Camp site reservations

MichaelL

Senior Member
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RV LIFE Pro
Joined
Jul 20, 2021
Messages
112
Location
Michigan
As most of you know trying to find a popular campground that has vacancies is sometimes very time consuming.
Has anyone found campsite vacancies using any of the apps such as campnab, wanderingnab or Arvid? If so did it work for you?
Are there any other apps that can find them for you?
Thanks
 
We don't use an app, just the campground website. This summer was weird, we found 4 sites for the same week without a problem. This was for a state campground at s beach. Normal years, it takes many tries to get 4 sites for about the same time. Sites open at 8am and are booked a few seconds later. This is for sites a year out. so im starting to think theres some app or something that hold them. Not sure.
 
As most of you know trying to find a popular campground that has vacancies is sometimes very time consuming.
Has anyone found campsite vacancies using any of the apps such as campnab, wanderingnab or Arvid? If so did it work for you?
Are there any other apps that can find them for you?
Thanks

Notice your info states MI.... we had a hard time in MI finding available CGs last year. Found that any areas near Canada were hard to book due to limited open site availability. Also, lots of folks are parking (staycation) their rigs year-round at CGs more than ever.
 
MI Parks, some have been very hard to get into since the RV sales went crazy. Getting spots nationally on the fly has been difficult for about 10 yrs. We don't use an app but plan as far ahead as possible these days. For MI state parks 8am is the golden time to check for openings and cancellations.
I think some people book several parks for the same time frame and cancel one as time gets closer. It gives a guarantee of a spot if they are undecided on destination 6mos out, raising cancelation fees slightly hasn't curtailed this from happening.

We have the luxury of weekday camping but if we want an extended stay that's where it gets difficult for short term planning.
 
I've not seen any apps outside of the recreation.gov app. I use the RVLife Trip Wizard for my route planning. Then link to the individual websites for reservations. Bane of my existence making reservations and planning routes. We tend to avoid private campgrounds and usually stay at state and national parks and forests. We've even started doing some BLM now that we have enough solar/battery to go for extended periods. Many of the private places don't even have online reservations, let alone connecting to any apps.

We head out for the winter at the end of October and stay out until April. I started in August this year. I planned out the first 3 months and made all the reservations I could. Some places were first-come first-served so we were taking a chance. But they all worked out. On the road I plan and reserve 2 months ahead. Even with that I've had to skip some places that didn't have space.
 
I've used Wandering Labs (and paid the fees) to score spots in the FL Keys. But you have to jump on line immediately when you get a notice of an open site. It seems manny people use the same app so it is always competitive to get a spot.

Oregon state parks website lets you set up a wish list and you get alerts when something opens up. I never used it.

I've seen other reservations site that do something similar to Oregon - alerting you to sites that open. I just don't recall which reservations sites do this.

Sadly it is almost a requirement to reserve many sites/locations on the first day/time reservations open up for favorite/popular locations; especially state and national parks. So you have to do research ahead of time to ID the site(s) you want, then be ready the morning the sites are available to be reserved.

If you don't care where you stay you can just wander and find locations to stay on the fly as you travel. For me that means missing lots of places/things I want to see. For others it is their preferred method of travel.
 

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