17 Super Helpful RV Campground Tips for Getting a Spot this Summer

Here are 17 insider RV Campground tips to score and enjoy that perfect spot this summer. If you are a new RV owner on your maiden voyage you will want to pay particular attention! Our guest in this week's Episode 334 of the RV Podcast is a campground owner and she has some great info for both new RVers and veteran campers. Her candid suggestions are a great resource and you may want to bookmark this article or share it with a friend. She is Marcia Neese and, with her husband, Jim, she runs a brand new campground in a very popular location in North Carolina. The first thing we want to make clear in this article is that, just like it is a seller's market in the RV industry where the demand is so strong that new RVs take a year to 18 months to get, it is a renter's market in the campground industry, whether that recreational vehicle campground is a state park or any of the thousands of private RV parks across North America. RV Campgrounds are selling out very fast We have some RV Campground Tips for finding a place to camp this summer It makes no difference if you have a travel trailer, a Class B, C, or A motorhome, a fifth wheel, or even a pop-up, RV campgrounds are filled right now for most weekends and holidays during the summer months And down south or in the Southwest, it's already the same in the winter months of 2021-21. Your fellow campers may have already beaten you to getting an RV camp site. And that's true whether its with campgrounds in National Parks, State Parks or privately owned campgrounds. Don't panic, though, because we have RV tips that will help. Below is an edited transcript of our interview with Marcia. Although we talk a lot about those RVers who are on their first RV trip, her advice applies to everyone who enjoys RV life. So listen up! We are sure you'll find a great idea or two! Marcia and Jim of RiverWalk offer us lots of helpful RV campground tips Marcia and Jim Neese opened RiverWalk RV Park in Jonesville, N.C. on June 11, 2020, just as the rest of the world was literally shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To their surprise, even with social distancing and travel restrictions in many place, their 51-site campground on a wooded 11-acre site along the Yadkin River was completely booked every single weekend from the day they opened until even now. Here are highlights and tips from our conversation. Mike Wendland: Joining us now from North Carolina, from Jonesville on the beautiful Yadkin River, is Marcia Neese. She is the owner, with her husband, of the beautiful RV Riverwalk Park, the RiverWalk RV Park. I guess you're right between Jonesville and Elkin, right? Marcia Neese: Yes, yeah. Hello, hello everyone. We are. It's a very fine line there. The river is the only thing separating us so we're just a couple of minutes from Elkin and located... The park is in Jonesville. Mike Wendland: Now your park is described as a sort of "boutique" RV park. What does that mean in terms of the RV lifestyle? What is a boutique RV park? Marcia Neese: Yeah, it is a different term as it relates to the RV lifestyle. My husband and I, we're always trying to think outside of the box. We're RVers and we've created our park for other RVers. As we were building it, we were trying to understand exactly where it fit in. Was it a premiere park? Was it a corporate-type park? We're on 11 acres. We have 51 spacious sites. And the area that we're in is very quaint and boutique-ish as well. We came up with that we're a boutique size park. We have just enough for everyone, but not too much to where you're overwhelmed when you come. I like to use the word quaint again, but we feel that we offer a quaint environment. Mike Wendland: We'll talk a little bit about some of that in a couple of minutes, but the first thing is you opened this park right in the middle of the COVID shut down. What was that like last year? What a great spot for chillin' at the RiverWalk RV Park in North Carolina Marcia Neese: Yeah. If I had a dollar every time I were asked this question... I started looking for land several years prior, and it took us a little bit because we were very... We wanted to make sure that when we did this, we did it right. So we found the land, we started building, and we did everything ourselves. We have a small grading business so that was very helpful. But it took us a couple of years between permitting and rains and droughts and things like that. So we were set to open last March, and we got put behind because we couldn't do some burn permits, as I said, because it was too dry. So we opened right in the heart of COVID. We have not had, or had not had for the whole season, June through December, an open spot on the weekend out of all 51 sites since the weekend that we opened in June. Mike Wendland: Oh my goodness. Marcia Neese: Yeah. There's so many