Has anyone joined "Passport America?"

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Castranova

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
Posts
58
Location
Livermore, Colorado
I heard that for 44 dollars a year, you can visit over 1,800 sites for 50% less. Has anyone joined this and if so, do you feel it's worth it? We want to visit Saratoga Hot Springs in Wyo soon, but there weren't any RV campgrounds close to it with this discount.
 
Have been a member of PA for 3 years, and use it a lot especially travelling from Bc to Az
It pays for it's self in a couple of visits. 
 
We have been members for many years. It is a great solution for those times when you need a place to stop for a night. Not all of the campgrounds are top shelf but they are usually more than adequate for a night.

We have been at some that are really great. Many times they have a limit as to how many nights you can stay. If you are nice they might be able to extend that time. We've done that on more than one occasion with no problems. It won't work with all of them but there are jewels within the system.

You just cannot beat the price and will more than make up the cost of an annual subscription with only a few nights' stay.
 
We have been members for almost 4 years now and have used it dozens of times,it's great. Some of the campgrounds just offer1 night stay and some several nights ,most not on weekends and holidays but overall Passport has served us well . Just a couple nights a year  will cover the cost so you can't go wrong.....Alan
 
Yup, its one of the things I learned from this forum. No problems in fact once we stopped for the night and Diane saw the Passport sign on the counter of the registration desk and asked if it was too late to get the card out of the RV. They said sure and we saved about half. Well worth the cost.
Jim
 
PA is a good deal. We bought our current membership in January and have already saved more than the cost to join. If you drive 100 miles from home three times a year you probably don't need it, but on some long trips you can almost save the member fee in a couple of weeks.
 
    In these tougher times however, there are a lot of former PA campgrounds giving up their affiliation.  Nevertheless, it is still well worth the cost of membership as by he third night, you generally break even, so after that it saves you lots of money.  On the other hand, if you do a lot of boondocking, or even State or municipal Parks the savings will be limited, and you'll find PA rules restrictive, ie most limit to week days, maximum 3 nights(some 1 night), or the one that drives me nuts, is a minimum of 2 nights, which is annoying when I'm looking for a place while traveling through an area.

Ed
 
As we are not habitually frugal, available discounts do not enter into our choice of campgrounds. We stay where we think we would like to. When we check in, I ask about discounts and, if Passport America is available, that is a big bonus. We typically recover 5-6 times our annual cost in savings with PA.
 
The only way to know if PA will work for you is to check for PA campgrounds in the areas you travel through and to. If there are none, then PA won't be a good investment for you. Otherwise, it only takes a few nights stay to recoup your membership fee for the year.
 
Another ditto here, but one caveat, look ahead on your trip, when we first got it, we kind of fell out of sync, where had we taken a few miles off or added to a day, we could have used it more.  We found driving till we had to stop put us 100 miles after or before the next PA.  Now we limit miles and look for the PA.  Really cuts a trips expense smartly.
 
We recently went on our 1st two-month trip.  In the beginning of the trip there weren't any PA campgrounds in the areas we were staying.  Or, we didn't meet their restriction criteria such as we could only use the discount Sunday through Thursday, and we needed to stay on a weekend.  I was beginning to think it wasn't going to be worth it for us.  As it turned out, we were able to utilize the PA discount in the second half of the trip.  We even found one CG that had no restrictions, so we stayed on a weekend for 4 nights and received the discount for all of it. We easily recouped our membership fee and then some. So, I think that over the course of a year, you'll probably find that it will be well worth it.   
 
Just renewed for the 13th year.  We stay in one place longer than we used to, so don't visit as many campgrounds each year, but still get our money's worth every year. It only takes a couple nights to recoup the annual fee. It's by far the best of the camping discount programs in terms of value for the money.

Whether it works for you or not depends on your style of travel and where you go.
 
We just returned to Dallas,Tx from a months trip to Yellowstone and Custer State Park. Recouped our money in the first couple of nights. Most of the CG were very nice,exception of one around Wichita,Ks. Stayed right outside Custer S.P. for 7 days @ $20.00 per night. Well worth the $44.
 
Wow! Thank you all so much for the common sense replies! We just dumped a few grand on a Jayco, and are being frugal, but due to the comments, I'm spriggin' for the $44.00 and am confident it will come back around! *A Happy Camper!*  ;D
 
We have been a member for years and years.  We have always saved what we paid, but usually a lot more.
It also give you a chance to stop at places you might not.
We love it and have just re-up for 3 years.
 
We just came back from a trip from IL to Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. We only stayed in one PA campground, but the cost was $17.00 for full hook ups in a pull through site. In addition, the hostess was very nice. We had a choice to boondock in Kearney, NE at Wal Mart or stay 20 miles further down I-80 for $17.00 and be able to add water, dump, and have 50 amp electric. We chose the latter and weren't disappointed.

The campground was basically a large gravel parking lot 3/4 of a mile off the interstate, but it certainly served our purpose for one night at a good price.
 
One very nice thing about Passport America is they post all of the participating campgrounds on their web site and the map and listings are available to anyone, whether you're a PA member or not.  Click on a campground you're interested in and you'll see if there are any restrictions to getting the PA rate.

Sometimes campgrounds in destination areas will only honor PA during the off season, not on weekends or holidays, etc.  But the restrictions are spelled out on their web listing - they don't surprise you when you get to the campground.

Is it worth it?  I bought a membership in Quartzsite last winter and it paid for itself on that trip alone.
 
We've got one also.  As I remember it was $80.  We used it enough this summer camping that the savings was well more than the $80 we paid.  I only wish we'd had it when we visited Mount Rushmore in August.  Would have saved another $11 on admission.
 
We've had ours for several years off and on.  We've used it quite a bit in these last 2 months.Call them 1st as sometimes they have a special going and you can get it for even less than #44.00  Hugs, Di
 
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