New Zone Pass Deal or Not

[JanAndBill]

Thinking seriously about their Zone Pass program. Country is divided into 4 zones, you buy a yearly membership in as many zones as you want. Starts at $525 for one zone, additional zones require a onetime set up fee, then $525 per year thereafter. The payment allows you to stay 14 days, free then 7 days off, after which you can stay 14 days free again. After 30 days during the year they charge you $3/day. Anyone have experience with this???

 

[Mizmary]

We have looked and weren't impressed. Some people love them, and some not so much. I think I would preview the ones you would stay at most often or look them up individually before I signed up. I think some parks are fabulous and some are barely passable.

You will get lots of info. I assume, though, you are talking about Thousand Trails?

 

[JanAndBill]

Sorry, it is Thousand Trails. My biggest concern is that it seems most of their parks are pretty much rural. Also, the lack of amenities on many of the parks.

 

[Mizmary]

There are a couple of people on here who are members and might be able to give you information. It really depends on how much you will be using it. If you only go out on weekends a couple of times per year, it's likely not worth it. If you are full timing and hopping around a lot it might be worth it. just do your research. Someone will pick up and answer soon. I know everyone is travelling home from the national rally in Elkhart.

 

[wdk450]

For the last couple of years they have been offering 2 zones for the price of 1 at the beginning of the calendar year.

 

[JanAndBill]

If you are full timing and hopping around a lot it might be worth it We've been out about 60 nights since the 1st of the year. Most of those have been trips of less than 14 days so, their limitation on nights wouldn't be that much of a problem. Just not sure of the parks.

 

[TomSt]

rumor has it that at the harrisburg show they will be offering two zones for about $325. this came from the rep at the Syracuse Good Sam Rally

 

[kowAlski631]

We are full time & traveling coast to coast & border to border. We've looked at their locations & it appears that there are a limited number & in locations that don't appeal to us. Before we put out $$, we want to make sure we will use it. Just our opinion.

 

[porthole]

Something else to consider, at least in the Northeast folks I have asked have voiced a displeasure with either very limited number of available sites or sites in less then desirable sections of the park.

 

[jmgratz]

We have been members of Thousand Trails for a number of years now. The zone membership has been offered for a couple of years now and is really a bargain. It allows you to stay in a TT park for 14 consecutive days and then be out of the system for 7 days and then back in for 14 consecutive days etc. There are several non-TT parks that offer TT members a healthy discount on the 7 day out time, such as Park On The Lake on Lake Conroe TX which is just about 4 miles from the TT Lake Conroe preserve. We have stayed at a number of TT parks and some are better than others but all of them we have stayed at have all amenities such as pool, meeting room, fishing, weight room, etc. Some even offer horse-back riding. If I am not mistaken the zone membership will also allow you to stay at Encore parks at a good discount too. Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) ownes Encore Parks, Thousand Trails, NACO, Mid-Atlantic and others. FYI - Thousand Trails has several levels of membership, (ours allows us to stay 21 consecutive days with no time out so we can go park to park and we get two 28 day stays per year). With TT you get what you pay for. The Zone membership option is an entry level and allows utilization of the park but there are limitations. Once you get familiar with the system it is easy to upgrade your membership if you decide to. Our membership also allows us to make reservations up to 6 months in advance, frozen dues, no $3 a day fee for stays except for a 50 amp hookup. PM me if you need more information.

 

[KiwiRVer]

We have used a zone membership for 4 years. It works if you are travelling extensively and can plan your routing around the 1000Trails park system. It works especially well in the North East and South East zones. We average 70 days a year in 1000Trails parks as we travel for 6 months which averages out at about $7 a night (although some parks add another $3 a night for 50A (not all).

Note that we have an Eastern zone membership (which was only offered briefly 4 years ago and includes what are now N.East, S.East and Midwest zones). Midwest used to be part of the N.East zone and splitting it off has angered a few people.