What Is Urban Camping?
Urban camping in an RV refers to RV camping within a city or otherwise urban location. In this instance, urban camping takes place in designated parks and lots rather than traditional campgrounds. That being said, urban camping in many places may surprise you for the amount of green space and natural features within the parks. Urban camping is often used interchangeably with the term stealth camping, but it’s a misconception to say that they’re the same thing. Stealth camping typically occurs in campervans and is illegal in many cities. Urban camping is not (but more on this later). Where traditional RV camping is about getting in touch with nature, urban camping tends to be centered on the convenience of RVs as cheaper ways to travel than in hotels or with flights.Ins And Outs Of Urban Camping In An RV
Plan Your Route Precisely
Specifically, plan your route in and out of the city as precisely as you can. Even experienced RV drivers can tell you that maneuvering an RV of any size within a city is a challenge. Given the size and weight of an RV, we recommend doing research on all the possible ways in and out of the city. This way, you can find the path that offers the easiest, smoothest ride. That may be less turns, or quieter or wider streets. Regardless, the longer way may be more convenient.
If you’re driving a towable RV such as a travel trailer or fifth wheel, we highly recommend measuring the tail swing before your trip. This is already standard practice, but it’s doubly important when traveling in cities.
Another component of planning your route precisely involves choosing your gas stations ahead of time. To avoid getting into tight jams— literally— we recommend planning your gas top ups in accordance with the best spaces available. By this, we mean that you may want to top up on gas before you get into the city.
Gas stations along highways are often easier to navigate in due to the volume of cars and diesel trucks. Gas stations in cities mean tight spaces to navigate in. Even if you’re doing fine on gas, we strongly recommend keeping topped up by taking advantage of empty or spacious gas stations rather than waiting until the last minute and having to rely on less-than-ideal routes.
Avoid Rush Hour
Similarly to planning your route precisely, you’ll want to avoid rush hour in and out of the city for obvious reasons. If you’re able to, plan your travel so that you’ll be moving around outside of these times in the morning and evening. Remember, traveling in an RV is inherently slower than traveling in a car. Even if your trip seems like it’ll take a certain amount of time according to your directions, take into account that you’ll likely be driving at around 55 mph on average. Then recalculate your arrival times. If it’s unavoidable that you’ll be navigating the city around rush hour, finding the best route in via the first tip becomes extremely important.Consider Alternatives to Campgrounds
By this we don’t mean random parking lots or residential streets. Because you’ll get in trouble for that. (Because it’s illegal in most cities.)
What we
do
mean is looking up ahead of time whether or not there are any special exceptions in the area. Casinos often allow RVs to camp in their lots for a certain amount of time and sometimes for free (though, as we said, you’ll have to confirm this on a case-by-case basis). Parking garages sometimes honor similar arrangements, wherein your certain types of RVs can be camped overnight for a fee.
RVnGO does
not
recommend doing either of the above things without researching and getting in touch with the right people first. However, if you’re able to, and if the area that you’re staying in feels secure, it’s a good alternative for brief overnight stays at cheaper rates.