Camping membership for full timers?

Perhaps you can ask that your post be moved to the full-time section. :)

The only ones we used were Escapees RV Club home parks or co-ops and Passport America on occasion but a couple nights a year pays for the program. We're just not into typical RV parks.

Otherwise we used public parks - national, state, national forest, Corp of Engr. county and city and lost of boondocking on public lands (BLM/national forests).

Escapees and Passport America, jury is out on Good Sam. We mostly camp in COE, County, State and Fed parks.

We tried C2C and the parks were never where we wanted to be. In the end we kind of thought of it as having a cabin in the mountains, felt obligated to use our membership(ie go to cabin because we own it).

You need to develop your own campground style, what you like vs. what you don't like. Then you can decide if a is membership is for you.

We have been Members of Thousand Ts for over 36 years and I believe it is the best memberships Camp Ground out there. You could get a Zone Pass for $475 for one yr at the present time. You could try it for one yr and if you dont like it you can walk away and owe TT nothing. We have a full membership which allows us to use TT ever day/night at no cost other than our yearly membership fee of
$175. We camp with TT about 150 nights a yr

Just take a look at where the parks in your membership are located. Are you OK returning to these same locations again and again? TT likely has the most locations but they are more dense in some parts of the Country than others.

We had Passport America.......$44/yr and 50% discounts off daily rate. Some restrictions on when/length the discount can be applied.
But the break even point is couple of usages.

We also had a 'Home Park' with Coast to Coast Deluxe affiliate membership.
$10/15 night FHU site at participating private campgrounds.
We traveled secondary/back roads and found it useful because the CGs WERE not destination parks.

Home Park and C2C membership cost $950 buy in......that includes 1st year dues for Home Park and C2C (plus AOR & RPI affiliates which we dropped after 1st year due to duplicate coverage) and transfer fees etc.
After that it cost $59/yr home park dues (frozen) and C2C Deluxe dues of $139/yr

The best way to buy into these memberships is via the RESALE Market.
RESALE..........low priced/same plan-programs

One place to check into RESALE.....RV Park Store

We have TT zone pass, ( won’t be renewing, as most parks have gone downhill badly in the last 2 years), Lifetime Good Sam, lifetime PA, Escapees, Senior Parks Pass, and Elks.

A word of caution, if you plan on getting a Thousand Trails membership, please do your homework before hand. Definitely recommend trying a zone pass first. Ask for the buy one zone, get one free deal.

Good luck and safe travels

We are members of Sound Pacific RV in Oregon. With the membership we can use the RPI parks and the ROD Parks.

Depending on where you want to be will help you decide if you want a membership or not. Camping and RV parks cost is going up ever year, including memberships.

If your plan is to travel often and to specific places that you already have in mind, then I would hold off on getting any plan more than maybe Passport America. We have friends who have Thousand Trails and they love them but they don't travel to the same places that we want to travel. If you just want to live in an RV somewhere with no particular place in mind, then Thousand Trails will likely work very well. Do your homework on TT, not all plans are created equally. We buy a Passport America plan when we travel near a campground that we know we can use it.

I have two membersips one is Thousand Trails. The other Outdoor Adventure INc (Where I'm prked now) OAI is only in the great frozen north so I only use it summer. Generally I shuttle back and forth between OAI and a TT park during the summer less I'm going to somewhere special then I pick the parks as per the route..

Winters I 2 week in my TT park and then week out in a government park (County, Coe or if I must State).

Now OIA is a growing company, Parks are well tended and well attended.

TT on the other hand the parks tend to be in need of some "TLC" they are SLOWLY bringing them back up to glory but it is taking time. Sites are not as level, more 30 amp and old 30 amp at that. Some buildings closed and a bit run down. but they are improving.. Slowly

Still since all I really want is parking. and power. I tend to be happy.

Since we have traveled all over the USA we dont mind going to the same places during the summer. Several weeks in Florence Oregon, then severl more weeks in
Pacific City Or, several weeks in Seaside Ore, several weeks in Whalers Rest Oreg, then on to La Conner Wa for two weeks and two weeks in Mount Vernon Wa.
All it cost me is gas and food other than the yearly cost of $175 and the cost of the orignal membership that I bought from a private party for next to nothing
36 plus years ago