Tips to Finding Your Next Park
After living the traveling lifestyle for almost 2 and a half years I’ve collected the best ways to find the best RV park for what you need!! When we first got our RV, we signed up for a few different RV park franchises that come with their own fancy apps… it was a waste, Good Sam is beneficial because a lot of parks offer a small discount to Good Sam Members and knocking your price down from $2 to $10 per night the catch is it normally only applies with nightly stays (it really just depends on the park). After staying at parks on poor locations (right off the highway, right by train tracks, or just surrounded by chaos) we got smart and started using Google.
Google gave us the benefit of satellite view so we could see exactly what was around the park and get a rough idea of how well the park was kept up with which really helped! You also get reviews from customers which you must take with a grain of salt because you always get the very best and the very worst, no in between. Some customers even post pictures so you can get a feel of the atmosphere before you go.
Timing is a BIG deal with RV parks! If you want to go North MOST parks are seasonal so again timing and planning is a must! If you REALLY search you can sometimes find ones that are open through winter but prepare for a little bit of rough camping, which includes disconnecting your water and filling your fresh water tank so you have limited water, granted you can always refill it, but depending on just how cold it is the park may shut off the water pumps and you’ll have to move your camper to refill or haul water over to your camper (both are a pain in the ass). We honestly try to stay South in the winter for these reasons, but if you find yourself up there in the winter definitely get a skirt for your trailer. After one winter in the camper without the skirt was doable but a pain. The skirt keeps your floor warmer and keeps all your pipes and tanks from freezing. Now you can hire professionals to make your skirt, but they range from $2,400 up to $10,000 (US dollars) or if you’re a do-it-yourself kind of person like us you can make it under $800 which was a no brainer for us.
Now if you’re just traveling for vacation (staying for 2 weeks of less) then it’s not as difficult to find a space but you definitely want to call ahead a month or so to insure your space and maybe earlier if it’s near a popular travel destination. Just like with planning a family vacation you want to schedule it all a few months in advance to get the availability you want. When you’re living full time, you don’t always get enough heads up so it’s just a matter of making lists of parks that meet your requirements and calling around to find monthly spots to park your home. When we get a new location, I like to start by our main attraction (which while traveling with my husband for work) it’s his jobsite and start a list of parks within a 20-minute radius and go from there, again Google really helps with this giving you the estimated route time and traffic delays.
We have our 3-year-old crazy minion, so I like to keep an eye out for amenities like playgrounds, pools, lobby store, or at the very least RV spaces that offer picnic tables and a good-sized area in between each RV so we have plenty of room to play and run around outside! Of course, we look for dog friendly because we also have Tank our 70lb pit who is ever so friendly and loving and also is registered as my support animal which has helped us get into some parks, but not all parks (which you don’t want to get me started on that topic) … So just like with everything else RV life you need to plan and organize as soon and as much as you can to find your next vacation/ home. Whether you’re a fellow full-timer or just looking to get away for vacation I hope these little tips and tricks help you find your next park!!
