If you are living the RV or van life, or dreaming about it .. or maybe doing a trial run in your car, planning a road trip, trying to save on accommodation, or any combination of these things, then the following question has probably crossed your mind. How do I find places to park my RV, van, or car overnight to sleep?
A pretty logical thing to ask. Because, sure, if you are doing a one or two week trip, you could get down in front of your computer, spend hours doing research, looking up campgrounds, rv parks, and rest areas, reading forums, googling the rules for every province or state you plan to go to, zooming in on google maps, and get a super detailed itinerary planned with a place for each night. And, honestly, I commend you for that.
However, if you don’t have the energy for that, like flexibility or you are travelling on the road a little more long term – you need a more convenient solution. And preferably one that helps you find free overnight parking a little more pleasant than Walmart parking lots. That’s where apps come in.
There are several apps that will do the job. However there is one in particular I use all the time and highly recommend. I will tell you all the reasons why I like it in this post, plus I will tell you about some of the other options as well, so you can decide on one for yourself. Also, check out this post with other ideas on finding places to park overnight for free or cheap in Canada.
And now, without further ado, I present you with what I consider to be the best app for free overnight rv, van, and car parking.
The Best App For Finding Free overnight RV parking
IOverlander
Ioverlander is a nonprofit project, based in community. Essentially, it is a huge volunteer maintained database of places of interest for people travelling around by land vehicle. They have places all around the world! You can visit their website or use the free mobile app available in the app store and google play store.
Summary Of Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| – Always free – First hand experience of users – Global – App + Website – Places besides just overnight parking areas (showers, potable water, dump stations, gas stations, laundromats, wifi etc) – No ads | – Not moderated, some places outdated/no longer relevant – Need internet to use |
More Details
This app has loads of places for overnight rv parking, whether that is paid or free campgrounds, parking lots, public lands, rest areas, truck stops, quiet pullovers, or anything else. These spots are organised into categories. The categories are: Established Campground (usually paid but not always, often in national parks or on private property), Informal Camping (typically parking lots, be it store, trail, city, restaurant, gas station, or church parking lots), and Wild Camping (all your driving down a random dirt road spots as well as some rec sites/user maintained free campsites).
In addition to this they also have other points of interest related to car or rv travel. This includes dump stations, place to get propane, potable water fill up spots, showers, restaurants of note, gas stations, laundromats, places to get wifi, and more.
You can see all of this on an interactive map with filters, or a list of nearby places. These places are all added by users, which has its pros and cons. There are constantly new places being added. Each place has a description with first hand information by someone who has been there, but since the points aren’t moderated, nothing is guaranteed, especially when the original posting is outdated.
Each of the places marked on iOverlander has a description, GPS coordinates, its distance from your current location, list its amenities (power, wifi, water, toilets, plus whether they are big rig, tent, and/or pet friendly), and comments from users. And since this free app can only function with user input, it’s a great idea to comment on places you’ve been and even add in any new ones you might find!
Here are a couple great free camping spots I found using this app:
Some Other Great Apps
Of course, everyone will have their own favorite apps for all sorts of reasons. So, here are some of the other best rv camping apps I know about that you might also love. It definitely doesn’t hurt to download a couple of the best camping apps and cross reference them when looking for a place. There is, of course, some overlap between the different apps, but there will also be some spots that only appear on some but not others.
Campendium
Campendium is another popular option for North America with both app and website options. They organise camping spots into categories: RV Parks, Free Camping, National Parks, National Forests, and State Parks. Of course not all of these places will be free, but you can just filter on the free camping option if that is what you are looking for.
Summary Of Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| – Free version is pretty good – Easy to filter on free camping – North America including Mexico – App + Website | – Need premium version to unlock all features – Only North America – Not all places have user comments associated with them |
They have a free version as well as a paid premium version. The premium version offers more features such as cell service overlays, trail maps, and removing apps. This premium version is via a membership with Roadpass Pro, which also gives premium access to other RV friendly apps: Roadtrippers, Togo RV (Overnight RV Parking), and RVillage. Togo RV is another option of an app for free overnight rv parking, wheres as Roadtrippers helps with planning a road trip and RVillage is a social networking app for RVers.
