How to Find Free Camping with Boondockers Welcome Founder Marianne Edwards | Ep. 29 Artwork

RV Canucks

A Canadian RV Family towing their way through the wilderness on a part-time basis, with RV lifestyle tips, tricks, gear and reviews for getting the most out of getting outside. Learn from our mistakes and become more confident on the road. You CAN see all of North America as a part-time RV Family, it just takes a bit of careful planning...stick with us to see how!

All Episodes

RV Canucks

How to Find Free Camping with Boondockers Welcome Founder Marianne Edwards | Ep. 29

April 13, 2021 • RV Canucks / Marianne Edwards of Boondockers Welcome • Season 2 • Episode 29

On today's show, I welcome Marianne Edwards, fellow Canadian and Founder of Boondocker's Welcome to share some of her best tips on finding free camping no matter where you travel.

Marianne is also the author of The Frugal Shunpiker's Guides, the popular e-book series that guides you to the best free camping sites throughout the Southwestern United States. We have the ebook on Southern Utah, and I can attest, they are informative, witty and in-depth. You can check those guides out on Marianne's other website: Frugal RV Travel

A Few Things we Talk About on This Week's Episode:

Boondocking defined
How Marianne's expansive 20-year travel history spurred the advent of Boondocker's Welcome
How Boondocker's Welcome works and how to participate as a guest or a host
Other options
Boondocking etiquette tips for camping off the grid
Dispelling myths around boondocking with a large rig
Boondocking Safety
How Boondocking saves money

We'll even discover two of Marianne's favourite places to experience as a camper, so stay tuned!

Links Mentioned In this Episode:

Marianne has become an industry expert in how to enjoy big travel on a small budget. She has been profiled in the New York Times and has contributed to many RV industry magazines and newsletters where she has shared her vast knowledge about finding free scenic RV camping on public lands. We're always excited to sit down and have a chat with RV experts and we thank Marianne for joining us today!

Melina (5s):
Hello, everyone. This is Melina and you are listening to the RV Canucks podcast. Welcome to episode 29. Dan is away this week, but I am thrilled to welcome Marianne Edwards co-founder and chief Boondocker at Boondockers Welcome to the podcast today to give us some insight into boondocking and how to find free places to stay in a mid pandemic world where camping reservations have seemingly gone haywire. So I'm going to take a minute. I'm going to wave the maple leaf a little bit, because I want to acknowledge that boondockers welcome is a Canadian owned and founded RV camping company. It has over 2,700 host locations internationally, which we'll talk about in a little bit.

Melina (47s):
And it's also growing fast with over 600 new hosts added in 2020 alone. So Marianne is also the author of the frugal, shun pikers guides, which I love that title, the popular ebook series that guides you to the best free camping sites throughout the Southwestern United States. We actually have the ebook on Southern Utah and I can attest they are informative, witty, and in depth, and you can check those guides out on Maryann's other website, frugal, RV travel. And I'll put a link in the show notes for you to check that out. So Marianne has become an industry expert in how to enjoy big travel on a small budget. She's been profiled in the New York times and has contributed to many RV industry magazines and newsletters where she's shared her vast knowledge about finding boondocking, Marianne and her husband.

Melina (1m 35s):
Randy also live in Ontario like us, but they are also lucky enough to spend several months on the road every year in their Roadtrek van, where they enjoy the quiet scenic camping that Marianne is famous for finding as well as the hospitality of boondockers welcome hosts from coast to coast. So Marianne, welcome to the show.

Marianne (1m 54s):
Great to be here, Melina. Thank you.

Melina (1m 56s):
Thanks. So perhaps we can start out with a quick explanation of how you define boondocking. I know people tend to have different explanations, but I think your definition is quite similar to ours.

Marianne (2m 7s):
Okay. My definition is boondocking is camping in an RV for free, without any hookups or amenities outside of a paid campground.

Melina (2m 18s):
Perfect. So anybody who's new to boondocking that I think sums it up pretty perfectly. So how did your own journeys help you discover the need for a service like boondockers welcome and how does it work?

Marianne (2m 30s):
Well, we have been traveling by RV for 20 years now and originally we kept going back because we discovered the Southwest and public lands in the American Southwest are really beautiful scenic places for hiking and, and so many places there were boondocking in nature is available on public lands. So we kept going back there and really eventually started going well, we got to go other places we got to discover more. There must be more to see. So while traveling through Canada and the Eastern States, more other States, aren't as easy to find places where you can camp for free or low cost, just because there aren't even the same amount of campgrounds in national parks, state parks that you find.

