We have a new teardrop trailer and need some direction of what books or websites are good and ratings that are reliable. We use Frommers guides for regular travel. Something like that. We are camping right now actually. It is beautiful! We would like USA and Canada.
Does any one have s favorite guide? Or even better, place?
If you want to be close to urban attractions:
The campgrounds are not very scenic, but they work great as base camps for exploring the surrounding areas.
I’d hit REI or a local store and check out the camping books. One we have is a Moon guide. The others are a couple of older (5 yrs or so) from a local outdoors author.
We camp relatively close to home -WA and OR - and H spends time going through the state parks sites. Some have ratings for each camp site within the park. He looks for proximity to roads/highway (no), close to, but not next to, restrooms and showers (if we don’t have a full hook up site), near the water, etc. Once upon a time, it was books only, but the internet is much more up to date. Some will have pictures of each site so we can see how close we are to neighbors.
Oregon campgrounds are wonderful. Restrooms and showers are well kept. We’ve done a lot of wine touring in OR and WA while based in a campground. Sitting in a camp chair with a glass of wine and a book is my idea of heaven.
there is a KOA across the street from one of my employer’s sites. Back in the day some of the people working 20 hours a day on proposals would camp there for the duration. It looks now like there are a number of people living there. 
Would love to hear how you like the teardrop! We have been thinking about getting something small in lieu of our tent.
So far good. Second time camping one night each. This time with our puppy. She is behaving. Still a learning curve hooking up . We did not go with a pop up as the hard sides we thought would be needed if in bear country. So no toilet or bathroom presents some forethought also. Very comfortable queen bed mattress. We can fit it in the garage. HOA does not allow out and did not want to rent space to store.
I checked this site for reviews of the suburban RV park in my neck of the woods, and it looked like the reviewers were spot on. So there, one QC datapoint. 
I loved my tear drop camper that I had while the kids were young. We started with a tent, progressed to a pop-up (hated that thing) and then to the hard body teardrop. I could tow that thing all over the place no problem, it was small enough to fit into any site and most especially I loved that I could store all the camp things in there year round instead of having to drag them in and out of the basement each trip. It had heat, water and electric hookups but we never bothered with the water hookup, just got within walking distance of the bathrooms. If you ever come to Cape Cod, I can stear you to some really nice campgrounds, some oceanfront 
I want one.
Hmm Cape Cod. That is a possibility in a year.
Not sure if I can update since time has elapsed, but here it goes.
Went to Washington state via Idaho this summer and loved it. Camped the teardrop at a state park in Idaho, private campground in Seattle area, then National Park the Upper Cascades, then state park 2 hours from Seattle area, then Idaho again and back to Colorado. That was really fun and learning to back in and park the short teardrop was the most challenge. Otherwise very nice.
Now planning on going to Banff next summer. Am using Moon books and the internet. This time with our dog, too.
I wonder if anyone has a favorite website like CC but for RV’ing and information about travel with one.
We have a microlite Cargo-lite trailer. All aluminum and the size of a teardrop but without the kitchen in the back, and a little more space inside. We love it - though at some point when we retire I want to retrofit a transit van so that I can have a place to pee inside and room to stand! It has a fantastic fan, and an air conditioner but no water or anything like that. Basically a queen bed in a box with a little room to store clothes. It fits in the garage and is very lightweight and cozy.
Ours is an offroad teardrop with a queen bed, a kitchen in the back and a side awning that can have sides to make an enclosed area. We tried the hot shower in the enclosure when we went to Washington state but not the REI camping toilet. Mostly we camped in places that had toilets and showers nearby. I think the shower and toilet campgrounds are great.
It is our retirement RV. It does fit in the garage between the cars and we use gojacks to fit it in the space. No AC but a fantastic fan. We thought about a mercedes van like you described- as our friend has one for camping. But it would not fit in our garage and home owners would not allow outside.
@anxiousmom, I think the retrofit van idea sounds great!
I just booked Banff National Park for this summer online when the opportunity opened this morning on their website for the campgrounds. It was a learning curve. The one I wanted filled in 2 minutes (not kidding) but I got my number two campgrounds choice in the park. That is for later this summer. BTW Canada is offering a free entrance pass card in 2017 to their national parks- you can apply for the card online.
If you like to hike, check into booking Lake O’hara shuttle bus in Yoho. Hard to get reservations but it is fabulous! If you find a great camping website, please share. I do find that tripadvisor has more active forums than frommer etc. If you search for tripadvisor “forum”, you can ask questions from other travelers. They also have reviews of specific campgrounds with site recommendations. Years ago my in-laws used Good Sam. It may be worth checking into. Last comment, one of our favorite campgrounds is Lake Haviland north of Durango. The lakefront sites are fabulous!
So envious! @rockymtnhigh it looks like so much fun!!
Has anyone ever seen the ones for bikes, you unfold it? Not nearly air or watertight I’m sure, but still cool.
Swoon! I want to do this! It sounds so fun! (and sounds like torture to my husband!)
Well, H and I never did this camping as kids but in our retirement we started. Healthy enough to get around. We got to meet D1 and her H on the trip to Washington and they camped in a tent near us. Really cool!
@HRSMom, we saw the bikes at camping world and they are fun looking. I tried them out. We may revisit that later. They would fit in our trunk without much problem. We are kind of avid walkers/ hikers. Last month we put in 10 miles a day in Japan in various areas. The train system was so complicated we just decided in Kyoto to walk only.
@TexasCollegeMom ,I saw the Good Sam website but not very useful. I just used tripadvisor for hotels. Unfortunately, their forum section has very little participation. Frommer’s book on Canada did mention some information on the campgrounds. And the Moon Books are good but limited areas for camping. I asked our good friends who have been RV’ing with a small travel trailer for 30 years and they did not have a website that they liked either.
@Midwest67, H is the one who had the idea of the rustic teardrop. It seems to be a real male magnet when we camp!
I found a couple of camping discussion forums: http://www.campercommunity.com/forum/ and http://www.rvnetwork.com/ this one looks like it’s just for teardrop owners: http://www.golittleguy.com/forum#/discussions Your keywords for finding forums is, “camping discussion forum”
Very helpful websites, thank you. I ordered a Moon camping book for Montana, Wyoming, Idaho for the trip up and back to Banff. I also came across ‘expedition portal’.