Campground Memberships

My suggestion and please PM me if you are interested.

Thousand Trails. of all the Memberships, has a product that is, far as I know, UNIQUE.. A one year "Zone Pass" about 600 dollars more or less it gets you 2 weeks in one week out camping for a year in about 1/5th of the USA, Flordia included.

NOW. Thousand Trails "Preserves" (What they call 'em) are not all that well preserved. Many of 'em are a bit.. OLD.. but they are SLOWLY improving them. and though the campground often does not have all the latest amenities, And you may have a bit of fun getting level.. I have found the staff to be #1 in at every one I've been to. and in many cases I'm just looking for parking for the RV. "Attractions" are outside the park.

The big advantage of teh zone pass...
At the end of yoru year you have options.
Send a "Thanks but no thanks" letter
Renew
Buy more zones
Go with a lifetime nationwide like I have.

We have been RVing for over 30 years and have owned pretty much every campground membership program out there (TT, CTC, RPI, AOR, ROD). The main thing to look at is where the parks are located. The bottom line is: you have to use the memberships (camp a lot at the membership parks) to make them "work" for you. Otherwise you won't get your money's worth out of them.

We are now traveling less and only have the TT membership plus Passport America and Escapees memberships. We have had our Thousand Trails membership for over 20 years since we retired and figure that it has saved us several thousand dollars during that time frame - - but we have also stayed in TT parks for over 1,000 nights so far!

Some of the happiest Thousand Trails members I see at almost every campground are working families. They buy a zone pass and pay near $4,000 per year to have a year round personal site (+ electricity).

They leave the rig on the site most of the year. Most good weather weekends they are at the campground. Mom brings the kids out after school. Dad might bring the boat, or come straight from work. They don’t leave the CG until dark on Sunday. They know they have their spot for busy holiday weekends. They can hitch up the trailer/5er and hit the road any time they want and know their spot will be ready for them when they get back.

I see more young couples with this type seasonal spots than I see in COE campgrounds or state parks. Not only at Thousand Trails parks. Many commercial parks across the country have the same type of seasonal sites.

It is something that has never appealed to me. But my father would have done so if such a park/site was available on the lake he loved.

Again as said above - if you will use it, if you can meet your goals, a membership program or seasonal program can be wonderful.

But it is essential that the purchaser knows what they want.

I don’t think we would have been happy with Thousand Trails if we had not spent two years full-timing and traveling to over 20 states/ 15,000 miles before buying into TT.

From the original post I don’t think TT is a good fit for the OP, but I still really don’t have a good idea what the OP is looking for.

beemerphile1 wrote:
Unless you are retired it is unlikely to make sense economically. A working person simply cannot use it enough to justify the cost.

Simply not true. Really depends on how much you paid for membership and what are your dues.

We use Thousand Trails and added the Trails Collection program onto it. It’s an extra $200 but opens up a lot of Encore parks. We spent mid-December until April and barely spent any money. We enjoy it.

Unless you are retired it is unlikely to make sense economically. A working person simply cannot use it enough to justify the cost.

If you search here for "campground memberships" lots of posts should turn up.

My opinion is...it differs person to person, but overall if you don't use them you don't get your $$$ worth. Try to buy used and know what you are getting into before buying.

My suggestion is do a lot of research and clearly know what you want!
We joined a membership plan. Yes, it is a lot like a timeshare "investment" There is the upfront purchase and then quarterly fees.
Our RVing is traveling from place to place and sightseeing. NOT staying in 1 place for a long time.
We found that the RV parks were not close to where we wanted to be. We would have to go out of our way to use a park "in the program"
For example, We wanted to visit Jackson Hole. The nearest park was about 1 hour away. Not convenient.
Know what YO)U want and look at the details closely.
It MIGHT work for you.
Cheers,

I joined the Thousand Trails Zone Pass camping...3 in FL...so far, am pleased for the cost. The regular TT is expensive to me but gives you a lot more options. I also have Passport America which is 1/2 price camping, and a good deal to me.

Been a lifetime member for years, can work with individual campground restrictions and have only found one park I pulled in and then pulled out, in about 16 years.

Thousands of happy RVers have campground memberships in Florida.

But there are so many variables between memberships and campgrounds it is impossible to give any meaningful advice.

How many weeks a year do you want to stay? Where in Florida do you want to stay? Do you want full hookups or is a site without a sewer connection okay?

Do you want to leave the rig on the site all year, or move it in and out when you want to stay?

A campground membership can be a great thing if it fulfills your needs, or a nightmare if you get locked into an overly expensive long term contract that doesn’t meet your needs.