in this video we are going to show you how to get the best campgrounds
in the best locations all with a little bit of planning plus we're gonna help you know
exactly how much that your trip is going to cost you before that you even hit the
road and give you a free resource that we use in planning all of our travels 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 thank you so much for coming back to the channel we are going
to give you some very easy steps to be able to make trip plans like a pro so let's get started
step number one you're going to want to download the free
template that we've provided now this is the exact template that I have used for the past
three years to be able to secure our campsites and excursions in all the best locations
so let's go ahead and download that now we're going to want to go ahead and go to our website
at gratefulglamper.com forward slash planner from here you're going to enter your name
and your email and click get template now from there you're going to download the trip planner
template and then click use template now that you have your trip planning template we're
going to use this in the next step so hold tight here and we'll go on to the next step
step two you're going to want to go to rvparky.com and either use an account if you have one or
set up a free account so let's go ahead and go to rv parky and set up our account so once
that you're here at rv parky and you've created your account or logged into an existing account
you can go to your dashboard once you've gone to your dashboard you have an option if you
have any previous safe trips in here to modify those or to start a new trip so let's go ahead
and do trips and we're going to come over here and click new trip and start a new trip so go ahead
and put the name of your trip I'm just going to call this one summer of 2021 you can choose the
date that you want to leave for example i'm going to say we're going to leave on may the 15th where
are you starting from I'm just going to say that we're going to be leaving from Orlando Florida
and then who can view this trip now this is a great option because using this drop down
and choosing friends who I give the url enables you can copy the link and give it to any friends
or family to be able to let them know where you're going and when you're going to be there this is a
great option for people that want to caravan or if you want to be able to see any friends or family
along your trip wrap the next thing you're going to do is put in what you think that the average
price per gallon of fuel is going to be I have three dollars because we drive a diesel and
I'm just guessing probably around that price range I would rather over estimate versus underestimate
and click ok so we know we're going to leave from Orlando Florida what I can do is I can
actually zoom out the map if I want and look at all of the places that we want to go I'm
going to say that I'd like to go to myrtle beach South Carolina so I'm going to click add stop
and type in myrtle beach south carolina and click enter so it's telling me that from orlando florida
to myrtle beach outh Carolina is a seven hour 27 minute drive and it's approximately 498 miles
that's quite the hall to drive in one day so i think that what we should do is make a pit stop
somewhere along the way it looks like maybe savannah Georgia might be a fun place to go
so let's go ahead and we're going to click in that we're going to make a stop in savannah georgia
this looks much more doable it's four hours from orlando to savannah and then it's another three
hours and 41 minutes to myrtle beach south Carolina it tells me that it's approximately
505 miles and that my fuel if I get seven miles to the gallon with our big old diesel pusher is Su
going to cost me approximately 216 dollars you're going to add each stop in for your trip and then
each stop on your return trip as well until that you have your trip laid out with the dates here
you can say that you want to spend let's do two nights in savannah and I want to spend some time
exploring myrtle beach so we're gonna stay there for five nights I could also click return here if
i knew that this was going to be the extent of my trip or I could add more stops in and since this
is just an example we're going to go ahead and leave this as it is and go on to the next step
here's another tip stay tuned to the end because I'm going to show you how to get
reservations at those highly coveted national park campgrounds so I'll give you that ted bit
towards the end of the video now that we've got our trip laid out in rv parky and we know the
anchor points that we want to visit we're going to take the dates and locations from rv parky and
load them into our trip planning sheet so let's go ahead and do that now now we're going to go ahead
and take our trip dates and locations from RV parky and transfer them over to our planning sheet
so one easy way to do this is to simply copy and paste the information so I'm going to copy these
dates and paste them here and then I can just type in my location here of savannah georgia
we're going to look at rv parks and whether or not we've made reservations in future steps but
for now go ahead and come and copy and paste your location and your dates into the trip planning
sheet step number four now that you know where you want to go and when you want to go there we need
to start making these reservations so we're going to use the internet to look for campgrounds in
the areas that you're going to want to visit now remember state parks there are corps of engineer
campgrounds sometimes even fairgrounds lots of options to choose from to reserve your campsites
so make sure that you're including these as you're looking in your search using rv parky is also a
great way to look at potential campgrounds within a given geographical area as well
so let's go ahead and get those reservations made and then we're going to enter them into
the template so here's the inside tip that I promised you about being able to book
those coveted national park campsites if you go to recreation.gov to book a reservation the campsites
you can book are six months in advance but here's where the inside tip comes in as told to me
by a recreation.gov employee what you can do is you can actually book up to a week in advance
of when you want to be there so here's how this would look let's say you want to book a campsite
in zion national park starting on june the 1st you can actually go ahead and book that starting in
may book it through the time that you want to leave but be able to get that in in advance
then after the window has passed you can change that reservation and drop off that week that you
really don't need which opens it up for somebody else what this does is it helps you to secure
that campsite well in advance versus waiting the day of that six month window when that campsite
could already be taken now that we've got some dates put into our planning sheet we're going to
start reaching out to make reservation now this was our itinerary from last year so you can see
I have the dates and I have the locations that we're going to be you want to start making your
reservations and then once that you make those reservations for the places that you want to go
