How to Snag the Ultimate Campsite Any Time of Year

Teardrop camping is a great way for both the experienced and inexperienced campers to explore the outdoors. For the experienced camper, the teardrop allows a more comfortable sleeping arrangement- inside, out of the elements, on a comfortable mattress instead of a damp tent on a hard ground surface. Likewise, the less experienced camper gets these benefits, along with not having to purchase, pack, and set up a bunch of unfamiliar gear, including all the kitchen and cooking equipment. A teardrop makes camping accessible to anyone that can tow a trailer.

However, one of the most common questions we get from people is “how do I get a campsite?” While reserving a campsite can seem daunting at first, especially during peak travel season, it’s actually quite simple. Below we’ll outline our favorite methods of getting that ultimate campsite. 

First, figure out where you’d like to go. During peak season, we’ll often have a couple places in mind, then see where we are able to make reservations at first, and let that be the determining factor. During off-peak seasons, we have the ability to be a little bit more picky. 

There’s 3 different sites we usually use to make reservations, depending on the campground, and then we have a “secret weapon” that we use to get those really hard to get campsites during peak times, which we’ll share at the end.

ReserveCalifornia.com is our go-to site for staying at any California State Park campground. They make it easy to search for and reserve a campsite, and prices are very reasonable, usually in the $30-$40/ night range. One tip for snagging a site through Reserve California is that when someone cancels a reservation, it is released at 8 A.M the next day. We find that if we are logged in and ready, then refresh the page right at 8 A.M., we rarely have trouble snagging a site. 

Recreation.gov is one of our other favorites, as there you’ll find camping in all the national park and national forest campgrounds. So whether it’s Yosemite, something in the Tahoe National Forest, Point Reyes, or something on BLM land, Recreation.gov is the only place to snag campsites on federal properties. When people cancel reservations on recreation.gov, the sites are usually immediately released, so snagging a campsite during peak season can be a bit more tricky, but our secret weapon helps overcome that, so keep reading below in our section about CAMPNAB to see how we do it. 

HipCamp is another great site, which is like AirBnB for private campgrounds. There’s lots of great destinations out there, and private campgrounds, or property owners that have bathroom and shower facilities rent out their destinations on HipCamp. Browse through the listings in your desired destination, and you’ll be surprised at the amazing location and amenities these hosts have. Want an Instagram-able stay? Check out HipCamp.

Now, on to our secret weapon! During peak travel times, how do you get those really hard to get campsites in popular destinations like Yosemite, Big Sur, or Lake Tahoe? You let a service crawl sites like recreation.gov or reservecalifornia.com for openings, and text you as soon as an opening is found! 

Campnab is our favorite for this! We’ve used Campnab to secure campsites on nearly every trip we go on- from Yosemite in the spring or fall, or for the Firefall in late February, to Big Sur and Lake Tahoe during the summer. 

There’s different levels of subscriptions to choose from with Campnab, but our favorite is one that scans for openings every five minutes, texting you as soon as it finds one, along with a link to make the reservation. Simply put in your desired campground, the dates or date range you want to travel, and Campnab will send you a text the instant it finds an opening so that you have the best opportunity to snag a site before anyone else. 

Follow these tips, and you’ll find you can get a campsite pretty much any time you’d like, then reserve your Buffalo Teardrop for your trip!