Thousand Trails-Vacancy Question

It all depends on your type of membership and your reservation window. We've been members for about 10 year's now and in a word we Love it. We have a 180 day window, 3 weeks in and park to park. Living in So Calif, we have plenty of Parks to chose from and I have never had an issue with getting a reservation. Remember a Reservation does not guarantee you a specific site so you may have to do some driving around a bit to find a site.

Going in, you must also realize that TT likes to call their campgrounds Resort's/Preserves....get the notion of Resort out of your mind immediately, they are simply campgrounds.

We have used out membership in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Calif and Washington and use it anywhere from 3-6 months annually. Never an issue at any even at peak season.

Finally, there is a Member generated Facebook page that might interest you..."Thousand Trail's-The good and the bad". Have Fun...

We tried "winging it" when we first went on the road but have since made reservations for when we will be in an area. If the online system doesn't work we call in to the customer service line and can usually get a site. Only issues we have had were in Florida this past winter and the issues were that our first choice park was booked the week we wanted to go so we just picked a different park (this was through the Trails Collection @ Encore parks) so I'm not sure "issue" is the correct word. We have learned that you just have to go with the flow.

As stated above there are nice "resort" parks and there are some not so nice "trailer parks" that you can use but if you go in thinking that this is a campground you will not find a better deal. We have never at any of the sites we visited paid additional $ to get a 50amp site nor paid any additional $ for upgraded sites, or anything like that.

We are finishing up Oct 17-Feb 18 in Florida with TT and TC parks and only by choice paying for a week's stay in a park. Otherwise we would have been able to make the entire winter in Florida with no fees over the yearly dues. We consider that a WIN.

We've been T/T members for a few years and love it. Very low cost way to RV and get around. First thing I would suggest is looking for a pre-owned membership. You can buy one from anyone in the US or Canada. We got ours off CL from a seller in AZ for $800. Need to get a seller's memb. no. and phone head office and confirm the specific contract details. There are many different features and benefits and variations of membership contracts - there are no standard plans. Older memberships can have desirable features that are no longer available. Some even have frozen dues for life. We have an older platinum membership and can stay at any T/T CG across the US and can stay "in the system" continuously and move from park to park. We never pay extra per night. The only time we've paid extra is for cable TV on the OR coast.

This blog has some great info. on buying a pre-owned memberships and highly recommend you read through it.

I don't know about T/Ts in the eastern US, but in WA, OR & CA, getting into some of them in the high season can be difficult in our experience. Seaside in OR is one like that. Some holidays, esp. July 4th can be very hard to book if you leave it too late. The best strategy is to routinely book as far in advance as you can unless you're on a long road trip with no fixed plans. T/T CGs are popular with kids and once school's back in session you'll have no problems booking a site on short notice. We do however often book a site a day or two ahead of going to our home park in Birch Bay WA without a problem, and I typically go down early on a Friday to snag a decent site, otherwise you can find yourself having to use one of the least desirable sites in the CG. Have heard that one or two T/Ts just east of Seattle are almost impossible to get into because of high housing costs in/near Seattle area and they let workers stay long-term.

Encore parks are part of the T/T network but you normally have to pay additional - full retail I think. There is an upgrade option available now that gets you a discount into them. Don't know much about it tho.

Note that many T/T CGs have outdated electrical, water and sewer services. You will run into occasional low voltage and having an autoformer is recommended. Sewer hookups can be sparse and some have none so a tote tank is a good idea. Have had a couple of instances of low water pressure. Piping can be old and I would suggest using a water filter and definitely a regulator. Have yet to stay at a T/T CG that we would not go back to or recommend. Our T/T home park is the most well kept and best managed CG we've ever been to anywhere along with super-friendly staff.

Thanks SO much Gil & Deb! SUPER good info. We purchased a VIP used and got only 3 of the "exempted" parks from the high season waiver instead of 5 so we are happy about that. We are very happy to have this fall-back insurance on places to stay as we travel. Getting into RV parks at any cost is getting very difficult in various parts of the country, and we are hoping this will add a little relief here and there when we just want to put the jacks down for a bit. Thank you so much again! Theresa