Finding Campsites Can Be Stressful
Yes, finding campsites can be stressful! For the past two winters, we have been in the Southwest where camping for free on public lands is plentiful (Bureau of Land Management, Wildlife Management Areas, National Forests, etc.). In the Southeast, opportunities to stay for free on government land are scarce, especially for more than two weeks. Therefore, we had to change the way we book campsites this past winter when our travels took us to the Southeast.
Ocean Grove RV Resort cancellation site! 
Beautiful sunsets right from our site!
We, however, try to make a game out of it so it feels less stressful! Reserving campsites way in advance would be stressful enough! At many campgrounds, you can now reserve more than a year out. We don’t even know where we will be two weeks from now! Furthermore, we have been able to get excellent campsites by the method we use. It does take some research and time, but it seems to work for us.
Apps/Websites
We use Campendium (iOS Apple or website for non Apple users) and RV Trip Wizard (website) to look for campgrounds that we would potentially want to stay at in the area we will be visiting. We check out potential campground on Google Maps or Apple Maps in “satellite” mode. Furthermore, we look to see where the nearest grocery stores, restaurants, hiking trails, beaches, and anything else we want to be near are. When we find something that matches, we put it on a potential campgrounds list.
Campground Websites
After determining which campgrounds we want to check out, we go to their website to get a feel of the park. First, we review what hookups they have, size of sites, rates, rules/regulations, and amenities they offer. Secondly, we search for the RV park map to see which site #s we would prefer to stay in, if you have a choice. Lastly, we review the photos to determine what the sites and roads look like. With the information we find out, we revise the potential campgrounds list.
Campground Reviews
Now, it’s time to look up campground reviews of the parks we have narrowed down. We check out the RV park’s reviews on Campendium, Campground Reviews, Google, and Yelp. We don’t take too much stock in the 1 star and 5 star reviews, unless there are lots of them! You can learn a lot about the park by doing this! It gives us a good indicator of what is actually happening at the RV parks we are considering. After our stay, we always add a campground review so it can help other campers!
Availability
Next, we check the availability of the RV park(s) we have found. If there is availability for the dates and sites we wanted, we go ahead and book the site. If the park is full (which many times it is) for the dates we want, that’s ok because that is when the fun begins! We put the RV parks we want to stay at on a “watch list.”
Cancellation Watch List
What many people don’t know is cancellations happen all of the time! People cancel for many reasons: health, weather, borders closed (no Canadian snowbirds this year), emergencies, etc. We take advantage of this! Throughout the day, we go to our watch list campgrounds’ websites to see if any sites became open from a cancellation. If the RV park doesn’t have a “booking” website, we call them to see if anyone canceled for the dates we want. Believe it or not, the majority of our RV park stays are booked this way!
“This method works for us time and time again!”
Ocean Grove RV Resort in St. Augustine Beach, FL is an example of following these steps. We determined we wanted to stay at this park for a month and figured out which sites were best. After five days of checking for cancellations, our best ideal site popped up! The site backed up to the saltwater marsh where we see awesome sunsets! Grocery stores and a coffee shop are nearby and the beach is only a half mile away! The City of St. Augustine (the oldest city in the Americas) is just 15 minutes away. It checked all of our boxes! Because we really liked this RV park, we even decided to stay another month. By checking for cancellations once again, four days later the site right next to us came open for another month! Yup, it’s hard to believe we got so lucky once again!
Highlight: Harvest Hosts
While we are in transit to our next major destination, we like to use our Harvest Hosts membership. Harvest Hosts is a network of 2,033+ wineries, breweries and distilleries, farms and attractions that invite RVers with self-contained RVs to visit and stay overnight with no camping fees! If you are interested in staying in unique settings, now is the time to sign up as the price goes up to $99 after March 31, 2021. By using our affiliate link, you can get 15% off with discount code HHFRIENDS15. If you book before March 31, your price will lock in at $67.15 every year. Click here to lock in your special rate.
Harvest Host Location: Tongue River Winery 
Harvest Host Location: Tallahassee Automobile Museum
Yes, finding campsites can be stressful! But we hope you were able to gather some tips to score some amazing campsites when you go out for a weekend, week, month or more! Feel free to let us know if you have additional tips on securing great campsites in the comments below!
Loving the RV Life – Heidi and Mark
Check out our previous blog: 2020 in Review
Always interesting to read about your wayward travels!! You should write a book like Charles Kuralt did when he was the host of Sunday Morning on CBS and traveled the country in his RV, doing on-site interviews and interesting stories. Monetize your travels! For example, if u see a crazy invention, take a pic, send me a story and I’ll send u a check! LMK if that works. Take care, safe travels. LM.
This was very helpful… Some of these things we’ve done on our big road trips. I always feel a sense of relief when I know we are booked for the next week or so, but we usually plan as we go also. I like the apps you suggest… We will check those out. Did not know there was a waiting list option either! You are constantly learning aren’t you? Thank you for sharing with us!❤️
Good stuff Mark and Heidi! We just scored another month on a pull thru site here at Verde Ranch. After we decided to stay I checked for cancellations twice a day for a week and one opened up the day before we were due to check out!