Marianne (3m 22s):
So, so it, it just was a lot more expensive. And we also, in all those years of travel, Matt, a lot of our viewers were fairly social when we're on the road and so easy to meet people, whether you're in a campground or sometimes just at an RV dump station or anywhere that you've stopped for, for lunch. And we would often exchange just a bit of conversation and be invited to come and spend some time in their neck of the woods, wherever they were from. And they'd maybe give us a card. Most of yours were carrying cards over the years and they'd invite us, look us up when you come and you don't have to stay in a campground, you can park on our property. So we have a piece of property ourselves here that we live in a very pretty little town.

Marianne (4m 7s):
And we invite people to come back here too, and just, you know, stay for a few days while they explore the area. So the idea for boondockers welcome was really founded on things that we were already doing. And then in 2009, my oldest daughter was having my first grandchild. And she said to me, mom, what's the idea that you had, or I've missed a part here. What happened was my sister's daughter. So my niece had gone through couch surfing, traveling through Europe. So that idea for us to think, well, wouldn't it be easy for her veers to have something similar set up.

Marianne (4m 48s):
And we looked around online and there wasn't any things similar set up where our viewers could connect with each other because our viewers don't even need to open their door and provide a couch or a bed. So we had that idea and my daughter, who is a computer engineer, when she was on maternity leave, she said, mum, what was that idea? Maybe I could work on something like that. So she developed the first website for us on days that I would come and look after my first grandchild. So it was a really great arrangement and it continued for, we didn't actually go live with boondockers welcome website until 2012. It took a while to do it one day at a time when one day a week I went over and played with little Peter.

Marianne (5m 33s):
Well, while she did that, yeah, the website.

Melina (5m 36s):
Oh, that's fantastic. I love that. I love that it was that family venture and what an exciting experience. It must've been for you to realize that there was this gap in the market and that you could fill it. I think that's just so fantastic. So in a year like 20, 20 and 2021 where traditional camping avenues are really scarce, how can boondockers welcome campers in finding safe, unique places to stay when all the campground,

Marianne (6m 1s):
Okay, well, we have, like you said, over 2,700 hosts around the world, most of them in Canada and the United States. So anyone who has a self-contained RV, that means you've got an RV, that's got a toilet and plumbing, you know, sanitation, everything inside because most of our hosts are willing to have what we don't want them to have to open their doors. So the website will let you search for all the hosts locations and see all the details of what every single host that we have offers. Many of them offer more than boondocking in that they have some form of electric power available or water available.

Marianne (6m 45s):
Some of them even have a dump station available. So it's all listed on their profiles and they, the host will list what days they're maybe not available or any other house rules or preferences that they have and what size of RV they can accommodate. So you can do all of that. Really. Anybody can go on the online and, and, and see those. Then if you want to travel and use these locations to stay, each host will state also how many nights, like some allow only one night at a time, and up to five nights, you can then request a stay with those hosts to do that. You need what we call a guest privileges.

Marianne (7m 26s):
He didn't, you could either buy that one for the time through the website or what we really prefer and the best way. Cause it tended to be a pay it forward system, as much as possible. If you can host yourself, doesn't have to be, you don't have to have space to park a big 40 foot RV. It could just be a space for an extra van sized RV. Like we have. If you've got that and you're willing to host other people, just occasionally you're in charge of when, how often, then you should sign up as a host and do that first. Because even if you haven't had any guests stay with you yet, you would pay half price for your guests, a subscription for the year.

Marianne (8m 8s):
But if you have, once you have some guests stay with you, each time you have guests, you, we give you three months, three guest privileges. They'll as soon as you've had one guest, you don't have to use that three months right away, either you can activate it when you're ready. So if you're not traveling till next year, make sense to be a host now and have a few guests. So that on your next trip, you've got several different credits you can activate. Okay. Makes sense.

Melina (8m 38s):
Yes. I love that. That's a really good model, I think. And in true RV fashion, we actually, and Marianne knows the town we live in, in Ontario. It's quite picturesque, but we actually moved one block, one street over because our old house did not have a driveway that could accommodate our RV. So a year and a half ago we moved one street over because we found a house that had the lot and the driveway that it could accommodate our RV. So I love that because now that means that we can sign up for those process and have other people come enjoy our little town as well. So in terms of using a service like boondockers welcome or any public lands off the grid, what would you say your top tips for etiquette are as a Boondocker?

