Ultimate Guide: How to Find the Best Campgrounds & RV Parks for Budget-Savvy Travelers
Nowadays there are a lot of travelers who decide to use RV's during their adventures. If you are one of them you probably know, how important is to find free campgrounds or cheap RV parks. So let's start learning how to save your money on the road.
In this article, I will try to give you some tips on how to find the best campground for your RV. You will learn where to search for cheap parks or how to find free ones. I will also give you some tips on how to save money during your travels.
Finding cheap or exclusive Campgrounds and RV Parks
There are many websites where you can find search engines providing you a useful information where to find the best campgrounds or RV parks. In the USA I like to use a RoverPass website, mostly because I can show my results on the map, which is useful when I want to find a place near me. They also support a mobile view, so you can reserve a campground from your phone.
From the other hand, if you are planning to visit Europe, there is a good website called Camper Contact where you can find your place in every European country. This site has a lot of advantages and one of them is that you can even find free campgrounds and RV parks.
Camping on Public Lands
There is not always a need to find a private RV park. If you want, you can also camp on Public Lands. For example, there are a 250 million acres of lands you can do it in the United States and most of them are free to stay overnight. Well, most of them, so it's also a good idea to look for them on the Bureau of Land Management website.
Camp in National Forests
There is also a possibility to camp and overnight in most of National Forests in the United States. Just be sure to check with the local forest ranger to stay out of any troubles. Also, local rangers usually will be able to show you the best area and even uncover some great spots for you.
Finding free campgrounds
If you don't want to pay for campgrounds, there is a very useful tool called Free Campsites, where you can find free campgrounds and RV Parks on the map in the whole USA. Just write the area you are currently in and it will show you interesting places on the map. The only problem with that site is that it is difficult on the mobiles, so it's a better idea to plan your trip here from your computer.
Ask your family or friends
This is probably the best and the cheapest way to get yourself a place for your camper, of course, if you have a family or friends near the area you are going to visit. You will then have an access to the shower, bathroom and proper kitchen and you will visit people you like and know. Two birds with one stone.
What else can we do to save some money?
Well, if you are an RV traveler you probably know that the biggest expense is a fuel. Since I don't like to be in one place for a long amount of time, this is, unfortunately, the area I cannot save any money, maybe except finding gas stations with a bit cheaper fuel.
Another thing we can do is to cook all our meals, because the restaurants are always expensive, no matter what country or a state you plan to visit. Another way to save some money is to have your own water - it's always a good idea to have a few gallon containers in the van.
Conclusion
There are a lot of ways to save some money on the road. You can find cheap or free RV parks and campgrounds, you can stay in one place and you can cook your own meals and have your own water. For me traveling with a camper is a good idea, when you want to spend some time in the wildlife, but can be problematic in big cities, especially in Europe. If you enjoyed this article or want to ask me some questions, feel free to leave me a comment in the section below.
