Is The Dyrt Pro Worth It? Our Honest Review of Pro Features for Camping

Have you heard of The Dyrt?

It’s a fantastic camping website and app that lets campers search for campgrounds, read reviews, and view photos to help them decide where to pitch their tent or park their RV.

As anyone who’s tried to plan a camping trip knows, finding a great campground can be really frustrating. It may even be the least exciting part of the whole camping experience.

The Dyrt website has been making the camping search process more fun since 2013, and The Dyrt PRO is definitely one of our favorite road trip apps.

The Dyrt was founded by Sarah Smith, who was “ tired of trying to search for campgrounds on maps and online without ever knowing what the campground was actually going to look like. ”

Sarah built The Dyrt to help people find a campsite and know exactly what they were getting—before going into the wild. 

The Dyrt camping app launched in 2018, making it even easier to find the perfect campground from your mobile device.

In 2020, The Dyrt launched its PRO version with amazing new features, downloadable maps, and discounts on both campground reservations and camping gear.

We have been using The Dyrt PRO for several years and find it indispensable for planning the camping road trips that we love so much.

We use the Dyrt PRO to find campgrounds before and during our camping trips, to download maps so that we can discover cool spots even without cell service, and even to score reservations at sold-out campgrounds.

Here’s an overview of both The Dyrt and The Dyrt PRO, and why we think going PRO is totally worth the nominal cost.

Using The Dyrt Camping App to Find Camping Near You

The Dyrt is currently the fastest-growing camping app and website, with more user-generated reviews than any other platform.

The platform currently boasts more than eight million photos, videos, and reviews, all submitted by The Dyrt’s loyal camping community.

Use the Dyrt website or camping app to create an account, then get busy finding campsites, reading reviews, planning trips, and entering contests.

If you are a dedicated phone user, you may want to use the app exclusively, but I love searching for campgrounds on my laptop and then solidifying my plans en route using The Dyrt App.

Here’s a quick overview of how to get started using The Dyrt camping app to find amazing campsites:

1. Download the free version of the app and create an account. You can add personalized photos and links to your relevant social media accounts and, if you have one, your website.
2. When you’re ready to search, type in the city, state, or region where you are looking for campgrounds, or simply click on “Near Me”. You will then be able to browse campgrounds using the integrated map or list function.
3. Click on a campground that looks promising to read reviews, browse photos, and get a summary of the campground’s offerings. It’s that simple.

Benefits of Using The Dyrt PRO Camping App

The free version of The Dyrt camping app is super useful, but for an annual subscription fee of $59.99, you can take advantage of PRO features, including:

• Offline access to the full database, with downloadable maps for all 50,000+ campgrounds so you can search, read reviews, and find sites without cell service.
• PRO map layers for free camping on public land (BLM and USFS), plus cell service coverage based on your carrier.
• Over 5,000 drive-in accessible free camping spots, staff-verified and with state-specific permit info so you know the site is real before you commit.
• 19,000+ overnight parking spots, dump stations, and water fill stations, which is a lifesaver if you travel by RV or van.
• Discounts at 1,000 campgrounds, up to 40% off, enough to pay back the membership in a night or two.
• In-app booking with no extra booking fees on sites that are bookable through The Dyrt.
• Dyrt Alerts that ping you when a sold-out campground opens up. A road trip planner that maps the best campgrounds along your driving route.

To start using The Dyrt or The Dyrt PRO, create an account on The Dyrt website. You can start a free trial of The Dyrt PRO before deciding to purchase an annual subscription.

Using The Dyrt PRO to Access Map Layers

The map layers in The Dyrt PRO can create next-level camping experiences. Not only can you easily find national forest and BLM camping using the Public Lands overlay, but you can also find campgrounds with good cell service based on your preferred carrier.

To access the map layers in The Dyrt PRO, simply tap on the map icon in the lower right corner of your screen when you’re in map view. Toggle the layers you’re interested in on or off, and start searching for your perfect camping spot.

Using The Dyrt PRO to Create a Custom Camping Road Trip

Welcome to my favorite feature of The Dyrt PRO: creating custom camping road trips. The process is fairly intuitive, but here’s a quick overview. I definitely recommend playing around with it yourself.

1. Tap the PRO icon to open your PRO dashboard.
2. Under ‘PRO Tools,’ scroll down to ‘My Trips,’ and tap ‘+Plan a Trip.’
3. Now choose ‘Recommended Trip’ to have The Dyrt PRO suggest campgrounds along your route. Choose ‘Blank Trip’ to choose the campgrounds yourself.
4. Add your start and finish locations, and any stops you plan to make along the way, and tap ‘Continue.’
5. Choose how many hours or miles you want to drive between camping spots and tap ‘Continue.’
6. Choose how much you want to spend at each campsite and tap ‘Continue.’
7. Enter some basic information about your vehicle and tap ‘Continue.’
8. Finally, choose whether you want to avoid highways, ferries, or tolls.
9. Give your trip a name, and tap ‘Build My Trip.’

If you have asked The Dyrt to recommend a trip, your camping suggestions will auto-populate based on your preferred distance between campgrounds and price points. These are just suggestions, and you can change them based on your preferences.

