U.S.A. isn’t the most budget friendly country to explore but we were not going to let that come in the way of our west coast trip from Seattle to Las Vegas. With this in mind, we hired an amazing camper van, stocked up the fridge and cupboards and headed straight to McDonalds for our $1 free refill coffee to figure out where we could spend each night for free or as near to free as we could.
We actually managed to find free camping every single night with a little help from this site and although we may not have been in the middle of nature all the time, it really didn’t compromise on our U.S.A. west coast road trip experience.
Supermarket car parks:
It may not be terribly exciting but with cheap groceries, free toilets and wifi (if you park close enough the building) most Walmarts provide this convenient and safe option. We were thoroughly entertained every time we stayed at Walmart people watching and taking advantage of the late night bakery offers!
Urban camping:
It may not be perfectly legal but in theory if you are travelling in a car or van you can park up pretty much anywhere as long as you arrive when the sun has gone down and set off again before it comes back up. I would recommend checking out the area through the day first as not everywhere will be safe but if you dare you can have some amazing spots like right next to the beach in San Diego!
Also don’t make the mistake we did on our first try of urban camping… Rather than parking up on the street we thought that maybe heading out to the nature reserve car park would be better. No houses around for miles and pitch black we would be less likely to be asked to move on by the police. What we didn’t bank on was to pull into a carpark in the extreme darkness miles from anywhere to see a our headlights catch a guy sat on the wall with a guitar. He had no light, wasn’t bedding down or anything just sat in the darkness, alone… Safe to say it scared the hell out of me that I screamed at G to get the hell out of there and we stayed in the nearest town centre!
Highway Rest areas:
Some are great some aren’t so. But if you’re stuck they offer free 8 hour parking and we have stayed right through the night totalling 10 hours and not been asked to move.
Casinos:
Casino car parks are a great option if you fancy trying to win back some money whilst sampling the free booze they offer whilst playing.
Truck stops:
We stayed in a couple of truck stops as they have all the facilities you require (hospital clean showers) and the restaurants on site have great, cheap food available.
B.L.M:
BLM easily have the best free camp sites in U.S.A. It is basically government owned land that the government wants the public to enjoy for free. They may not have showers, but they all have toilets and designated spots miles out into nature which you can enjoy for free for unto 14 nights. We stayed at a few but also tried to stay at a few more unsuccessfully as they aren’t the easiest to find unfortunately.
National and state Parks:
We had to pay an entrance fee for Yosemite plus a camp spot fee for every night we was there, but seen as every other night on our trip was free we had extra spend to explore this amazing Californian park. We also stayed at Lake Mead in Nevada which had an entrance fee for the week but again it was totally worth it being so close to Vegas. The others, we were either just lucky or there wasn’t a fee to be paid!
We loved every minute of our U.S.A. west coast road trip and could not believe that we could spend every night in a different spot in 4 different states completely for free!
Have you ever tried out free camping in U.S.A.? How did you get on???
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