Camping membership

[Cuervo1]

I would like some advice from forum members who have some experience with memberships, such as passport America, or thousand trails.etc.

We are not full time campers, but would like to plan a month long trip in the spring.

Is a membership worth the cost and aggravation? Seems very complicated, after viewing youtube videos.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

We get good use out of our KOA and Good Sam memberships throughout the country.  They paid for themselves.

I haven't purchased the other ones so I can't tell you about them.

I'd suggest getting Good Sam and KOA....then on your trip ask at every RV park about the other more expensive memberships and base your purchase on what you discover.

 

[X-Roughneck]

I would like some advice from forum members who have some experience with memberships, such as passport America, or thousand trails.etc.

We are not full time campers, but would like to plan a month long trip in the spring.

Is a membership worth the cost and aggravation? Seems very complicated, after viewing youtube videos.

John, I see your departing from AL.  Not sure if you are coming and spending time in TX, but we purchased the State Park Pass in addition to KOA and Good Sam. 

Actually bought TX Park pass last week in when I was signing in at Huntsville, TX state park. 

The park ranger discounted my stay I was currently fulfilling on a on line reservation when I bought.

In TX in addition to the reasonable camping fees the TX parks charge $7 per day per camper (Not paid with card).  I think the TX State Park Card give you %50 off 2nd night of camping too.

We bought a KOA card, Good Sam and have used sparingly. 

I have used and received -10% being a good Sam Member on one of our stays.  I ask about everything when checking in. 

You might even get a T-Assassin discount.

Fly Army.

Go Army.

Let the man sort them out.

I saw a review on the 1000 trails decided against it.  We are mainly looking at Full hook up on sites that offer elec at a min.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

We've owned them all, with varying results.

Campground memberships are valuable if you travel to those campgrounds often enough.  Widespread systems like Passport America and Good Sam offer the most opportunity and the price is modest, so it's often not hard to recover the cost.  Smaller and more costly memberships such as Thousand Trails provide more benefits but that's valuable only if your destination includes one of their resorts. I would not recommend that sort of club unless you are sure your itinerary includes their parks.  Buying in and hoping you will visit a few is generally not cost effective. However, in some instances a membership resort if in a prime location and its worth it just to have access. It's may also be worthwhile if you travel with friends who are members (so you can stay together).

Without knowing your camping plans, I'd suggest that Passport is a fairly safe bet because you can recoup the entire cost in just a few nights.  Less so for GS or KOA, because you would need more than a dozen nights to break even.  I would not buy into a campground resort membership like TT or Western Horizons unless I was sure of  staying at them for at least a dozen nights.

 

[Lou Schneider]

Passport America is inexpensive and you usually get a 50% discount on the posted rates.  It's sold to campgrounds as a way to fill empty spaces, so many campgrounds have restrictions when it can be used ... one night only, off-season, no weekends, etc.  These are spelled out in the campground's listing on the Passport America website, which you can view whether or not you have a PA membership.

Make sure there are PA campgrounds where you're planning to go and the restrictions will work for you.

If you think it will work, great.  If not, it's a waste of money.  Keep in mind with the 50% discount you only have to use it a couple of times a year for it to pay for itself.

Good Sam offers a 10% discount at any Good Sam Park ... that is, any park that purchases an ad or listing in their annual telephone book size campground directory.  This is most but not all commercial RV parks.  With 10% savings it will take longer to recoup the yearly cost, and many Good Sam parks offer similar discounts for AAA, AARP, etc.

 

[NY_Dutch]

We have Escapees, Good Sam, and Passport America memberships, as well as Senior Access and veterans ID cards that all qualify us for 10% to 50% discounts at many parks. Escapees has affiliate parks that offer discounts ranging from 15% to 50%, as well as their own owned and co-op parks at low member rates. A months stay at the Escapees owned park in Bushnell, FL for example, costs about $12/night plus electric. We did have a KOA membership, but we recently dropped it since we're no longer visiting enough of them each year to make it worth the cost. Do your homework and decide which memberships are the best fit for your travels. Most discount memberships are cheap enough that giving one a try for a year or two is not a big expense even if your year end evaluation finds one not worth renewing.

 

[Boat Addict]

The Good Sam card allows you 5 cent off of your gas price at all Pilots and Flying J stations on top of discounts at campgrounds. For us with a lot of miles under our belt towing, this has paid for the membership by itself. And you can pretty much count on the conditions and service that you will get at the KOA campgrounds across the country.  Camping World gives you discounts with the Good Sam card.

