G6AdventuresOver the last several years, RV travel rose dramatically. A 2023 KOA report states that RV ownership increased over 62% in the last 20 years. Nearly 12 million households owned an RV as of 2022. About 1 million Americans live as full-time RVers. The rest, like us, are essentially vacationers with limited travel time. In 2023, Wakefield Researched reported that 61% of Americans were planning a road trip or RV vacation, a 13% increase from 2022.
All of this adds up to the fact that campground reservations can be incredibly difficult to obtain. This is especially true in popular areas or even in popular, local campgrounds. It makes it even more challenging for the non-full-time RVers who tend to have less flexibility in their travel schedules. When you are juggling limited PTO days, school schedules, work schedules, sports schedules, RV size restrictions, weather, and just all the things, you may not be able to make or change your travel plans on the fly. In today’s RV and camping climate, it can be crucial for part-time RVers, vacationers, and weekend warriors to plan their travel well ahead.
In that vein, I love to plan. I love to plan almost anything. Whether it’s travel, a birthday party, a fundraising event, or even a themed dinner or movie marathon, planning is my jam. As a newer mom, I planned every detail of everything. When we traveled (before iPhones), we traveled with tabbed binders full of Excel spreadsheets and intricately curated itineraries. Eric made fun of me, but he couldn’t deny the efficiency, comfort and ease those plans afforded us in those early trips.
But, by the time we had 4 kids, I had to learn to throw those perfectly planned trips right out the window. What used to encourage smooth and effortless travel started to create frustration, disappointment and sometimes even chaos. I had to kick my strongly rooted Type A perfectionism to the curb and be at peace with flexibility and a level of flying by the seat of our pants.
Don’t worry, we’re not completely winging it. I think I have found a good balance of planning and flexibility that works well for our family. Eric prefers being able to get in the RV, type in an address into the Garmin, and know that we have a spot that he can fairly easily park and set up the rig. It reduces the stress of driving, particularly on long travel days. So I am pretty meticulous when it comes to researching, planning and scheduling our campgrounds. But, once we get to where we are going, flexibility and adaptability take over.
Starting your travel planning process can seem overwhelming. But it can also be exhilarating and help pass the time until your next trip. Honestly, I am constantly planning a trip at some level. Here are the steps I take in planning our RV travels or really any trip we take. This may obviously need to be adjusted to better fit your travel style. For us, we typically take one longer RV trip of at least two weeks over the summer. Then, we take several shorter trips over weekends or long weekends. Most of these steps apply more to the longer trips. Use what works for you!
Think Big Picture – Years in Advance
I start with a super high level ever-changing list of places we’d like to visit. I like to think of this as my 5-year travel plan. We loosely prioritize it based on timing and preference. As we learn of new places or perhaps watch a travel video that piques our interest, the priorities may shift and change. We may add or possibly even delete places. But I typically have a very big picture idea of general parts of the country we will travel to over the next several years. This “Big Picture Travel Plan” largely pertains to our longer trips.
Zero In – 18 Months in Advance
Early in each year, I look at the Big Picture Travel Plan and our travel budget with the family. We then zero in on where we’d like to travel the following summer (approximately 18 months out). Sometimes, we unanimously agree on a part of the country. And sometimes we don’t. When we don’t, we will often watch videos from our favorite vloggers on the areas someone felt strongly about. That person will also plead their case on why we should travel to that area. Usually, by the end of January, we will settle on a region.
Start to Dig In – 12 to 18 Months in Advance
How Long Are We Talking?
Once we decide on the area, I start to dig into the general details. First, we decide on the overall length of the trip. We take both mine and Eric’s PTO availability into consideration. We are both incredibly fortunate that our jobs allow us incredible flexibility for vacations. As long as we give our jobs a reasonable heads up, and we have the time off, we are able to take it. Plus, I can work remotely and often do on travel days. We will also consider the distance to the region. How long will it take us to drive the RV to that area? Are there multiple destinations in that area that we want to cover? These discussions dictate how long we plan to travel.
When Can We Leave?
