As you can see from our planning excel documents, we make reservations almost everywhere well ahead of time. There are a few reasons for this:
We have more time to research where we want to go and what we want to be close to before we go on trips. Once we are going on our trips, we want to enjoy what we are doing rather than having to be researching campgrounds. Also, we don't always have good internet access.
Campgrounds have gotten busier and some you will never have a shot of getting into if you don't book exactly as they open the reservations for that day (looking at you Yosemite, Zion, etc).
We are on a tighter schedule since Anjuli works and Jordan goes to school. Therefore, we need to keep on more of a schedule to get back in time. We can't just wander around and go with the flow if we want to go to certain places and get back.
How often do we need to change reservations?
Truck breakdown on the Utah/Arizona 2023 trip caused a domino effect of cancellations on the drive across the country, but only minimal cancellation fees, maybe $40 or so.
Leaving sites early for various reasons, a few times in Alaska due to battery power.
Changing routes/dates, not often.
Most places charge $0, $10, or $20 fees for cancelling, with only a couple that charged a night cancellation fee.
So the answer, NO, we don't regret making advanced reservations. The overall cost of cancellation fees we have lost is very small in comparison to not getting to go where we want, when we want, and be able to get back to Vermont in time. Between 2023 and 2024, maybe we paid a few hundred dollars in cancellation fees. In comparison to lost salary from not working and not getting to take advantage of that time off, it is well worth the cost. The peace of mind while traveling is also definitely worth it. Knowing we have nice sites waiting for us and not having to rush and hope we get a spot is essential, especially with a toddler.
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