Tips And Tools To Reserve Popular Campsites

Hey our beers. I'm lisa McEwen. If you've tried to make RV camping reservations lately, you've probably noticed one thing and that is that reservations are becoming harder and harder to make, especially if you're trying to stay in a popular area or if you're a snowbird trying to come south for the winter. The US Census Bureau says there are 4500 campgrounds spread across the US which seems like there would be enough to go around. But the truth is RV camping has become wildly popular. There are now a record breaking 11.2 million RV owners in the US. When you hear numbers like that. It's not so surprising to hear that all of these campgrounds are filling up. So if you're a weekend warrior like us or if you're a snowbird trying to come south for the winter, how do you book these coveted campsites? We've been camping for four years now and I've got a few tips. I can pass along to book hot campsites, you have to book ahead sometimes almost a year ahead. Research the campground. You want to stay at, find out when the booking window opens and then set a calendar reminder for that day. For example, you can book sites at a florida state campground 11 months in advance. So if you want to camp on the fourth of july in 2023 let's say you need to book that site 11 months ahead of time. So you'd set a calendar reminder for august 4th 2022 you should plan to be at your computer as soon as that window opens for florida state campgrounds, that's eight a.m. So you should be at the computer ready to book at that time. The reservation windows are going to vary. So you'll have to look up those rules for the place that you want to stay before you book as you might suspect, weekends and holidays often book up first. If you have flexibility in your travel days, you might be able to snag a site that you want if you can go monday through friday. Most campgrounds will let you search using a calendar view so you can see availability for flexible dates if you want to go to a larger metropolitan area or a popular park like Yellowstone. Try widening your search geographically. You might have to stay a little further away than you'd like and you'll spend a little bit more time in the car but you can still visit the places that you want. How do you feel about camping at a llama farm or a vineyard? There are several sites that offer alternative campsites like this that you can check out. You can find available spots on Hip camp and harvest hosts. Some of these sites like harvest hosts require a membership to browse their available locations. Hip camp doesn't require a membership but you do need to create an account. You should research which site is best for you. There are sites that can alert you to campsite cancelations like camp nap if you really want to stay at a certain campground you can enter its name and the date you're looking for. And this site will notify you of any cancelations since so many people book their camping reservations in advance, cancelations are pretty common. If you use these features though. Keep in mind you're not the only one using them. So when you do get an alert you have to act fast. There are specific catch and release facebook groups you can join too. Usually they're organized by state like this one, it's a florida catch and release group. As the name suggests, members release sites for others to catch. So when a member has to cancel their reservation or release a site they tell the members of the group so they have a chance to grab that reservation. Some members simply put up a post like this which tells the group that the reservation at a florida park. Fort de Soto was just canceled. If you see a post like this and can act fast, you might be able to get the site. Other members are actually willing to release the site and coordinate that transfer with an interested person. So both parties would pick a time to sit down at their computer and one would release the site while the other person on the other end books the site you can join a handful of these Catch and release groups based on where you like to camp making campground reservations has become a little bit stressful. We've got two kids in school, so our camping time usually follows that school calendar. So making those reservations over a spring break or a winter break is sometimes tricky as well. But my biggest tip is to make your reservations in advance. Sometimes that means almost a year ahead of time. Given that you're making those reservations so far in advance, you might have to cancel them. Life happens, right? And yes, you will probably lose a reservation fee somewhere around $10. But at the end of the day I would rather lose that $10 than lose the opportunity to camp where we want. Hopefully some of these tips will help you the next time you're trying to make reservations until next time.