Marianne (9m 22s):
Well, as far as using our service as a guest, definitely keep in mind that these hosts are not charging you. Anything. We do ask that if you use anything that costs them money, like electricity, that you offer to compensate them from that. And we do now allow hosts to actually request an amount on their profile if they want to be compensated, because we had so many questions that people saying, well, what's adequate and it changes it's, it's hard to say the difference would be between one area and another one electric charges are, and also depends on how much, what size of our view of God and whether you're running air conditioning or not.

Marianne (10m 3s):
So the idea is that the best etiquette is to make sure that you've read the house rules. And we do ask that you abide by those of course and make sure that you spend a little bit of time with, with the host, if they're available to and want to spend time with you, just so they get to know that they're allowing you generously to be on their property. So spend a little bit of time, at least visiting with them. Although take your cues from each other. Hosts are during this out of the generosity of their heart, but they often will want to hear where you've been here, your are being stories and tell their own. So take two from each other about how much social interaction that, that is really welcomed.

Marianne (10m 47s):
Some people are using our service just to travel through and have a quick night's rest because they want to get back on the road in the morning. And as long as you convey that it can convey all that ahead of time and a message if you want, then everybody knows what's expected. And what, how much time they'll actually spend socializing. Most of the times, the host are anxious to let you just know what's available in their area. Like when people stay with us, we often will hand them a, a local street map and point out the different places that there are to hike or, or shop or restaurants that we like, et cetera. And if we have the time, we will actually take them around to some of these places.

Marianne (11m 30s):
So, but the etiquette there for, for being a guest is definitely being kind and, and I'm grateful for your stay. So don't leave without saying goodbye, et cetera. Right. And you asked about boondocking and in public public lands as well, or, or anywhere else. I mean, it's the general rules of camping are, you know, leave only footsteps, right? So clean up after yourself, don't leave litter behind in fact often, and some of the most beautiful places that we've can't we arrive at these well-known boondocking spots and we end up picking up garbage that was left by the first person, the last person that was there. So I thought, I don't mind doing that because that way, if I'm sitting there for the next few days, I don't have to look at that.

Melina (12m 16s):
Absolutely. Yeah. I think it's always good to, to qualify the boondocking statement with yeah. Like leave nothing but footsteps. And I love that the, you know, the boondockers welcome website I found is really easy to navigate in terms of finding what you're looking for in terms of like the length of your rig. We're planning a number of stops with various hosts. COVID dependent if we can get on our trip out to BC in August, but a lot of them give really great detailed information. If you're, if you're worried that your rig is too big, they tend to have a lot of information in the description that says, okay, yeah, you, we can accommodate a larger rig, but you might need to make a tight turn here or there. So there's a lot of that information on there already, but I do want to touch on, on the size issue for a minute, because I know a lot of people like us.

Melina (13m 3s):
I mean, we went from an eight foot trailer to a 29 foot trailer and, you know, getting into boondocking in the first place was something that seemed almost insurmountable for a larger rig. But I'd love to get your feedback. I know you travel in a van, but I know you've probably seen rigs of all sizes out there. What's your general opinion on whether a larger rig can participate in the boondock lifestyle.

Marianne (13m 26s):
Absolutely. Can't participate. We see all kinds of larger, whether it's a trailer or a motor home up to, you know, 40 feet or more, whether they're towing of car behind them all kinds out there in public land. And when we, when we traveled to the States or Canada, all kinds of them using it, of course you will be limited more, more. So the, the larger it is, the more you be limited with boondockers welcome. You have a filter. First of all, has a traveler. You're going to have to fill out a guest profile and you're going to put the length of your trailer or motor home in that, so that when you then search for hosts, that will fit once you've logged in, that will fit your RV.

Marianne (14m 13s):
Only those will come up so you can filter your results for the rig size. So you won't even see hosts. They can't accommodate you. So that helps a lot with that. And every host has made their best estimate of what type of RV or what size that they can accommodate. They can certainly measure what size the parking spot is. But sometimes like you mentioned, the turning radius is, is another thing. So if you have any concerns, there's a method where you can message through the website back and forth with the host. And after they've accepted your day, you can actually have each phone numbers. You can actually have a call and talk about any questions you have before you even arrive.

Melina (14m 57s):
Oh, I love that. That's great. Especially, you know, having that capability to speak to somebody on the phone. Cause sometimes that's so much easier to, to explain rather than through message. Oh, that's excellent. So on, on a different podcast, I actually heard you speak about how one of the main joys of your travels is seeing what's around the next bend. And that really resonated with us because, you know, convincing people that long road trips are worth it, even on a part-time basis, like the way we travel, it's kind of the whole reason we began the podcast, but we know making all of those stops to, you know, get from Ontario to the Pacific ocean can get very expensive if you're paying for, you know, provincial or private campgrounds or state campgrounds at every spot.

