One of the best activities to do when you’re traveling is hiking. It’s free and great exercise. It also allows you to see and experience more of the area you are visiting. In this article, I’ll share how I use All Trails, my favorite tool for hiking that allows me to find great hiking trails, read reviews about them, and assess the difficulty to see if the trails are right for me. 

In the video tutorial below, I share my screen and show you how I use All Trails to accomplish these tasks and more. Then keep reading below to learn more details about what this app can do. 

Finding Hiking Trails 

One of the most common things hikers use All Trails for is to find great trails along their travels. If you’re somewhere new and don’t know what the best hiking trails are, All Trails gives you options with user reviews, but it does a lot more than that. You can do these searches on the app or on your computer. 

All Trails can help you find the best hiking trail for your preference, ability, and location. You can sort and filter on so many options. When you first bring the app up you have the option to search nearby or if you are planning a trip in advance, you can enter the location. For example, when I was traveling to Maine, I used the app to find trails on Monhegan Island and in Acadia National Park.

If you click the filter button, you can sort by Best Match, Most Popular, or Closest. You can also choose the difficulty (easy, moderate, or hard). The problem with choosing a difficulty level here is that you don’t really know how that compares to your rating. Instead, I prefer to filter by length (in miles) and elevation gain (in feet). 

As you scroll down, you’ll see you can sort on attractions like waterfalls, beach, rails trails, or historic site. You can also filter on suitability such as dog friendly, paved, accessible, or stroller friendly. Finally, you can choose the route type including out & back, loop, or point to point. 

Be aware that you don’t have to filter on anything. You can simply choose to see the full list of hikes. However, the filters help save time if you are looking for something in particular. 

If you want to view them by location (nearby is a subjective term after all), you can see the hikes on a map. 

Assessing Hiking Trails 

Once you have a list of potential hikes, you can use All Trails to assess if it is right for you. One of the most important consideration is your hiking experience and ability. It is so important to follow these hiker safety tips to ensure you don’t get yourself into danger. 

Here’s how you assess a hike in All Trails: 

• Click on a hike that looks interesting to you.
• Take note of the length and elevation gain to get a general idea of the difficulty. 
• View the full map to see if the elevation is concentrated in one area. You can also see the grade of the incline and any water crossings on the map. 

• Scroll down to reviews and see what other hikers have said about the trail. Just realize that some terms like “easy” or “hard” are subjective and vary among hikers. 

Creating Your Own Custom Hiking Trails 

If you don’t see a trail that fits all your requirements, don’t despair. My favorite part of All Trails Pro is the ability to create my own custom maps. When using All Trails Pro on your computer, simply click the down arrow next to “Plan” and you’ll see a drop down menu. Choose “Create Map” and you can draw your own. Using the map, navigate to the location you want to hike at and you’ll see all the public trails. In this example, I’m looking at Shenandoah National Park. 

Just choose Draw Route and when you click on a trail, you’ll start the hiking trail map. Continue doing that along the route you want to take and it will show you the total mileage and elevation. And you can continue to edit it until it meets your needs. 

Then you name it and add notes under Description. Then save it and you’re ready to sync it to your phone. 

Navigating Using All Trails  

The first thing you will need to do if you want to navigate using All Trails is the download the trail on your phone. This will ensure that you have navigation even if you don’t have a cell signal. Here’s how you do that: 

Don’t forget to share the map of your hiking trail with someone else so they know where you will be. It’s a good idea to share your itinerary details like when you plan to arrive at the trailhead, your hiking speed, and when you plan to be finished. 

Once you reach the trailhead and are ready to start your navigation on your phone, you … As you hike you will be the blue dot moving along the trail. The dark green dot is your starting point. When you stop for breaks, you have the option of pausing or continuing to let it run. If you continue to let it run, which is what I do, when you are completed you’ll see “total time” and “moving time.” 

Tracking for Hiking Progress with All Trails 

Another feature that I really enjoy with All Trails is the ability to track my progress. Under “History,” you’ll see a tab for “Stats.” This is great because it shows mileage, elevation gain, and moving time in a graph by month. It also shows your personal bests for each category. 

