Road trip in August

Hi

Me and my girlfriend have booked flights to San Francisco in August. Planning to stay there for a few days before heading out on a road trip round northern California for roughly 10 days. The places I%26#39;m thinking we want to go to are Yosemite, Napa valley, Lake Tahoe and Big Sur - we generally like lakes/mountains and the great outdoors.

I was thinking of hiring an RV but I%26#39;m not sure how difficutlt it will be to find availability at camp grounds at this time of the year and how much it would cost? Would we need to book ahead or could we just roll in and find a space?

Thanks in advance

Andy

Road trip in August

YOu are planning to head to some of my favorite places in the state. It sounds like a great trip.

Using an RV will limit your options at campgrounds. August is a busy travel month. I have never used an RV in California, so I can%26#39;t speak from experience. Campsites inside Yosemite Valley are booked for August, except for August 28, the night before the big Labor Day long weekend. I don%26#39;t know if any of those spaces are for RVs or what your exact travel dates are.

Fuel here (called gas here, not petrol, as you probably know) is cheap by your standards but is still $4 a gallon. Distances are huge and RVs get notoriously lousy mileage, so fuel costs could cancel out savings on lodging. Campsites for RV%26#39;s aren%26#39;t particularly cheap either. Do some google searching for California campsites and you should find prices listed for each location. Add to that the inconvenience of getting around in and parking an RV at rest stops and restaurants and such and I%26#39;m not sure it comes out as a win. You%26#39;ll have to crunch the numbers yourselves.

As far as booking in advance, anything near Yosemite in August should be booked ASAP. In general, the days of rolling into a campground and finding a space are long gone, especially in popular places like Tahoe, Big Sur and Yosemite in August. Better to book and be sure. Even hotels/motels might be tight in some places.

Booking in advance cramps flexibility but provides assurance of a place to sleep. Only you can decide where the balance is for you. One way you can check how tight things will be is to look at places in July and see how booked up they are a day or two in advance. July (outside of the July 4th weekend) is roughly comparable to August (outside of the Labor Day weekend Aug 29-Sept 1) so that will give you some idea of where you would likely need to book in advance.

Best of luck and have a great trip.

Road trip in August

Hi and welcome to the travel forums! You will love Ca and are visiting some very popular destinations at a very busy tourist season. I would definitely book ASAP as stated by the previous poster. Have a wonderful trip! :)

Thanks for your help both. We%26#39;re thinking of going for one of the smallest RVs - looking at a 17ft vehicle max I think. Hopefully this should make it more economical ($4 a gallon sounds like a bargain to me we%26#39;re paying £1.16 a litre at the moment - over $10 a gallon if my calcs are correct!!). Only really want it for sleeping in as we%26#39;ll probably eat out in the evenings. If it all works out too expensive I might still take a small tent and maybe pick up and airbed once we%26#39;re there.

Is there any campgrounds you would specifically recommmend or avoid? We like sociable but not too noisy camping. We would need shower facilities.

Thanks again

Andy

Hi. I do know RV%26#39;s, lol!

If you are thinking of a Class B (van) you will have no problem getting around and finding parking spaces. It%26#39;s actually smaller than many of the full-size pickups on the road here. Your gas mileage - if you drive with a light foot - should be decent, around 15 MPG. Our US gallon is smaller than your Imperial gallon, so it works out right now to about $8.50 USD/gallon of your petrol over there. So even as our prices keep rising, ($4.40 here) it%26#39;s still cheaper, as is nearly *everything* else here.

There are two categories of RV lodging. ';RV parks'; are privately owned and have full hookups, plus often a swimming pool and other amenities. ';Campgrounds'; may be owned by the government or privately, and are usually more rustic without hookups in many instances. They will usually have showers, but you may have to pay extra. State Parks are very busy and will all be booked up already. This late, you may have better luck trying to find a privately owned place to camp, and there are many of them. This will help you:

http://www.rv-clubs.us/rv_campgrounds.html

www.rvparkhunter.com/state.asp…

Prices run from about $25 USD for a campground, up to an average of about $35/40 USD for an RV park with lots of amenities. Yosemite has no RV hookups of any kind, and may be completely full.

In a real pinch, you can park overnight at a rest stop or alongside the road - as long as there is not a sign stating that it is not allowed. This is not allowed within a National Park, though.