Melina (15m 42s):
So are you able to give us a little insight on how much boondocking can save the average time?

Marianne (15m 47s):
Well, if you boondock to every night, you'd save whatever your camping fees could be. So if you're spending 25, 30, $40 a night, add it up to, you know, what's the length of your trip a month, et cetera. We've certainly done all kinds of trips where we spent far less on camping than we did on almost in, on fuel or almost anything else on our trip. So yeah, it, I actually have on my frugal RV travel.com website, I have sort of our, our largest, most extended trips. Some of them we travel like for five months at a time often. So some of them, I have the, the expenses exact listed and you'll see that the camping costs of most of them are way below what most people would expect them to be saving hundreds of dollars.

Marianne (16m 38s):
Really.

Melina (16m 38s):
Absolutely. And I would argue, especially in Canada, because I think we know provincial parks tend to be a whole lot more expensive than the ones you find South of the border. So, you know, you could be saving, you know, up to $60 a night, which is, which is no small feat.

Marianne (16m 52s):
Yeah. And it's, it's not really, even about the costs. Sometimes these days it's become more and more about the availability, because if you haven't booked your summer campaign by now in Ontario. Good luck. Yeah. So you could arrive. We do find though that sometimes you can get in last minute when people, you know, the website will say that the campsites are all full, but if you're arrive and say, is there anything to, for tonight, you may not be able to get two nights in a row in the same campsite, but we've had some luck with that even last summer. So finding campsites available can happen. Even when you haven't made reservations, we don't like to make reservations, you know, with boondockers welcome.

Marianne (17m 39s):
You do have to request this day, but many hosts are open to same day requests and reply right away. So whether they can take you or not, if you have any other plans, there are a lots of other websites that are available to help you find a place to stay for the night. That's sort of a little list of those if anybody's interested. Sure.

Melina (18m 2s):
Yeah. And I think, you know, that's th that tends to be how we travel. We don't plan our overnights if we're, if we're just kind of booking it out to get, get to a specific place or see a specific area and just, you know, couple of hours before we feel like we might be tired, we might start looking for a place further up the road. And I think we like to earmark places, right? Like we tend to travel very far, very quickly, but we earmark those places like, Oh, we'd really love to go back and spend more time in this area or that area. And I think that's where boondockers welcome something, a service like that. Like you said, when you, when somebody stays with you and you hand them out a map or, or the things in the area to see, it's so valuable to talk to the people who live there, as opposed to just a random campground to find out the really cool things that you might never know about.

Marianne (18m 47s):
Exactly. Yep. That's right. Yeah. So, but there's other websites that maybe I'm sure you probably use some of yourself, like I overlander.com have you found that one? No. Okay. Look that one up and compendium overnight RV parking.com. Yeah. Those, those are all websites and they have apps that you can, that'll help you find places that other people have found. And then they contribute them to the website console they're updated. So you got to sort of watch for the reviews and see when the last time they were updated and stuff. It's sometimes a little bit more difficult to know what size of RV can they can accommodate.

Marianne (19m 27s):
But if you're just looking for a place to park overnight, that's other people have found where it's free and legal overnight RV parking.com tends to be more Walmart, parking lots and retail parking lots. But sometimes it's good to have something like that because they are the rules change, right? Every Walmart doesn't allow you to park overnight. So every Cracker barrel restaurant in the States, doesn't, it's good to know that in advance. So those reps nights are good. There's another one called free roam. I haven't used it much, but we just discovered it last year. Okay. Free roam. Free. Rolling. It's an app. It's an app. Yeah. I don't know that the website, but it is an app.

Melina (20m 9s):
Okay. I know RV park is another one we use, but you bring up a good point when you, when you're talking about reviews and we've talked about this before is make sure that you're leaving those reviews. If you use that service, whether it be a host on your Dockers welcome, or, you know, somewhere overnight parking.com so that when people log on, they see a recent review and don't assume that nobody's camped there and you know, four or five

Marianne (20m 31s):
That's right. Another good one is harvest host. So have you joined that one or?

Melina (20m 36s):
I have not yet. We have not yet, but I'm really excited cause I hear great things as well. Yeah. So one thing I think I would love to ask you about, because we get this question a lot and you know, I love to get from a Canadian perspective in particular and that's about, you know, staying safe while boondocking. I think a lot of people like are aghast when they hear us talk, you know, where we've traveled and where we stayed overnight. And you know, you know, because we're Canadian because we have, you know, particular outlook on, on personal safety when we travel that might be different than, you know, people in the United States. What would you say to people who were worried about, Oh, staying out in the middle of nowhere?

