CAMPGROUND VIEWS
Pick The Perfect Campsite… Every Time!
Campground Views | New Tool Makes Finding Campsites Much Easier
As a camper I know you have had this thought…
“Why doesn’t Google Streetview go into the campgrounds and RV parks?”
This has been a long term point of frustration and it causes all of us to spend hours researching campgrounds, searching for photos, videos on Youtube and reviews all trying to make an informed decision. Now there is a new tool available to help you and us bridge this gap.
Virtual Campground Tours from Campground Views allows every camper to find campsites easily.
What is Campground Views ?
The Campground Views software was developed by a group of campers who recognized there was a industry problem with potential campers viewing campgrounds and campsites before booking them. They developed a solution to solve this problem by allowing campers to view virtual tours of the campgrounds beofre making the decision to book a spot.
The technology combines 360 degree video with an augmented reality layer of data to create an immersive experience inside campgrounds.
Over 885 campgrounds...
Available online the tours are available for over 885 campgrounds as of this post with hundreds more on the way. In English this tool allows you to drive around campgrounds and see the sites before you book them… all virtually online. Camping and RVing has undergone a renaissance over the last few years as widespread adoption of RV and tent travel has massively changed our hobby.
The popular campgrounds are booked solid on summer weekends and during popular weeks leaving all of us struggling to find good places to camp amongst the noise. With these Campground Virtual Tours it is now easily possible to find and pick great sites in campgrounds you have never visited before.
Virtual Campground Tours
Virtual Campground Tours are only available at CampgroundViews.com
The website (or app as some call it) already has 16,000 campgrounds and RV parks for us to search for all across the United States. The company has spent years building a very robust database of campgrounds, rv parks and their various amenities and features.
The website also has 50,000 photographs and 3,000 Youtube style videos showing off properties.
The new Campground Virtual Tours require a membership to access and those memberships start at $6/ week. For the price of a gallon of gas you are able to virtually drive 2,000 miles of campground roads and see over 35,000 campsites. It is a remarkable example of technology improving the camping experience.
Arizona in the Mix
For campers looking to avoid the membership costs, there are also over 60 campgrounds with virtual tours that are completely free to try. The Arizona Office of Tourism partnered with CampgroundViews.com and the company is adding more and more campgrounds for free to use in that state. If you want to see them use this link: https://www.campgroundviews.com/aot
Virtual Campground Tours
First off Campground Views is a search engine.
It is very robust with public and private campgrounds and RV parks listed in all 50 states.
Searching Campgrounds
Start your search on their home page using your computer, smart phone or tablet. Enter a city or location and hit search.
You will quickly search their entire database and pull back a list of relevant parks in that area. If some of them do have virtual tours you will see a search “filter” with “Virtual Tour” to select.
That will then thin out the results to show you only the campgrounds in that list with virtual tours. When you click on the campground “card” you will load a page with information and the virtual tour of that property.
Finding Campgrounds
Another path to the virtual tours is by clicking the link in the main menu that says “virtual tours” on it.
This loads a search result page with every campground and RV park they currently have a virtual tour for. As of this post that is over 885 locations! Click on any one and you will see messaging inviting you to join.
The campers behind this tool do charge for access and there is a specific reason for it. They are using every dollar they earn to go out and capture more campgrounds. They already have a large volume of Recreation.gov properties and are now capturing state parks and private RV parks.
Let’s help support them and in the process, make it easy for campers like us to view campsites before packing up and heading over.
Using the Virtual Tour Player
You are likely familiar with the Google Streetview tool. While similar the Campground Virtual Tours are different and better in many ways. With Google Streetview you generally start your experience looking at a more traditional top down map view. From there you will drop the little person on a road and immediately be taken to a 360 degree photo of that spot. You then need to click arrows or drag your finger to move forward or backward. Your view is simply jumping photo to photo.
With the Campground Virtual Tours you are using a tool that is built on video. At its core, the tours are GoPro style visits.
You can hit play at the bottom left and the video will start playing. You will be looking straight ahead as the tour winds its way around the campground roads. The magic happens when you take some control of your point of view.
Using your mouse on a desktop computer to click and point or your finger on a tablet or smartphone to do the same you can change the view of that camera as you move looking left, right, up or down. This is the magic of this experience. Just like cruising through a campground in your car you can leisurely explore the campground and view the entire landscape.
As you look around you will notice a few of the augmented features that create the immersive experience. At the top right of the video screen (or top center on mobile) is a little round heads up display. This is the overhead map.
Click the four opposing arrows to popup this map and get a top down look at the precise layout of the campground. This is a GPS accurate map of the entire campground. You will see markers that depict the exact location of all the marked campsites. Click any of those little icons and you will be immediately transported to view that exact campsite!
In fact those icons are the most powerful feature of this tool. Campground Virtual Tours allow you to see the park but more importantly know exactly what campsite you are looking at as you do so! Click the site icon and an information box appears providing more details about the campsite and giving you the amazing option to click to book that precise campsite.
Using the Virtual Tour Player
Also on the popup description and found on the bottom right toolbar is a little calendar icon. Click that icon and a date picker appears on the screen. Select the dates of your stay and the icons will update. From red to green or green to red depending upon if the site is available or not. This visual representation of site availability is also updated in the overhead map letting you quickly see what sites are available during your desired dates; click the green icons to jump to and inspect available sites.
As if all of that was not enough you can also use the search option in the bottom right toolbar to quickly jump to sites. This feature allows you to quickly see a campsite if you know the one you are looking for or if you are doing one of the late night bookings for popular locations. This feature is also excellent for campground reservation offices to allow the camper to see sites as they talk on the phone.
Campground Virtual Tours are available for over 800 campgrounds and RV parks across the United States. They primarily cover Recreation.gov properties which are forest service, National Park and Corp of Engineer locations. With this amazing base of information they are now adding State Parks and private parks to the mix.
Last Words on Campground Views
This is an amazing tool for RVers as well as those workamping!
The ability to drive around the campground with a virtual tour and pick the perfect campsite for your stay is a huge game-changer to the RV industry! CampgroundViews.com has a membership plan for all camper types. Click here to view them and use code LCW20 for a 20% discount on the plan that fits you.