Best Thousand Trails Deals

Buy from a resale company IF and ONLY IF your ready to buy into a time share that you will be stuck with for life.

I had a friend offer my his Thousand Trails membership for free and I turned it down after looking into the annual fees.

If you are talking about the zone pass, the best deal I have seen, is, buy one zone, get one free.
400 a year, locked in for 4 years. You might be able to get it for a little less than that.

Before you go to the show, look at the rvparkreviews on the parks you are interested in staying at. You might change your mind about purchasing.

Go to Ebay and type in Thousand Trails and take your pick. Many memberships availble on the secondary market.

donn0128 wrote:
Buy from a resale company IF and ONLY IF your ready to buy into a time share that you will be stuck with for life.

think it through
x2
bumpy

First I see some confusion in the replies here... Thousand Trails offerers, or has offered at least THREE different levels of membership.

IN THE BEGINNING. as the Good book starts. Like all the other Membership chains they offered a lifetime, national, membership (What I have) this gives me access to all the Thousand Trails parks, (buit not TT Mid Atlantic or other Encore parks) from sea to sea, Michigan, SC, FLordia, California and anywhere in between.

I pay so month a month (Dues) for life. I can park in a TT park for up to two weeks (14 nights) then I have to spend a week ... Out of the system, Then I can come back for 2 weeks

They still offer an "Enhanced" WHich lets me stay 3 weeks in and a week out and I think I can move park to park within the system rather than "out". but I don't have that so I'm not sure.


The Lastest offering and far as I know ONLY Thousand Trails offers this is the ZONE PASS.. This has both limits and advantages. Like the national membership it is 2 weeks in and one out and the cost is about the same as I pay in annual dues. BUT, and this is one big B U T !!!!!!

The Zone pass is a one year "Membership" There is no other price. For about 560 dollars (Note sure of the exact price) you get access to about 1/5 of the ENCORE parks, this includes TT Mid atlantic I do not get as well as TT.

But it's only good for ONE YEAR. (renewable) at the end of that year if you don't want to continue.. Send a letter "It's been fun but.. No Thank You" type letter requesting the zone pass NOT be renewed and you are done with them.

OH, and you can often get a 2nd zone for a reduced fee.. Up to 100% reduced in some cases.

I went through this same process myself. The best deal I found is the one they don't tell you about and it's not in any of their brochures. Its the one where you keep the money in your pocket and you Tell them "no thanks" and walk away.

May make sense for a full time RV'er, but I'll pass thanks.

I belong to TT. I wouldn't join if I were you. They are now "leasing" out the best sites in their parks to people by the year. The people leasing can just store their RV on site at the park. It cuts down on the available sites for members to use.

I definitely wouldn't waste money on a zone pass - way too expensive and limiting.

We bought our platinum membership off Craigslist from a seller in Arizona for $800. Can stay in an of their CGs for up to 21 days and never have to be out of their system. We can stay in any of their CGs across the US. Many memberships (incl. other orgs.) require you to be out of the system for 14 days between max. stays in a CG.

You can buy a membership from anyone, anywhere in the US and all you need to do is phone head office and confirm the particular contract details because they can vary widely. One that we looked at was being sold by the daughter of an elderly parent and it turned out they owed thousands of $$ in unpaid dues. Another seller refused to give us the number and added a few curse words.

The older memberships can have features and benefits that are no longer available and can be very desirable like for ex., being able to book up to 90 days out. No, you are not stuck with them for life. But you need to buy the right membership that allows you to resell it. Some only let you transfer to a family member and some completely expire at 10 years old. Some have frozen dues for life.
It's all in the contract's details, features and benefits so read the fine print of each contract closely. If an older membership, each contract can be very different.

Thousand Trails does offer permanent memberships (not zone pass) and last time I looked they had the info. on their website. It may not be immediately obvious but is there. Their CGs also have a sales person that will gladly sell you a permanent membership or a personal site. Brand new retail pricing for their top membership is something like $10K.

We really like Thousand Trails. Some hate them. We just stayed in a Thousand Trails in Chehalis, Wa. and it was probably the nicest CG we've ever been in. The property covers 360 acres in a forested setting and it's beautiful - similar to some state parks. Most sites are spaced well apart. Okay, so the voltage was low but we have an autoformer. No sewer hookup but we were fine for the week we were there plus they have a honey wagon.

Some Thousand Trails are extremely popular like on the Oregon coast and you need to book as far out as you can. The only thing I wish is that we had membership in Encore CGs too and some are Encore/Thousand Trails and you have to pay full retail to stay in an Encore one.

If you want to travel across the US, note that they do not have CGs in a large central area of the US.