Sorry your first park experience was not so good. As with anything there is a learning curve to this RV stuff.

I used to have a list of very specific questions to ask a park when calling. I don't have the list anymore but one example would be when asking about wifi...we would call ahead to a park to make sure they had space available and we would ask if they had wifi. But after many disappointments the question became, "Do you have wifi and will we be able to use it from the spot you give us"? Some parks will tell you they have wifi, but they don't tell you it's only available from the office, or that it was hit by lightning and out of service, or any other excuse for why it's not working now.

We've also found that calling and talking to a park itself can give clues. While not foolproof, emotions do come over the phone so pay close attention when they answer your questions.

Always ask about refunds. And we don't give them our credit card number "to hold our space".

As you've found out, not all parks are created equal. Rvparksreview is a good tool to use. We also use the Trailer Life directory, a sub of Good Sam, to find parks and check ratings. After you stay at a few parks you will learn how to read between the lines and decipher the ratings to find parks that meet (or exceed) your expectations.

Posting your experience here is also a great idea. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to find great parks, and conversely avoid the problem parks. Thanks for sharing.


Dan

I know I'm not there and did not experience what you did. But that space looks pretty nice. Small, but well kept. And it certainly looks like plenty of room to get into it. But, again, I'm not there.

Park wifi is always an iffy thing. Under the best of circumstances, it is difficult to keep a large system operating efficiently. And with peoples expectations generally being that they will have DSL quality and reliability at their site it is virtually impossible to meet those expectations. It is a wise RVer that has an aircard, or other cellular based equipment to fall back on.

I've installed park wifi in many parks. It is always a challenge. And even here, in our current park where I'm on site I can not keep the system at 100%, 100% of the time. Although I will say that this particular system is a major challenge because it is 7 APs in 14 acres of dense ponderosa pines. What I have been seeing a number of parks do is to remove the wifi that they have....mainly because they can not meet customers expectations of streaming movies and TV from their rigs. It is far better to simply remove it, IMO, than to have unhappy customers. In fact we have considered the same here, but have instead blocked all streaming activity, which allows us to keep a functioning system.

Write it up on RV Park Reviews....

I won't argue about the conditions there, but the site is not MY definiton of "Tight,not tight." I have been in a lot worse.

Don't worry, just as you will get better with your rig, you will also get better at finding campsites. That being said, once in a great while, despite your best intentions, you will check into a "dump." Just go with the flow.

Somehow when you were telling this story, it reminded me of the two mechanics in the movie "Vacation" when you describe the owners.

We find following our instincts and the universe/serendipity generally leads us to where we need to be!

As you start to learn the wide range of what RV Parks offer in terms of the features that mean something to you - you'll get more and more adept at picking out spots.

And pleasant and helpful customer service goes a long way to the general feeling of your stay, for sure! I can also say that years later we've returned to parks we stayed at in our earlier RVing days, and have had a change of opinion as to what is a 'tight' spot and what is a 'dump'.

One piece of advice... if we're considering a spot to plop down at for a couple of months, and there are multiple options in our geographic target - we'll at first just book a couple nights to really get a feel for it, before paying for the month. Or if we have the flexibility, we'll go personally look at all the options in advance, meet the staff and look around. We're about to do that this weekend before selecting the park we'll be at for a while as we attend to a family medical situation.

Sorry you first experience was so negative... and good for you for doing what you needed to do to turn it positive!

- Cherie

Oh.. another tip. Instead of relying on reading campground maps, we also bring up the campground in Google Maps in both satellite and street view. This gives us more of a real feeling of the spaces by virtually visiting the park in advance.

- Cherie