Planning

 

Overview

First thing to do is figure out your parameters. Are there specific places you want to go? Do you have a time constraint?  Do you have people that you want see along your route? Anything else to consider on the trip?

We review places we want to visit as we travel. We determine how long we need at each of those locations. If possible, try to set up the campgrounds so that we can go to multiple activities over a number of days. That reduces the number of times we need to move the RV.   We also prefer to NOT travel with the RV in tow in crowded areas (ie big cities, vacation attractions, difficult roads).

We join Chat rooms online to learn what others think are the places you should not miss. Other travellers can give you ideas.  Locals often let you know where they think you should stop. Also, listen to what they say about the weather in the area at the time you are planning to be there. Perhaps there is a festival in the area on the week you plan to be there. You might need to make reservations early to ensure you get a spot or maybe change your plans to miss the crowds. 

Obviously, you need to find places to camp on that route.  Some people like full service sites with lots of amenities, others love more rustic settings.  Explore where you want to stay based on your tastes.

When traveling to larger cities, try to take a city tour on the first day.  That gives yo uan overview of the area.  It allows you to pick out places we want to return to, in the following days and spend much more time.  So, generally, find a tour online and go through the places that they will take you.  Look each of the places up and determine what you will want to visit for a longer time.  That gives you an idea of length of time you want to be in each large city.

Don’t forget to include time to rest, do laundry, look at the sky and smell the flowers.  When you plan your trip, give yourself some rest days.  Don’t make everyday a touring day.  You can’t run nonstop for 4 months.  You will be burned out!

While planning don’t only count the travelling from one park to the next.  The activities between sites also require driving.  Factor in that time on the road as well.  Setting up tours where you will not be driving between activities requiring driving is a good idea.  It breaks up the driving and allows you to rest while sightseeing. 

Creating an Itinerary and Reservations: How we do it!

When starting the Itinerary, we start with AAA Maps as well as the Google Map App on my computer. We try to drive between 250 and 300 miles in a day at the most.

Creation of an itinerary early is very important.  Though you need flexibility, it is difficult.  Everyone travels during the summer.  Camping areas, tours and ferries book quickly.

I make a first pass at the itinerary guessing on how many days I want us to stay at each location.  I start adding specific places and things to do into the dates and increase or decrease the number of days we will need at each location based on the choices of places we are going. 

For this trip, I have been working on the basic Itinerary for a long time but wanted everything set in February (we leave in the end of June) so that we could make the reservations. 

After completing the plan, I started working on where we will be staying at each stop.  We like more rustic camping areas so, I checked on Provincial parks near where we want to be. The western provincial parks were wonderful.  I am hopeful we will find the same in the east! We like to have power and water, but definitely carry a generator!

In making the reservations, I found though I made them months before we were travelling, many dates were already booked. If I had not been reading other people’s information, I would not have been so concerned and might have missed our chance to make that reservation.

Right in the middle of the trip we have a Ferry to Newfoundland and a month later, we take the return Ferry back to Nova Scotia.  There lies a bit of a problem.  We call that a Hard Stop. Though we can cancel a reservation with no issue, if we want to change it to a different date there may be no availability for a rig our size on new date.  We had to make the reservation early, but if we have an issue we will need to revisit the timing of the ferry which might change our trip considerably.

Most camping areas have some cost for cancelling or changing a reservation, but again, if it is your hope to modify, you may find there is no availability on the date you want to change to… We will just need to work with it.

As you fill in the Where to Stay portion of the itinerary, make sure to find out when they begin accepting reservations and also, when they open and close for the season, if you are possibly out in Sep and Oct (as we will be)

I found the provincial parks have different dates to access reservations. I also needed to create an account for many of them. In total, I needed 49 separate reservations for places to stay on this trip. Many were made online, others required calling. Keeping track of which were completed and which were in process was an important part of the task.  I kept a book on my interactions. Some require upfront payment, others a deposit, some required nothing until arrival. 

NOTE: when making reservations for sites in Canada, if you use a credit card that Waives Foreign Transaction Fees, you save a lot of money. Remember as well, the charge is in Canadian money.  Your credit card will show the rate converted into United States money.  That will be about 25% cheaper than the Canadian price. Using credit cards that have no Foreign Transaction fee during the entire trip will be a great money saver! Of course, if you do not already have one, order your Credit Card with that benefit early, before starting to make reservations!

We also save money by using Good Sam, AAA and AARP when making reservations. Some will also give you that ever popular Old Folks Discount! Don’t hesitate to ask, We are Seniors for a reason!

When planning our trip, I looked at places we were only staying to give us an overnight point to get to the next destination.  I use a great site for helping me locate sites that allow you to freecampsites.net to locate a place to pull off for the night. Walmart, Camping World, Flying J, some Casinos etc. are great for letting you stay.  I never use it for more than overnight and always call ahead to make sure they are available.  If possible, buy something to show that you appreciate them giving you the place.  We do not open our slides unless it does not interfere with other parking and don’t use our generator. 

I will show you the itinerary and map for each area in the blog.

Some hints:

1.     Make sure you determine how many miles you wish to travel in a day. 

2.     Remember to plan around holidays, events in the area, etc and reserve those areas early.  They may book up

3.     Allow yourself sufficient time at each place to see what you want in the area. Make sure to find that special restaurant in the area.

4.     Check for Scenic Highways, special tourist attractions, tours, museums, etc.

5.     Order tourist information for locations early

6.     Consult Maps

7.     Order National Parks Cards early

8.     Connect with others that have already made the trip or live in the area for places you might enjoy.

9.     Give yourself some down time to just sit and rest.

10. Remember you need to do laundry, grocery shopping, work on your blog and visit with new friends.