Forget Walmart! 23 free & unusual RV spots to spend the night
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Hello friends ! The world of RV and van living continues to grow, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to find safe places to park overnight while traveling across the country. More and more Walmarts no longer allow this. Here are 21 secret or unusual places you could park overnight, aside from places like Walmart, rest stops, gas stations, and restaurants. Make sure you leave the area cleaner than you found it. United Kingdom (UK). Some of them can be used just for one night and you should ask permission if you stay longer. Do you already know or have you used some of these unusual places to park overnight? Tell us in the comments !
Forget Walmart! 23 free places to camp in an RV
Hi guys! As the RV and van travel community continues to grow, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find a safe place to park overnight while traveling across the country. As you know, more and more Walmarts do not allow overnight parking. Well, here are 21 secret or unusual places you probably wouldn't have thought of to park overnight, and again, we're not talking about Walmart parking lots, rest areas, truck stops, or Cracker Barrels . These are again unusual places to park overnight, and I think number 12 will surprise you.
I'm Tom with EnjoyTheJourney.life. If you're new to our channel, make sure to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any of our videos like this. One of the reasons we make videos like these is so we can work together as a community of RVers, nomads, travelers and even truckers, as these spaces are limited and unfortunately sometimes , people don't respect them. They leave trash and disgusting things, I don't even want to talk about it. By making everyone aware that even though these are free places to stop for a night or two, don't abuse the privilege. You want to leave the place cleaner than you found it. So if you see any trash, please pick it up and above all don't leave the place dirty after your stay.
Stay the night and if it's a business, thank you, patronize it. And if this is a place where you could tip, please tip well. Because if a lot of us do that, we can start to be seen as a group of some of the best people that businesses want us to come spend the night with. We want to know if you have ever used any of these unusual places to park overnight, and if so, please feel free to comment below or if you can think of any other places I haven't mentioned here, also mention it below. These places are usually just for one night, please do not stay longer than one night unless you have asked permission. They are primarily places to travel across the country or to a new area and where you are looking to scout your next wild parking spot. So these are not official camping places. We've done a lot of videos about this, so I'll put a link below where you can check out these other videos about free or low cost parking places, like this one here, with full hookups for ten dollars the night. I'm going to be making a video about this soon, so be sure to subscribe.
Many of these free parking spaces will depend on the size of your motorhome or van or travel vehicle, as well as local regulations and of course the location itself. So, if you don't want a late night visit to the door or worse, a ticket or a tripped tire on your vehicle, then you should ask permission. I know some people say that if you don't ask the answer won't be no, but we don't recommend that. Also, these places are at your own risk, just because it's free and maybe licensed doesn't mean it's safe. If it doesn't seem safe, look for another place to spend the night. While I'm sharing these places, I'm also going to share the apps and websites where we find some of these cool places to stop for the night. But a lot of people ask us what regular apps we use to find free overnight camping spots, BLM land, and regular campsites. And we actually use the Dirt Pro app. It's a great app and actually, one of the places we stayed that I'll share later in the video, we found on the Dirt Pro. And the cool thing is we have a link we can share with you below in the description that will give you a 90 day free trial to try. It's going to be a lot of camping, so again, check out the Dirt Pro with our link below for 90 days free and I think you'll like the app.
For safe GPS directions for RVers traveling across the country, we've used the RV Life RV Trip Wizard app for years. And since we're not being subtle here, we have a huge campervan and you know, some roads are just not safe for campers our size, low bridges, etc. We use the RV Trip Wizard RV Life app and will put a link below for that too. Plus, we can save you $25 on this app using our link, so check it out. So, check out these two apps.
Okay, now let's move on to the places we haven't stayed yet but I have five places we've stopped before, and it's really crazy that after nine years of RVing, yes, this is my nine year anniversary in a campervan, or just had it, wow, it's been a lot of years, but even after all this time there are still a lot of places we haven't tried yet. So these have been shared by viewers and other research we've done, so keep a count of these places and let's get started.
And number one is airports, well, small community airports, also known as flamping, not glamping but flamping. Fly and camp. Many of these places might be for tents, but it has been suggested that you could also bring your campervan or van there. I will put a link below to AOPA and you can check it out. And again, if you've tried this, let us know below. And number two is colleges and universities. I never thought about this, but many are prepared to have tailgate parties for sports games, but also for prospective students visiting campus, and some have free wifi that you might be able to use. Number two, colleges and universities. And number three is marinas, it makes sense that when boats are in the water in season, their storage locations could be available to park RVs. So if you have used this, let us know below. And number four is shopping malls. This was news to Cherie and I because you wouldn't think it would be allowed, but we noticed in Destin, Florida a few years ago that there was an RV parked at a large shopping center, and we walked past it every day and he was always there. It's a bit like what we do if we see a campervan parked in an unusual place, we wonder if they are spending the night there have they done so. Many viewers have commented that they do this too. So parking RVs overnight in shopping malls, that's number four as a possible place to spend the night. Can you guess where we are, where else in August would we start to see the leaves falling and changing color? Let us know below if you know what state we are in right now.
