Times have certainly changed. When many of us first began overlanding, there were few tools to help locate a suitable campsite, and long driving days often ended early so we could scout the surrounding area for a safe place to spend the night. The arrival of iOverlander eased much of that burden—and, some would argue, took away a bit of the adventure—as finding campsites, food, mechanics, fuel, and restaurants became as simple as scrolling through an app. Now, newer platforms such as Hipcamp and The Dyrt make the process even more precise, allowing travelers to pinpoint the exact type of overnight spot that suits their style of travel.
There are countless ways to experience the outdoors, and every camper has a different idea of what makes a night under the stars enjoyable. Some travelers draw comfort from being closer to established campgrounds, where amenities such as toilets, showers, potable water, and maintained sites are part of the experience. Families often appreciate these conveniences, and many campers enjoy the social aspect of spending time with others who share similar interests. Not every vehicle is equipped for extended off-grid living, so choosing a site with the proper facilities becomes part of the planning process.
Others prefer a different kind of escape—one defined by distance, solitude, and the raw character of the landscape. For these travelers, the ideal campsite is tucked deep in the woods, perched beside a remote river, or hidden beneath a vast, unpolluted night sky. The appeal lies in the quiet, the space, and the ability to settle in without the noise of neighboring campsites or the glow of nearby buildings. In reality, many overlanders require the best of both worlds and prefer to camp as often as possible, far off-grid, and then return to civilization when some housekeeping and grocery buying is in order.
This divide in camping styles is reflected in the tools travelers use to find their next overnight spot. Apps like Hipcamp and The Dyrt share the same overarching goal of helping people discover places to camp, yet they cater to distinct preferences. Hipcamp is often compared to an Airbnb-style booking service for the outdoors, offering everything from basic tent clearings to curated glamping setups and private hideaways. Its strength lies in its broad reach and its ability to uncover unique properties that would otherwise remain unknown.
The Dyrt, by contrast, leans toward the needs of regular overlanders and campers who prioritize free or low-cost dispersed sites over established RV parks with full hookups. It operates as a community-driven resource, built around user reviews, photos, and practical details to help locate legal, accessible public-land campsites. While it can point you toward RV parks and private campgrounds, its most significant value lies in finding simple, no-frills places to spend a night on public land.
Both platforms succeed in different ways, and both are valuable tools for planning a trip. Understanding how each one works—and who it’s best for—helps travelers choose the right resource for their camping style.
Hipcamp
Hipcamp has grown into one of the most comprehensive camping platforms, connecting private landowners, RV parks, and now national and state parks with campers and overlanders looking for a place to spend the night. You’ll find everything from a single tent pad tucked beneath a forest canopy to remote clearings suitable for overland rigs, curated glamping setups, and the occasional (and sometimes wildly overpriced) cabin.
Where Hipcamp truly stands out is its ability to help travelers discover places they might never have known existed. The platform makes it incredibly easy to filter for the kind of experience you want, and it often turns up surprising, off-the-radar campsites that would be impossible to find without it. With more than 500,000 listings across North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia, the platform is as useful for a weekend escape as it is for planning an extended international overland expedition. The user interface is clean, intuitive, and enjoyable to use. For overlanders, one of the most promising additions is Hipcamp’s new Roadtrip feature, currently in beta. It suggests campsites along your planned route based on your filters—a handy tool for multi-day travel when you want to avoid last-minute scrambling for a safe place to camp for the night.
How It Works
Begin by entering your destination, dates, and number of guests. From there, you can refine your preferences: traditional tent camping, RV sites suitable for rigs of various sizes (rig size matters as it determines what you can safely access), or glamping and lodging options for nights when you want a little comfort.
Hipcamp’s filters make it especially easy to personalize your search. Essentials like toilets, showers, potable water, hookups, and whether campfires are allowed and so forth can be toggled on or off; you can adjust your budget, specify whether pets are welcome, narrow your preferred environment—desert, forest, farm, coastline—and even choose local activities and access types that match your travel style. You can also select Instant Book to skip the wait for the host’s approval.
Hipcamp also organizes campgrounds into curated categories such as Star Hosts, Family-Friendly, All-to-Yourself, and Great for Groups. These make it easy to quickly eliminate what doesn’t suit your needs. The options are extensive, and for trip planning, it’s genuinely one of the easiest and most flexible platforms to use.
The Booking Process
A typical listing provides extensive detail. You’ll see a large gallery of photos, a clear and well-written description of the campground, acreage, the number of available sites, and often a map of the property.
Prices are prominently displayed along with the final total, including taxes and service fees. Hipcamp also shows the host’s 100-point rating, the number of reviews, the maximum number of persons and vehicles, check-in and checkout windows, minimum-stay rules, and how far in advance the host accepts reservations. The exact location is kept private until after booking, a security measure meant to protect landowners, but general coordinates ensure you know what region you’re heading into.
Communication with the host is quick and easy; a message button on each listing lets you ask questions or coordinate arrival times directly. Booking is equally straightforward, and optional add-ons such as early check-in, late checkout, firewood bundles, or equipment rentals can be added with a tap.
At checkout, Hipcamp offers a “Sensible Weather” guarantee, which triggers a refund if your stay experiences more than 1.5 millimeters of rain per hour or more than two consecutive hours of precipitation between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. The refund can be partial or complete, depending on the severity of the weather. If your host cancels, the weather guarantee fee is automatically refunded.
Taxes vary by region, but the most significant cost consideration for frequent travelers is Hipcamp’s service fee. While the platform does not require a subscription, it charges a non-refundable fee—usually between 17.5 and 18.7 percent, with a minimum of $3 per booking.