Additionally, you can look at your “Activities” list and review each hike to see the average pace, mileage, and elevation individually. If you click on “Splits” you’ll see your pace for each mile. 

All of these features are great it you want to improve your time or increase your distance and mileage. 

All Trails Limitations 

One thing I’ve noticed from my experience is that the mileage listed for hikes is often shorter than the true duration. If you are looking at a hike that is already loaded, scroll down to the reviews and see if anyone has a recording of their hike. If so, click on that and you’ll see how long it really was. 

If you are drawing a custom map, take a look at the elevation gain because that is what is often not accounted for in the All Trails mileage estimate. 

Another thing to note is that many trails are crowd sourced, meaning that individuals can record and recommend a new trail. For this reason, be sure to pay attention to any no trespassing or private property signs.

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It’s camping season and you’re ready to hit the road! Now you have two challenges: finding the best campground and then finding the best campsite in the campground. In this article I’ll share tips on how to do that, basic terminology for new RV campers, and tools that you can use to make the process easier.

Campsite Terms Explained

Step one is locating the best campground for you and your camping preferences. If you haven’t done that yet, read my 3 simple steps for finding the best campground. Once you’ve done that, take a look at the available sites. Here are some common terms you might see and considerations of each:

• Back-in Campsite – This means that you will have to back your camper or RV into the site. If you have a towable RV, like a fifth wheel, travel trailer, or pop up camper, you’re going to want to ensure there is enough maneuvering room in front of the site to make adjustments as you back in. We have a fifth wheel and really prefer it when back-in sites are at an angle rather than a 90 degree turn. If you have a motorhome and are towing a car, you’ll need to disconnect the towed car to back in. Regardless of your RV type, you’ll also need to ensure there is adequate room for the car as well. If it isn’t long enough for your tow/towed vehicle, you’ll want to see if there is available overflow parking. To me, the best back-in campsites, have a designated parking area adjacent to your site.

• Pull-thru Campsite – These sites are nice because you just pull right into the site. Again, you’ll want to make sure it is long enough for your tow or towed vehicle. It’s also important to try to determine how they are placed in the campground. While it may seem that a pull-thru campsite is the easier to park in, there are some that are more U shaped and can be tricky for a long fifth wheel or travel trailer.

• Buddy Site – This refers to two adjacent campsites with alternating orientation allowing you and your “buddy” to have a shared space in between. Your front doors face each other instead of your front door facing their sewer connection. This allows friends to have a larger place to hang out when camping together.

• Full Hookups – This refers to a campsite that has water, power, and sewer right at your site. One thing you’ll want to check here is the type of power. Most full hookup sites have 50amp and 30amp power, but not all. That is why it is always good to check. Having an adapter for your RV power cord will also allow you to use the available power connection.

• Partial Hookups – This refers to a campsite without full hookups. Sewer is usually not included at these sites, but most will have at least 30amp power and water. However, we have stayed in electric only sites, so be sure to read the description. One consideration if you stay in a partial hookup site is if the campground has a dump station and how long you’ll be staying. We can go 10 days without having to dump, so if our stay is shorter than that we don’t mind partial hookups. If we’re staying longer, then we’ll use our portable RV waste tank and drive it up to the dump station. Some RVers like to use the bath house instead of their RV shower when staying in a partial hookup site.

Other Campsite Considerations

The next thing to consider when selecting a campsite is where it is located within the campground.

• Bath House – There are two sides to this coin. The bath house typically gets a lot of use, so if you are not going to use it, you may want to choose a site away from it. On the other hand, if you are going to be using the bath house, you might want to choose a site near it. Choose based on your needs and preferences, but make sure you are making a mindful decision.

• Playground / Pool – Other areas that are busy at the campground and may have a little more noise are the campground’s playground and pool. Again, it will depend on you. If you are bringing along children, you might want to be closer to them. If you’re not going to be using them at all, you may want to avoid this area.

• Dog Park – This will obviously depend on whether you have a dog or not. Also, if you like your dog being off leash with others. I do know people whose dogs don’t play well with others, so they choose to stay away from sites closest to the dog park.

