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Is the Good Sam Trip Planner any good? The Good Sam Trip Planner is designed to help RVers route their trips. You can input your vehicle information for the most RV-friendly route to your destination. It allows you to avoid low clearances, closed or heavily trafficked roads, or even avoid highways or toll roads.
Through the trip planner, you can map your gas stops and save money. Plan an alternate route to see sites along the way.
What Is the Good Sam Trip Planner?
What is the Good Sam Trip Planner? The Good Sam Trip Planner is a website and app. RVers must become a member of Good Sam’s Club in order to have access to the trip planner. The tool is owned by Camping World.
Best Features of The Good Sam Trip Planner
Let’s take a look at some of the Good Sam Trip Planner’s features.
1. Find Campgrounds Within Their Directory
If you are looking for a Good Sam Campground, this planner will display all of them when you plug in your trip’s coordinates. There are some public and private campgrounds listed, but you won’t find any KOAs, Thousand Trails or Harvest Hosts on their list.
2. Locate Points of Interest, Fuel, And Dump Stations
As I put this trip planner to the test, I was a bit disappointed that the only points of interest were Camping World-owned companies such as Camping World, Gander RV, Overton’s, and Pilot Flying J. A note at the bottom said, “More Things to Do Coming Soon.”
For the route I created, I did not find any dump stations and the fuel stops were all Pilot Flying J.
3. Avoid Construction, Low Bridges, And Traffic
There were buttons you could click to make your route either for a car or RV. Don’t miss these above the routing preferences. I assume that this makes your route more RV friendly. There were also buttons to minimize toll roads or avoid toll roads and minimize highways or avoid the highway altogether.
As for avoiding construction, I did not see any indicators on the routes I planned.
4. Use the Multi-Point-To-Point Trip Planning Feature
Using the multi-point-to-point trip planning feature allowed you to add stops along the way. Once you entered your parameters, you are given an estimated trip time and turn-by-turn directions.
Is It Worth Joining Good Sam Club for The Trip Planner?
Is it worth joining Good Sam just for the trip planner? You do have to join Good Sam Club in order to get the trip planner. At a cost of around $30 per year, this isn’t a lot, and you do get additional discounts and benefits at Good Sam Campgrounds, other retailers, and RV repair shops. I would not join Good Sam just for the trip planner.
What Are the Disadvantages of The Good Sam’s Trip Planner?
If the campground or service isn’t a member of Good Sam’s Club, then they can’t be found on the Good Sam Trip Planner. Also, if you don’t want to utilize the other Good Sam membership opportunities, it might not be worth paying for just the trip planner.
What’s A Great Alternative to Good Sam’s Trip Planner?
A good alternative to the Good Sam Trip Planner is definitely the RV Life Trip Wizard. While Good Sam’s Trip Planner is somewhat new, they had a similar planner which went away in 2019, it seems to be lacking compared to the RV Life Trip Wizard. I would say there is no comparison. Although the Good Sam planner looks like it might be heading in the same direction, it hasn’t made it there yet.
So right now, the best trip-planning tool is the RV Life Trip Wizard. You can get tons of campgrounds and RV parks along your route, which are all integrated with RV Life Campgrounds.
RV Life Campgrounds provides pictures, reviews, lists of amenities, costs, features, and more, which are provided by campers, so you know you are getting the straight scoop. You can even add your own pictures and reviews to the thousands of campgrounds already posted.
You can also filter the campgrounds to find those that are pet-friendly, big-rig friendly, 55-plus, and based on price.
This trip planning tool shows you a safe route based on your rig’s exact measurements so you can avoid low-clearance bridges or roads that are unsafe for an RV, such as those with steep grades.
Use the planner to search for points of interest, including rest areas, fuel stations, overnight parking, and dump stations. You can also search for casinos with campgrounds, Walmarts, as well as amusement parks, museums, liquor stores, and more.
With this trip planner, you can see the campground affiliations and rank the memberships in your account preferences based on those affiliations for the best savings. You can also set your driving distances, so you limit how many miles you drive per day and find gas stations, dump stations, etc., along the way.
While the RV Life Trip Wizard is a bit more at $59 per year, it includes the RV Life App. Although you can’t currently plan your trip on the app, you can download the trip you have created for easy use on the road.
You can use our disc ount code RVBLOGGER to save 10% on the RV Life App and RV Trip Wizard.
What Trip Planner Would You Choose?
What trip planner would I choose? There are other trip planners out there, but for me there is no question that I would choose the RV Life Trip Wizard. There is so much more to the program than the Good Sam Trip Planner.
The RV Life Trip Wizard has a lot more options to choose from and is heads above the others. I’m sure they have more plans for the future, and I can’t wait to see what exciting offerings they come up with.
The Good Sam Trip Planner is new, and I’m sure will expand its offering in the future. If you are currently a Good Sam’s Club Member, take advantage of what this trip planner has to offer.
Related Reading:
RV Life App and RV Trip Wizard Discount Code
10 Tips for Last Minute RV Camping Trips
Is The Good Sam Extended Service Plan Right For You?
About the author:
Terri Nighswonger – Author and Full Time RVer
Terri Nighswonger and her husband Todd have been RVing and work camping for six years with their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Newton, and their Minnie Australian Shepherd, Remi.
In Addition to the RVBlogger team, Terri has written for RV Life and RV Camping Magazine and is always excited to talk about her passion for RVing and her knowledge and experience in work camping.
Writing is Terri’s passion, but she also loves hiking, kayaking, walking her dogs, and anything she can do outdoors.
They originate from the Midwest but plan to enjoy the West for a few years, wintering in Arizona and summering wherever the road may lead.
I use Good Sam for the Good Sam campground and Pilot/Flying J fuel discount. For trip planning I go to RV Life. It makes planning easier for me with more options available.
Good Day,
Really enjoy your articles. One thing I wanted to mention, is that I used the Good Sam trip planner for a while before I knew about RV Trip Wizard. I do believe RV Trip Wizard is a better app, but Good Sam does show KOA campgrounds if you select Private campgrounds. We planned a few trips using the Good Sam app and I think it’s ok for beginners. Just my opinion. Thanks for your information.
Not pushing for or against the Good Sam trip planner but it does show KOAs and Thousand Trails camps. No, they are not Good Sam Parks but if you select Private Campgrounds in the planner they do show up. I just used the planner so I know that for a fact. Again, not arguing for the planner one way or the other, you just need to be factual and objective in the review and this point was not stated correctly. I would agree that the Trip Wizard has more features thus perhaps the scale tips that way.