Passport america

camper19709 wrote:
I bought a lifetime membership 2 years ago and it has already paid for itself.

There are two passport websites. passportamerica and passport-america. I see a lifetime membership on just one. I understand that there are two different competing offices selling memberships.

We are RV vagabonds ... wandering here and there not knowing where we are going to specifically be at the end of any particular day. We rarely make reservations and many times do not even call ahead to prospective campgrounds where we wind up spending the night. We mostly just use maps, our navigator unit, and word-of-mouth reports to locate campgrounds.

As such, we find the various restrictions that PA campgrounds are able to as-they-please put on use of PA discounts way too restrictive to save us much, if anything, on our RV trips.

We much more appreciate the regular AAA, Good Sam, Veteran, etc. small discounts almost always available at a wide variety of campgrounds all the time in all seasons.

Would I spend much higher than PA membership rates to get a uniform 25-30% off at all private campgrounds, across the U.S., that I could count on all the time everywhere - similar to the very uniform federal parks discounts that seniors get - you bet!

I bought a lifetime membership 2 years ago and it has already paid for itself.

Last summer on our 60 day trip out West we were able to use it aprox 10 times. Would have been more but we used USFS CGs 30+ of those 60 days. Some are not the greatest but when you are looking to dump, take on water, and do laundry, what do you expect for $10-15? Have stayed at some really nice new CG that I might not have found otherwise. They actually have a pretty good travel planning web site that will show PA CGs along your route.

We're not full timers, so when we travel we're usually looking for pretty specific areas and are traveling when most restrictions are in place. We had the membership and tried using it a few times with no luck. Didn't work for us.

IMO you're less likely to run into restrictions if you travel in the off season. The parks aren't as full and you're not as likely to be told the PA campsites are full, or it's a restricted timeframe. Most of the info you need is listed with the campgrounds' descriptions.

We got our money's worth out of ours this last year, so it was worth it. But most of the PA campground/RV parks weren't the best or most desirable. But if you're just looking for a place to park the RV they're usually just fine.

It saves a lot if you use it. Most parks have their own restrictions; either off season only or mid week only or they have X number of Passport sites and when they are gone, they are gone.

We purchased one because we knew an RV park in a certain area accepted it and would for the length of our stay. Just the savings at this one park, paid for the membership. Each park has different restriction and you can research that on their website of participants before you buy.