Thoughts About Campground Clubs?

[jmarxen]

In an ongoing battle to keep our RV expenses reasonable (budget in line), we've looked at joining various "campground" clubs. We're thinking about joining Thousand Trails, Escapee's and Passport America. The Escapee and Passport America yearly fees seem pretty good at around $50 per year, where we expect in our travels to getting a return on the yearly fees. Thousand Trails National 4-Zone Pass (Special?) is $2,000 initially for all four zones, with a maximum of $500 per year renewal. Appears most of their campgrounds are along coastal USA. That doesn't help much going across the middle of the country. Since we have started on being almost "full-timers" (8-9 months traveling per year), we're not so sure on the return on investment for this club. We have also seen warnings on several other 50% discount clubs such as Happy Camper. We do a little overnight in transit parking at Sam's, Wal-Marts and Cracker Barrel restaurants.

What has been most folks experience with these types of discount clubs as camping fees appear to be one of the two largest cost categories beside fuel?

 

[Ned]

Start with the Escapees and Passport America.  The former has many services for the full- and nearly full-timer and the latter is useful for anyone that RVs.  Don't make a large commitment to any membership chain like TT until you're sure you will be able to take advantage of their parks.  Most of us fulltimers have found we don't need them.  I would skip Happy Camper as well as Passport America gives you access to the 50% discounts at more campgrounds and most of the HC parks are covered by PA.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Amen to Passport America - and to what Ned said. We bought a Thousand Trails membership (full membership, not the Zone Pass) a few years ago when we began to travel less widely and stay longer in one place, but I would not recommend it for everyone.  You might try one of the Zone Pass regions to see if you like their parks, but I would not recommend them as a way to save money for general purpose traveling. TT parks are destination camping, not for travelers. By the way, you can get into many TT and other properties owned by ELS during the off-season (usually other than July & August) using your Passport America card.

 

[Trailer traveler]

I would definitely recommend Passport America if you travel much during the week and off peak seasons when the restrictions are less likely to apply. Almost all of the Happy Camper participating parks are also Passport America Parks. Since Passport America and Camp Club USA merged, Passport America has the most participating parks of any of the deep discount clubs.

Escapees is a good organization if you need and use their services. They own/operate 8 parks which have very low nightly rates. In my experience, none have really been close to anywhere we wanted to be. We have only found two close to our routes of travel in 8 years. Escapees Membership also entitles you to stay at their 11 Co-op parks. At some of these parks transient visitors stay on the lots of owners who are not home and put their lots in the rental pool. We have had bad experiences with this arrangement when the neighbors did not like the fact that the lot next store was rented and there were new people moving in and out. Escapees also has a discount park program. Most of the parks give a 15% off the nightly rate (compared to 10% for Good Sam, AAA, Senior or often just asking). Some parks give a 50% discount, but I have never found an Escapees 50% discount park that did not also participate in the Passport America Program. In my opinion, Escapees at $70 for the first year is the hardest to recoup your money on just on the discounts. Like I stated, if you need or use their other services, it is a good organization.

In addition to the tradition Thousand Trails memberships and the zone memberships, you can now stay at many Thousand Trails and Encore parks with the Value Card Parkages . This is probably the most economical way to try out their parks and see if the system will work for you.

A good way to save money on camping fees is to stay at a week or better yet a month in each location as those rates may often beat even the 50% discount rates.

If you are over 62, get the America the Beautiful Senior Pass which is $10 for a lifetime. It will give you discounts on entrance fees and many camping fees at National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, National Forests, Bureau of Land Management facilities and Corps of Engineer facilities.

If you a plan on spending much time in a single state, check to see if their State Parks have annual passes. Some like New Mexico can be a very good deal.

 

[jmarxen]

Thank you for all of the excellent advise. These have definitely helped with our decision making.

- Jim & Nancy
NewMar Mountain Aire
South Carolina

 

[ArdraF]

Escapees has another huge advantage for fulltimers and that is the mail forwarding service.  Fulltimers need something in the way of mail forwarding and Escapees has an excellent reputation for it.  They also have a magazine which is designed for fulltimers to keep track of one another, kind of like a message service on paper.

As Gary said Thousand Trails is for people who park and stay awhile.  I think it's useful for families who are still working and want to use their local TT for weekend outings and sometimes to park for the summer.  But I don't think it's all that useful for those of us who like to travel.  Some people like to go from membership park to membership park and that's fine for them, but we prefer to go by whim in any direction and not plan routes so closely.  On more than one occasion we've changed direction 180 degrees because the weather was not to our liking or something happened in the family or whatever.  It's all a matter of how flexible you like to be when traveling.

You might join Escapees and Passport America first.  Hold off on any others until you learn more about which parks are where you want to be.  Maybe you'll decide to also join Good Sam.  We've used the GS discounts a lot and now that they're affiliated with Camping World, you may find the President's Club is useful as you outfit your RV.  We've found it useful when you have a new RV but then don't use it as much later.

Also, you might note that you can join ones like Escapees and Good Sam and un-join a year later if they don't suit you.  You're not as tied in financially with groups like them as you are with Thousand Trails and like clubs which are more comparable to time shares than to a discount club.

ArdraF

 

[diehard]

Passport America is the one that paid off for us almost immediately, but you need to have a good look at it before you join.  Plan out where you would like to stay in the next year (or 3 years in my case, since I bought the 3 year membership).  At the time, we had places we wanted to stay in Florida for our Easter vacation - we wanted 4 days in Orlando to go to Disney, 4 days in the Keys and 4 days around Daytona Beach.  We didn't stay at a PA park in Orlando, but did stay at one in the Keys and Ormond Beach near Daytona.  The 4 days in the Keys themselves paid off the 3 year membership, the 4 days in Ormond Beach were gravy on the potatoes, plus had 2 and a half more years to use it.  It'll expire soon and we plan on renewing.

Just be aware that PA is not for everyone.  It'll all depend on the restrictions placed by the parks you plan on staying at.  Weekend warriors might not benefit from it so much if you can't use the discount from Thursday to Saturday where you want to stay, for example.  They might also have only a few select sites available for PA members, and if they're full, too bad.  Do as much advanced planning as you can before signing up ahead of time.  Also, I understand that, if you want to stay at a PA park, you might be able to buy the membership through them upon arrival and use it immediately, but I'm not 100% sure. 

 

[Just Don]

PA is great, like  the discounts. So far they been out of my way, but now being full time won't be a problem.
Good Sam I wonder if buying this was a good thing. Expect a lot of emails or home mail in trying to sale you some thing.
They say you get a great discount at Camping World. I was looking for a toilet riser for RV the shipping was going to be $14 just for shipping.
Went to someone else $1.50 more and was free shipping. I know always shop around and It's hardly ever worth shopping Camping World to me.
Escapee's I haven't joined them yet, but will for mail service. Lot of people like magazine, I saw a copy and didn't impress me enough to sign up.
There forum like this one has lots of great people and info love them. They do have a warning level and have kicked people out.. Not me though if they read this they might.. lol

This is my opinion and not knocking anything any one else has said, in this forum in any way.
Someone will disagree but this just my opinion!

 

[W7NW]

Ok, I admit we like our conveniences.  Those most liked include full hook ups.  I got a TT zone pass last year just to try it out.  The problem was so many of the campgrounds (they call them reserves?) did not have full hookups here in the Northwest.  Water and 30 amps yes, 50 amps and sewer, not so.  Some did.  And some have a portion with full hookups but even during the "off times" those sites were full, in many cases by people who had the site for the full season.  So I do not plan to renew next year, just not worth it to me.