Membership campgrounds

[kiltedpig]

I have seen a number of ads for discount memberships where you buy membership in a base park and then you can stay at a number of other parks for $10-$15 per night plus a small fee. My question is has anyone had experience with this and can you find parks that have space for you and does it really save any money since I see that most have weekend exclusions as well as holiday exclusions. As a future full-timer it seems like that these are iffy.

[rohrmann]

We looked real hard at these when we went fulltime. Our conclusion was, they were going to be more hassle than a benefit. The cost of going out of your way to get to and back to your route was more than we would save, and forces you to stay at parks that you may not want to stay at if you had other choices. We've been to some pretty expensive parks that tried pushing a membership at us, and were at times three times as expensive as a much nicer park down the road, but their advertisement lured us in. We do belong to GS, and joined Escapees, which paid for itself last year, but we rarely stay at them. It's all a personal choice depending on your needs and lifestyle. My FIL had a Coast to Coast membership when they were traveling in their MH years ago, and had a heck of a time getting rid of the thing when they couldn't travel anymore. Before signing anything, make sure you aren't locked in for life unless you are wanting this. Good luck.

[bigskyjimmy]

For us Fulltimes or people that RV Alot it is AWESOME ,we have belonged to KM Resorts for 10 years up here in the NW it is like thousand trails,Western Horizons,Sunrise Resorts etc..After you join it is Free to stay in your Parks. then when you have that you buy into A "reciprocal" membership that goes with it like RPI, there is also coast to coast,ROD etc..that allows you to use other Membership only Resorts across the Nation for about 12 bucks a day ,ALL or Most of Membership Parks are Clean,SAFE, Quiet Beautiful area's ,I myself am tired of State parks etc.. where people party all night getting loud and drunk,blast Music, transients,Blah Blah Blah or you cannot even get a reservation ,that being said it does cost a chunk of change to join and if you only RV a few times a year I would not bother but for folks like us We made up the cost of the membership quickly considering you pay 30 to 70 bucks a night at Public Parks, for us it is the best money we spent when we went RVing all the time then Fulltime and have Made Lots of friends in Our Resorts It is REALLY nice when the Kids go back to School and The Resorts just have us Old Fulltimers and they are almost Empty

[dandt]

WE found passport America to be a good deal. Not a membership park per say...just $44 to join and parks that participate are usually 1/2 off. Just be sure to check blackout dates etc. But for $44 not hard to re-coup cost.

[HOOK]

We are Travel Resorts of America. There are 5 parks, 2 in Ohio, 1 at Gettysburg Battlefield, 1 near Pinehurst NC, 1 in Defuniak Springs Fla, where we are allowed to stay free. We are also members of Coast to Coast as a sub order of Travel Resorts, where there are hundreds of parks across the nation that we can secure for $10.00 to $15.00 per day.

[DQDick]

We owned lots in two of those back in the 80's. Both went bankrupt Got out of one before it happened. Still own the one near lake Pamona in KS. Would be willing to deal if anyone wants a single lot in an dilapidated and badly overgrown development.

[Carole]

We joined Passport America and traveled across Canada from Niagra Falls to Nova Scotia. It paid for itself in 2 nights and saved us quite a bit of money.
It's a little more trouble to locate those parks and work out what days qualify for the discount but it was worth it in the long run.

[DQDick]

We do use Passport America, but that's not the same as reciprocal membership from a home park.

[bigskyjimmy]

You are right Dick Passport America is not a recipricol OR a Membership park when we bought our Resort memberships it just came with our membership at no extra charge Passport America are (usually) Public parks and they give you a discount on a few days or maybe a week it depends

[Carole]

I agree with dandt in above post, PA is not a membership park but good to know about if you are doing a lot of traveling.
Although, I haven't found most of the parks to be state parks but private ones, at least where we traveled.

[Phil805]

We just signed up with Thousand Trails, for Zone Camping. Our membership is for the northeast zone. That give us 14 campground to chose from. They are in Pa, NJ, NY and Maine. This is the smallest of the zones. $445 per year, 30 totals free night, there after $6 per for 50 amp service and $3 per night 30 Amp, all are full hookup. Membership is for 1 year if we do not like after 30 days, or first two night of camping we can cancel for a full refund. After year is up we don't like we don't renew.

We now have 2 separate reservations for 2 weekends in April, at Circle M and Gettysburg Farm. The only thing we not sure if were going to like is you cant reserve a specific site. Although you are
guaranteed a site with full hooks, upon arrival at check in you must drive around and pick a site.

At a average price for Pa camping $55 - $60 per night (ie Granite Hill, And Drummer Boy) If this works out we've already recovered
half of our membership.

[bigskyjimmy]

That's the Deal IF you are Fulltimers or use your RV ALOT it makes sense and they are nice Resorts BUT they do cost a chunk of change to buy a Membership and the yearly Dues but if you can swing the cost of the initial Membership you will make it up Quick in no time

[JandC]

For us the main one that you immediately get your money back on was Passport America. KOA and GS are worth it if you are full time and traveling but it just takes a little longer to get your money back each year.

[old turbo]

We have Good Sam and Coast to Coast and American Outdoor Resorts. My home park system is KZ in Washington. I live in Michigan so I have never been to my home parks in Washington. I pay no money to my home park system, they just take care of my Coast Deluxe and AOR registrations and part of my CC yearly membership pays for my Good Sam Membership. It works great for us. Lots of parks here in Michigan and are able to use some parks on our trips out west along I-80. We also can get into Good Neighbor Parks and also the 34 Sun RV Resorts. The price per night is $9.00 and $10.00 Great Parks at great membership prices.

[kiltedpig]

I know that you need to be a member of a 'home' park but it really pisses me off that all the 'home' parks think we are stupid and need a salesperson to 'sell' us the membership. I sure would like to find a list of 'home' parks and their fees. I can only find TT that puts their fees on the net. I was at Camping world today and they had a station selling Vista Resorts memberships but the guy was busy and there were no pamphlets available.

[JandC]

When we went full time we had two concerns for parks. First of all we needed to find a good clean secure park that would work for our "home base". Location and cost were important to us. We found one on the Illinois River that is $325.00 per month and that includes water and electric. As long as we spend 3 months on our spot at this park it is ours whenever we want it and are not charged anything when we are not there. That allowed us to then spend more when we winter in Florida because we wanted to be closer to beaches. Our second concern was joining just enough clubs, cheap enough, to make traveling a little less expensive. Our goal was to keep all of our RV lot rent, and utilities for the year, at or below what we paid in property taxes and utilities on our stick house. So far that is working out good for us.

[ols1932]

quote:Originally posted by dandt

WE found passport America to be a good deal. Not a membership park per say...just $44 to join and parks that participate are usually 1/2 off. Just be sure to check blackout dates etc. But for $44 not hard to re-coup cost.

I agree. We had a TT membership for several years and found it didn't work for us unless we were going to be near a TT park. Difficult time selling the membership. We took a big loss. Would never have a membership again.

Orv

[mamestra]

We have a Thousand Trails, Western Horizon, AOR, RPI and Passport America. With these memberships we never pay full price for a campground and spend 6 months in California and Arizona. We also store our 5th Wheel in a membership park near our grandkids and use it when we visit. For us it certainly reduces the cost of camping. We purchased our Thousand Trails and Western Horizon memberships on a resale site. Our Thousand Trails membership cost $100.00. Our dues are frozen at less than $600.00 for that we get 50 "free" nights and then $5.00 a night (sometimes we have to pay extra for 50 amp) RPI and AOR range from $10-$20.00 depending on resort fees. We found that the average campground was $30.00+ so for us this works well.