Camping Passes

[Road Home]

We are new to RVing and will be using our new V-Lite primarilly as a mobile apartment in the fall and winter visiting our children and grandkids up north in NJ and MA. What are the pro's and con's to "camping passes" and what would be your recommendations as to which ones, etc. Thanks for any advice.

[youroo]

I have a V-Lite,and the first pass would be camping in the North East inthe Winter. Welcome to the FRF. Youroo!!

[ependydad]

The camping passes can be a great deal. You just have to know what you're getting into as you get into it!

Given that your primary destinations are NJ and MA- you might look at the Thousand Trails "Zone Pass". It gives you 30 nights or so included in the fee. After that, extra nights are really cheap (like $3/night). There are 2 important catches:
1) The locations are fairly limited (see locations on TT site)
2) Once you stay 4 or more nights at a park, you have to be out of the system for 7 nights. Meaning, you can't stay a week in NJ and immediately go to MA and stay for a week. There's an upgrade, but it's significantly more expensive than the $500-ish for the zone pass.

There are programs and clubs like Passport America who you buy in and then get discounts on overnight stays. The catch, as far as I can tell is that the discounts usually only apply mid-week (e.g. Sun-Thurs). Same with this, you have to check locations to see if they're places you want to go.

There are other clubs like this. Each one has a nominal fee to join up. Just read what you're getting into. They're only worth it if you use it.

[youroo]

You will be lucky to find a C/G open up there after the (Fall Leaf) rush. They head to FL,Miss,and TX for the winter. Youroo!!

[ependydad]

youroo- I missed that! Yes, most campgrounds in the north east are closed by the end of October/early November.

Even at that- I have to believe its gotta be hard to keep a TT livable, warmth-wise, in the cold! Especially if you plan on moving it much at all.