you can come enter the RV park that you're going to stay at or that you want to stay at
and check if you do have that reservation made add any notes in about a reservation number and
then if you've paid any sort of deposit so I'm going to say we paid a one night deposit of 50
and that our remaining cost for this particular campground is going to be 150 so you can see here
it showed me that I have 50 out in deposits right now in that I still need to plan for another 150
in costs for this particular trip and he must do things that I want to do in savannah such
as restaurants see the downtown area I can put in here to make sure that we do what we want
excursions is where I can put anything that we want to book and we're going to talk about
that in just a few minutes so make sure that you stay tuned but for now go ahead and start making
some phone calls and get those reservations in another great way to look for places to stay in
a specific area is to come back to RV parky and you can click find a place to stay when you click
find a place to stay it's going to give you some options within a geographical area now some of
these options such as the walmart may or may not allow overnight stays and most of the time there
will be some sort of review from a previous user that gives you information about that campground
or about that possible place to stay this is also a great way to learn about campgrounds that maybe
you don't know about or have not made it to the google listing just yet so as we're adding these
reservations into the template we also are going to be putting the costs into the template as well
this is a great way to be able to track exactly how much that your lodging is going to cost you
in these campgrounds we've given you a column to put both the deposit and also any balance due
now some campgrounds in highly popular areas do require that you pay in full up front if
that's the case we're just going to still enter that whole entire amount in the deposit column
and put a zero in the other column this is because this is going to help you keep track
of what you've already paid for out of pocket before your trip even begins
step number five you want to look for the things that you want to go do or see within a particular
given area now this is where utilizing facebook groups is a great thing to do you can also check
out some of our other videos on things that we've done or seen within certain geographical areas
and if there's any must eat at restaurants or things that you want to make sure that you take
advantage of while you're in a specific area then you want to make sure that you add those in atlas
Obscura is another great resource to be able to see if there's anything that's maybe just
an off the beaten path type of thing that you want to check out within a geographical area
a lot of times we found out early in our travels that we missed seeing stuff and then as we'd be
swapping travel stories with other rvers at the campground they'd be like oh did you visit this
place or that place and we'd be like no how did you even know that that was there
so using resources like atlas Obscura or even the offbeat attractions app is a great way to maybe
find those little unique hidden gems that are within different geographical locations
and make sure that you add them to your trip planning sheet so that you don't miss out
while you're in that area so in this step we're going to put down some of the excursions or the
activities that we know we want to do and things to see in the savannah so I'm going
to put that we want to definitely go check out the worm slow plantation I have found out that
this is a great place to visit and so i wanted to make sure that we go there i know that there's a
fee associated with this so I'm going to put this under activity costs I also found out that there's
a great trolley that goes down town savannah and so we want to make sure that we take advantage of
this so I'm going to put that here and I've made the reservation number so I'm going to make myself
a note that I have that reservation made and ready to go one thing that we like to do is if
there is a particular church or house of worship in an area that we want to visit I will put that
information here as well I found out that there are some great cathedrals in the area so I'm going
to make myself a note that we probably want to check those out while we're in savannah as well
step number six you need to make reservations in advance when you want to book excursions now
there are some things that are very hard to get in if you don't have an advanced reservation
places like antelope canyon in page Arizona or taking the ferry out to Fort Jefferson and
the dry tortugas in key west or maybe booking that whale watching tour or that kayaking tour
you're going to find that certain things that are more popular than others require advanced
reservations so this is a great time as you're planning out your trip to also make sure that
you're getting those reservations in for those excursions or those tours that you want to take
so let's take a minute and go ahead and add that into our trip planning sheet now and as well as
being able to document reservation numbers or what the costs are going to be for those
types of excursions or tours as well so we're going to go ahead and look at this example sheet
of our trip all planned out and mostly ready to go under this excursions tab is where again I can put
anything that's going to maybe cost us some extra money since I'm still working on planning this
trip out and don't quite have everything booked yet and I have a good idea of things we want to do
this is a work in process once that I know exactly how much that this excursion is going to cost and
have a reservation made I'll add that over into my activity costs column and enter the
information under the excursions column this is a great way to be able to see all of your costs
at a glance and know where you're going and where you're going to stay all right so you are ready
to hit the road you've got your campgrounds booked all your excursions booked as well
and you are ready to hit the road so it's time to go out there and enjoy the journey knowing
that you're going to always have a place to stay while you're out there plus you're going
to be able to take advantage of those things that you want to see and be able to experience
those must-see places or those must-do tours so thank you so much for watching if you found this
video helpful please subscribe give us a thumbs up also we'd love to hear in the comments from you
do you have any trip planning done are you one that likes to plan your trips or are you more of a
fly by the seat of your pants are you the planner or the fly by the seat of your pants it's a good
thing that we have kind of one of each of us in this particular relationship but we would love to
hear more about what your travel style is also make sure that you check out last week's video
where we explain why the fly by the seat of your pants travel style might not work as well in 2021
as it used to so make sure that you go check out last week's video as well you're excited yeah
hello I'm ben I mean well we don't do that okay can I finish my rocket not right now