But number five is hospitals. Yes, hospitals and it makes sense that if a family was visiting a patient it would be easy to allow RVers to stay the night when they visit. Maybe you don't visit, so just ask permission from the hospital or security. And several viewers said that's the location they used. And number six is convention centers and arenas. This makes sense because they have large events and will need parking spaces for vendors or bands coming to play for the concerts. So let us know if you've used convention centers or arenas, that's number six. And number seven is churches. In fact, a lot of viewers have said they use this and one of our viewers said he exclusively uses this while traveling around the country. Churches have large parking lots that are often open most of the week. So, that's number seven. And number eight is movie theaters. Yes, large parking lots where they will probably empty out late after the last movie showing, but it would be a fun experience to park your RV and go see a movie. We should try that actually, I have to talk to Cherie about it. So let us know if you asked permission at a theater, bought tickets, enjoyed the movie, then go hop in your RV for the night. It actually sounds fun. And number nine is hotels with large parking lots or land right next door for truck parking. Many trucks do not have a bunk in the back, so truck drivers have to stay overnight in a hotel or construction workers with large equipment and just ask, can you park there overnight . Some of these places will be for guests only, as Cherie and I have already found. We asked but were told no so had to find a different place. But again, let us know if you've used hotel parking lots or spaces near the hotel, that's number nine.
And number ten is racetracks, probably a place you would do between races, but also another fun place to maybe watch a race and camp for the night, or maybe even longer if it's is allowed, it's number ten. And number eleven is public libraries. Interesting, I don't know how popular public libraries are these days, maybe their parking lots are more accessible, but it's number eleven as suggested by one of our viewers. And number twelve, and this is where I think you'll be surprised, is police stations or fire stations. Police stations really? And in fact, several viewers told us they did, but there's a side benefit to that. You can go to a police station and ask them where you can legally park overnight in that city or community, and they can tell you where you can go or they will just let you park right in their lot. And some people say "it's going to be noisy because there will be people coming and going all night" and we actually had a retired sheriff who said no, it's actually not noisy between shift changes. So I thought a police station was an unusual place, what do you think and have you tried it, it's number twelve.
And number thirteen is the Kmart type stores yes actually did you know that Kmarts were the very first department stores to allow overnight RVing, even before Walmarts and some people might say that there are no more Kmarts, but in fact, based on my research, there are currently 21-33 Kmarts still open. So, have you ever parked your RV at a Kmart? Let us know if you've tried that one and number fourteen is Sam's Clubs and I know Sam's Clubs are a subsidiary of Walmart, but apparently some RVers have been staying overnight at a Sam's Club. We haven't done it yet, but it's number fourteen. Let us know if you've tried that one and number fifteen is Costco, Sears and other department stores and big hardware stores. Well, actually, according to my research, there are currently between 33 to 33 Sears stores left and some of our viewers say they've been to some of these other locations as well, so that's number fifteen. And number sixteen is stores going bankrupt, it's actually related to Kmart and Sears and a lot of these big retailers that have gone bankrupt recently. Well they have ample parking lots, no one is there probably no security and this has actually been one of the most recommended places to park. The only thing to worry about would be safety while staying there. One thing with businesses that are still in operation is that there are probably lights and probably some security. Cherie and I haven't tried this place, so again, let us know if you have. And on the positive side of number seventeen, it's the warehouses or these big box stores like malls and so on that are still under construction. So the parking lots would be mostly empty because the stores haven't opened yet and there may be no one there to ask permission. Again, stay at your own risk, you might get that visit at the door during the night, you don't want that.
And we're almost to the places that Chérie and I actually stopped at, but we still have one more place to try, and that's number eighteen, and that's drugstores like CVS and Walgreens. They have large car parks, but perhaps more suitable for a vehicle or van, I don't think we would try to take our large motorhome into a car park like this, but that makes number eighteen. And now let's move on to the last five on our list and these are the five that Chérie and I have actually tried that might be secrets for you.
And number nineteen is Food Lion or other grocery stores. Yes, we did this a few years ago with our old RV in Summerville, SC. The Food Lion in Summerville is near Charleston, a very large city but we needed a place for a night or two while bringing the camper back from the factory for repairs. We asked management and it wasn't a problem, in fact a few big trucks spent the night there too, so that's number nineteen. Grocery stores like Food Lion. This is something we actually did. And number twenty is fairgrounds and municipal parks. Honey and I recently used this in Glendive, MT at JC West Park, it was a nice place we found on the Dirt Pro app like I mentioned before. Beautiful trees, lots of grass and no one else was there. It was quiet and really a great place for zero dollars for the night. I should point out that some of these places also offer hookups, and yes, even still for free, that's number twenty. Fairgrounds and municipal parks.
And number twenty-one is Planet Fitness gyms, also known as Planet Docking or other fitness facilities that you may be a member of. Honey and I were members of Planet Fitness a few years ago and we actually stayed there
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