The screenshots above show a road trip with recommended stops created by The Dyrt PRO. My parameters were set to stop every 250 miles and at campgrounds of any price.

I do find that The Dyrt almost always recommends private campgrounds and seems to prefer camping partners that offer discounts to PRO members.

While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I often prefer state parks and other public campgrounds, and I would love to filter out private campgrounds and glamping properties.

Using The Dyrt PRO to Find Camping with Offline Maps

As long as you know where you’re going camping, you can download a map of your location on The Dyrt PRO before you leave home.

Using offline maps, you can search for campgrounds, read reviews, and find phone numbers so that you can book your campsite without eating up all of the data on your phone.

Here’s how to use The Dyrt PRO to find camping when you don’t have cell service or want to save on data usage:

1. Download and open The Dyrt before leaving home. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the PRO version of the app.
2. Tap on the PRO icon at the bottom right of your screen.
3. Under ‘My Map Downloads,’ tap ‘Download a Map.’
4. Zoom in or out to pinpoint the location that you want to download.
5. Use your fingers to zoom in or out on the area you want to download, and then tap Download.
6. When you’re offline, roads, topography, and other details will be visible on your main map. You can also access your downloaded map under PRO tools > My Maps.
7. You can click on campgrounds to read a summary and reviews and access contact information.
8. If you scroll through the listing, you will see a “Get Directions” button above the contact info. If you have data available, you can tap this to open Apple or Google Maps with directions to the campground you’ve chosen.
9. When you return home, you can delete the downloaded map to free up storage space. Tap on the download cloud, and “Delete Map.”

Using The Dyrt PRO to Find Overnight Parking, Dump Stations, and Water

If you travel by RV or van, you already know the two questions that can derail a travel day: where can I legally park tonight, and where do I dump and refill before the next leg of my trip? PRO now maps more than 19,000 overnight parking spots, dump stations, and water fill stations, and this might be the most underrated feature on the whole platform.

We have wasted entire evenings circling a town looking for a legal place to park, and we know plenty of RVers who have rolled into a campground with a full tank and nowhere to empty it. Having these locations on the same map as the campgrounds means you can plan a travel day around your actual needs instead of crossing your fingers.

While we don’t travel in an RV, this feature is a lifesaver for everyone we know who travels by van, RV, or fifth wheel, and it justifies the cost of the pro membership all by itself!

Using The Dyrt PRO to Score Sold-Out Campgrounds with Dyrt Alerts

Anyone who has tried to book a popular campground in summer knows the feeling.

You find the perfect site, you go to reserve it, and every night is gone. The Dyrt Alerts feature lets you score a spot if one opens up, so you don’t have to constantly check your phone.

Here’s how it works:

1. On the app, tap the ‘Scanner’ icon at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap ‘+Scan for Canceled Sites’. Pro members get 4 scans at a time, so be thoughtful about how you use them.
3. In the search bar, enter the name of the city, park, or campground you want to camp at.
4. Optionally, you can choose up to five additional campgrounds nearby.
5. Pick the dates you are hoping to arrive and the number of nights you want to stay.
6. Enter your phone number so The Dyrt can text you when a site opens up.
7. Tap ‘Confirm.’

A Dyrt Alert watches a sold-out campground for you and notifies you the moment a site opens up, which happens more often than you’d think, as other people cancel and adjust their plans. The alerts are reusable, so you can set them and forget them across several campgrounds at once while you wait.

Weekend spots at our favorite Vermont State Parks sell out fast, especially at our all-time favorite Burton Island State Park on Lake Champlain. We recently scored a waterfront lean-to by setting up Dyrt Alerts and being patient.

In my opinion, the campground reservation system in this country is broken, and the popular spots sell out months ahead of time, the second they open. It makes it extremely difficult to plan last-minute trips, and I think that’s a shame.

Dyrt Alerts don’t fix the system, but they level the field for those of us who didn’t book the day the window opened. That alone makes PRO worth a look for anyone chasing a hard-to-get site.

Using The Dyrt Camping App to Leave Reviews and Win Prizes

The Dyrt makes the campground review process fun by encouraging the community to compete with other users and win prizes in exchange for their campground reviews.

The contests are region-specific, allowing you to review campgrounds and win contests in ten different United States regions. You earn points for your review, as well as for photographs, videos, and for sharing your review on social media. You can track your progress on the camping leaderboard, which is reset quarterly.

Prizes include gift certificates to cool outdoor brands to fuel your camping habit for years to come.

To get started reviewing campgrounds, simply visit The Dyrt website or open your app. Navigate to the campground you want to review and tap “Add Review.”

Not only is reviewing campgrounds simple and fun, but it is also extremely useful to the camping community!

Finding the Best Campgrounds Has Never Been Easier

A new member signs up every 50 seconds on The Dyrt, taking them one step closer to easily planning the perfect camping adventure.

In fact, The Dyrt is currently the #1 ranked app for “camping” on both the Apple Store and Google Play Store. Ready to join a cool community of outdoor enthusiasts? Create your free account on The Dyrt website and sign up for your free trial.

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