Good Day:

Please, assist us with advice about campground memberships. We looked at Thousand Trails resales but we have vetoed that as we would have to travel based on their few location (under 100). We know we will need many more options.

Please, offer your experience to us so we can make an informed decision. Thank you, Jimmy and Brenda

This has been covered many times here on the forums, there have been many differing opinions. I for one have a number of memberships, and it works well for my style of travel/sit travel/sit. Others feel they have no value to them. Please llok at the link Ive included. http://escapees.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/147607461/m/1271051303
george

I too have a big intrest in this topic. All the membership dues, sharing, co- this and that is very confusing for sure. I thought I was getting some sort of camping benicia when I joined this club... But think I have to buy into more stuff! To actuallly stay someplace. I do have mil camps to fall back on.

We have found that, while the Escapees Club has a small number of their own RV parks/campgrounds either owned or affiliated, Escapees shouldn't be confused with the exclusively membership campsite organizations like Thousand Trails. As with any consumer products, different things are made to suit different tastes. For us, Escapees primarily provides a "permanent home of record" and a mail forwarding service, along with a whole lot of fellow RVer friends who share insights on this forum. As for accessible, low cost camping, we purchased Passport America to help with our short term stopovers; and, either search out area commercial RV parks, usually via the internet, where the road takes us; use Escapees' campgrounds if they happen to be where we are; or, we stay in state, county, national or Corps of Engineer campgrounds. We have never felt the need to "belong" to a structured campground organization to stay within our campground fee budget; since, our philosophy for long-range planning means we discuss it at supper the night before Happy Trails...

quote:

I do have mil camps to fall back on.

Military camps are our primary membership! EVERYTHING ELSE is our "fall back" option!

Belonging to Escapees does give you membership privileges at Escapees related parks. (Non-members can stay at some Escapees related parks, but they pay a higher rate.) We use Escapees parks maybe a couple of times a year. There just aren't enough in enough locations for us!!

In addition to Escapees, another "fall-back" for us is Passport America (PA). They are not a campground membership organization as much as a campground discount organization. Our membership costs around $40 a year, and last year we save almost $300 in campground fees using PA.

We have looked in passing at Thousand Trails and others, but have not seen one that has campgrounds where we generally travel, so concluded they would not work well for us.

You just need to look at them all, and examine each one as you did Thousand Trails. If you find one that would work with your travel style, etc, good. If not, don't buy it! AND, buy a "used" membership if at all possible.

We save a considerable amount of money by staying at campgrounds that offer weekly or monthly rates, and generally adjust arrival/departure dates to meet that kind of schedule. We rarely stay somewhere less than a week, and we rarely stay somewhere with "resort" or "KOA" in their names as they tend to charge for many "amenities" we have no interest in, and/or from their prices they seem to think a whole lot more of their facilities than we do!

quote:

Originally posted by starboomer:
Good Day:

Please, assist us with advice about campground memberships. We looked at Thousand Trails resales but we have vetoed that as we would have to travel based on their few location (under 100). We know we will need many more options.

Please, offer your experience to us so we can make an informed decision. Thank you, Jimmy and Brenda

The thing to remember with Thousand Trails, Western Horizon or others, is that it just isn't the system campgrounds, but also the affiliates that come with affiliation memberships such as Resorts of Distinction (ROD), Coast-to-Coast (C2C), etc. With them the # of membership parks greatly expands and you can find them all over the country. We use membership campgrounds about 1/2 of the time (180+ nights per year). If you know how to use the systems, you can save significant amounts of money.

Barb

[/QUOTE]

The thing to remember with Thousand Trails, Western Horizon or others, is that it just isn't the system campgrounds, but also the affiliates that come with affiliation memberships such as Resorts of Distinction (ROD), Coast-to-Coast (C2C), etc. With them the # of membership parks greatly expands and you can find them all over the country. We use membership campgrounds about 1/2 of the time (180+ nights per year). If you know how to use the systems, you can save significant amounts of money.

Barb[/QUOTE]
Ditto

Here's what we have done....

