We checked into an rv park last week and my first question was, "Is the Wi-Fi good?" "Oh, yes!", she says, "We have great Wi-Fi!" And then she adds, "Except when it's not working. But when it's working, it's really good Wi-Fi." It wasn't..... The whole three days. But I'm sure it was *GREAT* Wi-Fi, *IF* it was working. On the other hand, we checked into a park this afternoon and again I asked about the Wi-Fi. The guy shook his head and said "It's hard to get Wi-Fi anywhere in the park. If you do get on, you get kicked off a lot." I was disappointed, but, well, that seems to be the story at a lot of parks this summer and there's a McDonald's down the street. I fired up and Wi-Fi has been working strong and fast and steady for two hours. I hit the jackpot, at least tonight. Too bad I'm not in Vegas. I would, just once, like to see an rv park's website say "Yes, we DO have Wi-Fi, but frankly it sucks, and we know it sucks, but if you complain, we're going to tell you it must be your computer's fault because our Wi-Fi works just fine and you're the only person who has ever complained about it."
Hi, In similar past discussions it is clear that some of the time the campground is offering the best available wifi, subject to the limitations of the physical location of the campground. I don't think that a campground tries to provide any service poorly (i.e. power, water, etc.)
When searching for a campground my wife uses the reviews. Since April 16 to todays date we have stayed at 16 campgrounds. All have had great to excellent Wi-Fi except two. One worked 60% of the time, the other worked but was slow. So pretty good odds. Check the reviews.
I have found that I stopped looking for wifi as none of them really work. It is what they offer but they get a residential connection for 300 spaces and expect it to work. Not. If I have good wifi I note it in the reviews but for the most part the parks have deplorable connections.
I'm with Tallboy that the quality of wifi at RV parks is, in general, slowly improving. I think younger, more technologically savvy owners are realizing that many RVers use the internet for far more than just reading email and that they are displeased when they take the family camping and they and the kids can't use all their electronics. Providing high quality wifi can be a key discriminator for parks smart enough to realize it.
When we first started fulltiming a hard wire dial up internet connection was a plus. Some had a place where you could hook up your puter and some didn't. After a while most did and a few had wifi. Now most have wifi and some don't. It is amazing how quickly we get spoiled and raise out expectations. LOL
My wife and I have been RVers since 1973. Used to be when we went to a campground, we looked for lights, water and sewer. Then cable TV --- if we got to a campground with cable tv we thought we were in hog heaven. Now, our first question is "How's the wi-fi"? We camp in an Airstream, usually no matter how good the wifi is, it doesn't make it inside the trailer. We spend a lot of time at McDonald's and public libraries lol
A WiFi router/repeater with an outside antenna would fix that, Jim. We use a Pepwave Surf Mini "On-The-Go" that does just that, plus it supports our cell data service USB modem.
