Campground Memberships

[Alinalindstrom]

My wife and I will be selling our house and will begin our new adventure of full timing in our 5th wheel in April 2014. We've been looking into Coast to Coast, Thousand Trails and RPI and it seems the more we look, the more confused we get. Our plans are to do this for at least 5 years and to see every part of the country, or at least as many as we can get to. Any thoughts, suggestions or help on the Campground Memberships would very much be appreciated


John and Alina Lindstrom
Member 2520
2014 Heartland Landmark Key Largo
2012 Ram 3500 dually

 

[davebennington]

We are Coast to Coast members, as well as Passport America. In my opinion it all depends on how you plan on traveling. If you plan on staying in one place for awhile C2C may be for you. If you are going to travel and move every few days or so Passport is a good option.

We have found that C2C is more of a destination club, that is you go to the campground and stay for a week or so. Further very few C2C campgrounds are right off the highway. That means you have to travel 3,5,10, sometimes 20 miles from the road to get to the campground. Then there is the cost involved with C2C you can spend any where from $500.00 to $5000.00 for a membership plus the yearly dues to C2C and more dues to your home park. If you decide to go with C2C PM or email me and I can help you with a money saving tip.
Now Passport good club most of the campgrounds are close to a highway, some are less desirable placces to camp, ie.. run down special places for Passport camper to park
Passport has rules that sometimes hard to deal with as in no Passport discount on weekends and/or holidays, now this rule is not followed by all parks we have been in a few that the owners has said you can stay as long as you want mainly they want the business, and the discount rate is better than no campers at all.

Hope this helps

dave

 

[Birchwood]

We are full timers also but traveling around the country does not appeal to us because you never really get to know anyone.Visiting attractions is good for a few days but what do you do the remainder of the time.We found a park in Florida where the residents have similar interests us as so we stay here 4 months.Everyone likes something different but being in a park where most people know your name appeals to my wife and I.

 

[Suestier]

We full timed for two years and plan to go back to it. We had KM, Rod, Aor and Rpi it was good for us in the North West and some places we traveled but we used Passport more then anything else when traveling. We felt a little limited because we spent so much for the plan that we felt the need to use it all the time. We may not buy one again but when we go somewhere stay at least a month. Some RV parks offer discounts the longer you stay. It is truly up to how you travel and what you like to do. That is what is great about forums you can get a lot of perspectives.

 

[porthole]

Just a FYI, Ohio State parks take the Passport membership for 50% off nightly fees.

 

[wdk450]

I am in the process of moving out of my house to fulltiming in the Bighorn. I bought a Thousand Trails Elite resale membership through a campground membership broker in Florida. I paid $1400 (including transfer fee) for my lifetime membership which can be resold or willed to my kids. This membership entitles me to stays at Thousand Trails preserves for up to 3 weeks, just 1 week out from the same park, but I can go immediately to another Thousand Trails park. My annual dues are just under $600 a year for as much as 365 days camping. I have stayed at TT resorts in the Northern California wine country, Southern California (Temecula ) wine country, just East of metropolitan San Diego (Chula Vista), NorthEast of L.A. on a major transit rail connection to downtown L.A., East of Santa Barbara, and near Hollister (near Monterey). My brother and I are talking about attending Baseball spring training in the Phoenix area. I counted over 4300 Thousand Trails spaces in the Phoenix area. These are not luxury resorts, but most are full hookup (no cable), and have swimming pools, spas, rec halls and the like. For $600 a year it should work for me.
I love those $0.00 RV park bills the preserves give me!!!

 

[jmgratz]

I am in the process of moving out of my house to fulltiming in the Bighorn. I bought a Thousand Trails Elite resale membership through a campground membership broker in Florida. I paid $1400 (including transfer fee) for my lifetime membership which can be resold or willed to my kids. This membership entitles me to stays at Thousand Trails preserves for up to 3 weeks, just 1 week out from the same park, but I can go immediately to another Thousand Trails park. My annual dues are just under $600 a year for as much as 365 days camping. I have stayed at TT resorts in the Northern California wine country, Southern California (Temecula ) wine country, just East of metropolitan San Diego (Chula Vista), NorthEast of L.A. on a major transit rail connection to downtown L.A., East of Santa Barbara, and near Hollister (near Monterey). My brother and I are talking about attending Baseball spring training in the Phoenix area. I counted over 4300 Thousand Trails spaces in the Phoenix area. These are not luxury resorts, but most are full hookup (no cable), and have swimming pools, spas, rec halls and the like. For $600 a year it should work for me.
I love those $0.00 RV park bills the preserves give me!!!