We just purchased a used membership to a park. this is a park in an area that we will use alot. Has all kinds of amenities including excellent fishing for Bill. The annual fee is $250. (We just paid $240/week where we are now) Members pay only $2/night at this home park. We will get our money's worth.

But, in addition to this park, membership allows us to join Coast 2 Coast. They have 600 campgrounds all over the country. We will use them as our basic travel plans. Many of these are 5-star resorts as is the membership park we bought into. Woodall's 5-star.

So, taking time to research what's out there and searching for a good used membership worked for us. This savings will buy alot of gas.

I belong to a park (not a group like TT) that allows me to join Coast to Coast (which I like). In addition I use Escapees and I also use Passport America.

That covers most of my needs. My fall back is government (Corps parks, state parks, etc.) campgrounds.

Steve Ball

We bought a used membership off Ebay a couple years ago. Has worked good for us. Have AOR, C2C, and RPI. These let us camp for $10/night. We use C2C the most. Also use Escapees and Passport America. When you join some memberships, you must always paid the yearly dues till you sell it. There are some people selling TT memberships for just the transfer fee. Look for these deals. John

We belong to Thousand Trails, Western Horizons and through Western Horizons, Resorts of Distinction (ROD). Of the three we find Western Horizons to be the least desirable and member oriented. My suggestion is join Thousand Trails and use your Thousand Trails membership to join ROD. Be careful buying a used Thousand Trails membership. There are many different kinds. Ours is a Gold membership to Thousand Trails, NACO and Leisure Times. The Stars on-line or phone reservation system is tops. We make our Thousand Trails reservations on-line with immediate confirmation. I am also retired military and fill in with military campgrounds. These vary tremendously in quality and price. The most expensive we’ve stayed in was the Navy Facility at Seal Beach which was very nice but pricy and extremely restrictive.
Remember. Memberships are great if you use them.

I would be interested in seeing what the pay back is on, for example, Thousand Trails. I have seen Thousand Trails selling for practically nothing on eBay. As I understand it the transfer fee is $750 and the annual dues are approximately $550/year. Is it true that there is no fee when visiting an affiliated park? If this were true, the savings for me would be $400 if used 30 days/year. That's because I can find nice parks that charge less than $400/month. Clearly that wouldn't pay for the annual dues. If used 60 days/year then the savings would be $800. That would pay for the annual dues and take 3 years to pay back the transfer fee. Perhaps a Thousand Trails owner can tell me where I'm going wrong. If economically attractive I might be interested. Also, I believe that after a short stay one must leave the system for a week before returning. Is that true? Naturally, these arguments depend greatly on availability of parks in the area one is interested. That's another investigation. For the moment, I'm just interested in the economics.

quote:

For the moment, I'm just interested in the economics.

I think that is the right approach...at least initially. It is a difficult decision. You clearly have to use the parks or you do not make out financially. We have a membership in AOR (used to be C2C) that entitles us to Western Horizon and ROD and some others. We have not signed up for anything for a couple of years now since we are not using the systems. Our membership happens to be a lifetime with no dues or maintenance to our home park. We have had it long enough that we "bought out" the maintenenace at the home park. Many home parks offer this after 5 years or so of ownership. At our age it was worthwhile. We stay free at the home park, but have not been using it recently, due to travel habits. But we are at break even at the current time with no future costs. At 57, I hope I have a few years left on the road to "make it pay".

It is worthwhile to think how your travel habits might change in the future - and to consider how your home park, and the memberships it offers - would fit into any future scenarios. JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by paroots:
I would be interested in seeing what the pay back is on, for example, Thousand Trails. I have seen Thousand Trails selling for practically nothing on eBay. As I understand it the transfer fee is $750 and the annual dues are approximately $550/year. Is it true that there is no fee when visiting an affiliated park? If this were true, the savings for me would be $400 if used 30 days/year. That's because I can find nice parks that charge less than $400/month. Clearly that wouldn't pay for the annual dues. If used 60 days/year then the savings would be $800. That would pay for the annual dues and take 3 years to pay back the transfer fee. Perhaps a Thousand Trails owner can tell me where I'm going wrong. If economically attractive I might be interested. Also, I believe that after a short stay one must leave the system for a week before returning. Is that true? Naturally, these arguments depend greatly on availability of parks in the area one is interested. That's another investigation. For the moment, I'm just interested in the economics.

