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Planning a Camping Trip
November 18, 2012 by Cynthia Baum · 3 Comments
Most people plan, plan, and plan some more before taking a camping trip. According to the 2012 American Camping Report, “almost half of all American campers plan their trips at least one month in advance.” That is an astounding number of campers who have the forethought to plan a fun time out in the “wilderness” with their family, friends, or to just get away by themselves. Personally, we rarely plan that far in advance unless we are going with a larger group of people who require that kind of planning. Then again, we are the more spontaneous type. Like backpacking last weekend, with no more than a few days of planning and preparations; we just decide last minute sometimes.
The advantages of all that planning are obvious. You have more time to make sure you get all the necessary gear and food ready, reservations are set, and a back-up plan is in place, just in case. One of the downsides of being spontaneous, especially with camping these days, is that many places require reservations months in advance. Usually the more sought-after places, like Yosemite in the summer and the beach in the fall, are booked well in advance. So in order to enjoy one of your favorite campgrounds at just the right season or holiday, reservations must be made up to 6 months in advance. Otherwise, it leaves you to just the first come, first served places (which are few and far between), and there is no guarantee that they will have vacancies when you arrive.
There have been times when we have gotten all ready to go camping (pre-kids) and drove out to a local campground, only to find out it was full. That is one of the most disappointing things to find out, in the hardest way possible. With all the money we had spent on food, gas, and time spent packing, we were bummed to say the least. Luckily, we just had to drive up the road a ways to the next campground to find a spot. Another time we might not have been so lucky. Planning ahead of time would have been extremely helpful in that case. In the future (especially now with kids), I am planning on reserving our camping trips well in advance to ensure we get a spot and to avoid the inevitable disappointment upon seeing this sign!
Reserve ahead of time!
Last 5 posts by Cynthia Baum
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- Camping with Kids Part II - April 20th, 2013
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We do not do a lot of planning in advance of going on the road. Mostly we have general plans of areas that we want to go to. We take two RV trips a year. The first is a turnaround cruise to get the RV out of New England in the fall before the snow flies and leave it in the south. The turnaround trip lasts about a month, is about 1500 to 2000 miles of travel and includes touring the areas that we travel through. Since we are retired we have a lot of time and don't have to stick to a schedule. We don't make reservations more than a day or two in advance and normally call to see if space is available as we drive.
The second trip is our winter in the south and lasts 3 to 4 months. We tour though several states and stay any where from a day or two at a site to a month at a site. We have good friends that we meet while on the winter trip and travel with them for a month or so.
We have been rving for the 4 years since I retired (going on 5 years). This style of planning (or lack of specific planning) has worked out really well for us. It allows us to spend as much time in an area as necessary to feel like we have experienced that area. We have only had problems of not getting into a campground twice in all our travels. On those occasions we boondocked.
I would not recommend this type of planning for everyone but it works well for us. Of course it helps to be retired and not having to fit into a schedule. The big advantage of not having rigid plans is that it allows you to concentrate on the things that interest you rather than missing an event because it does not fit into your schedule. For example this year at the end of our turnaround cruise we were in Gulf Shores for the Frank Brown International Songwriters festival. We did not know that the festival was happening in advance but absolutely loved it. We got to see 12 or 15 performers at several locations and I expect we will plan to return to the area during the festival in coming years.
Retirement is great and RVing has become an important piece of our retirement.
Jim
I am here with you on the necessity of planing when you are on a tight schedule and with kids in tow. As working parents we do not have the freedom to go as we please, so it is essential to know that there will be a spot for us where we are going. And as you mentioned some popular parks require advanced reservations of up to 6 months.
That sounds like a dream retirement plan! I am happy for you that the spontaneous way is working out- I would love to have that kind of flexible schedule with RVing when I retire-sounds ideal!