Do we need to buy membership?

[Carl L]

I think I saw a Woodall's at Camping World.  Does CW also carry the Trailer Life guide?  If not, any suggestions on where to look for it?

CW carries it and it can be obtained online.

With so many recommendations for Passport America, I don't think we need to search any further

Search further.  I do not doubt PA, but there are lot of RV parks in this country and some of them are special.  You are a Californian?  Then take a look at Flying Flags at Buellton or Lake Cachuma near Solvang.  Palm Canyon Resort at Borrego Springs.  Highlands RV park at Bishop or Mammoth Mtn. RV Park at Mammoth.  Lake Casitas near Ventura. 

 

[Jim Dick]

Hi Kay,

Since you won't be traveling far for a while you may not even need PA. If you have an idea of the area where you may be going I could look to see if there are any PA parks around. As mentioned earlier they only allow a certain number of days at that rate. It's most useful when traveling from point to point.

 

[RREngr]

Hi Carl,

We will check out the sites you listed.  I had heard of the Lake, but not the others.  Thanks for the list. 

We just made reservations for a local trip to a MH site that just opened October 1st down by Huntington Beach.  I think Rich said it is a State Park.  We are going in the middle of the week--they are already reserved six months in advance for the weekends.

We are enjoying just quick trips for right now, gets us out and going somewhere.

Kay

 

[RREngr]

Hi Jim,

We plan to just stay in the local area for now.  Probably no more than a four hour radius from home, which is Rancho Cucamonga, Ca.

We are going to look into the PA membership before we head for a family reunion in Missouri in June 2006.

Thanks for the offer of assistance.

Kay 

 

[Ned]

There are quite a few Passport America parks within 4 hours of Rancho Cucamonga.  See http://www.passport-america.com/campgrounds/united_states/california/ for a map and listing of the CA participating campgrounds.

 

[Carl L]

We will check out the sites you listed.  I had heard of the Lake, but not the others.  Thanks for the list. 

Lake Cachuma is a county water district park and huge facility.  They do not take reservations except for group sites.  We go on a Wednesday or Thursday and have never had a problem getting a full hookup site.  I have seen folks arriving early on Friday getting sites.  By Saturday they are usually full.

Great park imho.  The ranger program, a boat tour of the lake is excellent as is the fishing (trout, bass, and cats).  There is a marina with skiffs and pontons for rental.  Flocks of wild turkeys wander the area and the birding is excellent. 

Their full hookup sites are good and number about 100.  They have about 25 W&E only sites and a huge number of boondocking sites.

 

[Slantsixness]

? All opinions would be appreciated. The salesman says that State Parks and KOA's are not safe and don't offer as great a vacation experience.? ?Kay

Wow, this salesman really had you going. We stay at a lot of KOA's and State Parks, although a lot of times the State Parks fill up so fast that we have to use an alternate campground in order to enjoy the? vacation time.

KOA's unsafe? whoa! I've never been in any KOA where I, nor anyone in my family, felt the least bit unsafe. Generally, at least for me, a KOA is a preferred stop, even for just one night, since you always know exactly what to expect. We've made many friends at KOA's in particular. A few outstanding KOA's on the East coast (SVKOA (VA),Gettysburg (PA), Rodanthe (NC), Pigeon Forge, (TN) specifically) offer more than you'd ever find in a timeshare or semi-permanent park, and they're decently priced.

In particular, here where I live, there are Two of these semi-permanent/timeshare parks. Both parks are VERY inhospitable. I actually bought my Motohome off one of these park sites. The 'Resort' actually thought I was going to leave it there and they would sell me the previous owners lot! They even had membership papers and were going to give me free utilities for a few months if I signed. I clearly heard the dualing banjos in my head and started to feel like Ned Beatty (if you get my drift). I packed the thing up and left as fast as I could!

I do have a KOA Value card, the GS card (I hate the junk mail) and a Camping World membership, only because they are proven and save me more money than they cost. Like Tom, I'm not old enough to get the really good Sate park Passes, or senior discounts.? ?

So I guess my short answer is? "Run away as fast as you can, and before they have your keys"

Tom D in VA

 

[5ofus]

I know this is a VERY old thread....but being new to RV'ing.  I am glad I saw this before we went to TT in Orlando.  We didnt know any better at the time of purchase, but glad we didnt sign up.

The wife and I are now member of PA and GS to get us started and aware of what was around us.

I hope its OK to bump this to the top since I saw so many threads about TT and other locations, I found this one to be quite informative.

 

[John From Detroit]

For at least 25 years I"ve heard membership camping salesmen tell me about how in just a few years you are not going to be able to park your rig save in a membership campground and on and on and on and on.

