RV sales have slowed and fewer people are buying RVs than has been the recent trend. Has that changed campground crowding? Is it easier to find a campsite now, particularly in state and national parks? Campgrounds are changing and evolving, some for the better and some for the worse. RV Travel readers discuss their experiences and offer a few tips to help other campers find that perfect spot.
Here are a few observations from our readers.
Reader asks, “Full-timers, what are you thinking?”
Bill S. does not understand why people become full-time RVers. He said, “Hi. No experience, and just a comment again on full-timers who’ve sold everything, cut ties everywhere. What are you thinking? How old are you now? Because you won’t be tomorrow. And after a few years of full-timing, something will happen medically to you or your traveling partner. Then what? Where is your doctor who knows your history? Where do you get a checkup for an ailment, the ER, the most expensive place to go? And, if someone has a serious issue, where will you hole up, the hospital parking lot? And, when it comes time to get off the road, how will you be able to afford a house again, because you may have used all your home’s equity for fuel, repairs, etc. I just am in wonderment of how people do not plan for the future and think they’ll always be medically sound. I don’t get it.”
RVing is cheaper than owning/renting property
Bob L. has been traveling for a long time and his costs are minimal. He emailed, “I have been RVing a very long time. Traveling east to west coast every summer (different routes), and wintering in Florida every year. I use Thousand Trails, Passport America, Walmart, and Cracker Barrel. My nightly expense is always averaging less than $10. I have never had a loan on an RV, and I have a home base with great senior tax benefits and veterans discounts for state fees and services.
“Reservations have been harder, but manageable, and now seem to be easing somewhat. I can definitely RV full time cheaper than owning/renting property, and I have the ultimate freedom. I do not understand these negative comments from folks except that these are the people who will not do their due diligence. RV prices are getting ready to fall. Save your money, buy something you can PAY for, and then adopt the membership/discount clubs. It is a wonderful lifestyle, not available to most people from other parts of the world! ENJOY!”
Call early and get what you want
Rich R. gets the sites that he wants. He wrote, “We have been traveling about 7 months a year (we consider ourselves ‘Lot A Timers’) for the last 4 years and I plan out most of our longer trips. I found that by calling early I have always gotten the location I want. I use a LOT of Boondocker’s Welcome, Elks Lodges and Corps of Engineers primarily, and am averaging about $18 a night. This takes away from the ‘spur of the moment’ trip or being able to stay longer if you want, but it gets me the spots I like at a very reasonable price.”
Turned down attending rallies because of cost
Thomas P. wrote us about costs and the general state of RVing. “We have turned down two group rallies in Florida because of very high prices. Factoring fuel costs, we can stay in very nice hotels for the same money.
“The RV market is saturated due to COVID panic. With the 40% drop in new sales this year, manufacturers will start to fail.
“The 10-year rule is starting to fail. But, there are a lot of poorly maintained RVs out there. If they look ugly outside, what does the automotive package look like? No one wants ‘junk’ next to them in a park.
“Those big, beautiful Class As are very nice, but will not fit in many state and city parks. The many guidebooks and booking sites should indicate lengths.”
Gulf State Park adding mass taxes on top of campsite fees
Roger E. reports on the exorbitant taxes at one state park. “My wife and I started RVing in 2009. Over the last three to four years we have seen most of the parks we normally used for overnight stays filling up with permanent residents. The prices have more than doubled for campsites. Our last trip to Gulf State Park in Alabama was terrible. The reservation system was not working but even worse was the tax schedule they charged. City lodging tax 9.0%, County lodging tax 2.0%, Resort Fee 15.20%, State lodging tax 4.00%. Then to add insult to injury, a $5.00 reservation fee. We did not have a reservation. As for the resort fee, this is a state park. Although it has a nice water facility, it is not a resort.”
Average campgrounds bill themselves as resorts
Leonard R., a reader from Canada, has a pet peeve. He wrote, “Campgrounds and so-called ‘RV resorts’ are getting more expensive, but that is supply and demand at work. The better ones I book literally the day that they are available to reserve. As Canadian snowbirds, I try to reserve a year in advance or as early as the campgrounds allow. Most require a small deposit, some 100% upfront in the case of State Parks. As I enjoy planning our adventures well in advance, it is not a problem for us.
