Long post. Please don't read if you object to long posts.
If you want to save money on campgrounds and RV parks, then you are going to have to put a little effort into it.
The easy way is to join half-price clubs like Passport America or spend lots of money to buy into outfits like Coast to Coast (bad experience) or Thousand Trails, etc. But I have found that the participating parks are often nowhere near to where I am traveling. I prefer to run US Hwys and they tend to go thru "nowhere". But I can usually find small municipal parks in tiny towns. COE CGs tend to also be not too far from a US Hwy.
The biggest problem I have found with finding low priced campgrounds (CGs) and RV parks (RVPs) is that they tend to have a non-existent web presence. I have lost count of how many city/county parks that I have chased down info on that simply can not be found on a CG/RVP review site. I discovered this several years ago with the free city/county parks. And when I do find reviews, it's all about people whining that the free for 1 to 3 night park doesn't have a pool and high-speed internet (I don't care for swimming pools and I have my own wifi). Or there are barking dogs in the nearby neighbourhood or road traffic (ear plugs are sold in many drug stores and big box stores). Or my fav "It's just a gravel parking lot". There are very few green, grassy campgrounds or RV parks in deserts.
So I collect and build my own personal directories. I am not relying on others to do this for me. They do not have the same criteria as I do. You would need to do your own research. No one else is going to do it for you. You can get a jump start by downloading a csv list off of a website like the poi factory. Many of these poi files are years out of date. Also things CHANGE. Many of the old W/E CGs/RVPs now have sewer and 50 amp, often along with higher prices. Others have closed (I found one that closed years ago because there was a nasty murder there during the closed season - the body was found in the bathhouse when workers were opening the park back up for the season... EEK!). Some public CGs/RVPs have changed hands (seems to be a common occurrence with state and COE parks). This one I figured out because there is a nice park in Hobbs NM that used to be a state park but is now a municipal park (owned or run by the city/county). The weird thing is that it has been like this for over 14 years but it is still listed in some places as a state park. But it's nice, CHEAP ($18 W/50/30/S) and the bad reviews are BS. I know, I have been there twice now (first time almost 14 years ago, second time was 2 years ago) and we know people who live in that town. Also a little-known former state park in Westminster, SC is now a municipal park ($25 W/E). Last time I was there, it was a state park. But it's not on my directory list because a big rig would have serious problems getting into the little park. We used to live about 10 miles away when it was a state park. But dead links on review sites and, again, high expectations for a low price on the part of reviewers.
My suggestions to people who want to lower their CG/RVP expenses:
$ 1. Build your own directory. Download a csv file and open it up in your favourite spread sheet program for editing. Import a copy of the file into google my maps and zoom in to a single state to work on it. You can edit the info box directly in the map as well as delete POIs. I do both map and spreadsheet because my titles end up looking like this "$0 BR/W/50/30/S Haskell Park CG (CP)". The icon I chose for this specific listing was a green (for public) RV (I had to go to the "more" to find the icon)
While looking up info and fixing GPS coordinates on Google maps, you will start seeing other places while zoomed in close. Sometimes these will be those little known municipal parks. Note the name and coordinates down to look up later. I have found so many municipal parks with W/E under $20 this way. Some of these aren't even on freecampsites.net but the city/county websites have the info (usually under "Parks & Recreation")
$ 2. Stay a month or more in one place. A monthly rate will reduce the nightly cost dramatically in most cases. Just daytrip or overnight to nearby places to play tourist at.
$ 3. When traveling, be set up to allow overnight stays (ONS) in parking lots. This saves me a lot of money. I only stay in a park overnight if it's free, I need to dump/fill tanks/do laundry or I have a specific reason to be there. Sometimes, I hit all three in one park! This will also help with many of the National Forest (NF) and State Forest (SF) CGs. Many of them have no hookups or any facilities (here's a good place to look up NF developed and dispersed CGs www.forestcamping.com)
I did not build a private list of Walmart stores. My last choice is Walmart. I rarely stay in a Walmart. Everyone and their brother list the Walmarts that allow ONSs (and many of them, including the ones you pay for, incorrectly state stores that do not allow ONS - those "No Overnight Parking" signs do not actually mean what people think they mean, they are to stop people from parking their vehicles for day, weeks and months - TALK TO A STORE MANAGER).
I'm a Sam's Club member and they typically allow members to do ONSs in most of their store lots. I have run into less than 5 Sam's Clubs that do not allow ONSs. One is in ABQ, but I would not recommend staying in ANY parking lot in ABQ. It's just too dangerous.
My second choice for ONSs is Cracker Barrel. I built a spread sheet for both Sam's and Cracker Barrel. For Cracker Barrel, I added "BR" for Big Rig Friendly (my bus is 40ft without the towed) and noted if the RV parking was in the lot or in an adjacent lot. I included this info because I may not stay the night but I still need to know if I can get a BR into the parking lot or park in an adjacent lot when I want to stop for a meal. This is the info I want for Cracker Barrels. Each line is a column in my spreadsheet, the words before the : is the name of the column and the first line is the title which is what I see when I highlight the spot - I have specific icons for overnight and non -overnight stays which I set per store. I try to include an RV Parky review link because these reviews often have tips on parking included. Handy when planning to stop at an unfamiliar store. RV Parky also tends to review Walmart stores for ONSs. ALWAYS ask a manager about parking overnight and have a backup place in case they say no.