The downside: For occasional users, this may feel a tad expensive, but for anyone camping nightly or traveling long-term, the fees can accumulate quickly. A $20 campsite, for instance, typically includes a $3.50-$3.70 service charge. Multiply that by 30 nights, and you’ll find yourself paying more than $100 in service fees alone—the cost of nearly an entire extra week of camping. Over several months, these fees can easily add up to a whole month’s camping.
The Dyrt
The Dyrt appeals more directly to overlanders and boondockers who prefer public land, dispersed camping, and free sites. The platform lists private campgrounds and RV parks, but because most of them cannot be booked directly through the app, you’re often redirected to external websites. If you’re interested in camping in remote places or dispersed camping, The Dyrt is one of the strongest tools available.
One of The Dyrt’s standout features is its Trip Planner. Planning begins with your departure point, destination, and travel dates, followed by how many hours or miles you’d like to drive per day. You can enter your rig type, fuel type, estimated MPG, and the budget you want to stick to. The Trip Planner then generates a route with campgrounds or dispersed sites along your journey. It also identifies fuel stops and lets you drop in additional POIs. For overlanders traveling long distances, this feature simplifies planning more than most other camping apps do.
The platform is designed primarily for use within the United States, and unlike Hipcamp, it does not include international listings. However, The Dyrt’s strength lies less in global reach and more in its depth of information about public land. The Pro membership unlocks several invaluable tools, including downloadable offline maps, BLM and USFS land boundary overlays, drive-time filters, and cell coverage maps for Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Pro members can also book participating campgrounds without extra fees and receive discounts of up to 40 percent on the first night and 10 percent on subsequent nights. The app also identifies dump stations, water fill stations, and even Walmarts that allow overnight parking.
Despite these strengths, The Dyrt is not without its limitations. Because many campgrounds on the platform—especially public and free sites—cannot be booked directly through the app, you’ll often be directed to external reservation systems. International overlanders will find the lack of coverage outside the US limiting, and its offline maps, while extremely useful, do not include photos, which makes visually verifying a site impossible without connectivity. Customer support operates through a ticket-based system and is not available in real time, although responses are generally sent within a few hours during business hours.
Pro: It also lets you create alerts for any sold/booked campgrounds you’re interested in visiting (for a fee of $9 if you’re not a Pro member). This notable feature is a definite plus in our books when exploring specific areas.
The Pro version costs $36 per annum.
How It Works
Using The Dyrt is straightforward. Once you enter your destination and travel dates, you can filter by public campgrounds, private properties, RV parks, dump stations, and water stations.
After selecting a site, you’ll be presented with a collection of user-submitted photos—one of the app’s most significant advantages, since these images are often submitted by campers and provide an accurate account of the listing and not a host-curated one. Each listing includes reviews, a map with coordinates, navigation links, a detailed description, and contact information. You can save the site to your Trip Planner, share it, or add your own review and photos.
The Booking Process
If the campground allows direct booking through The Dyrt, you’ll proceed to choose your site or cabin, enter your personal information, guest count, and payment details. Taxes do apply, but Pro members avoid any booking fees.
Campground listings include notes on access difficulty, site types, amenities, and cell coverage, with full reviews found at the bottom of the page. The platform also encourages community contribution through badges awarded for reviews, photos, and updates.
For overlanders who rely heavily on BLM and USFS lands, The Dyrt’s Pro maps and land overlays are particularly valuable. Being able to verify legal dispersed camping boundaries offline reduces uncertainty when exploring remote backroads, and the app’s growing database of free, user-vetted campsites makes it an excellent app for anyone who prefers wild camping over organized facilities.
Certain public campground listings are presented or sponsored by Ford and Toyota and include additional information, such as Detours Nearby and Drive Time from the closest city.
Where the Platforms Differ: Testing Hipcamp and The Dyrt in the Real World
We tested both platforms in two very different regions—the Ozarks in Arkansas and Missoula, Montana, and found notable differences in how each area is represented.
Missoula, Montana
Test area: A 5,200-square-mile region stretching from Saint Regis to Drummond
Hipcamp:
With only the “8-foot RV” filter selected (no hookups, water, etc.), Hipcamp returned about 25 listings, most of which were ranches, farms, or privately owned campsites. The platform also showed 28 additional public/federal campgrounds, but these were displayed on the map rather than included in the primary results. Removing the RV filter increased the results to 245 campgrounds.
The Dyrt:
With the same 8-foot RV filter applied, The Dyrt showed about 51 campgrounds. Removing the RV filter produced 100 results, including dispersed camping options. Most of the locations shown were public sites managed by the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, or Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.
Ozarks, Arkansas
Test area: A 3,800-square-mile region between Fort Smith and Hector
Hipcamp:
With the 8-foot RV filter selected, Hipcamp showed about 25 listings, mostly privately owned campsites. The map also displayed 33 public, federal, or other types of campgrounds, though these did not appear in the main results list. Without the RV filter, Hipcamp returned 47 campgrounds.
The Dyrt:
With only the 8-foot RV filter selected, The Dyrt showed about 88 listings, most of them forest or state-park campsites. Removing the RV filter increased the number to 135 campgrounds, mostly dispersed sites.
Which Platform Is Best for Overlanders?
Hipcamp is excellent when you’re after comfort and a bit of variety, and is the better choice when you want a guaranteed, comfortable stay, a quiet, private site. The Dyrt tends to suit travelers who appreciate the freedom, privacy, and flexibility of public land. Most overlanders end up using both. Together, they create a toolkit that covers virtually every camping scenario—from a hidden farm stay in the Pacific Northwest to a wind-swept boondocking pull-off in the Utah desert.
Read More: Buyers Guide :: Off-Grid, Off-Road Trailers
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