Planning a Road Trip with Your Camper
I’m an Ember RV Brand Ambassador, which means I am compensated for my recommendations. That does not mean I’m influenced in any way about what my recommendations include. Because the truth is I reached out to them and convinced them I was the right person for this job. Because I adore their product, their branding, and their humans.
This post does include affiliate links, which means I will make a commission if you choose to make a purchase.
Ember RV Overland Series 221MDB @ Beavers Bend State Park
It’s time to leave the nest and take your camper on the road. Like most things in life, the more you do it (camping) the more experience you’ll gain and the less anxiety you’ll carry planning upcoming trips.
Before planning you should know:
The length of your rig (including your vehicle)
Hookup requirements
How long you can travel on a full tank of fuel
We’re no longer in an age where paper maps are our only source of navigation information. Today, we have resources at our disposal to make trip planning easier and faster.
Harvest Hosts ($) is a membership program that invites self-contained RVers to have unique overnight stays, which is perfect for standalone stays or as pit stops on your way to your final destination. Night at a winery? A brewery? A museum?
Roadtrippers (free options, and $) helps people discover the world around them in an entirely new way by streamlining discovery, planning, booking and navigation into an engaging and intuitive process. During the trip process you can not only route your final destination, but also take note of experiences, preferred fuel stops, and grocery stores on the way. The app syncs off line, which means maps are accessible even without data.
Recreation.gov is your one-stop shop for making reservations or viewing venue details of 13 Federal participating partners: Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Federal Highway Administration, National Archives & Records Administration, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service, Presidio Trust, Smithsonian Institution, Tennessee Valley Authority, Fish and Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers and US Forest Service.
When planning a trip at a high-traffic national park, it’s best to plan as far in advance as possible as campsites book quickly. If given the luxury of planning around available reservations instead of forcing reservations into your only available time off, you may have more luck. Campsites are released daily at 7 a.m. PDT for six months in advance.
Campsitephotos.com allows you to see your exact campsite before booking. While it does remove a bit of the magic of arriving at a new, unexplored location for the first time, it does allow you to prepare to be water-side if you’re traveling with young children, for example.
Planning tips:
Research. Parks like Yellowstone have more than one campground, which means a bit of research can help you create a list of your favorites before checking availability. In addition to the apps and websites listed above:
Search engines, like Google, will provide information based on sites that have best optimized for search. Some of the best destinations do not have a full time digital strategist, which means you may need to do a bit more research.
Many travel content creators share videos of campgrounds and destinations on YouTube.
Search destinations by utilizing the “places” feature on Instagram to see where others have “checked in”
Reserve campsites at your main destination.
Then, work backward and forward to complete your trip.
Make reservations. For example: some places, like the Waterfall Trail on Fossil Creek, require day use permits.
Using your estimated mileage per tank, map out possible fuel stops - and stretch your leg stops - using Roadtrippers and ensure your app is syncing offline in the instance you lose data coverage. This is especially helpful if you’re a loyalty member of a specific fuel brand.