Title: ONS (BR) C Barrel #149 – Denton
Exit: I-35 EX 469
BR Parking: In Lot
Address: 4008 North I-35, Denton, TX 76207 Review: RV Parky | RV Parks & Campgrounds Directory, Reviews, Photos
Date: 2023/04
Cracker Barrels tend to have nice thick grass. My desert-born dog LOVES to walk on the soft, thick, green grass. She gets so excited when we pull into a CB. My last dog thought we should stop at every CB that we passed. She could recognize the big billboards long before we got to the place. To her, it was all about the biscuits! She got two biscuits every time we ate there. Current dog has no interest in biscuits. I have an interest in the biscuits.
When I stay in a Sam's Club lot, I typically get my supper from them and cruise the store to see what they have as well as pick up anything I might be running low on. I normally buy 90% or more of my groceries from Sam's Club. And they have the cheapest prebaked decent pizzas in town. Plus I love their rotisserie chicken. I also tend to get my fuel from them because, according to my Gas Buddy app, they have the cheapest fuel or are the second cheapest. Downside is their fuel stations tend to be tight. For example, I would not tow my Jeep into the local Sam's fuel station. Too tight of a turn on some lanes. But they have nice big lots and I have no problem dropping the excess to refuel on an overnight stay.
$ 4. Topping off a fuel tank is better than waiting until you are almost empty. I like to refuel when I stop for an overnight. It gives me the option of picking where I refuel rather than being forced to refuel because of an almost empty tank. That tends to result in my refueling at a higher price. Of course, that may just be me.
$ 5. Try kicking some of your prejudices to the curb. The people who are classified as "Permanent" in "old" campers are not out to steal from you nor will your newer camper catch cooties from them. It may come as a surprise to you, but the permanent people worry about the "here-&-gone" overnighters who can steal and be gone before anyone knows it. Last time I looked, you didn't have to have a character reference or background check to buy an RV of any kind. I've gotten more mice from having an overnighter pull in and gone in a day or two than I have with permanent residents next to me. When we have someone new pull in next to us, I start spraying and putting out mouse poison. And it's the overnights who stole sodas off our food cart, not the local park residents. Why? Because they knew us and knew we were workers. Overnights just think they are entitled (read reviews, you'll see that mindset pop up often).
If you want to save money on campgrounds and RV parks, then you are going to have to put a little effort into it.
The easy way is to join half-price clubs like Passport America or spend lots of money to buy into outfits like Coast to Coast (bad experience) or Thousand Trails, etc. But I have found that the participating parks are often nowhere near to where I am traveling. I prefer to run US Hwys and they tend to go thru "nowhere". But I can usually find small municipal parks in tiny towns. COE CGs tend to also be not too far from a US Hwy.
The biggest problem I have found with finding low priced campgrounds (CGs) and RV parks (RVPs) is that they tend to have a non-existent web presence. I have lost count of how many city/county parks that I have chased down info on that simply can not be found on a CG/RVP review site. I discovered this several years ago with the free city/county parks. And when I do find reviews, it's all about people whining that the free for 1 to 3 night park doesn't have a pool and high-speed internet (I don't care for swimming pools and I have my own wifi). Or there are barking dogs in the nearby neighbourhood or road traffic (ear plugs are sold in many drug stores and big box stores). Or my fav "It's just a gravel parking lot". There are very few green, grassy campgrounds or RV parks in deserts.
So I collect and build my own personal directories. I am not relying on others to do this for me. They do not have the same criteria as I do. You would need to do your own research. No one else is going to do it for you. You can get a jump start by downloading a csv list off of a website like the poi factory. Many of these poi files are years out of date. Also things CHANGE. Many of the old W/E CGs/RVPs now have sewer and 50 amp, often along with higher prices. Others have closed (I found one that closed years ago because there was a nasty murder there during the closed season - the body was found in the bathhouse when workers were opening the park back up for the season... EEK!). Some public CGs/RVPs have changed hands (seems to be a common occurrence with state and COE parks). This one I figured out because there is a nice park in Hobbs NM that used to be a state park but is now a municipal park (owned or run by the city/county). The weird thing is that it has been like this for over 14 years but it is still listed in some places as a state park. But it's nice, CHEAP ($18 W/50/30/S) and the bad reviews are BS. I know, I have been there twice now (first time almost 14 years ago, second time was 2 years ago) and we know people who live in that town. Also a little-known former state park in Westminster, SC is now a municipal park ($25 W/E). Last time I was there, it was a state park. But it's not on my directory list because a big rig would have serious problems getting into the little park. We used to live about 10 miles away when it was a state park. But dead links on review sites and, again, high expectations for a low price on the part of reviewers.
