in this video we are going to give you our top five picks for campgrounds that you absolutely
must see so stay tuned we are Charity Ben Dakota and Trinity we decided we didn't want to wait for
a life of adventure so in 2017 we bought our first RV and set off to live a life of travel in the USA
we've visited over 38 states in three years and have many more to go
follow along to learn all the best places to see RV and travel tips and much more
so over the past four years of living rv life we have stayed at dozens and dozens
of campgrounds from the east coast to the west coast and of course there are always
those campgrounds that we walk away from and say that was one of the best campgrounds that we have
ever stayed at so in this video we're gonna let you know which ones that those have been over
the last 12 months for us and the reason that we're bringing this video to you now
is so that you can start doing some trip planning and making some reservations for some of these
campgrounds that will book up fast so you want to get on that now and speaking of which we have a
great resource for them don't we ben charity put together an amazing trip planning guide
that you can access over at gratefulglamper.com forward slash planner and best of all it's free
free this is the exact same template that I've developed and used for all of our trip planning
and we wanted to make it available to all of you so you can download that for free to start
planning your trips this summer so let's jump right in and talk about some of our
most favorite campgrounds and so number one on the list is actually a campground that when we
asked our kids what their favorite campground was from the last 12 months this was right at the top
of their list so golding's campground which is right outside of the monument valley area of Utah
and we love this campground for the views you really almost felt like that you were in that
Disney movie cars with just all of like the red rock formations that surrounded the campground
you can actually take a hike right from the campground you don't even need to leave the
campground there's hiking trails right there they even have like their own private little arch
right there at the campground and it's just an absolutely amazing place lots of stray animals
but don't let that like be worrisome that's just kind of typical for a lot of the Navajo people
that let their animals roam so it's not that they are wild strays they belong to somebody they just
happen to kind of have free reign and we actually went during the pandemic and we pretty much had
the campground to ourselves this was a campground and as you can see it's pretty much empty
now one thing that you might want to note that if you do go to golding's campground is that there
really is going to be no internet so just be aware of that and you'll be okay just plan for being
unplugged for a few days they do have wi-fi it's not really the best so again just kind of plan on
being out of pocket during your stay which is always a welcome break if you go to monument
valley there's plenty to see there's you've got Forrest Gump hill which is the iconic scene from
the movie Forrest Gump Mexican hat there's lots of off-road trails too so plenty to just kind of
do and see on an outdoors level if you choose to visit monument valley and highly recommend
that every rver put that on their list at some point in their RV journey number two Disney's
fort wilderness this is probably the most fun campground on planet earth one of the reasons we
love fort wilderness is because it is like the full-on Disney experience anything Disney does
is just over the top on the experiential side so you feel like you're in the woods
all of the shops and things like that really have that kind of old-time western feel all of
the cast members that are working in the stores are in that typical kind of frontier type dress
it's just very much an authentic feeling of being at some fort in the wilderness even though you're
in Florida so it's a very very cool experience there's a few things that you need to know before
you go one is that you're going to want to book in advance way in advance you know during the
time that we're in right now it's a little harder to get a campground reservation anyways so you
probably are already aware of booking in advance especially during around peak times for fort
wilderness which is like Christmas and Halloween because people decorate their sites to the nines
you really need to book that way in advance to be able to even get in during those times the
other thing to know is it is not the cheapest campground you're going to ever stay at but you
are paying for that kind of Disney experience so we feel like it's something that every rver
should do at least once in their RV journey there's actually plenty of things to do in fort
wilderness so you can actually rent a golf cart on-site or off-site actually we prefer off-site
and you can drive around to see everything that there is if you go on halloween and Christmas time
there's all sorts of fun activities to check out and they have fairies that take you to disney as
well there's plenty to do with in fort wilderness you don't even hardly have to leave the campground
but plenty of options of just things to see right there at the campground because it's so huge and
you can ride bikes if maybe a golf cart isn't your thing you can ride bikes around the campground too
huge huge campground and we just love it so number three is the pacific
dunes RV ranch which is actually in oceano california now we love this place because
of the dunes that are right there this is actually a park that's within the thousand trail system so
if you're a thousand trails member check into it I think it's an encore park we're not a thousand
trails member so I don't have all of the scoop on like how that whole thing works and which ones
that's a whole nother video for another time but needless to say if you are a thousand
trolls member you can check that out to see if you can stay there for free now
side note you can still stay at a thousand Charles park without being a thousand trails
member we've stayed at many thousand trails parks we're not members and you just pay their
going rate however here is an inside tip sign up for the thousand trials email list and I get
emails with discount codes frequently so you can get a discount code when you make your reservation
by using whatever code that they send in the email so something to know before you go now the
campground isn't anything to write home about it's not very high class resort or anything like that
I mean it is within the thousand trails system so you're not really going to expect any resort
type campgrounds but outside of the campground is really where it's at because it seems like
every day the kids wanted to go out to the sand dunes because they wanted to hike the sand dunes
and run and jump off the side of the hill and roll down the sand and slide down the sand
you can actually even hike down to a private beach there which is I think about like a mile
hike it was a three-quarter mile hike one way so it was a mile and a half through very deep sand
if you are in shape that's a fun hike if you have any sort of physical limitations
