|
|
The Next Trip: Reference, Research, & Planning _________________________ Canada Road Info & Local Services _________________________ RV Parky Just enter in your start and destination, and this interactive trip planner can find the RV parks & campgrounds, Rest Areas, Military Campgrounds, Casinos, Walmarts, Cabela's, Cracker Barrels, Camping Worlds, Flying J's, Pilot, TA Travel Centers and more! Eastern U.S. Interstate Exits and Rest Areas by State and/or Route We've listed where to find each map & guide that's listed free on the Internet. Good Sam - Campgrounds & Routes Participating Good Sam Parks offer 10% discount to members but you now need to be a member to use their route planning service. Passport America Listing of campgrounds by State and City offering 50% off nightly rates for members. Ultimate U.S. Public Campground Project Over 20,000 Federal, State, and County campgrounds by State. CAT Certified Scales Concerned about the weight of your rig? Find out how easy it is to determine and put your mind at ease with CAT's help. They offer a free video. RV Park & Campground Reviews Valuable free service that lists camper's comments about the campground you are considering Low Bridge Clearances Indispensible if you travel off the main highways and Interstates. There are many very low bridges in the countryside. Walmart Stopovers Sometimes you need a quick and safe place to stay overnight but not all Walmart's allow RV's to spend the night in their parking lots. Cheap Area Gas Prices Gas Buddy gives prices submitted by consumers and usually only a couple of hours old. Pilot/Flying J Truck Stops They actually want RVers to stop by. They offer special lanes for us and discounts using their member card.
Free Campgrounds for RV's Nothing fancy but very helpful to those on a budget. Buy your Hunting/Fishing Licenses Online Search Hunting and Fishing License Websites by State or Province. Choose your destination from a drop down menu to check prices and buy your fishing or hunting license. HOW WE START PLANNING We begin by deciding the starting point and our final destination, then we decide what stopping points or attractions we would like to see on the trip. We then start plotting a route between the must sees (Google Maps), and also look for half-price campgrounds (Passport America) along the route. We look for campgrounds around 200 miles apart on the route or general direction we are headed. We check out each "possible" on the "RV Park & Campground Reviews" website. Between it, the extensive info found on the Passport site, and the campground's own website, we can pretty much tell if it's a place we want to camp. Other pluses we look for are pull-through sites (whenever possible), Full Hook-Ups (FHU), and WIFI, if available. Free Cable TV also adds to the value. Anticipation of a new adventure to unknown places is always exciting. The trip may only last a week or two but the build-up, discussion and planning leading to that next special trip can be great family fun. |
What happens when you are far from home - in a new area - and you need an RV Repair Technician? If you have Roadside Assistance that can be a good place to start - but there is also a website where you can find reviews of local repairmen by State RV Service Reviews .________________________
With those 3 books and a Roadside Assistance membership |
Our Research We have researched most of the campground clubs and most are fine and offer very similar services if you want to travel the same routes and stay in the same member campgrounds as you travel. We don't. Our goal is to travel America in our RV and see and do what we have only read about, not having the time or perhaps the money to do so during our working life. We choose to keep a membership in Passport America simply because they have member campgrounds all over the Country. Most of their member campgrounds are nice, friendly, and suitable for our needs (and half-price anything has a nice ring to it).  Roadside Assistance is a must if you spend a lot of time on the road. Sooner or later something will require fixin' and it usually doesn't happen when you're sitting in a campground or a dealer;s parking lot. We have tried Coach Net and they are fine but only cover the tow vehicle when it is attached. We tried Good Sam and actually needed to use them several times and the service was satisfactory but we really take issue with a low introductory price the first year followed the next year by nearly doubling the price at renewal time. We dropped them and now use AAA Roadside Assistance. The price is decent, the coverage good, and they offer a host of extra free services like trip planning, travel books, and campground guides. We do use Good Sam Mail Forwarding service out of Pensacola, Florida. They are economical and responsive to our needs and instructions. We did subscribe to Good Sam Travel Assist for one year but will not renew. Read their actual coverage carefully. If you are traveling extensively then a Rewards Card from Good Sam will save you 3 cents/gal at the Pilot/Flying J Truck Stops. They actually want and appreciate the RV business they receive. Good people! Safe travels, Jack & Niki Snowbird RV Trails |
|
Send us an email - we'd like to hear from you snowbirdrvtrails@gmail.com We love RVing |