My suggestions to people who want to lower their CG/RVP expenses:
$ 1. Build your own directory. Download a csv file and open it up in your favourite spread sheet program for editing. Import a copy of the file into google my maps and zoom in to a single state to work on it. You can edit the info box directly in the map as well as delete POIs. I do both map and spreadsheet because my titles end up looking like this "$0 BR/W/50/30/S Haskell Park CG (CP)". The icon I chose for this specific listing was a green (for public) RV (I had to go to the "more" to find the icon)
While looking up info and fixing GPS coordinates on Google maps, you will start seeing other places while zoomed in close. Sometimes these will be those little known municipal parks. Note the name and coordinates down to look up later. I have found so many municipal parks with W/E under $20 this way. Some of these aren't even on freecampsites.net but the city/county websites have the info (usually under "Parks & Recreation")
$ 2. Stay a month or more in one place. A monthly rate will reduce the nightly cost dramatically in most cases. Just daytrip or overnight to nearby places to play tourist at.
$ 3. When traveling, be set up to allow overnight stays (ONS) in parking lots. This saves me a lot of money. I only stay in a park overnight if it's free, I need to dump/fill tanks/do laundry or I have a specific reason to be there. Sometimes, I hit all three in one park! This will also help with many of the National Forest (NF) and State Forest (SF) CGs. Many of them have no hookups or any facilities (here's a good place to look up NF developed and dispersed CGs www.forestcamping.com)
I did not build a private list of Walmart stores. My last choice is Walmart. I rarely stay in a Walmart. Everyone and their brother list the Walmarts that allow ONSs (and many of them, including the ones you pay for, incorrectly state stores that do not allow ONS - those "No Overnight Parking" signs do not actually mean what people think they mean, they are to stop people from parking their vehicles for day, weeks and months - TALK TO A STORE MANAGER).
I'm a Sam's Club member and they typically allow members to do ONSs in most of their store lots. I have run into less than 5 Sam's Clubs that do not allow ONSs. One is in ABQ, but I would not recommend staying in ANY parking lot in ABQ. It's just too dangerous.
My second choice for ONSs is Cracker Barrel. I built a spread sheet for both Sam's and Cracker Barrel. For Cracker Barrel, I added "BR" for Big Rig Friendly (my bus is 40ft without the towed) and noted if the RV parking was in the lot or in an adjacent lot. I included this info because I may not stay the night but I still need to know if I can get a BR into the parking lot or park in an adjacent lot when I want to stop for a meal. This is the info I want for Cracker Barrels. Each line is a column in my spreadsheet, the words before the : is the name of the column and the first line is the title which is what I see when I highlight the spot - I have specific icons for overnight and non -overnight stays which I set per store. I try to include an RV Parky review link because these reviews often have tips on parking included. Handy when planning to stop at an unfamiliar store. RV Parky also tends to review Walmart stores for ONSs. ALWAYS ask a manager about parking overnight and have a backup place in case they say no.
Title: ONS (BR) C Barrel #149 – Denton
Exit: I-35 EX 469
BR Parking: In Lot
Address: 4008 North I-35, Denton, TX 76207 Review: RV Parky | RV Parks & Campgrounds Directory, Reviews, Photos
Date: 2023/04
Cracker Barrels tend to have nice thick grass. My desert-born dog LOVES to walk on the soft, thick, green grass. She gets so excited when we pull into a CB. My last dog thought we should stop at every CB that we passed. She could recognize the big billboards long before we got to the place. To her, it was all about the biscuits! She got two biscuits every time we ate there. Current dog has no interest in biscuits. I have an interest in the biscuits.
When I stay in a Sam's Club lot, I typically get my supper from them and cruise the store to see what they have as well as pick up anything I might be running low on. I normally buy 90% or more of my groceries from Sam's Club. And they have the cheapest prebaked decent pizzas in town. Plus I love their rotisserie chicken. I also tend to get my fuel from them because, according to my Gas Buddy app, they have the cheapest fuel or are the second cheapest. Downside is their fuel stations tend to be tight. For example, I would not tow my Jeep into the local Sam's fuel station. Too tight of a turn on some lanes. But they have nice big lots and I have no problem dropping the excess to refuel on an overnight stay.
$ 4. Topping off a fuel tank is better than waiting until you are almost empty. I like to refuel when I stop for an overnight. It gives me the option of picking where I refuel rather than being forced to refuel because of an almost empty tank. That tends to result in my refueling at a higher price. Of course, that may just be me.
$ 5. Try kicking some of your prejudices to the curb. The people who are classified as "Permanent" in "old" campers are not out to steal from you nor will your newer camper catch cooties from them. It may come as a surprise to you, but the permanent people worry about the "here-&-gone" overnighters who can steal and be gone before anyone knows it. Last time I looked, you didn't have to have a character reference or background check to buy an RV of any kind. I've gotten more mice from having an overnighter pull in and gone in a day or two than I have with permanent residents next to me. When we have someone new pull in next to us, I start spraying and putting out mouse poison. And it's the overnights who stole sodas off our food cart, not the local park residents. Why? Because they knew us and knew we were workers. Overnights just think they are entitled (read reviews, you'll see that mindset pop up often).
Harvest Hosts is a unique opportunity but not really a money saver typically as what you would spend at a campground for a night you essentially give them in your business for those that don't know how that works.