probably not on the list so if you do choose to go to pacific dunes a couple of things that you want
to do while you're in the area pismo beach is just a short 10-minute drive and there's plenty to do
in that area there's a beautiful pier santa cruz is a 30 minute drive just north and then
if you do go down to pismo make sure that you get some cinnamon rolls from old west cinnamon
rolls now those are good this isn't sponsored in any way but I'll put a link below because we
think they were just that good yep so if you're hiking the sand dunes you might want to go get a
a roll after that to replenish your calories so as we're going through this list of campgrounds
you're gonna have to let us know in the comments maybe what are some of the best campgrounds that
you've ever stayed at and then we'll kind of have to compare notes and see what other campgrounds
that we definitely need to check out number four is watchmen campground at zion national park why
do we love it the first thing is the views are incredible and there's quite a bit to do around
the area there's the narrows that you can go hike there's a lot to do even around the campground
so the kids and I took our bikes around the campground quite a bit we even got in the water
there's a creek running through the campground that we played in so something to know if you go
number one you've got to make those reservations in advance number two there is no full hookups
at this particular campground it's only water and electric there is a dump station so make sure that
you're emptied out before that you set up because you're going to need to use just the water and
electric and the other thing to know is that we've got a 40-foot motorhome and we fit but it
was a little bit tight because we also needed to put our jeep on our site so they can accommodate
longer length rigs but it could be just a little bit of a tight fit so that's something important
to know if you've got a longer rig what to see and where to go in the area is pretty self-explanatory
just hiking you can even take a scenic drive if hiking isn't something that's within your physical
ability the views are amazing and the narrows is really a bucket list hike for many people
we did do it with our two kids so it is something that can't be done with children if maybe they're
just a little bit older definitely wouldn't do it with a toddler but if you've got elementary age
kids or older you can definitely hike the narrows while you're there with your kids and
it's definitely a fun thing to do and I must do while you're living the RV life little pro tip
definitely rent some of the shoes at the local outfitters in the area because it'll just make
your experience a lot better walking over all the big boulders and stuff we were all hiking
in keen sandals yeah I wouldn't do that again more difficult we definitely get the
nice sturdy boots and neoprene socks and a walking stick so if you go definitely make sure
that you take advantage of that you'll just have a better experience number five is ramblers rest
now this campground is located in the Venice Florida area and we fell in love with this
campground when we went just a matter of a couple of weeks ago for several different reasons
but something to know if you go is that this is another park that is within the
thousand trails system so if you are a thousand trials member that would be something that would
be to your advantage and again we stayed there we're not a thousand trails members but I got
another discount code in my email for our stay so we were able to stay at a discounted rate
there are a lot of snowbirds that are there during the winter there are a lot of kind of like tiny
home type setups where there are a lot of people that come and stay there during the winter months
and then they go back to their homes which are in the more northern part of the u.s hemisphere
during the summer months but we just love that particular atmosphere the kids actually
commented that they probably felt the safest at this campground out of any campground we've
stayed at and it's not like we stay at sketchy places but just the atmosphere of this particular
campground with a little bit of a more mature demographic really just kind of made our kids feel
very very safe there yeah they're super friendly and great with the kids so they have a dog park
they've got a swimming pool they've got all kinds of different activities a playground tennis
hot tub this campground really impressed me it's definitely more of an RV resort type of campground
versus your no frills type of campground now one thing to note though if you do go here if wi-fi is
important to you or mobile wireless is something you need you're not going to get very good service
at this campground or anywhere in this area it just seemed the whole Venice area of Florida
didn't have the best cell service so just something to know before you go so if you do
choose to visit ramblers rest or even just the Venice Florida area
some things that you absolutely must take advantage of is run down to casperson beach now
this is the shark tooth capital of the world for fossilized shark teeth now when we went
the weather wasn't cooperating we didn't have a ton of time to be sifting through the shells that
you want to sift through to find shark teeth but we still found five of them and we didn't
have a ton of time and we were there totally the wrong time of the day you want to go at lower tide
versus higher tide so we have talked to other RV families that have found dozens and dozens
during their visits because they hit the timing correctly and they had more time than what we
had it's also very close to the sarasota area so there's tons to do there siesta beach it's rated
the number one beach in the usa that's a must see if you're living the RV life so make sure that
you put this campground on your list of places that you want to visit or just even that whole
area of the gulf coast of Florida on your list of places to go while you're living RV life sting on
hello
and if you'd love to support us oh gross yuck thanks for watching thanks so much for
no watching come on we got it in this video okay so thanks so much for watching and until next time
we'll see on the road why didn't you not okay come on seriously
thanks for watching yeah one of us can say it all right really dog eggs it can be really
we'd act love to know
so let us know if you've stayed at any of these five campgrounds and what your thoughts were
or let us know what your top campground is I'd actually love to know that a lot of the
campgrounds that we've stayed at like for example goldings I had no idea existed until I saw it in
another RV family's youtube video so we love to be able to see other campgrounds from other rvers
we'd really appreciate it if you leave us a comment below and just let us know what are
some of the must-see places or some of the best campgrounds that you've ever stayed at because
we'd love to add them to our list and just let others in the community know as well and we'd love
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just give them a good idea of some places to see that are still within the United States this year
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rvers for free thanks so much for watching and until next time we'll see you on the road