Then, we start to hone in on when we want to travel. I look at the school calendar to see when summer break starts and ends. We will take youth, church and sports camps into consideration. Our kids really enjoy being home for holidays, so we try not to travel over the Independence Day holiday. We also look at where we are traveling and whether there are any opening restrictions or weather limitations. For example, depending on where you are traveling, there may be seasonal road closures. In Glacier National Park, the Going to the Sun Road may not be fully open until late June or July. On the other end of the spectrum, the south and southwest can get incredibly hot, so you may not want to travel there in the hottest parts of summer.
Book It! 6 to 12 Months in Advance
Finding the Best Campground for Your Family for this Trip
Once we roughly determine the length and timing, I create a trip in the RV LIFE Trip Wizard. This is a subscription website and currently costs $65 per year. I use it fanatically. You can enter your rig information and travel preferences, and it provides you with a host of information. It helps you to find campgrounds, gas, points of interest. It provides routes and approximate travel times. I find that the RV travel times on the Trip Wizard are MUCH more accurate than those on Google Maps or Waze. Using the Trip Wizard, I start playing around with routes and various stopping points.
At this point, I also use the AllStays Camp & RV app. This is also a subscription. The Pro subscription is currently $34.99 per year; however, they offer a first year promotion. I love this app because it really helps me to narrow down campgrounds based on our size and preferences. I use it at this point in the planning process, and then I use it extensively while we are actually on the road. When your rig with your towed vehicle is over 40 feet, you want to plan your stops, which I can do seamlessly with AllStays.
Between Trip Wizard, AllStays, online research and vlogs, I will start to really lock in our routes and possible campgrounds. We look at the maneuverability of the campground, the size of the sites, location, proximity to what we’re in the area to see, and reviews.
We may also pay attention to the hook-up availability. While we don’t necessarily need full hook-ups for every campground, with 6 of us, we do try to scatter them throughout the trip. We may look at whether there is a pool. However, we’re usually in the area to explore and don’t often take advantage of extensive campground amenities, so those are not usually big selling features for us. At least not on these longer trips.
The best suited campground may look very different from trip to trip and even between locations on the same trip. We may choose a boondocking site. Or we could prefer a full hook-up pull through site. Or maybe somewhere in between. It’s also going to depend on your specific family preferences and budget. Trip Wizard and AllStays are great resources to make the best selections for you.
Don’t Miss Your Window
Deciding on campgrounds becomes more important the closer you get to that 12 month mark. As I mentioned earlier, it can be incredibly difficult to get into some campgrounds. If you have campgrounds that you really want to stay in, you need to research their booking windows and make sure you book them as soon as you can. If they book 12 months out, you want to be online and ready to book as soon as the window opens. In Trip Wizard, I note the booking windows in the “Comments” box for each campground of the trip. Then, I mark it in my calendar on my phone with an alert to ensure I don’t miss it.
Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone is already largely booked for all of June
Tried to get a reservation at Colter Bay RV Park in Grand Tetons the second the window opened and it's already completely booked!Keep Notes
I also want to point out that when you’re researching campgrounds, make sure you pay attention to their reservation modification and cancellation policies. This is especially important if you have to pay the reservation in full or pay a significant deposit. Again, I keep notes of this information in the Trip Wizard to avoid losing my deposit or potentially the entire reservation due to a change in circumstances.
Although I do not love this tip, and I typically do not do this, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least make you aware of a technique many use to book their campsites. If a popular campground allows stays of 14 (or even more days), people will book longer stays based on their check-out date. For example, if they intend to check in on June 10 and check out June 17, they will book a reservation for June 3 through June 17 to secure the site. Then, they will change the reservation later so that they actually check in on Jun 10. Again, I do not love this tactic and avoid it. But, a lot of people do it, so you may still find it difficult to get into certain campgrounds even on the actual day your booking window opens.
Trip Wizard also allows you to keep track of your specific reservation information, such as booking or confirmation numbers, the cost of the campground, your check-in and check-out dates, and more. I find it very helpful to have all this information for the entire trip in one place, so I don’t need to pull up numerous emails from multiple campgrounds to find it.
