Camper van around Ontario

Walmart parking lots

Crown land. Check your provinces rules and practice leave no trace.

Swerny wrote: ↑ Walmart parking lots

You have to call the individual stores too see if its allowed. Most walmarts are now located in shopping centers where they do not own the parking lot, the shopping center does. Free standing walmarts are your best bet but again its always better to ask.

kr0zet wrote: ↑ You have to call the individual stores too see if its allowed. Most walmarts are now located in shopping centers where they do not own the parking lot, the shopping center does. Free standing walmarts are your best bet but again its always better to ask.

+1. I noticed the WM in either Kenora or Dryden had signs saying no o/n parking when I passed through 4 years ago (not that I'd stay there - had reservations at a PP in Manitoba for the night).

Andy34 wrote: ↑ Crown land. Check your provinces rules and practice leave no trace.

this is excellent advice, that is almost never taken. where i live i'm largely surrounded by crown land.

did you know, you can setup a trailer for 2 weeks on most crown land? for free? without reserving anything or speaking to anyone?

http://www.gisapplication.lrc.gov.on.ca ... cale=en-US

almost all of algonquin park is surrounded by crown land. find a nice spot and camp, then hike into the park.

It depends a lot on where you are located in what you are looking for. In Ontario, Provincial Parks typically book 5 months ahead of time but there are often some sites available from cancellations which can be booked (especially at less popular parks) (although probably still very difficult to get a weekend reservation). I believe you can often find space at private campgrounds but I don't know if I've ever even tried to get a private campground reservation in Ontario so can't comment on how easy / hard it is. Crown Land is another option but I'm not sure how common it is - particularly close to metropolitan areas and it's fairly different than public / private campgrounds since you have no services at all (no electricity, no water, no sewer) so in a van (which typically has very small tanks), you might only be able to stay for a few days unless you use water very sparingly. Also, I have no idea how roads are so it might be better suited for trucks pulling trailers (or better yet with tents) than in any type of motorhome.

Walmart was mentioned and I've personally stayed overnight at Walmarts dozens of times but it's always just for overnight stops so I wouldn't even consider it pertinent for this conversation (A lot of people find this weird but when you are travelling, IMHO, Walmart stops are super convenient as they are pretty much everywhere and are often right by the highway and it's very easy to pull in when you get tired, shop if you need anything, sleep for however long you need and then get back on the road. Stopping at a campground often means 1 hour plus delays to get there, check in, find a site, etc).

As others have said, Walmart for last minute, or look for private campground such as KOA.