Camp memberships

DaveB · 07-23-2012, 03:34 PM

Ok not sure if this the right place in the forum to post this but for all the experience out there is it worth the 6k price tag for cost to cost membership? For the short term (until i retire) i have my reservations however after the fact it seems pretty enticing. Thoughts and comments greatly appricated.

B47 · 07-23-2012, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveB

Ok not sure if this the right place in the forum to post this but for all the experience out there is it worth the 6k price tag for cost to cost membership? For the short term (until i retire) i have my reservations however after the fact it seems pretty enticing. Thoughts and comments greatly appricated.

Do you mean "Coast To Coast" membership?

DaveB · 07-23-2012, 03:46 PM

Yep thats exactly what i ment. Fingers of furry have no spell check.

B47 · 07-23-2012, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveB

Yep thats exactly what i ment. Fingers of furry have no spell check.

Well from personal experience - I would have to say yes. We purchased a membership in the Ocean Canyon Properties club which includes a membership in the Resorts Of Distinction club as well as the Coast To Coast(CTC) club. Remember that when you say CTC membership, that also includes membership rights in their Good Neighbor Parks, ELS- Encore Resorts and Best Parks In America clubs.

Keep in mind that some of the various parks have the right to access certain additional charges, but we have been pleased with them so far. In addition, there are some other perks that go with the membership and I cannot tell you all of them.

If you are interested, I suggest you listen to their presentation and don't sign until and unless you are certain that they are what you need and want. Remember - they are not the only rodeo in town.

**bikendan** · 07-23-2012, 11:19 PM

depends on what you want for a camping experience.

if you want the KOA-type of campground, then Coast-to-Coast might be worth it for you.

for us, we prefer the more natural campgrounds of state/national parks, over the amenities-rich KOA kind of campground.
so, a Coast-to-Coast membership would be a waste of money for us.

EdJunior · 07-24-2012, 07:44 AM

And it depends on how much you use it. If you're a "weekender" like me, it is definitely not worth the cost. If you use it a lot, or plan to in the near future as you allude to, it could be worth looking closely at. We just can't justify the cost at this point in our RVing lifestyle.

jeffscuda · 07-24-2012, 08:38 AM

I have been a coast to coast member since 1994 and use it very little. I have been retired 2 years and travel at least 5 months out of a year from maine to florida. I used a coast to coast park for 1 week in the last two years. I am also a thousand trails zone member. It coast 499.00 a year and get 30 nights stay without additional cost and only 3.00 a day over 30 days, no limit . You do not have to make a long term commitment. last year my average night was less then 17.00

ynott96 · 07-24-2012, 08:56 AM

We have been Passport America members for over 5 years and have been extremely pleased with the campgrounds and outstanding savings......without a doubt, we saved our membership cost within the first 4 campground stays. Additionally we have enjoyed excellent campgrounds at a low cost of $12 and a high of maybe $35!
We camp 4-5 months yearly in a 38' Class A 374 Georgetown and our yearly membership pf approximately $44 is a great value.
George

prof_fate · 07-24-2012, 09:46 AM

For retireees/full timers its' worth it's weight in gold.

for us buy in was $5400 for a 10 year deal, plus $300/year maintenance and $160/yr for the AOR/AON unlimited membership and there is some condo swap/rental thing available too.

That works out to $1000 a year. Our resort is in a touristy area and its' not cheap to camp there - $85/weekend nite and $60 weekday. We've spent 11 days there this year (so far) and that is about breaking even (plus all the activities are free so no rental clubs for the mini golf, etc), no fees to have friends over (had 5 over on july 4- no charge at all).

We plan to camp 5 or 6 days at an affiliate resort, so $250 or so in 'value' there and prolly do at least one more long weekend, so another $170 in value.

Out of pocket it works out to $74/quarter for the mtce and the $160 in may. Each time we camp we spend nothing so we camp more as it's not a matter of "well, we could go camping but we need $250 for the site". We have no check in/check out times either - so if we want to leave at 5 pm on sunday (to be home at 7) we won't be charged an extra day as all public cg's will do.

grayfox · 07-24-2012, 10:18 AM

Search the internet for discounted membership sales. Be shore you know what your getting either way and don't be afraid to negotiate.

myredracer · 07-24-2012, 04:31 PM

Earlier this year, we bought an RV resort membership based in Blaine, Wa. and so far we are very happy with it. We paid $4K for ours which includes most of the bells and whistles. Our home base resort park is nice - large, nicely treed, flat (easy walks), next to a State park on the beach, quiet, numerous amenities and near numerous attractions.

We can stay at the affiliates - Coast to Coast, RPI, Good Neighbors and Enjoy America. The only thing we'd like to upgrade to is shorter reservation booking time. Right now, we can only book 30 or 60 days in advance depending on which affiliate it is. We can also stay at Preferred Access condos around the world as part of our package.

We're currently on an 18 day camping trip. We stayed at one affiliate and it only cost us 35 cents a night! The Enjoy America one we are in at the moment on the Oregon Coast cost us $59 for 2 nights, but the place is like, WOW! Most of the affiliate campgrounds are $10 or $15.

DW is an accountant and great negotiator. DW did a lot of research on the internet and when we went to the presentation, she really squeezed them where it counts. Even when I thought she was done, she got free gas cards and some free camping for our friends thrown in. With the current state of the US economy, there should be more room for negotiating the best deals with RV resort owners. I should add that we "won" a $2,000 membership at our RV resort at an RV show. I think they give these away by the handful though anyway, so it's no big deal. For the $2K, you don't get much but we did get them to put it towards the new membership we bought. We probably could have gotten a good deal without the $2K prize.

As mentioned, you might also look for pre-owned memberships. I've seen some pretty sweet deals for sale that include things like NO annual dues.

We expect to do about 40 - 50 nights of camping this year. At this rate, we expect to pay off the cost of the membership in 3 years or less. After that, we will be saving a ton of money each year. The only caution I would have is if you expect to do a lot of travelling around the country and want to be able to book a site at an affiliate on short notice, you need to make sure you have that option included in your membership.

B47 · 07-24-2012, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by B47

Well from personal experience - I would have to say yes. We purchased a membership in the Ocean Canyon Properties club which includes a membership in the Resorts Of Distinction club as well as the Coast To Coast(CTC) club. Remember that when you say CTC membership, that also includes membership rights in their Good Neighbor Parks, ELS- Encore Resorts and Best Parks In America clubs.

Keep in mind that some of the various parks have the right to access certain additional charges, but we have been pleased with them so far. In addition, there are some other perks that go with the membership and I cannot tell you all of them.

If you are interested, I suggest you listen to their presentation and don't sign until and unless you are certain that they are what you need and want. Remember - they are not the only rodeo in town.

In addition to what i posted here earlier, I may add that when we brought our memberships, we made a decision to make a rt from Texas to NY and a rt from Texas to CA. We are leaving this week for the Texas to CA rt and have already made our Texas to NY rt.

We have decided after the Texas to CA rt that we will limit our RV trips to Texas and the surrounding states for the rest of our RV life. So this means we will probably not renew our Coast To Coast membership when it expires in 01-13 and instead just use our Resorts Of Distincition and Ocean Canyon Properties memberships as their locations better suit our overall plans.

So in addition to what the others have posted here, you might want to take a long range look at what your RV trips may involve as far as each clubs locations are. Of course you are not limited to staying in only the CG's that your membership club offers, but in some cases, the cost savings can be signicant.

Just a thought.

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