Have a Plan With Backups – 1 to 6 Months in Advance
Now the Real Fun Planning Begins
Once I have my campgrounds booked, I turn to the fun stuff. What amazing adventures can we experience during this trip? We have a lot of different ages, different skill sets, different personalities, and different preferences in our family. So I start researching our various trip destinations from a multitude of perspectives. And I add anything to the list that I think someone in our family would like and that we have the ability to do.
Obviously, that list becomes long pretty quickly. But then I start weeding things out. For example, because we live very close to the Cincinnati Zoo (one of the best zoos in America), we seldom visit other zoos. I will also look at costs and weed out ones that would put us overbudget on our trip.
After I get to a manageable list, I share it with the rest of the family to discuss. Often, there are things on the list I am absolutely sure certain family members will love that they ultimately turn their noses up to. Those come off the list. But if anyone has an interest in something on the list, it stays on. It doesn’t matter at this point whether we can actually see and do all of the things on the list. The point is to know what options are available.
During this conversation with the family, I will start to prioritize the list as well. If there is something everyone agrees on, it is usually going to the top of the list! Honestly, that’s a rarity, so I grab the opportunity when I can. If there’s a question about something, we typically turn to YouTube and watch videos about it. Through this process, you’ll start to get a sense of what might work for your family.
Itineraries That We May Not Follow
Within a few months of our trip, I will start to plan a very loose daily itinerary. I start with the top priorities and figure out how they would fit best into the length of stay at that location. Unfortunately, not even all the top priorities seem to make the itinerary, but we always look at that as something to look forward to on our next visit! Once I align the top priorities, I start to sprinkle in as many of the individual preferences as possible.
You want to be careful not to overload your days and to build in rest days. This is probably where I struggle the most. But I learned in my earlier full fledged Type A days, trying to do it all will only result in crankiness all around. I mark the itinerary with the “must do’s”, which sounds more forceful than it is since we’ve missed various “must do’s” over our various trips. Then, I list “If We Have Time” excursions near the “must do’s” for that particular day. That way, if a must do takes less time than we expected or if it just doesn’t work out for some reason, we have back up options. This reduces the stress of trying to come up with something to do in the moment. Plus, it’s really nice to have it handy if we are traveling somewhere without cell service.
The biggest thing I have learned about the itineraries is that they are a guide at best. I love having them on hand during our trip. All of the pre-planning means that I don’t have to put as much mental effort while trying to be present in the vacation. It keeps my underlying Type A tendencies happy. However, during the trip, I am constantly reading the mood and tone of the family and adjusting as needed. If I get the sense that everyone needs an extra rest day or that we need to pivot to a low key activity, I throw that day’s itinerary out the window. I truly believe this is key to keeping the energy and momentum going for the duration of the trip.
Reservations, Lotteries, More Booking Windows – Oh My!
Just as the RVing boom make early campground reservations important, increased tourism to national parks has placed a stress on certain parks and areas. Popular national parks see millions of visitors per year, and, in many cases, most of those visits happen in the summer months. As a result, several parks instituted a reservation system. The applicable parks may require one or more of three types of reservations: timed entry reservation, vehicle reservation, or a hiking permit. As of 2024, the following national parks implemented reservations requirements:
- Acadia National Park (Maine): Vehicle Reservation for Cadillac Summit Road
- Arches National Park (Utah): Timed Entry Reservation for the entire park
- Glacier National Park (Montana): Vehicle Reservation for Going-to-the-Sun Road, Many Glacier & North Fork
- Haleakala National Park (Hawaii): Vehicle Reservation for Sunrise Park Entry
- Muir Woods National Monument (California): Parking Reservation for the entire park
- Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado): Timed Entry Reservation for the entire park
- Shenandoah National Park (Virginia): Day Use Hiking Permit for Old Rag Mountain Trail
- Yosemite National Park (California): Timed Entry Reservation for the entire park
- Zion National Park (Utah): Hiking/Wilderness Permits for The Narrows (top-down route only; no permit required to start at Riverside Walk)
The details, prices, and booking windows for each of the required reservations varies by park. Earthtrekkers compiled a great article outlining the specifics for each park. If you intend to visit any of these parks, make sure you know the details and get your passes in advance. And, if you’re unable to snag a reservation, you’ll have plenty of time to modify your plans.