mixed feelings about COVID and so many different ways to look at it. We always try to see the positive things, but we did feel a little guilty in the beginning because so many people were going through so much turmoil with it and heartache, and there was depression and different things like that. 2020 was the year of the COVID Campers The way that we looked at it was it was a blessing for us and for everyone else because we've given so many families an outlet and a sense of normalcy, hence us being booked every weekend. We're like a big community. We have return guests on a lot of the weekends. But I think that COVID was huge for us because it's created a community and a bonding experience where other people could look at it in a negative light. Mike Wendland: It also is creating a bit of frustration this year for a couple of reasons. Marcia Neese: And last year Mike Wendland: And last year but I think the reality is setting in with a lot of people that so many new RVers have come to the RV lifestyle in the last year because, I mean, let's face it, it was the most- Marcia Neese: The COVID campers. #1: You REALLY need to make campground reservations The top RV Campground Tip this year is to make advance reservations! Mike Wendland: The COVID campers. It's socially distanced, it's healthy, it's good, it's getting away. But now, as people try and make reservations for 2021, with travel a little bit better, they are finding no occupancy. Full campgrounds are everywhere they can go. That's the first thing I'd like to get some advice from you, Marcia, if you could help us. What would you say to our audience who's saying, "I got this RV and I can't get in anywhere." What do they do? #2 - Check for cancellations when you find full campgrounds Marcia Neese: I can speak to our park and then as an RVer speak to that as well. For us, we tried last year to keep a cancellation list and it became so overwhelming it was a full-time job, and to treat everyone fairly. So we started posting on our website, on our Facebook, I'm sorry. When we get a cancellation, it lasts about maybe three to five minutes, and that's been nonstop since last year Social media often lists cancellations you can snag So I would first recommend checking social media. Actually, I would first recommend calling the park themselves, or call a series of parks that you're interested in and find out what their cancellation policy or cancellation list looks like. If they have one, and that's another reason we built a park, not to get too deep into that, but we couldn't find a spot anywhere several years ago. No one would call us back and no one kept lists. But we're finding more people are doing it nowadays. #3 - See if there's a waiting list So call the park, see if they have a waiting list. If not, see if they have social media and if the cancellations would be public to understand. As an RVer, the one thing I've done, if there's somewhere I really want to go, as horrible as it sounds, I find myself stalking the availability to see if anyone's canceling. It's bad, but that's what we do. And then lastly, being a part of the forums. #4 - Monitor online camping forums Here in North Carolina, there's six, seven, eight forums. I'm a part of all those. As a camper, especially state parks if someone cancels, a lot of times they're posting it. With private parks like ours, it doesn't really work that way because it's not first come first serve, but if you're looking at state parks I highly recommend getting into the forums and if someone cancels, they'll let you know. Campers love helping other campers. Mike Wendland: The frustration on your end is all of those phone calls. "Hey, do you have any openings? Did anybody cancel?" As it translates into the RVers end, it's, "They're not answering the phone," because you also are doing a lot of other things. So that's where social media and all that helps. I don't think anyone would resent a call saying, "Look, how can I keep track of this without pestering you?" And then find out the social end. So that's one thing. #5 -Plan your camping trips as far out as possible Mike Wendland: How far ahead now do people have to book for a reservation? Take your case. You're in a very popular area, beautiful area, high demand area. How far do I have to book in advance? Marcia Neese: Well, for us, as a matter of fact, I just posted this morning, we have some limited availability on weekends through, I would say, July. Holidays book up pretty quickly. But as for us, for later in the year we do have availability. Our signature sites, which are more riverside, larger spacious sites, are the ones to go quickly. Reality Check: You may need to book a year ahead! A lot of our repeat guests will book five, six, seven, eight reservations from last year they've already booked this year. It just depends on the park I would say. We have availability later in the year,