Campground Memberships

[bop11]

We are looking for advice on a campground membership. We have gotten information for about three years now from a company called American Campground Memberships. They offer a program for $549 that gives you a "home" park plus Coast to Coast and Resort Parks International. It also gives you access to all Thousand Trails, Outdoor World Resorts, and all Encore Resorts. The home park is in Texas in the Sam Houston National Forest. Your yearly dues are frozen at $99 plus the yearly dues for Coast to Coast and RPI.

After hearing some seminars from some Campground resorts with prices upwards from $7500 for pretty much the same thing except the home park is not close to home this doesn't sound like a bad deal.

I guess my question is when we start travelling more (which is getting closer everyday...more to follow on that!) would we benifit more having a program like this as well as Passport America and KOA Campclub or can we get along without the American Campground Membership?

I know that this is kind of a broad question but I would really appreciate input.

Thanks Bill

[snoking]

I would check on a 1000 Trails zone pass and see if you like that kind of camping before committing to a contract. Chris

[Travelers]

That is a GREAT price if that includes C2C Premium and RPI (plus yearly dues) and access to the others listed.
Things you need to know:
. How many days in advance to make reservations?
. How many days can you stay peak or non-peak?
. Is there a minimum distance you need to maintain between parks?
. You need to look at where the cg's are and do they fit where you want to travel?
. Any black outs dates or stay limits or mid-week only rules?

We have C2C, KOA, Passport America. Would like get 1000 trails and RPI.

[Chief409]

And remember it's the same thing as the townhome resort memberships popular back in the '80's. We got into one of those, because it sounded good at the time, in practice it was a total waste of money. If you want out, you have to find someone to buy the membership from you.

Jeff

[bop11]

Chris and Jeff, You both make good points about binding contracts. They state in the Q&A section of their WEB site that if you decide not to renew your membership but change your mind a few years later you can renew for $100 plus applicable renewal fees. It looks like it is more of a membership situation rather than a binding contract situation.

The 1000 Trails regional thing is good but we want to travel to all 4 corners of the country and $2400 seems a bit steep. With this program you get 30% off 1000 Trails resorts during peak seasons.

John, It appears there is not a whole lot of restrictions to the C2C except special events like bike week at Sturgis. RPI on the other hans has quite a few such as low cost doesn't apply on the weekends or some in peak seasons. I'm trying to find out if the C2C is a deluxe membership.

I don't know, I'm just a bit skeptical when it comes to the unknown. This is their WEB site http://campground-memberships.com/Default.asp.

Thanks!

[Travelers]

Bill,
We have the C2C Premium. My parents had it when it first came out and went full time going cg to cg. Back then it was $2/night with a 30 day limit. Ours is a 14 night stay @ $10/night. We have free stays at our home park. Not really as there is a $299/year dues. We like it. You will find that most Canadian snowbirds have cg memberships. BUT, you have to use it to get the value. IF you stay at the same one or two parks all the time then its of no value.

[bop11]

BUT, you have to use it to get the value. IF you stay at the same one or two parks all the time then its of no value.

Good point John, I plan to use it mostly while traveling CG to CG. If there is a memberpark close to or destination then we would utilize the member parks when we can. This is a $99 a year membership plus the C2C and RPI yealy dues.

I have sent them the question you brought about the deluxe C2C.

[snoking]

Like Las Vegas, more money is left on the table than is taken home. Use something like Microsoft Streets and Trips to lay out a sample trip. Then take the list of parks you would have and see how it fits together.

Another thing to look at is the condition for the parks that you are going to be staying at. Many membership parks are becoming what I would call rustic, with a lot of people in much older rigs that just move between the different parks on the cheap. And yes I have stayed at these type resorts via Camp Club USA. Palm Springs and others. One near home as a guest of a member and it was old rustic!

When we traveled the Western States in the fall of 2006 and 2007, we keep good records and it cost us a little over 100 dollars per day. Price of fuel is higher now, so I would use 150 dollars a day. Rob might be able to give you a good number for today's average. We used Camp Club USA at the time once in a while when it we could fit it in. So what I am saying is that 30-40 dollars per night is not your big expense. One could make up the different easily by staying at State Parks, City Parks and Federal Parks part of the time. Out of the summer months we found getting into parks was not a big issue in mid tier States. We would push off at around 9 AM and stop at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Seldom had to fuel the truck with the trailer attached. You have to stay a few days in an area to see anything.

I would just try Passport America the first year. BTW, we have only stayed at a WM once and did not like it at all. We are setup with a small gen set and can dry camp for a few days without a problem. We did that at Glendo State Park in Wyoming. Had the Sat Dish out. TV, receiver and Dish run off our Freedom Inverter and the little Honda via the converter keeps the batteries up. I can shut it off to refuel without dropping the Sat signal.

Lots to think about. I think a lot of people buy these memberships ahead of time like you are looking at, and then do not use them the way they think they will.

So lets talk snowbirds. We have spent the last four winters at the same Arizona Park. 4 months the first two years and 5 months the last two years. Next winter we are staying home for Christmas and booked only 3 months. We really like the resort life style and the fact that you have all these friendships. We live in a planned community at home with activities etc and have a winter community there also. Many will travel for a year or two and then settle into a park and location they like. A high number of the regulars at our park stopped in the cheap seats on the way through and decided to stay or return the following year.

So many options!!!

Chris

[bop11]

So many options!!!

So true!! You make alot of good points about the locations of the parks and their condition. I'm going to take your advise. Map out a trip and see if Campgrounds are availible where we would want them and check there WEB sites to try and get a better feel for their condition.

We like State parks and can go for a few days without connecting.