We realize that there are people out there with more experience and with a travel time-line longer than ours. However we perceive a niche for publishing campground reviews from our perspective. In 8 years of traveling in our motorcoach we have crisscrossed the country several times. We attempt to search for and identity those rv parks that will provide an enjoyable experience. Sometimes we make mistakes and those campgrounds so identified will aide our readers to avoid the same gaffe. Likewise, those campgrounds we like and publish the pros and cons about should enable our readers to reserve a site better informed and with confidence.
So that being said the following will be our criteria screen: ‘Resort’, an euphemistic locution suggested to RV Parks and the RV Park Associations by marketing geniuses will be challenged and only applied when it meets, as is so aptly defined, the standard defined by Wikipedia; factually report on FHU quality and electric stability; determine if in fact the park meets the criteria to be called a ‘resort’; review conditions of buildings including the cleanliness of bathrooms, showers, laundry, etc.; comment on condition and nature of streets and parking pads, i.e. dirt, grass, hard surface, trees trimmed, etc. We will also evaluate phone service (where the phone is used a hotspot due to a park’s poor or non-existent wifi internet), and WiFi service as the internet and OTA (over the air antenna) represent contemporary technology, whereas satellite and cable, still promoted by rv parks as an amenity, is aged technology. It is also our intent to report misleading and incorrect pictures; pictures that were taken when the park was new and that do not accurately reflect present day conditions.
Pet peeves: pictures depicting the park when it was new, not stating the limitations or absence of WiFi, trees and shrubs not height trimmed nor cut back from the roadway, calling the park a ‘resort’ when in fact it fails to meet the criteria screen of a ‘resort’, big rig friendly but not.
We encourage our readers to research using both Google Maps and Google Earth(Google Earth offers better resolution and timeline satellite imagery) as they provide the traveler with pictorial documentation of the park and its environs. Also the app rvparky (we have no connection to them) we have found to be a great trip planner and research tool for rv parks in the location you wish to stay. In addition it is imperative to purchase and use Rand McNally Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas so as to avoid taking secondary roads that do not afford height, weight requirements that a big rig requires (nothing more troublesome than to be stuck on a secondary road and unable to transit a bridge or tunnel).
Regarding trip planning and researching rv parks we have found no other app, whether free or fee based, to be as user friendly and comprehensive as free rvparky. We have no connection with this app. Although some apps attempt to integrate all sorts of extraneous info, i.e. fuel mileage, fuel used, trip routes, etc, rvparky focuses on four major components. First there is no limit on how many stops can be incorporated into your trip; second a created trip automatically adjusts the dates of future stays as the previous stays are adjusted-very cool; third the mileage between each stay is calculated so if we do not want a 400 mile day a stop-over place can easily be inserted; and fourth each location (city, town) selected then provides the user with a comprehensive list of rv parks in the vicinity with pictures, reviews, rates, etc.
Justification for critiques is that at today’s nightly rates of upwards to $190/night the expectation level and experience should be better, just as one expects a better experience at a Four Seasons than at a Red Roof. Let’s be candid, the camping experience of today is not that of your parents; recreational vehicles today afford all the conveniences and luxuries of home while on the road; many parks provide ‘resort’ amenities; and even tenting has turned into the hot new trend called ‘Glamping’.
More and more the trend, albeit slow, is for rv parks to consider themselves in the hospitality business and to offer amenities, not as an afterthought, but as real perks like: streaming WiFi (who uses satellite and cable anymore?), multiple pools and hot tubs with one being for the exclusive use of adults (remember the boomers are rving, not just the millennials with children on vacation), real restaurant(s) or cafes offering good food and homemade pizza (not more snack food, nor poorly prepared burgers, and please stop serving the Hunts Bros. pizza), a real off-leash dog park with a dog washing station and even a doggy swimming pool, a concierge, a pool-side bar, a beach-side café, etc.
It is hoped that as we add to the directory of parks reviewed/critiqued that it will provide readers with campgrounds that they can plan trips around based on our research of parks in any general vicinity. For example this year, 2019, was the ‘year of water’ for us and we chose only those parks that were on the water along the southern East Coast. Accordingly the reader could follow these parks and make a weekend or extended trip following the ‘water’ parks from Flagler Beach, FL thru the OBX up to Delaware.
Enjoy and we welcome your comments and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Rick & Penny Janis
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