Marianne (21m 14s):
One thing I would say is start off by doing docking where you see other RV parks. So there's quite a lot of places that are popular boondocking spots. If you see other RVs and make sure that you, you know, sort of arrive in daylight hours, always and connect with them just by saying, hello, anything else? Because now you've got to know people a little bit and they know you're there. You're kind of in the neighborhood, keeping an eye out for each other. I also, they try that. And eventually you will find that you're going to want to probably just be off by yourself a little bit, because that's almost the idea of boondocking is you don't have to be right up against your neighbor.

Marianne (21m 54s):
Like you, aren't a campground once you've done. It really makes sense to me that why would somebody drive all the way out to find somebody on, on a piece of public land, if they're criminally minded, it's so much easier for criminals to find an area to break into somebody's house or to do something in the city. So they're lazy. They're not going to drive down the roads that you end up having to drive down to find boondocking like that. And also like we've never had an incident really in 20 years of arcane also, I think, are you any more safe, really from a break-in or robberies while you're away from your camper in a campground, because in a campground, just because there's a campground with a fence around, it doesn't mean that other campers in the same campground can't include some dishonest people.

Marianne (22m 48s):
So if you, if you're it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. Right? So if, if you're going to let those fears stop you, my biggest advice is to just try it and try it gradually talk to other people to talk to people like us who do it. Like you like us, we've done it. And I don't know what else to say other than, I mean, we're Canadian. We're not going to start carrying guns. That's one of the questions that when we are traveling in the States and we meet people, some of them will think, are you not? You're Canadian? I think not caring. How can, how do you feel safe without that wall? I feel safer without wondering if somebody got ahold of it, I'd be their first target, I think.

Melina (23m 31s):
Yeah. And I th I think, you know, we, people are just a gas, like, Oh, you stayed overnight in Albuquerque and you didn't have a weapon. It's like, well, no. And they were really friendly. Like we, I don't know. I think maybe we just have it have a different outlook,

Marianne (23m 44s):
But people, if you're, if you're a afraid, you probably should stay home.

Melina (23m 48s):
True. You know what? I fully agree, but I think it's great to put it out there and have people listen to that because, Oh, the beautiful sites you will miss, if you don't take that chance and give it a try. Right. And if you try and it's not for you, then it's not for you. But I think there's, there's so much out there to see that we definitely miss if we don't take that chance on it. Yeah. So I'd like to end off with a question that Dan and I love to ask this of all the travelers we meet, because I think it really adds value. It'll add value to our listeners by helping people find new, special places. So I will pose the same question to you. And that is what is your favorite place or area to camp like the one place where you could return to time and time again, and never get bored of?

Marianne (24m 26s):
Well, I always end up saying Utah because Southern Utah has the most beautiful scenic places in some absolutely wonderful boondocking. I I'd like to however, add highway three 95 route on the Eastern side of the Sierras in California, gorgeous, gorgeous route the hallway, quite a bit of boondocking along the way and natural hot Springs. And if you're into those, we like those and we'd like to stop at them. So there's that added little bonus often. And we ended up boondocking right. At some of the hot Springs or nearby.

Melina (25m 2s):
Okay. That's fantastic. So that's a new one new one for us. We haven't heard that one before. And I imagine that highway is, would fit your definition of Sean piking. Yeah.

Marianne (25m 11s):
Yeah. The, the definition of Shan piking being avoiding the main turnpikes in the freeway. So it's not a freeway. It's just a two lane, sometimes four lane highway. Yes.

Melina (25m 22s):
I love that. Well, Maryanne, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us. We'd love to have you back again. Cause I think we just kind of have hit the tip of the iceberg. I'd love to talk to you sometime about maybe Canadians traveling extensively across the border and, and all of those things, what it means for insurance and all that kind of stuff sometime. But I can't thank you enough for joining us today and we hope to have you back again. Wonderful.

Marianne (25m 43s):
I'd love to be back. Thank you.

Melina (25m 45s):
Much, Marianne. Hey everyone. We hope you enjoyed this interview. And if you want the show notes from this episode, head over to RV connects.com where we'll have the links to boondockers welcome and frugal RV travel websites and social media as well. Once again, thank you to Marianne for joining us. And thank you for listening to this podcast. Happy travels everyone. And we'll be back in a few weeks with our next episode.