RV Parky
RV Parky is another directory of RV parks, campgrounds, rest areas, and more in Canada and the United States. It was built by a full time RVer, so you know it was designed with like minded people in mind. There is a website as well as a mobile app available on the app store and google play store. Each place has information on the price (if any), what facilities are available, and user reviews of the place.
In addition to their directory, they have a trip planning feature. This lets you create a trip and add any stops you find to your route. However, to do this you need an account, and with the free version you are only able to add a limited number of spots to your route.
Summary Of Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| – Free version is pretty good – Trip Planning Feature – App + Website | – Need premium version to get full advantage – Only Canada and the US |
Overnight RV Parking
Yet another directory of overnight parking spots, Overnight RV parking is unique in that it is focused specifically on free overnight rv parking spots, as opposed to a combination of paid and free campsites and other points of interest. Another difference is that fact that a subscription is required to use this service. They do have over 16K locations of specifically free overnight parking spots, and the subscription gives you access to many other services as well. It is the same Roadpass Pro subscription that gives access to the premium version of Campendium. It costs $59.99/year.
Summary Of Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| – Focused on free camping spots with over 16K locations | – Needs a subscription – Only US and Canada |
Allstays
Allstays is a website with many apps available for specific needs. The website itself has a pro subscription option that gives you load of features, but since you here looking for apps I won’t get into that too much. As for apps, each Allstays App has a specific function. There is Allstays Camp & RV, which is probably the most relevant to this article, as well as Allstays Truck & Travel, Allstays Overnight Parking Walmart, Allstays Camp & Tent, Allstays Hotels By Chain, Allstays Military Camp & RV, Allstays Rest Stops Plus, and Allstays RV Dumps.
Obviously there are pros and cons to having it split up like this, so that would have to come down to personal preference. I will focus on the Allstays Camp & RV app for this article. However many of the others would definitely be useful for finding free overnight parking as well.
With the Camp & RV app, you get basic information and points on a map with the free version. But with the subscription service you get more details, the ability to filter, as well as the ability to book paid reservable campgrounds right in the app, and, the most notable feature: offline maps!
Summary Of Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| – Focused on exactly what you want based on which Allstays app you get – Has an offline maps feature which is huge, but only with a subscription | – Needs a subscription to unlock best features – Have to download multiple apps if you are interested in multiple of the categories they offer (and you probably are) – Only US and Canada |
Google Maps
Okay, I know this isn’t exactly what you are looking for but bare with me for a moment. All of the apps I have mentioned are amazing resources for finding free overnight rv parking locations, especially in and around cities. They definitely cover a lot of ground, especially when combined. And if you are willing to drive a bit for the perfect spot I am sure you can almost always find something with these apps.
However, if you are a very adventurous soul, you may find yourself in the middle of nowhere from time to time with no desire to head back to the more travelled path in any rush. This is where these apps might fail you, and thus, where google maps might shine.
My trick for finding free places to park overnight using google maps is to put it on satellite view and start looking around the general area you are interested in. Find roads on the outskirts of towns, small roads coming off main roads, especially bush roads. Then follow these roads on google maps, looking for openings or pull offs. It’s certainly not a foolproof method, and you could be disappointed when you arrive in person, but this method has certainly helped me find a few places that did the trick over the years!
Summary The Best Apps for Free Overnight RV Parking
In the end, you will have to weigh the pros and cons of each option depending on what matters most to you. Are you willing to pay for a better app and subscription services? Are you only interested in free overnight parking spots or would you benefit from information on other places of interest (paid spots, potable water fill stations, dump stations, showers, gas stations, etc)? Where do you want to use this app? Only the US and Canada, all of North America, or around the world? How much do ads bother you? Do you want an app based around users inputting locations?
Personally, my favourite that I have used is IOverlander. But Campendium, RV Parky, Overnight RV Parking, and Allstays are also good options to consider. Plus, downloading more than one could be beneficial for being able to cross reference spots or to have a better chance of finding places in less travelled areas. And, when that falls, you can always fall back to the tried and true google maps!
I hope this article was helpful! Let me know in the comments what app for free overnight rv parking you like to use best, or if you know of any great ones not on this list.
Here are some other posts you might be interested in:
- How To Save Money Road Tripping In Canada
- How to Find Free Places to Park Overnight in Canada
- 6 Great BC Summer Road Trip Spots
