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North America Topics specific to Canada and USA/Alaska only.
Photo by Hendi Kaf, in Cambodia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Hendi Kaf,
in Cambodia



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  #1  
Old 22 Nov 2016
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tool for free camping
This seems to be a nice tool to find campsites for free. At least in North America there are plenty of them listed. For the rest of the world it´s terra incognita more or less.
https://freecampsites.net

Check out this one, too: http://ioverlander.com/
You have to flag "informal campsites" and "wild camping"
It has a much better global coverage than freecampsites.net.

Cheers

Panny
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  #2  
Old 22 Nov 2016
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Most of the world is terra 'familiar' for iOverlander.com and of course for its users, although with only 2000 places (not all camping of course) in Mexico, 1600 places in the USA and 900 in Canada, it is not the most comprehensive available for every country, but it has few equals AND it is free and is available in an app as well and the files are freely available for Garmin and for adding to several mapping applications such as mapsme and osmand so it is fully functional as well.

For boondocking in the usa we use https://freecampsites.net/ as you recommended, and we have used it a lot with good results
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  #3  
Old 22 Nov 2016
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I checked it against a few of the campsites we used last year in the US and it didn't have any of them listed. I'm not sure listing Cabellas / Walmart car parks as "campgrounds" is much help if your idea of camping involves a tent but then again our tents were usually outnumbered about 50:1 by RVs in most commercial sites.

There were even a few KOA's we'd used it didn't list and if you've missed those out ...

I'd need a lot more confidence in it before I'd use it in preference to McDonald's wi-fi and googling "campgrounds near me"
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Old 23 Nov 2016
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Most camping lists don't encourage listing of walmarts and similar simply because there are already several POI lists just for walmart and both those sites don't want them - but iovelander being a user-driven site does end up with an occasional walmart, but very few considering.

Why would KOA campsites be on a site called FREEcampsites.net. Not ever stayed in a KOA, but don't think anyone would consider them anywhere low cost let alone free.

from freecampsites site
Quote:
Our community provides the best free camping information available. Free campgrounds can be hard to find. Freecampsites.net makes it easy. We give you a simple, map based search engine to find free and cheap camping areas. Community reviews and ratings provide you with up to date information and help you select the best camp site for your next camping trip.
and
Quote:
Whether you enjoy tent camping, car camping or RV camping, our goal is to help you find the best places to go camping. We believe that free camping areas are often the most beautiful and peaceful camp sites. Our focus is on public lands. You own these lands and you are entitled to use them. We especially like camping on Forest Service land, BLM (Bureau of Land Management) areas, WMA's (Wildlife Management Areas) and county or city parks. We hope you enjoy the same style of camping.

We are not actively seeking Wal-Marts, truckstops or other parking lots and will not be adding very many of these. There are enough Wal-Mart and truck stop directories out there already. However, if a member of the community finds one of these locations to be useful for overnight RV parking and creates an entry, we may approve the listing.
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  #5  
Old 23 Nov 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by backofbeyond View Post
I checked it against a few of the campsites we used last year in the US and it didn't have any of them listed. I'm not sure listing Cabellas / Walmart car parks as "campgrounds" is much help if your idea of camping involves a tent but then again our tents were usually outnumbered about 50:1 by RVs in most commercial sites.

There were even a few KOA's we'd used it didn't list and if you've missed those out ...

I'd need a lot more confidence in it before I'd use it in preference to McDonald's wi-fi and googling "campgrounds near me"
For me such a tool does not have to list all spots. I see a value in it even if it shows me a couple I wouldn´t know otherwise.

Regarding the parking lots: it´s obviously not a motorcycle travellers only tool, but for RVs and other kinds of travellers, too.

Cheers

Panny
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  #6  
Old 22 Mar 2017
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We be traveling in US and Canada in 2018. This is very good infirmation. Thank you !
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  #7  
Old 22 Mar 2017
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Any of these aids to travel are a matter of horses for courses, although there is a lot of overlap. Allstays is another good one for the USA and covers walmarts, lots of commercial camprounds and rv parks plus usfs, np, army corps and blm places as well as a heap of other relevant information such as bridge heights, propane refillers and truck stops and dump points.
We travel in a variety of vehicles all over the world and use whichever one gives us the results we are looking for. In the usa all three combine to cover any eventuality. In Mexico, ioverlander has pretty much eclipsed the remnants of the Churc's books and is THE source for central and south America and is pretty much best for Turkey, Morocco and Iceland. Europe is like the usa in that it has many sources that cover whatever sort of camping you are looking for.
Despite the availability of wireless internet, any source that isn't mostly functional completely offline is barely worth having, because even in the Usa there are huge areas with no phone service
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  #8  
Old 26 Mar 2017
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Usa canada & central america
We are currently travelling north to canada via the usa (how else?)
We use ioverlander,free camping.nett & allstays,then choice the most suitable for us.
They are free &easy to use
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  #9  
Old 26 Mar 2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony LEE View Post
Despite the availability of wireless internet, any source that isn't mostly functional completely offline is barely worth having, because even in the Usa there are huge areas with no phone service
I agree!

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  #10  
Old 27 Nov 2019
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To cut it short, I was on a camping site near Uvalde, trying to stay for some days. It was nice and good over there but, there is a Wallmart near, so you can find anything you need over there, I didn't cook, I bought the food, so I had not headache's. Oh! By the way I got bited by a snake, I don't know exactly if it was venomous. I was bited in a shoe I had luck, just because of my Snake boots.God bless them. So be careful over there, It is a nice place but you can get bited.
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  #11  
Old 27 Nov 2019
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Originally Posted by GoodFollow View Post
Oh! By the way I got bited by a snake, I don't know exactly if it was venomous. I was bited in a shoe I had luck, just because of my Snake boots.God bless them. So be careful over there, It is a nice place but you can get bited.
Yeah, you've got to watch out - it's a jungle out there. This was from a campground in Florida a few years back:

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  #12  
Old 15 Mar 2020
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Hire in Canada it seem that https://freecampsites.net/ is having listing mainly Wallmart as free campsite.
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  #13  
Old 19 Mar 2020
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Park4night does outperform other solutions like iOverlander currently, and is growing fast. Strong in Europe too...

https://www.4x4tripping.com/2020/01/...ng-leicht.html

You can use it by PC or Smartphone App.

Surfy
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  #14  
Old 17 Apr 2020
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another campsite finder...
I used Kampnik with great success in the US and Canada. It lists both paid and free campsites including the facilities available at each place. Is user editable.

https://www.kampnik.com/
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  #15  
Old 17 Apr 2020
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Worth remembering that iOverlander, park4night etc all list free camp spots that are not legal places to stay, always check the local rules and regulations before relying on information in the apps

I've reported several iOverlander locations but they are still listed so be careful.
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