Time to do What You Love

There are many apps that we find invaluable as we travel. Location, weather, travel distance, attractions, cell service, wi-fi, campgrounds, campground amenities, price and reservations are all part of planning. Be sure and check out our RV Trip Planner before you start your next journey.

Campendium

We use Campendium for most of our initial travel planning. Campendium gives us camping choices in any given area in both a map view as well as a list view. The first criteria we look for is cell service so we can make sure we are always connected as our business needs demand it most of the time. The happy traveler can choose Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Currently, cost for our subscription runs only $20/year. There is a free version with a few features missing.

Camp & RV by Allstays

For a broader range of campsites, we use the Camp & RV app by Allstays. While Campendium can give you more info and reviews of campground, Camp & RV gives us more possible sites. For example, we are members of the Elks Lodge. There are hundreds of Elks Lodges listed on Camp & RV but not on Campendium. Note that Campendium has sites that don't appear on Camp & RV as well. Which makes the best choice? - Get both! The app for Camp & RV is $10 in the App Store. Sorry, there is no version for android but there is a website with much more detail than the app if you choose to pay an annual fee of $34.95 as of this writing. Other payment options are for multi-year subscriptions.

Google Maps

Google Maps has been our best app for both travel planning as well as on the road navigation. For travel planning, we use it to gauge how much we want to travel to the next stop. We like to travel between 200 to 250 miles in a day. Then we use both Campendium and Allstays to see which campgrounds are in that range and not too far off farther destinations. Using the RV Trip Planner we enter the next area to visit and then find a campground we think will suit us the best. We always use a pencil for the planning our trip since these plans are nearly alway fluid.

FOR RESERVATIONS

Sometimes we will use an app and sometimes we use the website on the computer. There are reservations systems that seem very difficult to navigate so the apps are a little more consistent.

Recreation.gov

This app and website gives you access to finding and reserving campsites that are overseen by the Department of the Interior. That includes National Forests, National Monuments, National Parks, Bureau of Land Management, Army Corp of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Reclamation and more. This is a great App/Website to see all the possibilities including images of campsites,

RA Camping (Reserve America)

This app and website has a large listing of campsites including many of the what is listed in Recreation.gov. There are links to reservation for KOA and many other commercial campgrounds. While the app lists many of the government sites there is no provision for making a reservation so you must use Recration.gov.

FOR WEATHER

One of the most important criteria of where and when we travel is the weather. We personally don’t like to see the temperature drop below 32° nor do we like the temperature to climb above 90°. Additionally, gusty winds are avoided as much as is possible especially on travel days. Finally don’t forget about rain as when dry camping flash floods and muddy roads can be quiet the hazard.

Dark Sky (web and iOS only)

We depend on Dark Sky for our weather when it comes to temperature and rain. There are a lot of good weather apps out there but we like Dark Sky for a week at a glance high and low temperatures. It is also very good at showing upcoming rain levels for the next hour. Good to know approaching rain when setting up or taking down camp.

Windy

Nobody enjoys traveling down the road in a high wind. This is especially true when towing a travel trailer and even a 5th wheel. We find Windy to be the best at showing wind speed and wind gusts along a route at any given time. The map shows both direction and intensity so you know when to hit the road or not. It's fascinating to see all the wind patterns in various areas.

We use Windy to check temperature maps as well. We can view up to 2 weeks in advance to see where the most comfortable temperatures are. Being too hot or too cold can easily be avoided if you know where to go.

FOR WHAT’S NEARBY

GasBuddy

We all like to pay less for gas and fuel. GasBuddy can find the best deals. Using the app, it also can give you other amenities such as propane or carwash and many more. Currently here in California, the price have gotten so high that driving around to find the least expensive gas may cost more that just stopping at the closest station.

Google Maps

Again we go to Google Maps for finding most other entities. Whether it be food, entertainment, parks, groceries, you name it. Includes photos, video, menus, ratings and reviews. You can even tell how busy a store or restaurant is at different times as well as the current time. Open and closing days and times are there as well.

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