Traveling to a new place can be so much fun! New sights, smells, sounds, terrain, campground neighbors…
When you first arrive to a new place, what do you like to do first? Do you hop on your bike and go explore local biking trails? Do you head straight to the town museum? Do you go see the most popular tourist attractions or go eat at the most popular restaurant in town? Or do you set up your camp chair, bring over a good book and relax for a while?
You can select up to two answers in today’s poll. If you select “Other” please leave a comment below. Heck, leave a comment anyway and tell us your favorite thing(s) to do first.
We like to drive around and scope out the area (town and attractions) This gives us a starting point for planning our stay.
Even though we have most sightseeing planned ahead of time, we always pick up the brochures at the campground office and sit down and go through them. It’s surprising what local attractions you can find.
In addition to a bike ride, we also like to drive around the area to get a “lay of the land” orientation to our location.
Before we arrive to our destination we check eBird Hotspots to find best birding sites nearby along with our campground birds.
Me, too!
It begins long before arrival. Google the place. Get ideas. Google maps shows surrounding points of interest as well as restaurants, etc.
Once set up, we will have a drink and relax, then eat our meal. In the evening we will go for a walk, get the lay of the land and talk to anybody that is out and about (if willing to chat). Then have a fire another drink then bed.
Same here. Nothing beats quiet time and fire after sun down, Oh and maybe a cold Beer or glass of Wine.
Al
Check out the available golf courses.
Find the visitors center
go golfing if at all possible
First thing I do at a new camping location is log the nearest geocache to mark my territory and visit it with all my trackable items for mileage!
Semper Fi
We generally have an idea of what we want to do before arriving but we also ask about attractions, sites, food and such in the area, plus we pick up local brochures at check-in.. all to review as we relax
what is the chance of two people having the same name?
Pee.
Good answer!!! :-)))
I knew if I read comments long enuf, I’d find one which matches my first thing to do! Then level and set-up etc, etc……… We have priorities!
😆 Thanks for the chuckle, Paul. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane
Get a newspaper from the area
👍
I like to just drive around and get familiar with the town and its roads, and figure out where the grocery store and gas station are located.
I am with Kelley, I like to drive around town and the surrounding area then take a day trip and see things in town and visit different places.
After relaxing we usually plan the sights to see the next day based on an itinerary we have developed previously.
We almost always visit the local Visitor’s Center or Chamber of Commerce to get info on all the local sites, restaurants, museums, hiking trails, etc. and then decide/prioritize what we want to see and do. Always end up finding local curiosities and best foods in the area.
If we haven’t done any checking and studying of the area we’ll drive around pick up tour guide info check with local’s and go from there. We also belong to the Retreads Motor cycle group and someone in the group knows the area to help us out.
Visit a visitors center or chamber of commerce to find out more about the area and what the docent would recommend that we see or visit.
Actually the first thing we usually do is to get the signal strength and download speed on the three cellular services we use… 🤓
Same as Alan, Visit the Visitor Center then make plans for my stay in the area where to site see and eating out.
Yes, visit the Visitor Center or C of C, then return to rig to make plans.
I am a traveling artist and I sell original watercolor postcards along the way. I get out my travel paint box and paint a local barn or view as soon as I’m set up. A sense of place is so much more deeply absorbed when I paint than when I just take a BHDT photo (Been Here Done That).
Check in with park rangers and visitor centers. Go back and do lots of googling and plan the next few days.
Use the toad on day trips to explore the region.
The first “touristy” thing we do is go downtown and walk around. We try our best to experience the same things the locals do and we feel that walking downtown streets allows us to do this. Then we consider going to tourist attractions . . . or not. But downtowns to us are the most interesting (although we never miss a truly historical monument).
I usually like to walk the camp ground, see other camping rigs, and say hello to my neighbors only after my campsite set up has been completed.
If the area offers a guided tour we usually take that.
Then we decide what we want to take a close look at.
We look first for the visitor center. One example is in Roswell, NM. They offer clean restrooms, a dish of water for your dog, and even take a free photo of you with a couple of aliens from outer space!
A lot depends on the time of arrival at the campground. Later in the day, beyond 4 PM we’ll set up camp, take a break and have a beer, and then maybe walk around the campground and discuss what we are going to do for dinner. If we get into our site early, 1 or before I’ll have a beer during set up, but when we are done we’ll head into the closest town to check out what’s available.
We usually do our homework before arriving for things to do. You can never find everything out with books and on line searches so if we arrive early enough we try to talk to other people in the campground about what to see and do.
After set up & some R&R, we hunt up a visitor’s information center to pick up brochures on things to see & do.
Set up the trailer!
After setting up and seeing that everything is working, I just want to relax. That way I can get a fresh start the next morning.
The quick bathroom visit. Set up then a nice cold drink (lemon aide, iced tea). A walk to the check-in office and review the brochures. Say hi to the neighbors if out. Make the evening meal, discuss the next day adventures around the good ole campfire. Off to bed and start adventure.
Settle in and not move for at least two days, then explore. 🙂
my wife searches for places to dance and off we go.
We set up and then relax after getting the trailer set up. Then sit at the outside table and decide what to do first. Most times if depending on when we get in we might go out to the town and see whats what. Otherwise we start off at first light. So ready to get out of dodge.
Morning fellow RV ers, I’ve read most of comments and we pretty much do the same as everyone else. We set up,make sure everything works, no leaks, talk to the manager/owners (if it is a new destination) get information, check out nearby towns, places of interest, etc. So we basically do what everyone else does. Yours in travel, Ray and Joy in the still frozen tundra.
Set up, take the dogs for a walk, then sit in my rocking camp chair and enjoy the area. Not a shopper or eating outer. If in a city or town area take a day to check out the local dog park and drive around to see if anything worth visiting.
Even before I go, I look at the area on Google Earth to see where the parking lots are in relation to where I want to go, where the noisy areas are in relation to the campground and where the scruffier parts of town may be just to stay safe.
We like to walk or drive the downtown business area. Not because we’re shoppers, but because it tells a lot about the town. Is it a lot of boutique-type shops, to attract tourism? Day-to-day, realtors, law office, barbershop just for local needs? A lot of empty storefronts? We also look at the homes in the oldest parts of town, especially if it’s a river city. The old architecture can be amazing.
I prefer to walk the campground.
We enjoy driving around the community and checking out what it has to offer. Having worked in City Government for almost 40 years, and my husband was with our local telephone company for 44 years we enjoy checking out what a community has to offer along those lines. You can typically tell how involved the citizens and the City Fathers are by what has taken place; or what is in the works within a community. We also Google interesting things near us, often things not listed about the community. Last year we ran across a wonderful lake located up a winding road that was amazing. We almost always find something interesting to see or do.