Membership Campgrounds

We are often asked about membership campgrounds and discount camping clubs. In case it is helpful to others, here is our experience.

There are a number of campground programs that offer discounted stays. We have an overview of some of these on our pages about campgrounds and RV Clubs.

Each of these memberships have annual dues and TT had a one-time upfront fee.

A Thousand Trails membership is an individual decision. The financial aspect really boils down to how much you will use the TT parks, which in turn has a lot to do with where you will travel. If you plan to fulltime and/or do a lot of RVing in the years to come...it is a membership campground program well worth consideration.

Here is our situation. When we bought our motorhome, the dealer (Lazy Days in Florida), waived the one-time initiation fee, which got us into a "zone" membership (basically, half of the country). We just had to pay the annual dues.

We did that for a couple years even though we were not on the road much. We figured the waived fee was a good deal, and that we would use the membership a lot more once we were full-time.

Then, when we did go full-time on the road, we upgraded to the National membership - our dues stayed the same (with expected cost of living increases).

While we were in the Northeast USA, TT was not very helpful since they really don't have much in the way of parks in that area. As we made our way across country, we stayed at Thousand Trails parks in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and also used a few RPI and Happy Camper parks. Once we hit Oregon and California, we used the Thousand Trails membership campgrounds exclusively.

Since we expect to full-time for a long while, we upgraded to the Platinum Plus membership. This enables us to go park to park within TT, stay 3 weeks (with some restrictions in some parks in high season). It also gives us access to RPI Preferred (so we can stay longer at some of those parks), and access to Resorts of Distinction. We pay $8/night for RPI parks and the ROD parks are "free". Depending on the type of ROD or RPI park, we can stay from 1-3 weeks per stay. Note that the reduced rate/free stays are based on our paying annual dues.

The TT parks themselves are usually quite nice. They are not the very highest-end resorts, but they are very pleasant places to stay, usually in a scenic area. Some of them are off the beaten path, but we are not looking to stay next to a highway anyway. They usually have a variety of recreational facilities (swimming pools, tennis, pool tables, horesehoes, shuffleboard, etc.) and activities of some sort going on. Bottom line, we are happy with what they offer our lifestyle.

Give some thought to the various member camping options, based on your individual circumstances and travel plans.

To learn the details about Thousand Trails and the associated RPI and ROD programs, we suggest you go to a membership campgrounds presentation. You will get a free 2-night/3-day stay in a nice park, just for spending a couple hours. Well worth it!

Home | RV Days | About This Site | Privacy | Contact Us | Site Map