Overnight parking

[Shoney]

Hello all,

I'm going to be hitting the road in a few weeks and wanted to ask advice about overnight parking. What are the places you all would recommend that are cheap/free? also where I won't have to worry much about getting a tap on the window at night. I've heard that truck stops are an alright option, as well as rest areas and even Walmart's. The van probably won't be particularly low profile.

Thanks again

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums Shoney! Truck stops, rest areas, Walmart, some big box stores, 24 hour grocery stores - these are all good in many locations but not all. Cities with a large nomad population and cities with a tourist economy are usually stricter about allowing overnight parking. Take a look through this forum section for more ideas - https://vanlivingforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=42

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[bullfrog]

Cracker Barrels almost always have overnight RV parking, just ask inside.

 

[jacqueg]

I use rest areas a lot. They can be quite noisy. Fortunately, I can sleep through just about anything if I make my mind up. OTOH, I know three that are right on rivers and have views as beautiful as any park.

You do have to look for the rules of both the states and the particular rest stop.

Allstays Rest Area Plus is a good app for this.

 

[GypsyJan]

Some casinos allow free parking overnight.

 

[jacqueg]

Last casino I stayed charged me $10/night. For that, I got a quiet, patrolled parking lot with an electrical outlet. I was good with that.

 

[VanForNow]

Casinos can be great, but one problem is that they often change their free camping policies, sometimes offering free overnight camping, and then suddenly charging a fee, and vice versa.

Casinocamper.com is a website that tries to keep track of which casinos offer free camping or not. Even when casinocamper.com says free camping is allowed at a certain place, I always doublecheck by going to the casino security desk to ask if free camping is still allowed.

 

[deadwood]

My favorite spot is on the street in a legal parking spot. It is very unlikely you will get a knock on your door if you are being inconspicuous. With that said I try to park where I can blend in. Places where parking overflows onto the street. By apartments usually work best for me. I came to Phoenix for a few days to visit family and I am out in Tempe by Arizona State University because they have a lot of apartments and people park on the street.

I've used this strategy in big and small cities with pretty good success. On road trips I would do a rest stop or truck stop but they are not my top choices of where to go. But they definitely work in a pinch. Hotels could work but I really do not like to park on private property where I know I don't belong.

 

[highdesertranger]

I just pull off on a dirt road on BLM or Forest Service land. perfectly legal. no need to worry about a knock. highdesertranger

 

[RoamerRV428]

Congrats for hitting the road soon!!

We do rest stops alot. We don't have noisy issues being around big rigs at all with genny's running.

Truck stops the same.

Then we do walmart maybe and they are good but we prefer the top 2.

Also a 'good little' convenience/gas station that has more room than normal around them for parking, like we go in and say, hey you got that patch out back, can we park and sleep for 4-6 hrs and move on and buy diesel here and be ok for the night and most times they say YES! So we just hang in the back of any good gas station that has room and most times that works out fab for us.

Known good ones are Cracker Barrell, Cabela's, Bass Pro and sometimes we just 'hit a corner' of a mall parking lot.....near a light cause that parking is so big ya know, we do fine with our 'rest stop' there with no troubles.

Casinos but they are few and far between.

There is truly alot of options. Asking is key for many places and most people in my opinion are cool with it if you ask nicely and say I WILL NOT be here long at all LOL they want you to sleep and get better for driving on the road vs. being too tired to continue

 

[LERCA]

Where are you going? In Los Angeles County forget the beaches but the sheriffs and some police forces are no longer enforcing parking restrictions unless the property owners make a formal complaint. We are getting streets and streets of parked RVs and vans. You do have to pay attention to whether or not street parking is allowed on certain days or overnight because you will get a ticket.

They voted to defund the sheriff which led to closing two stations one in Marina Del Rey (hmm maybe you could park by the beach there) and one other station and reduced certain patrols, are laying off and not hiring. As a result the police are refusing to do anything other than enforce laws whereas before they’d try and keep the area safe and clean.

Prior to this we had a huge increase in both petty and violent crime so I don’t know why the locals voted this way but they got what they wanted. Anyway it has since become much more nomad friendly here.