We are also Thousand Trail Elite members but need to mention that most TT preserves (they call them preserves not parks or campgrounds) there is a $3.00 a night charge for 50 amp service. There is no charge for 30 amp service. Thousand Trails does have a special now where you can purchase a single region for $599 for a year. This allows you to stay at any TT Preserve in that region for up to 14 days at a time and then you have to be out of the system for 7 days. Many public RV parks close to TT will offer a discount 1 week fee for the TT members during the 7 day out period. For more info visit www.thousandtrails.com

 

[rumaco]

We are fulltimers and do not have any memberships except Good Sam. Many places do not take memberships and/or have many restrictions. I have found over the years they really are not what they are cracked up to be. What we do is host along the way and never pay a dime to stay at a Park. A little research and life on the road really becomes fun. We stay usually about 3-4 months at each place to see the area. We are at a great park in Sequim WA for the winter and may stay in this area???

 

[VidlerRVTravels]

We purchased the Zone camping pass this past year (Sept 2013) as we knew we'd be doing alot of travelling through the States this winter. We paid $525 for 2 zones. They usually run 'specials' and you can get 2 zones for the price of 1. We picked the Midwest and the Southeast (which included Texas). There are only 3 'preserves' in Florida but we used our membership and visited all of them while in Florida this winter.

These preserves are not 'high end' but give you comfortable accommodations (pools, laundry, clubhouse, etc). What I have noticed, however, is that some of the preserves in the TT group are a little remote and not in high volume areas (ie not right off of interstate highways).

With our membership, we had 30 nights of camping included with the purchase and any night after that would be charged $3.00/night. We could stay at a campground for 14 days maximum and we would have to be 'out of the system' for 7 days. It worked for us.

By the end of March, we have used 36 nights of camping (since November 2013), so in essence we go our 'money's worth' of our membership of $525. However, we won't be renewing our membership this year. I don't want to be moving so frequently during the winter months (this year was an exception) and going in and out between 3 parks (and finding a park in-between) seems a little silly for us. (you aren't really ever 'settled').

But, if you are on the move alot and do want to travel, it could be very beneficial for you. Zone Camping may be the way to try it out (without putting a huge outlay of money out and purchasing a pre-owned TT membership).

Another option is to purchase a Ready Camp Go membership http://readycampgo.com/ for as little as $99/year. The 30 night membership (for $99) will let you camp at ANY Encore resort in the United States for $20/night (plus $3.00 resort fee). So... by adding the cost of the membership into the cost, we can camp at Sunshine Key in the Florida Keys for $26/night ANY TIME ($20 per night + $3 resort fee + 1/90th of our membership) - we purchased the Gold membership which gives us 60 nights of camping at $20/night, 2 months advance reservation dates and 14 day limit at a resort (but you can go from one Encore Resort to another with no 'out time').

And yes, we have already used it in Mesa, Arizona and will be using it next winter in the Florida Keys.

The nice thing is that you don't have to be a Thousand Trails member to purchase this and therefore we will cancel our membership once it comes due because the preserves offered really aren't in the areas we will be visiting.

There are alot of great programs out there to save money on camping - our favourite is Passport America.

We are also Thousand Trail Elite members but need to mention that most TT preserves (they call them preserves not parks or campgrounds) there is a $3.00 a night charge for 50 amp service. There is no charge for 30 amp service. Thousand Trails does have a special now where you can purchase a single region for $599 for a year. This allows you to stay at any TT Preserve in that region for up to 14 days at a time and then you have to be out of the system for 7 days. Many public RV parks close to TT will offer a discount 1 week fee for the TT members during the 7 day out period. For more info visit www.thousandtrails.com

 

[jmgratz]

Keep in mind some TT Preserves will let you stay in the park in your 7 days out by paying an agreed upon nightly fee. That way you do not have to move.


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