By Cheri Sicard
Between rising food and fuel prices, not to mention attraction tickets and fees, nearly everyone is feeling a financial crunch to one degree or another. In the video below, Charity, aka the Grateful Glamper, shows her best picks and tips for cheap places for RV travel in 2023.
The top 5 cheap places for RV travel
Forget about RV parks. Even if you need hookups, there are far better options. With all her great suggestions, however, Charity left out my favorite cheap place to camp: Army Corps of Engineers Campgrounds.
#1 National Parks: National parks offer beautiful and affordable RV camping (depending on which park, and Charity gives examples in the video). Advance reservations are usually required. She even shares the booking service they use to get into these popular parks.
#2 State Parks: Many state parks have campgrounds and the amenities at some of the better state parks rival commercial campgrounds… for a fraction of the cost.
#3 Free Camping on BLM Land: Much of the BLM’s millions of acres across the U.S. is available for free RV camping. Charity gives some tips, but this post will help you find great BLM camping.
#4 State and National Forests: (Side note: I am typing this post from just such a campsite.) Fees and amenities vary from location to location but they are generally cheap. (I am currently paying $4 a night for a gorgeous, forested dry camping spot.)
#5 City and County Campgrounds: Most of these have partial and sometimes even full hookups at prices that are a fraction of commercial campgrounds.
##RVDT2152
Full time RVer for almost 4 years and my favorites tend to be National Forest dispersed camping for free and CoE for cheap. Scenery, peace and quiet and armed guards.
Obviously, Charity has not checked prices recently for campgrounds with 30 Amp elec service in Yellowstone or Grand Teton NP! Cheap, they are not. (We have reservations for Sept. 2023. Both places will cost us near $100 per night!) We also really enjoy the environment found in most State Parks, but they too have become much more expensive, especially if you are an out-of-state guest. Many now cost $37-$47 per night. Not exactly cheap camping. City and County parks often provide a good alternative but very few offer advance reservations. All of these factors make Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome sites more and more attractive.
I am a huge fan of Harvest Hosts and use them all the time. Still as expensive as these places can be, they beat the heck out KOA’s and the like.