Thor Forums

[Oldchief]

Originally Posted by Miramar Owner

More of the Corp of Engineers and state campgrounds are going to 100% reservable sights. You might think this is a good thing but if you live anywhere near a major city, those campsites are reserved every Friday and Saturday night for the entire season. They used to only reserve maybe 1/2 of the sites so you could always get there earlier in the week and find a place to set up.

Many times I have been in a campground with several of the sites empty, with reserved signs on the posts...very frustrating. I have found 3 solutions to this:

First, reserve early and I mean like 6 months early. We do that for our annual family reunion. We have 8 campers stay for a week and reserve the sites as soon as they are available.

Second, find small county or even city owned campgrounds that do not do reservations. One of my favorite places is a small, little known campground with 25 - 50 amp sites...beautiful, peaceful and best of all...never full.

Third, private campgrounds. Because they are more expensive they are generally available unless they are near a major tourist area.

Bottom line...make reservations at your destination (early) and use Walmarts (or similar) for over nights while traveling. Close to home...find the hidden gem.

One more solution is to call the campground office, if it has one, and ask them if any sites available. This is because, as stated, too many RV'ers selfishly book everything in sight for long periods of time, with no intention of actually using that time or often not even showing up. I've frequently found that many of the on-line reservation sites always show 'no vacancies' but those running the campground know the real situation.
A mandatory, non-refundable 'reservation' fee would put a stop to a lot of this.