Well.  To date a membership is still an option. And there is still lots of places to park without one

However... Some places a membership will get you a nice discount.. It may be 10% (Good Sam's. AAA, AARP and a host of others get you 10% at many parks) it may be 50 %.. I know one CG where it's around 77% (parked there) it may even be 100%

I belong to two parks,, One costs me around 300 a year in dues. I have one of their parks I really like to park in

2 weeks (14 nights) at 20/night is 280 dollars,,  20/night is the LOW END of parking where they are  30 is more common. (I've paid 60)  That includes sewer, water 30 amp and wi-fi in the park.

50amp is a few more dollars per night

The other membership is more local (Only parks in Michigan plus Coast 2 Coast & RPI) and I spend a good part of the summer in their parks.  it's a bit less expensive per year but again I get more than my money's worth if I use 20/night. 

There sites are S W 50 30 or 50 amp (Depending on the site) no extra fee for 50, Very nice parks.

So, for me.. Membership is a bargain.

For some.. It's not.  You have to do the math and make the choices

However.. One thing to conisder is that back in the 80's most of the membership parks did a projection on how sales wolud be.  Well, sales went.. Kind of off the chart. So they re-did their projections and went on a building and expansion kick.. The market quickly topped out and then came the crash.. now they have this great bit corporation, supported by anticipated sales, and no sales.. Can you say CHAPTER ___? (Different chapters for different chains)

The result was many went bankrupt.. Some were able to recover, some were not.  Many parks are closed.. I had a 3rd membership back then.. I cancelled and they are still bugging me for the last year's membership  Which I'm not about to pay because the contract says they have to maintain the parks for member use.. The tax man cameth and took the park.

 

[Ron]

Personally I very strongly recommend against purchasing any campground membership.  Just do the math add the purchase price to the annual dues and divid that by the maximum number of days you expect to be camping in the next few years.  In most cases it is a loosing proposition.  Then many of the membership programs have things in their contracts that commit you for life.

The only club memberships I recommend is FMCA, for MH owners, Escapees, and Passport America is good.

 

[Jeff]

But Ron, you are a lifetime member of Good Sam's. ;D

 

[Ron]

But Ron, you are a lifetime member of Good Sam's. ;D

But if we were not lifetime members we would not be members at all.  Got the lifetime membership before the Affinity junk mail group bought

There is a reason I didn't recommend GS.

 

[Jeff]

Fun aside, we get our membership fee for GS back several times a year in CG discounts.

 

[MarkInNC]

I recently purchased a new RV and there was an application to attend one of the park memberships included in my package.  I do remember my salesman explaining that this program did not seem to fit the type of use that we had discussed.

Like everyone else, I had a lot of things on my way home towing my new RV for the first time.  I took my time putting the RV into the "home" I had planned and brought the paperwork package inside to digest with a cup of coffee.  It could not have been more than three hours since leaving the dealer and I received a phone call.  It was a tele-marketing call from the park membership tring to set a date to tour one of their program sites and listen to the spiel.  I passed thinking that I sure hope this is not the first of many.

The North and South Carolina parks are great and provide lots of activities, the National Forrests are almost as nice.  I plan to get around to these first then I may consider some of the other parks.

Mark

 

[Ron]

Fun aside, we get our membership fee for GS back several times a year in CG discounts.

We have found that most parks in the area of a GS park are the same price as the GS with discount sometimes cheaper with AARP or FMCA.

 

[Ned]

We don't pick a campground just because it's a GS campground, but we base our choice on other factors: recommendations from friends, the rvparkreviews.com web site, and the TL Directory ratings.  A look with Google Earth shows if it's satellite friendly, as does a lookup at the www.satellitefriendly.com web site.  Then, if it's a GS park, we enjoy the discount.  The GS parks sometimes tend to be a bit more expensive, but usually because they're nicer.  Like Jeff, the membership pays for itself several times over in the discounts every year.

Of course, we are also looking for Passport America parks, especially when in travel mode and will stay at one of theirs even if it's not as nice, since it's usually just for one or two nights.

 

[Jeff]

We spend several weeks a year in a Passport park near our kids in Chicago (We are there now) so it pays over and over for us.

 

[Tom]

Jeff,

Do you get the PA rate for the entire two weeks? I was under the impression that most PA parks limited the discount to 2 or 3 days.

 

[Jeff]

Tom:

Here the rate is good for as long as they have space. Leisure Lakes is a membership park so we do have to leave for the holiday weekends.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Jeff. I've obviously been giving out incorrect information, telling friends that the PA rate was good for only a few days.