We now spend the summers here and travel in the winters, leaving Alaska in October and returning in May. This will be our 6th year and we've traveled all over. We have found that National Parks tend to be busy and crowded. We have found some really lovely State Parks, however. Going up the Northeast Coast from Florida, you may want to check out the State Parks in Georgia and South Carolina. Georgia takes their state parks seriously, and we've stayed in some really lovely ones. We have hit the beach parks in South Carolina - Edisto State Park is our favorite - but we have loved them all. We haven't generally had any trouble finding spots in State Parks, usually booking them anywhere from 2 days in advance to a few weeks in advance. But, we are traveling in the winter, so not high demand season.



As you head on the western part of your trip, you should try to see Devils Tower in Wyoming - it's really spectacular. There is a walking path around the mountain. It's one of my favorite places on this planet. Belle Forche River Campground is a small campground just down from the base of the mountain and it is run by the National Park Service. You can see the mountain from the campground.


On one of our trips across the north of the country we stumbled onto Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs in Saco, Montana. They have a huge swimming pool that is fed by a hot springs (so the pool water is warm), along with a hot pool, a cold pool and a large sauna. It's a great place to spend a few days. They have a campground there. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but worth the visit if you can swing it (and if you like sitting in hot water!).



Finally, someone suggested you get roadside assistance. Fabulous idea! We've had Coach-Net since we got on the road. I cannot say enough good things about them. We have had to use them 3 times in 6 years. The last time we had to have the rv towed 50 miles. They paid for the tow, we paid for the required mechanical work. It took them a few hours to find a mechanic who was willing/able to tow the rv, but they kept calling us back to find out our status and we were on the phone with them when the tow truck showed up. I've heard some horror stories about people who were left hanging by other companies. In our experience, Coach-Net offers the best service for roadside assistance.


Hope you have a great time and remember to do is slowly enough that you remember what you have seen! Good luck.

[JohnKing]

Hi All, thanks for the engagement and advice. It proves that no amount of online research can beat real life experience and local knowledge!

Food - thanks for confirming we're not way off on our food budget. Walmart seems the 'go to' place, but we have Aldi in the UK so we'll also look out for their store locations so hope they will sell smaller sized portions/packets for 2 people.

Fuel - Our motorhome is ok with bio-diesel so that's ok. A fuel discount card would be useful, but compared to our fuel prices, it will seem really inexpensive in the US.

Camping - the quantity and variety of Federal Land and places to stay is incredible, with good online resources to find it. We've narrowed down our online resources as it seems a little overwhelming to have so many. The list is:
Harvest Hosts
Allstays (including overnight stops at Walmart Cracker barrel etc)
Recreation.Gov
Reserve America
Campendium
Passport America
Ioverlander
Bureau of Land Management
Corps of Engineers
RV Camping.Org

State Parks - think we're already too late booking for SPs such as Anastasia in St Augustine. I'll need to start a rolling 9 month look ahead!

Route - Noted about campsite opening dates in the NE and that we may be too early in the year for them with our current route. Thanks for the heads up @Souljourner. This could mean a significant re-plan. We're so keen on visiting the NE as it's an area neither of us know that well and the history and food, culture is something we don't want to miss.

Tolls - new topic to me @tetranz and @DardSideJeep, so I need to do some research. I saw a UK couple travelling through India in their carmper on toll roads, they were charged double the normal rate. @TREADtheglobe have been an inspiration for us; we followed their US trip as posted on YouTube. Thanks for the links; I'll look it up.

RV trip Wizard, @MRUSA14, I've watched a YouTube video and will try it. Thank you.

Niagara Falls - @Sam3, it's on the list.

CellPhone/Internet - we intend to take out a T mobile unlimited data/calls contract for about $75 a month. We have a an aerial and router inside the motorhome. I've read about Starlink, but not sure our trip warrants the expense.

Visa - we've booked our appointment in mid October at the US Embassy in London for our visa interview. This visa will allow us to stay in the US for 6 months at a time. If we're unsuccessful, our limit will be 3 months at a time, so we may be staying in Canada more than we initially planned, as Brits can stay for 6 months with no visa.

Veteran - I am a Royal Air Force veteran and served a full career, 24 years. Not sure it's relevant as a foreign veteran RVing in the US.

Thank you for the PMs. I'll respond to all of them.

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by JohnKing

CellPhone/Internet - we intend to take out a T mobile unlimited data/calls contract for about $75 a month. We have a an aerial and router inside the motorhome. I've read about Starlink, but not sure our trip warrants the expense.

If you're talking about putting a SIM sold for a phone plan into the router then that's something you're not supposed to do here. It will probably work for an unpredictable amount of time but there's a good chance that the plan will be canceled if they detect that the SIM is in the wrong device.

Finding a SIM to put in your own router is a whole tedious topic in itself. Maybe start a thread over at https://www.irv2.com/forums/f53/. That industry is a complicated convoluted mess here compared to what I've heard about the ease of getting a data SIM in the UK or Europe.

There are ways of putting a SIM safely in a router if you're willing to break a few rules and your router can be configured in a certain way to make it pretend to be a phone to the network but it's probably unlikely that your router can do that or it's something you really want to fiddle with.

Just to suggest one random option without thinking too much about it. It might be worth joining the FMCA https://www.fmca.com while you're here. The membership is not that expensive and they have a plan for members at about $60 per month that you can legitimately put in your own router.

If you get a plan/SIM direct from a carrier then you're probably limited to prepaid plans. Postpaid (ie bill at end of month) requires a credit check etc which I assume won't be an option for you. There are no "contracts" any more. That used to be a thing where people were locked in for a year or so but all the plans I've seen recently can be cancelled any time. Prepay never had contracts. There may be technical issues in terms of what bands your router covers.

Maybe I misunderstood you and it's not a cellular router at all but just Wi-Fi for inside the RV but mention of aerial suggests a cellular router. I'm happy to discuss any of this privately if you like.

A lot of the complication / difficulty comes down to how much data you're going to need. I'm guessing you probably won't be sitting around watching lots of streaming TV so your requirements might be quite modest.

(BTW, you'll have to say "antenna" here if you discuss it with anyone. Nobody knows what an aerial is).

[Dutchstar98]

A National park pass is a way to get half off camping at any federal government facilities and discount of free admission to any of these facilities. We particularly enjoy camping in Army Corps of Engineer parks usually on lakes around the company. They are already a good deal and with the Pass they are half price! Check out Recreation.gov

[sacrcflyer]

One question. Are the emissions U.S. compliant ? About 15 years ago I knew of a gentleman from Wales that got a temporary job in the US ,the type that he worked for a agency in DC and EPA would not let him operate the vehicle on US highways saying it was not compliant. Might be a good question to ask before you ship it.
My .02