“My pet peeve is that very average campgrounds bill themselves as ‘RV resorts’ when they most certainly are not! I use Harvest Hosts for overnight stops and Campendium for campground reviews. I don’t see anything other than our age stopping this yearly pilgrimage. We have done well to comfortably retire and enjoy the RV lifestyle, which I never take for granted.”
Evangelist who RVs full-time sees the roads as the biggest issue
Cliff T. has found fair prices at RV parks but it is the roads that are the biggest problem. He wrote, “I am an evangelist who has traveled coast to coast and lived in RVs full time for 20 years. When Covid hit, it caused everybody a problem, but we still found sites along our routes that were not ‘out-of-this-world’ priced. Since Covid, most of the places we stayed have had friendly, helpful management, and the prices have been fair, all facts considered. The only big problem we have is the atrocious roads that keep tearing up our rigs. (Slowing below the speed limit is NOT an option when you MUST get from point A to B in a decent amount of time, as it would have to be 40 mph in order to save the rig from CERTAIN damage.)”
Reader says, “If you want all the comforts of home, stay home!”
Scott W. mentions that camping can be inexpensive if you don’t want all the frills. He wrote, “If you look, and don’t need all of the frills of an RV resort (i.e., bounce houses, mini-golf, etc.), you can stay at county parks and COE (Corps of Engineers) parks, rather inexpensively. Full hookups are NOT necessary and even electric and water can be just electric if you can figure it out. There are lots of newbie campers out there who want all of the comforts of their ‘sticks and bricks’ but YOU’RE CAMPING!!! If you want all of the comforts of home, STAY HOME!! You are clogging up the campgrounds for those of us that do this full-time.”
Paying more for less
Holly H. hasn’t had a problem getting a site but notes that costs are definitely higher. She wrote, “Maybe I’m going to the wrong places, but I haven’t had any trouble finding camping. However, everything is getting more expensive. Definitely paying more for less at most campgrounds.”
Now, some questions for you:
- Are you finding campgrounds booked up? Or is finding a place to stay not a problem?
- Are campgrounds changing for the better or for the worse?
- Are you seeing more permanent and seasonal RV parks?
- Are rising costs affecting your camping style?
- If campgrounds continue to be crowded and RVing continues to become more popular, will it affect how or when you RV?
- Do you have any tips or secrets you’d like to share about finding campgrounds that aren’t as crowded?
Please use the form below to answer one or more of these questions, or tell us what you’ve experienced with campground crowding in general.
Read last week’s Crowded Campgrounds column: A few great tips for low-cost, no-crowds camping, including a cheap snowbird trick
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I think a lot of these complaints depend on whether you’re camping east or west. Then it depends on whether you like to have everything you can possibly get (pools, hot tubs, pickle ball courts, RV wash, rec center, etc.). If you just want a place to set up for a while, and maybe have just electric and water (or less), it might be easier and less of a hassle. Just my opinion of course.
I, too, have noticed that region in which one travels/camps affects how available campsites are, Tommy. We tend to roam within a few hours of our sticks-and-bricks (Tennessee, and northern Alabama and Georgia) and have found availability little problem. I guess that these are a bit too cold for snowbirds, and a bit too hot for reverse snowbirds. By the way, if you ever come to the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, we can provide water, 30-amp service, and a quiet place to park your RV.
So which is worse, East or West ??
I believe the East Coast is more expensive and traffic is heavier. West Coast alot more open country, somewhat not as much traffic and more boondocking opportunities out west. But we enjoy it all..
Well Bill, I don’t want to use the word “worse”, so I’ll say I think (as John says below here) that overall, ‘camping’ is easier out west. There are certainly more boondocking opportunities. Here in NV, you can pretty much just turn down any dirt road (which are crazy available!) and pick a spot that sports a great view – and park. AZ is kinda the same, and I think NM is too. We’ve been living in NV for 35 years and find lots of camping spots not too far from home. As I get older and things get harder to do, closer is good. 😀
Oh gosh, Bill S. I’m sure you’re question about why people would want to FT Rv is in earnest, but it makes me sad that fear of something that may or may not happen, would paralyze and cause someone to cheat themselves of living life to the fullest, experience the joy of seeing this magnificent world, and meeting so many wonderful people with diverse experiences, stories to tell, and things to teach you along the way.