First - are you talking about another TT park under affiliated or an ROD park or C2C as an affiliated park? Makes a difference.

Second stays are usually 2 weeks at a park and then you move to another one (sometimes three weeks, depends upon the membership, etc), so if you are planning on monthly or longer stays then membership parks are probably not for you.

We have Western Horizons, our dues are much less per year, but we do have a $3/night surcharge. Additionally we extensively use ROD (Resorts of Distinction) parks at $0/nigh, and C2C (Coast to Coast) and AOR (Adventures Outdoors Resorts) at $10/night for weeks out. By having a combination our monthly rate is usually less than $400 (sometimes in the winter in Arizona it can be $0 for the whole month) but that does mean we move every two weeks, which is what we like.

For TT, the length of time you must be out varies depending upon the contract. That is one thing in buying off of eBay, you must make sure you KNOW what the contract is you are buying. Get the number, call TT and have them explain to you exactly what is or isn't part of the package. No two contracts are alike.

Barb

quote:

Originally posted by Barbaraok:
First - are you talking about another TT park under affiliated or an ROD park or C2C as an affiliated park? Makes a difference.

Second stays are usually 2 weeks at a park and then you move to another one (sometimes three weeks, depends upon the membership, etc), so if you are planning on monthly or longer stays then membership parks are probably not for you.

We have Western Horizons, our dues are much less per year, but we do have a $3/night surcharge. Additionally we extensively use ROD (Resorts of Distinction) parks at $0/nigh, and C2C (Coast to Coast) and AOR (Adventures Outdoors Resorts) at $10/night for weeks out. By having a combination our monthly rate is usually less than $400 (sometimes in the winter in Arizona it can be $0 for the whole month) but that does mean we move every two weeks, which is what we like.

For TT, the length of time you must be out varies depending upon the contract. That is one thing in buying off of eBay, you must make sure you KNOW what the contract is you are buying. Get the number, call TT and have them explain to you exactly what is or isn't part of the package. No two contracts are alike.
Barb

Thanks for your reply Barb. Not sure what kind of TT park we're speaking of. We saw one on eBay with starting bid of 99 cents. As it turns out, the auction expired without a single bid. The seller answered a few questions and stated the transfer fee would be $1000 with annual dues of $549. Apparently no one thought it was worth 99 cents. Here is the eBay Listing

We've since discounted TT since the location of parks is not in the area we wish to travel in the immediate future. We expect to spend most of our time in CO, NM, AZ, and possibly TX. At the moment we're looking at adding RPI to our existing C2C membership. This will cost us the price of the annual dues of $65 since our home resort is affiliated with C2C, RPI, and AOR. There are two incentives to adding RPI even though there is much duplication between RPI and C2C:

1. RPI requires only 7 days out time at a given resort whereas C2C requires 30 days
2. Approximately 50% of the resorts we contacted allow stacking of multiple memberships meaning we can spend a total of four weeks/year at that resort ie, two weeks/year under each membership. Most resorts do not allow back-to-back visits however.

As an example, we would like to spend June, July, and August in CO next summer. RPI and C2C each have four parks in CO with two of the four being common to both. We could then theoretically spend two weeks at each park adding up to a total of 16 weeks. This would require stacking at the two parks that are common to C2C and RPI. As you can see this would easily cover us for the 3 month period in question.

We would prefer adding a membership that had less duplication than RPI, but not sure what it would be. Our home resort told us that it would cost upwards of $2000 to add AOR. We have not investigated why it would be so expensive. If you have any ideas what would make a better membership than RPI, we could keep an eye on resales. We have observed that the majority of resales seems to be TT as can be seen here. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Here is an interesting membership on auction which might give us even more flexibility?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: paroots,