In addition to reservations, some popular activities may only be available by winning a lottery. Not the Powerball or MegaMillions, although sometimes I feel like they may be easier than winning one of these! Check recreation.gov for the various lotteries. Examples include hiking Coyote Buttes North (The Wave) in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Angel’s Landing or The Subway in Zion National Park, and Half Dome in Yosemite. With the lottery system, there is a sign-up window. You must sign up during that window and pay a fee for a chance to win a permit. Once the lottery winners are selected, they will be notified by email. The lottery windows tend to be several months in advance, so you’ll know whether you need to change your plans well in advance.
Packing Lists
At least a month or two before our trip, I start to plan a packing list. There are parts of the list that change depending on our destinations. Other parts remain consistent regardless of where we travel. When creating my packing list, I always use my daily itineraries. Are we going to be doing a lot of hiking? Do we need to bring kayaks or bikes? Are there any activities that require special gear that we need to bring? How many rest days do we have scheduled, aka how many games, toys, and activities/crafts do we need?
Weather also plays a big role in my packing list. What are the typical weather conditions where we are traveling at that time of year? Even if you are traveling to Yellowstone in June, there may likely still be snow. Especially if you are traveling in the mountains, layers are necessary. There could easily be a 30 degree temperature change between the bottom and top of a mountain. A few years ago, our trip included 100+ degree hikes in Zion National Park, snow in Albuquerque and Rocky Mountain National Park, and everything in between. When in Colorado Springs, it was 85 degrees at our campground but only 50 at the top of Pike’s Peak. When you are packing for four seasons and six people in an RV, you have to pack thoughtfully.
Once I have my list created, I mark anything I need to buy. I will look to see if it’s something that I think will go on sale before the trip. I will take into consideration how long it will take to get if I have to order it. Do we have to buy a lot for the trip? If so, I may spread the purchases out over a few weeks or even months. Ultimately, other than fresh food, I like to have everything purchased and ideally packed at least a week before we head out.
Packing
I don’t know how it is for you, but the week before a trip always seems to be chaotic. Something I do to try to minimize this stress is to start packing several weeks ahead of our trip. I start with just grouping items in a corner in my room. For things we won’t need before the trip, I’ll load them straight into the RV. As they are packed or loaded, I mark them off the packing list. Ideally, the week before we leave, the only things I have left to pack are fresh food, clothes being worn that week, and maybe some toiletries. Pre-planning your packing list and then having 90% of it packed and loaded ahead of time, will make your the start of your trip so much calmer.
Go and Have Fun
It’s time. Your vacation is starting. All the blood, sweat and tears you put into planning your trip is done and you can just enjoy the ride! Your routes are set; your campgrounds are booked; your loose itineraries planned; you’re packed and ready to go. Adventures await! Yes, it took a lot of work to get to this point. But if you’re a reformed perfectionist like me, you prefer to have a plan in place. Yes, you might have to flex and adapt, but you’re not completely making it up as you go. For those of us like me and you, planning a trip using these tips is the ONLY way to plan a trip!
Weekend Warrior Trips
As I mentioned above, this detailed level of planning applies more to our longer RV trips. However, I do keep a separate list of weekend or long-weekend locations we want to travel to as well. These, I try to plug in throughout any given year wherever I can. Some are local at campgrounds that need little to no pre-planning. Others may need some pre-planning, especially if it’s a popular campground that you need to book further out. I am generally much less maniacal about my planning process for these trips. And, sometimes, I even book them last minute-GASP-with zero pre-planning!
Happy RVing!
Our typical RV travel schedule each year includes a multi-week trip, maybe a Spring Break weeklong trip, and 5-10 weekend/long weekend trips. I will use some of these tips for most of these trips, but for those multi-week trips, I meticulously use all of them! This method may not work for everyone. But if you are a planner and want less worry on your RV trip, then you will definitely want to take these tips to heart! What are your favorite trip planning tips? Leave us a comment and tell us what works for you. If you want to follow our other adventures, click here and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
