Hi, I'm a new user, but don't see a place to save potential campgrounds in states we're going through. This would be helpful for future reference when we get to that state or area. Am I missing that feature or does RV Park Reviews not have it?
The site doesn't do that. What I do is bookmark the page in my browser (Firefox) and then place the bookmark into a folder for the trip I am possibly going to use the campground on.
That suggestion has been made by a number of people and I think it is definitely something we should consider as we improve the site software.
The GS website has a trip routing/planning feature that allows you to plan your route, investigate RV Parks marked with pins on your route, and choose your stops. The pins will click-open to additional info just like RVPR. The pros is that the program crosses state lines, just as our travels do, so you can choose between the park in Kansas or Nebraska which are only a few miles apart. You don't have to back out to choose another state. You can name and save your routes. The big draw backs to GS are that they don't have all the parks that RVPR has. They don't have to be GS Parks, and the majority aren't, but I suspect GS wants something for listing them on their website. I have asked that certain very nice parks be added to the choices they offer and they replied that they were unable to. So, you may not see every park that exists, but on GS you can plan your route, choose your parks, name or number your trip and save it. And note that GS just started collecting reviews over the past two years. No site can compare with RVPR's archive of reviews going back 10+years. No doubt, this is where the reviews are. I sort of have a hybrid by using two screens on my Mac. I plan out routes on GS then when I encounter a park I want to research I switch to RVPR. I know, sounds cumbersome but it does work.
I do the same thing with the Good Sam Trip Planner. If the GS site doesn't have the RV park that I want, I get the address from the RV Park Reviews Website, put it in Trip Planner's "Add Stop" feature, and write the details (name of the RV park, phone number, E-mail address, cost, best sites, etc.) in Trip Planner's "Comment" box. That way I stay in the highest-rated parks and campgrounds from RV Park Reviews whether Good Sam lists them or not. Because you are limited to 25 stops in Trip Planner, I'll save the route to the farthest stop from home as one "trip" and the return route as a separate "trip." That way I can include lots of "interest" stops as well as overnight RV park or campground stops. We certainly don't stick strictly to those stops once we are on the road, especially since we seldom reserve campsites, but it gives us a good framework for our shorter, 1-2 week trips. When you are planning a 3 month trip to Alaska, however, it is much less useful. Breakdowns, road construction, floods, wildfires, weather, and just enjoyment of some areas for longer than anticipated play havoc with day-by-day planning for any long-distance, long-duration trip like that. So, the only advanced reservations we had on our entire Alaska trip were at 3 of the national parks we visited--Denali, Jasper, and Banff. And we made those reservations only a week in advance, while we were on the road. We only made reservations for the AMHS ferry from Skagway to Haines one day before we left Skagway. Of course, if you are not a Good Sam member, all this is moot!
