For today’s poll, we’re asking a question many RVers (and all campers, really) have strong feelings about: Do you think quiet hours are taken seriously enough?
For some campers, quiet hours feel more like a suggestion than a rule. Music drifts, voices carry, generators hum, and somewhere nearby a TV is still going strong. When you’ve had a long travel day or an early morning planned, that kind of noise can really ruin the night in an otherwise quiet, peaceful campground.
It can also put campers in an awkward spot. Do you say something and risk a tense interaction, or lie there hoping the noise stops on its own? Many RVers would rather avoid confrontation, even when they’re clearly in the right, which means quiet-hour issues often go unaddressed.
Others feel campgrounds strike a decent balance. A little sound is part of camping, after all, and not everyone keeps the same schedule. As long as things quiet down eventually and aren’t excessive, you might see it as the cost of sharing space with other travelers.
And then there’s the enforcement question. Some campgrounds are quick to step in when quiet hours are ignored, while others leave it up to campers to work things out themselves. Whether that leads to peaceful nights or awkward confrontations often depends on who your neighbors are.
So what about you? When quiet hours roll around, do you feel they’re respected—or routinely ignored? Go ahead and vote in today’s poll, and feel free to share what you’ve seen (and heard) out there.
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RVT1243b
I voted ‘yes, for the most part’.
I think the noise problem centers around the newbies and younger generation.
Especially the ones with kids.
Maybe they don’t realize how little noise it takes to disturb others in such close quarters.
Or, maybe some just don’t care.
Camping is a completely different lifestyle than they are used to at home.
I also believe this issue can vary a lot between RV parks. If a park, or its management, has a ‘festive’ atmosphere, it will have more noise past quiet hours. If a park is unsupportive of excess daytime noise, odds are good that quiet hours will be adhered to by occupants.
Agree, Jim. If enforced it’s not an issue. We also find that county, regional, and state parks have far fewer issues.
It usually isn’t the nighttime quiet hours that are abused, but the folks next to you that decide to leave at 5 am…slamming storage compartments and leaving their trucks to idle….
A small part of my summer job at a campground is enforcing quiet hours after 11 pm. For the most part people will and do comply, except for those that think they are “privileged”. They do have a choice though; they can either comply with my request to quiet down, or they can opt to talk with the local law enforcement and possibly be removed from the premises immediately.
In 18 + years of Rving, my wife and I haven’t had any serious noise problems traveling coast-to-coast. State parks may have the most issues with campers pushing the noise curfew limits due to local weekend campers and a lot more kids. I tell my wife, who likes quiet found in the middle of the forest, that they’re enjoying the outdoors for a few days, but then they have to go back to work, and we don’t!
We are members of a membership only park & the issues that we see are usually with members kids who are allowed to use the park. Some, but certainly not all, show little regard for others & the commonly accepted rules.
Depend upon the camp hosts to draw the line. In WI state campgrounds, failure to listen to the host’s warnings, means he/she calls the county LEOs.
Failure to obey the host, gets your name on the state’s excrement list, which means you probably won’t get a state campground site again. FAFO.
We camped with friends one fall night at Death Valley where quiet time begins at 10 PM. Our friend wanted to watch the 10 o’clock news so he left his generator running. He said no one would mind. At 10:03 a ranger knocked on his door and reminded him it was quiet time.
I wish quiet hours included light noise. People, please limit your exterior lighting after hours.
Every campground has at least one person that believes the rules don’t apply to them. Watching TV outside, volume set to the max due to them having hearing issues or playing music the same way. Having dogs that aren’t trained not to bark (yes, it is possible) or kids that scream just because they can (yes, they can also be trained).
Solution: obey the rules or leave!
In our 40 + years of camping, we have only encountered noisy people less than a dozen times both boondocking and staying in campgrounds that impacted us enough to take action. If boondocking, I think the only thing you can do is move, which we did. In a campground I believe it’s up to the camp host to address the problem. Unfortunately, the few times in a campground that we were next to partiers, the camp host did nothing, even when made aware of the situation. We never return to those campgrounds.
The only time we’ve seen problems are at large parks on a 3-day weekend. It’s a party warzone. Simple solution: we don’t go at those times.
In 42 years of RVing, the only time I remember objectionable excessive noise after hours was when a large group of 50 and up square dancers returned to the campground in a state park and continued to party. Not the typical noisemakers. I did have a noisy night long ago when camping in a tent and a dozen or so young twenty something or teen frat boys and their girlfriends pulled in. I don’t think they even had a tent, there were hung-over bodies all over their site the next morning.
We always abide by quiet hours. With that said, when visiting Yosemite for Christmas a few years back, the quiet hours had been reduced. However, that fact was not posted on the ranger house at the Upper Pines entrance.
It was 5:02PM. We got a knock, and were asked to turn off our generator.