Customer Reviews

Frommer's Best RV and Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.A. (Frommer's Best RV & Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.A.)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm getting ready to retire. I wanted a listing of those out of the way places that I always had to pass up on my travels. They ain't in this book!

I was sorely disappointed in what I found here. They list a lot of campgrounds but they only review about 1 in 10 or 1 in 15. I wanted listings of campgrounds in West Texas. While the maps gave their designation for an RV park...not one of them was reviewed. No names, contact numbers or anything that would really help.

On the other hand, if you want to stay in a state park or BLM site, this books for you. It really does cover those in great detail. In the few private parks they reviewed, the work again was detailed.

The advertisement for this book did not elaborate on what was there...it just led you to believe it was a complete listing...which it was not.

If you are looking for a more thorough listing, Trailer Life or Woodalls provides much more comprehensive cover of ALL the campgrounds they list private or not.

This book limits its list to campgrounds that use the reservation service that is listed at the bottom of the cover. One cannot see this reservation service in the small print on the front while viewing on the Amazon site. I looked up tried and true campgrounds in localities that I have spent considerable time exploring, and the very best ones were omitted. Further, I will not use reservation services, since I don't know when I am going to arrive in a district. After getting charged for changing my reservations by a day or so, I will not use them again. A retired motor home driver never knows if he is going to drive 100 miles a day or 200 miles a day. We meander. We have always gotten a site without a reservation. If we ever get turned away, we will park in the community and check in the next day. Sending the book back for false advertising. This is a reservation company sham, and they should provide it for free.

I was hoping that the new edition would have included up to date information since the 2004 edition was published. While it is true that some campgrounds have been added in this edition, I also found several campgrounds in this directory that have since been sold or closed. Several. It doesn't appear as if information is verified again just before going to press. I find better information in campground review websites on the internet.

The reason I really like this is it gives very specific details on each campground. For example, it will even breakdown by the site number which ones have more trees, which are quieter, and, if there's a stream which sites are closest to the stream. It especially has a good introduction (Pg.1), stating that "life is short, and life is about choices...". It would be better, therefore, to stay at the best campground one can find, rather than simply making do with a run-of-the mill noisy, dumpy rv park. And this book only reviews the cream of the crop rv parks!

I found this book to be chock full of info. It is a little intimidating being it covers all states but very helpful. The enclosed maps makes it easier to locate campgrounds. I find this book helpful, informative and easy to read.

This is a great book and well worth the money. It's bulky because it's the size of a telephone directory for a large city. It tells you everything you want to know about the parks and rates them.
There is a downside. I noticed that a lot of state parks were missing. In the keys, the best parks were omitted, and some of the ones mentioned have been closed for years. For that reason, I couldn't give it a five start rating.

I have several books on camping; this by far is the most helpful.Detailed information on everything from bugs to how to get there. If you are going to have one book on camping site information I would highly recommend this one.

Congratulations to Reserve America, a private membership reservation business, on getting Frommer's, usually considered a well-known, reliable publisher of travel guides, to front for what is essentially their catalog.
Of course, the hedge word here is 'Best', so who can argue that they have failed to list so many really excellent campgrounds in the U.S.A? Woodalls, my personal favorite, and Trailer Life are much more comprehensive and give about as much detailed information, though not in such a cozy, readable style.This book wastes a lot of space listing what features the campground does not have. Woodalls and Trailer Life books just list the positives.

I found their ratings and weighted categories interesting and didn't agree with them. To rate Beauty and Quiet at 15% each and Cleanliness/upkeep at 13% seems skewed. Whether the property has wi-fi is becoming very important to campers who are on the road weeks or months at a time but I couldn't find any reference to it in this book.

This book is not useful for its price or weight and I am about to leave it in the laundry room at the very nice (unlisted) park where we are staying.

We travelled and camped with Frommer's "Best RV & Tent Campgrounds" for one year and found it comprehensive, informative, accurate, and very usable despite the bulk and weight. I then purchased the "Trailer Life RV Parks & Campgrounds" for comparison, and promptly returned it due being thick with advertising and disappointing in content. I will stay with the Frommer's Third Edition and purchase the Fourth Edition when available. I would rate it 5 stars if the maps were in color on more durable paper. This would be a fantastic directory on the iPod / iPad, along the lines of "Allstays Camp & RV" app.

My wife and I are just returning from a 7,000 mile RV trip that took us from our home in Oregon all the way to Florida and back. We bought this book to assist us in finding places to stay while on the road and, when we used it, it proved to be reasonably accurate. We did find a number of campgrounds that were described as clean and attractive but, when we stayed there, we found them to be far less than described.

Additionally, the book is terribly incomplete. There are many, many wonderful RV parks that don't seem to rate inclusion in the book. I don't know why, but you might assume that the non-included parks somehow didn't "play ball" with the Frommers and "Reserve America" folks who seem to have some control over the content.

All in all, this is not a bad book, it's just not a complete book.