any issues with travel resorts of america or coast to coast

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bunce

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Sep 1, 2012
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has any one heard of travel resorts of america or coast to coast and did you find it worth while saw them at hershey
 
Coast-to-Coast (C2C) has been around a long time and generally well-regarded. It's an association of resorts that allow each others members to visit - C2C does not actually own the resorts.  As to whether it is worth buying a resort membership to join, that depends on your individual circumstances and travel style. I think we have quite a few C2C members here, so they can give their opinions.

Travel Resorts America (TRA) is sort of a new kid on the block and a small chain of resorts, i.e. they actually own the resorts and your membership allows you to go to any of them. In that regard, it is more like Thousand Trails than C2C. TRA is part of the C2C network, though, so once you have a TRA membership you can buy C2C access as well. Some other resort chains include Thousand Trails, Leisure Time Resort, Outdoor Resorts and  Mid-Atlantic Resorts. Yu may find them more suitable to your wants and needs.

The economics of membership resorts takes some thinking. They cost enough and have high enough annual dues so that you need to carefully consider whether you will want to go to the available parks often enough to be worthwhile long term.  you should also look into buying a resale of a membership rather than a new one direct from the resort. Resales are usually very steeply discounted, which should give you an idea of the actual value of the membership. You should also consider the RPI (Resort Parks International) network, which is a competitor to C2C. You may find that their parks are more to your liking. Or not.

Look at ebay and brokers like the two below for resale memberships. Plenty of them around.

http://www.campgroundmembershipoutlet.com/available-parks/coast-to-coast/
www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=58344.msg536405;topicseen#new
 
Thanks Gary .  Most helpful the initial investment is very high and so are the annual  dues .
 
Look into resales - typically less than 20% of the cost of buying a "new" membership.

Have you looked at the Thousand Trails Zone Pass? No upfront investment and no long term contract - just pay the annual fee each year you want to use it.  That gives you a chance to see if you like it without mortgaging your future.

http://www.zonecampingpass.com/index.aspx
 
We are memebers of a small resort in Minnisota that we have never seen.  We bought it from a lady who handles the resales for this resort.  It seems like kind of a racket, my membership does not allow me any privilages at my home resort and came at a cost of around $700 upfront.  I have an RPI Prefered Gold membership that costs me around $150 per year to maintain and my resort dues are $99 per year.  So for 700 up front and 250 a year we get to use all of the RPI resorts, even ones that are very close to our home (the prefered ones at least.)  We stayed this weekend in Oak Glen for just one night to get away and it cost 13 dollars with full hookups.  The little apple village was so busy that people were charging 10 buck just to park a car, so it worked out well for us.  There are 4 resorts within 50 miles of our house that we visit regularly for between 10 and 18 bucks per night and while we have stayed at RPI parks on vacation I wont go out of my way to do it. 

If you would like to talk to the lady who sold us ours, I can give you her number but you will have to PM me.

Jeff
 
This is my opinion on these ''RESORT MEMBERSHIP THINGIES''
One..............Rving is freedom.  You have a vehicle that can take you anywhere there is a road and a place to turn around.  We have traveled this great nation from border to border and all the way to Alaska a couple of times.  Personally  I have never see the need to be a member of something that ''picks the place I have to stay, and when  I have to be there''.  If these memberships are so great, look on ebay and see how cheap they are selling....
Two..........  Why should a person pay this much money up front for the priveledge of paying an annual fee to be a part of something that you may or may not use.
Three........ These places are dieing like flies.  There was a Thousand Trails that wanted us to join and they are busted and gone now. 

My advise to you is go see and have an adventure and stay where you will and Boondock on occasion.  It is a wonderful life ....  To to the state and national parks for a real bargin in camping.  Do not waste your money on ''MEMBERSHIPS''...........
All of this is just my opinion and I am probably wrong but I have been RVing since 95 and I have never seen the need for a MEMBERSHIP to one of these things ....... 

I am ready for our finest to come home now.............cj
 
excellent seajay . That is how I feel! these seem to be a bunch of scams
 
Many people love their memberships, while others despise them. Some think boondocking is the only way to go; some must have full hook-ups in a luxurious setting.  Some folks want to travel all over the continent, while others like to stay near home.

It's not a question of right or wrong - just different styles. Let us not belittle someone else's choices.
 
As ussual I agree with Gary. But I also see the other side, after a presentation from hell we were never going to buy one of these scams!  Then we realized there were a handfull of resorts near our home that we really wanted to visit, but they were not just membership parks but membship only parks.  The cost of membership was really just out of reach for us, several thousand to purchase and several hundred to a thousand per year after that, and what if we didnt actually like these parks we couldn't get into?  How do we get rid of the membership when we are done with it?

We started looking at second hand memberships and found several, even locally that were much more affordable but none had a provission for getting out and the transfer fees were steep.  Then we found Golden Eagle Vacationland in MN.  The cost was around 700 bucks (I think just under?) including RPI Prefered and the first years dues, and the renewal is around 250 including RPI Prefered Gold.  We could hand back the membership when ever we wanted.  Now we stay about 2 times per year at 4 of the local resorts that accept RPI (One of them is a Thousand Trails).  We enjoy them quite and bit and have learned what we already knew, we dont like camping.  We like amenitys, we like pools, and game rooms and well maintained playgrounds. 

This was something we could comfortably swing and with 10 nights per year in full hookup sites for around 12 dollars per night, vs the $50 per night full hookups cost us in a county or state park, using the 10 night per the cost difference is 380 dollars.  But the real savings is that because we can go places we like that are local, we actually use the rig A LOT more than we would if we couldn't.

So is it a scam, probably for some.  (The only scummy thing to me is when you can't reasonably get out of it.) Is it something we use and feel we get some value for our money, definitely!

Jeff
 
{On Soap box}
I get a little tired of hearing people call something a "scam" when the only problem is they bought something they ended up not using as much as they thought. Or perhaps they didn't shop around and payed more than they might have from another source. As long as the product or service was what it was represented to be, I don't think its right to call it a "scam".
{Off Soap Box}
 
I have a membership in Outdoor Adventures here in Michigan. They have 5 nice parks all within 50 miles or so of my house. One happens to be only about 10 miles away. Since I'm not retired and work most weekends, it provides me a convenient place to camp and still go to work (same distance from home to work as it is from campground to work). So a couple times a year we will spend 2-3 weeks at a time there, if anything just to get away and use the rig. As for cost, just like anything else if you don't use it, its a waste of money. If I bring a friend who camps in his own rig and he is not a member, they charge him $25 per night. So I figure at $25 I would have to camp about 15 days to break even on my yearly dues. After that I'm camping free so to speak. I have been a member for roughly 16 years and so far its worked out pretty good. As for Coast to Coast, we had a free 1 year membership when we joined. As we were taking a vacation to Disney world that Christmas holiday we thought we'd use it. Unfortunately at that time none of the resorts were close enough to the E-way to be able to stay there (If I remember the closest one was 30+ miles off the E-way). So we figured that in reality C to C just wasn't gonna work for us. But there are members that do use it, and use it alot.

As with everything else, know for sure that you will use it before you purchase it. Kind of like buying a gym membership and never going....
 
We got the membership to Travel Resorts and use it very little.  Have found that sometimes you cannot get in.  When they started issuing the photo ID's the couple that were doing them from a motel in Grove City were very UNPROFESSIONAL.  Had their small child with them running around the room.  You had to sit through a presentation (why?) then we never received the ID's.  The guy was talking about how TR was going to sue an older lady because she did not pay (couldn't afford to since her husband had died).  They do not want you to sell your membership even though we were told we could do so at the beginning. 
 

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