 

[dcrbtt]

We have Passport America and Good Sam, Passport America is Fantastic till June 25 to Labor Day, then most campgrounds offer no discount. Then we use Good Sam if it is in an area where they are located. We are traveling from to Ca-TX-FL-Novia Scotia then back to the west coast through Canada this summer leaving Late March, we booked up till mid June in Pennsylvania and have used Passport America for about 70% of the reservations so far, started having restrictions in June. Still working on the rest of the trip. We use both and Cost is low PA - $44, GS-$8 this year with membership.

 

[MSHappyCampers]

We use Good Sam, Escapees, and Passport America.  All of them more than pay for themselves over a year's time.  We really like to stay in Escapees parks when we can because we can stay there for about half the cost of other parks.  Passport America is great, but very restrictive. 

 

[grashley]

It all depends your camping style.  Our preference is state parks, where none of these discounts are accepted.  KOA is good ONLY at KOA parks, so if it is not your style, do not get their card.  Most places which accept GS or PA will sell you the membership when you check in and apply the discount.  On this basis, I would research, but not purchase a membership until I was in a campground that accepted it.  I got my GS that way.

Memberships are expensive with limited campgrounds.  If you can go to their CG most of the time, it can be a great deal.  This requires lots of pre planning and reservations on a fairly strict agenda.  They are better for week long stays while you explore the area.  Look on line to buy from an existing owner and save some money IF they have the plan you want.

 

[Boat Addict]

One thing that people sometimes overlook is that if you qualify, age related,  you can buy the senior pass for all national parks, and Army Corp of Engineers lakes with campgrounds. When you are traveling you can come and go inside these areas for free with some exceptions if you are camping outside the venues . I pay half price for camping inside these venues . I also get huge savings for dockages at the NPS marinas.  When I purchased it, it was 10 bucks. But I think its 80 bucks now for a lifetime.

 

[Boat Addict]

The National Parks Senior Pass can now be obtained through mail. While the Senior Pass will still be available for purchase at National Parks, the National Parks Service realises that getting the Senior Pass by mail may be a more convenient option for many seniors. The National Parks Senior Pass is available to those who are citizens and/or permanent residents of the United States and are age 62 or older.

The National Parks Senior Pass is good for the lifetime of the card holder and provides admission to, and use of, federal recreation sites that charge an entrance or standard amenity fees. The pass also allows users to receive a 50% discount on some amenity fees for activities like camping and launching a boat.

 

[X-Roughneck]

I would like some advice from forum members who have some experience with memberships, such as passport America, or thousand trails.etc.

We are not full time campers, but would like to plan a month long trip in the spring.

Is a membership worth the cost and aggravation? Seems very complicated, after viewing youtube videos.

John, As a Retired 10% rated disability, I actually qualified to obtain this All Access card.  Good for a life time. 

Find a Alabama place on the list that has a yes beside it.  Take a copy of your VA letter and your DD 214 and go get a card.  45 Pages of participating Parks on the link below all states.

https://store.usgs.gov/s3fs-public/PassIssuanceList.pdf

https://www.military.com/militaryadvantage/2018/04/06/got-va-rating-you-can-get-free-lifetime-national-parks-pass.html

 

[John From Detroit]

KOA campgrounds are often nice and fairly uniform but EXPENSIVE like 100/night in some cases.

Good Sams' gets you a ton of junk mail and a Discount at Camping World. Now if you need "STUFF" CW and what is the store they bought Gardner (GS card works there as well) is decent place to shop with the GS card they are often good prices. also gets you a discount at ye old Flying-J (and Pilot) on fuel.

Pasport America I think it's called works .. Well you will have to look it up.

I have two campground memberships these are 2 week in one out memberships (I get a lot of exercise changing campgrounds) now these are nice because once you spend the thousands to sign up I pay like 90 dollars a month (summertime) for camping about about 200/month winter.. The downside is to get that kind of savings I have to be close to one (or 2) of the membership parks so it kind of limits my travels.. Just now though there are other reasons to "limit" so its not a complication.. For example this time of year I belong to a rather nice church choir and I truly love singing God's praises as part of the Choir.. (I love singing in general but that's my favorite sing)  and I can't take the choir with me (Well actually to some extent I can as I'm welcome in multiple choirs across the country)

But I really like the one here.

 

[Larry N.]

KOA campgrounds are often nice and fairly uniform but EXPENSIVE like 100/night in some cases.

But those are rare. Usually we find KOA to be in the $30-$40/night range.

Pasport America I think it's called works .. Well you will have to look it up.

Two Ses (Passport) but yes it works fine if it's where you need it and if it's rules for that campground are met.