RV'ing Discount Member Ships and Affiliations

[txnese]

New to RVing and I'm seeing tons of Discount Memberships like KOA, Good Sams, Passport America, etc....

I can't join them all, so can I get some input on those y'all have joined, would never join, or any other feedback? Thanking you in advance.

[tobydad]

I have both Good Sam and KOA cards. Being retired I use them quite frequently. Both give 10% off camping per night. I stay at KOA most often when traveling as I have found their standards are met in every one that I have stayed. Cannot say that for Good Sam campgrounds as some I question as how they became a Good Sam campground because they certainly did not meet the rating given by the Good Sam directory. Both cards have paid for themselves. Of course it depends on how often you use them.

[fireflock]

I've joined Passport and Good Sam in the past, but have nothing now.

Unless you travel a lot, you're probably better off $ wise to just pay as you go.

Even if you do travel a lot, you have to be willing to adjust your plans to included parks if you want to make it worth while.

For example, 1 year we were planning to stay at an expensive passport park for a week. Buying a membership that year paid for itself.

Most years I spend 30-40 nights in the camper and never enter a passport park once.

[txnese]

Thank you to everyone for their advice and input. I planned a 2 week trip utilizing Good Sam Camps and Pilot as much as possible. With roughly $50 in Camp ground savings and the Campers World $25 coupon. I decided to get the Good Sam 2 year for $50. Well worth it and I still have 23 months of membership.

[CharlesinGA]

STBRetired wrote:
Good Sam - Discounts at parks on our annual spring trip more than cover the cost.
FMCA - Save big $$$ on tires. Few parks with FMCA discount but not Good Sam
Escapees - Discount at one park where we stay is more than membership. Great for full timers which we are not.
Senior Lifetime Pass for National parks, etc. - $15 gets you 1/2 price camping at all NPS, NFS, COE, BLM campgrounds plus free/reduced admission to various Federal attractions.

Ten dollars (and has been for many years now) until the new $80 once in a lifetime senior fee goes into effect late this year or early next year.

Otherwise the Federal multi-agency pass is $80 a year which if you are hitting several national parks, or other Federal locations where you have "gate fees", the $80 a year can pay for itself.

Charles

[Cider]

Thousand Trails - way overpriced for really dumpy campgrounds. Last two memberships I have had with them were free via purchasing new RV. I would never pay what they want for memberships.
Surprised no one has mentioned the senior passes for National Parks, forests, and BLM land if you do prefer non paved camping (Boondocking). Best $10 you'll ever spend. I don't spend enough time in regular campgrounds to warrant buying a KOA, GS or other membership.

[STBRetired]

Good Sam - Discounts at parks on our annual spring trip more than cover the cost.
FMCA - Save big $$$ on tires. Few parks with FMCA discount but not Good Sam
Escapees - Discount at one park where we stay is more than membership. Great for full timers which we are not.
Senior Lifetime Pass for National parks, etc. - $15 gets you 1/2 price camping at all NPS, NFS, COE, BLM campgrounds plus free/reduced admission to various Federal attractions.

[OFDPOS]

Won't name names , but like others have posted travel a year and see how much and what/where you really do camping.

We walked into a particular store and was hit up for a sit and just for listening to the sales pitch we would get a free $10-$20. in store coupon to use.
First it started out as somewhere in the neighborhood of $8000.00 dollars for a membership we laughed and thought do people really by this stuff..
As we were getting up to leave the salesguy went into well we do have a certain one that you only have to $99.00 a year and use the CG's in their booklet and its only $10.00 a night to stay (unless they were having some kind of event etc going on at the particular CG ,oh and it was certain sites in said CG's too )

So since we knew we were doing a cross country trip from Ca to DC went for the $99. and joined up for the year. We knew we were going to stay at College Park CG for 8 days and figured that alone would cover the $99 and then some
Small print and how he conveniently kinda rushed through the part where you buy points then call ahead to the CG where you want to stay and use the points.
Another small print and how he slick talked right passed was you can't call the day of where you want to stay that night and or you can't arrive at the CG and get a spot.

We don't know if we are going to drive 100 miles in one day or 600 miles in one day , so the above type of membership is was pretty much useless !
Not to mention a good 40%-60% of the CG's were not right off the road , you had to drive aways off the beaten path to get to them.

So if you do buy into any of them read over everything and ask ask ask questions...

[toedtoes]

I agree that you're better off traveling for 6 months to a year and seeing what's available where you like to go before buying. Otherwise, you'll end up paying for something you never use.

If you really want to be thorough, make a list of all the places you stay at during the 6-12 months and mark which ones would have been cheaper with a membership and which membership. Then, at the end of the period, add up how much you would have saved - if any membership would have been cheaper (fee - discount), then go with that one. If not, think of what you saved by not jumping in.

[stickdog]

We have Escapee membership but not just for the discount camping. They are the only club that is for the campers. Also if you fulltime they have mail forwarding.
We also have Good Sam and since we're over 62 we have the federal Seniors Lifetime Pass good for entrance fees at Federal recreation facilities, National Parks, National Forests, and such plus 1/2 price camping.

[mbutts]

We don't get out as much as we'd like (those darn jobs insist on us showing up or we don't get paid!) so we've found the memberships aren't much use or we just break even.

Passport America looked good, but several of the places we camp at only accept it Sunday-Thursday so it wasn't any use to us.

[LadyRVer]

Passport America, Life Member
Good Sam Club, Life Member
KOA, yearly membership

Find Passport America the most beneficial. I can live with their individual campground restrictions.

[ccchuck]

"Spend a year out there traveling and see where you normally like to stay, then you can decide. The overall winner for low costs, big money savings was PassPort America."

We've been at it since mid 70s (my job allowed significant time off) and, while we are good Sam, passport America is a great deal IF it fits where you're going, we've had trips where over half our stays were PA, and one where only one night- we're life members and in GS as well.

[stripit]

Knowing what I know now I would never have purchased the memberships we did over the years when we were just camping for weekends and vacations, then going full time. When you factor in the initial purchase price, then the yearly fees for just the privilege of owning the membership, you better be using those parks a lot, or you will never be ahead. We full time traveled 8 years and had a 1000 trails membership we bought new but at a steep discount. That one we did save money by using their parks but you had to plan on being where their parks were, not always where we wanted to be. We ended up giving that membership away.
Spend a year out there traveling and see where you normally like to stay, then you can decide. The overall winner for low costs, big money savings was PassPort America.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

About the only one that is "worth its salt" is Passport America. I boondock, so I don't have any memberships. My favorite place to find places to stay is:

https://freecampsites.net/