• Traffic – Consider the flow of traffic around the campsite. We like to pick quieter sites near the back of the campground for normal trips, but pull-thru sites up front for overnight stops. If you have children that are going to be riding bikes, a site near registration that gets a ton of traffic, may not be the best option.

• Views – Many campsites, especially those around the exterior boundaries of the campground, have fabulous views. There are some that back right up to scenic lakes and beaches. Others with unimpeded mountain views perfect for those fabulous sunsets. Meanwhile, the central campsites may only have a partial view over the RV parked in front of you.

Locating Your Ideal Campsite

Now that you know exactly what criteria makes an ideal campsite for you, how do you find it? We use a variety of tools including:

• Campground Map – The first place I look is the campground map. This will often show me things like the location of the bath house and playgrounds, as well as the orientation of the sites themselves. However, you can’t stop there. Because many of these maps are not really drawn to scale it is hard to tell how wide the roads are, how much maneuvering room you have to back in if needed, or what the view may look like.

• Campground Reviews – I love the website campgroundreviews.com and Campendium. I find the users of both sites to be very helpful. They share all kinds of tips like “this area of the campground is in full sun” or “these sites have plenty of trees for privacy, but can be tight for backing in.” YouTube can also be pretty handy for this. In fact, we also have a Campground Review Playlist on our YouTube channel. Here’s an example of what our reviews are like.

• Google Earth – I also like to take a peek on Google Earth, but if there are a lot of trees, you may not see anything.

• Campground Views – Campground Views is a website that provides 360 degree video views of all the different campsites in a campground. They have some free videos on YouTube that you can view, but they are working to to have 400 campgrounds (starting with state and national parks) in their online program by early summer 2021. You can already see the first version by clicking here.

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Going on a trip is always going to be a fun adventure. And you don’t have to spend a lot of money because the most important things are the people that you are with, the beautiful places you get to visit, and the memories you make. That means that even if you are on a budget, there are ways that you can make your next trip awesome and in this article, we’re going to be looking at how you can do this.

Plan In Advance

The first thing that we are going to suggest is that you plan your trip in advance. You can find some pretty sweet deals on campgrounds, hotels, or flights if you check early enough. This will help you avoid spending too much money on getting to your destination, which will leave you with more money to play with throughout the duration of your trip.

Planning ahead will also help you find the best deals on amazing opportunities. We all know that experiences at your destination are important, so we recommend that you plan out some things that you would like to do while you are there. For example, during a stay in Tampa, Florida you might want to visit the Raymond James Stadium to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or attend a concert. You could also enjoy a day at one of the Tampa Bay area’s beautiful beaches or head to Disney World! Take your time in advance to look at all the things that your chosen destination has to offer and then prioritize which ones will mean the most to you.

Allocating Your Spending Money

We know you’ll likely have a budget for spending money when you were going through your holiday finances, but even more important is dividing among the days that you are at a specific destination. Other than anything that you have already booked and paid for in advance, you’ll need money for things like food, drinks, experiences and souvenirs. You don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount on the first day, only to have nothing left for the last three days of the trip. This means you’ll need to spend a little time creating a vacation budget, and allocating funds by categories. If you end up having money left from one category, you can either save it for the next trip or splurge on something extra. This approach will ensure that you don’t run out of money or end up with a huge credit card bill.

Find Fantastic Deals Online

When you’re creating that travel budget, you can find fantastic deals online that will help you save some money on the trip. Our favorite site to find deals for activities and tours is Groupon. Another way to find deals online is to see if the place you want to go has a website or Facebook page where they may post deals. If you are a member of KOA Rewards program, they have a discount section in their app for your destination. You can also just Google the word “Discounts” and the city you’ll be visiting.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you can do to make your next trip awesome, even if you are on a budget. Be sure to check out our other tips for saving money on RV travel. There are so many incredible things that you can do without having to spend a small fortune. All you have to do is take time to look around and find them. We wish you the best of luck planning your next trip, and hope that you have a fantastic time!