I wouldn’t trade a minute of our life full-timing. It comes with challenges, but we love the freedom of not being attached to too many material things. Should it end tomorrow with a health issue, I’ll be content that I didn’t miss out on living life to the fullest.
Well stated JP. One time around the track of life, embrace it. Don’t be paralyzed by the unknowns.
Yes, JP, I think Bill’s worries are sad. If I had chronic illnesses or were frail, I might consider planning my life around the medical industry. But I don’t and I’m not. So much life to live and adventures to have. I’ll stay put if the time comes I must, but not before.
Thank you, Nanci! Thomas P. makes a great point. We, too, found that it is hard to fit a large (43′) RV into many campsites. Trading into a much smaller 36′ RV greatly reduced that problem. I agree with Scott W. as well. I call what we do “traveling,” not “camping,” because of the many amenities our RV has.
“Much smaller”. LMAO!
Hey, it is 7 feet shorter. 🙂
As Tommy states, we travel comfortably with partial hookups in public campgrounds. In cold or hot weather, it’s nice to have electric hookups, but not absolutely necessary since we are self-contained with solar, inverter, generator, 12v fridge, and tank heaters. So, if we need to dry camp or boondock for a few days, no problem. Using city, county/fairground, and state park, USFS, BLM, and other Federal agency cgs., we have RV’d from FL to AK, southern CA to Ontario. Our favorites are COE and NM state park cgs. Based on the campground log my wife has kept, we have never averaged more than $20/night for any year of camping since we bought the first of our 3 RVs, even on our 3-mo. AK trip.
Bill S. Worrying about the future will have you miss out on the present! We began fulltiming in 2017 at ages 60 and 62. We planned this lifestyle as our retirement. When we began we had never rv’d a day in our lives. We jumped in after research and attending seminars. Our plans included buying a land lot to return to our former hometown to take care of business. When Covid hit that spot came in handy. In 2022 we came upon a beach town located near a larger city with excellent amenities like health care. Sold our land, bought an rv site, and travel from here. We’re slowing down, had medical emergencies on the road, and may downsize rvs. When done traveling we’ll just live in rv.
In mid September we travelled in our 36ft Motorhome flat towing our suv from Alberta along the Columbia River to the Oregon coast ending up in the California Redwoods. We booked most of the state park campgrounds a couple of weeks in advance, we had to plan around some of the popular spots to get more than one night but the weather was amazing, the campgrounds could accommodate our 36ft MH and we enjoyed the beaches and rugged coastline almost every day. I think the crowding is at least easing, perhaps a trend.
Bill S. should have couched his gripe as a question about full timing. Many of us are fully educated, equipped and prepared for the issues he brings up in his uninformed comments. Education before accusation, Bill.
Roger E. Should have asked about the resort fee. It might just be a fee charged in the area for the maintenance of a tourist district apart from the city, county or state fee.
I didn’t like Scott W’s comment. If I read it right, he thinks if you don’t full-time then you should stay home (¬ clog up the campgrounds) so those that do full-time get all the spots. Just because you full-time doesn’t mean you are more entitled to a campsite than anyone else. Every year more and more of the BLM land in my state of Utah is becoming closed to camping because full-timers ignore the 14 day limit & stay for months and trash the land then move on with out a care to the problems they have created. I’m not a fan of those types of full-timers.
Of course covid created an increase in people using rvs as a method of travel and vacationing it’s not like you had many options to fly abroad and hotels had limited services now those days hopefully are behind us. Prices are higher that’s pretty normal too across the board. That’s life there’s always ways to stay and travel cheaper start boondocking and using other options such as harvest host, state and county parks, book ahead for destination spots like national parks half price with a senior pass. If your not a savvy traveler then your going to pay more and it’s true for all of life’s purchases. Don’t go to Florida in winter unless you stay at State Parks or you’ll pay a lot or a little.
It’s called “******anomics”..or supply and demand if you will.Cost is usually affected by demand…and the RV business reacts like a coiled rattler.