Thousand Trails

[spock123]

We are not full timers but we plan on being on the road for at least 9 months or more a year. Most of the time will be spent in the lower 48. Is it worth it to join. As I understand it the campgrounds are split up in 4 areas and each area is a fee. We live in NC but we like to travel west. Well everywhere, have trailer will travel, both retired

Jimmy & Rachel


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[phillyg]

Do a search here for Thousand Trails and you'll get an eyeful of comments. One thread is as old as 2014 but may still be valid. We've considered it several times over the years but have concluded it's not for us.

[dblr]

Your best bet is to try to purchase a resale membership, if you get the membership number you can call the main office and they will explain exactly what that membership gets as there are different levels

[williamsgw]

Originally Posted by spock123

We are not full timers but we plan on being on the road for at least 9 months or more a year. Most of the time will be spent in the lower 48. Is it worth it to join. As I understand it the campgrounds are split up in 4 areas and each area is a fee. We live in NC but we like to travel west. Well everywhere, have trailer will travel, both retired

Jimmy & Rachel

We are members and have been so for about 5 years. We use it for the 30 days and then only pay $3.00 per night. We have two areas that we purchased.
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See above info. We live in NC also

[ependydad]

I wrote a couple of things that will hopefully help:

Thousand Trails Overview

Is Thousand Trails Right for you?

Longest story shortest- the parks are best described as "the price is right". The parks are usually not great and are more like somewhere between "meh" and "good". I'm not picky at all and am just looking for somewhere to hookup for 1-3 weeks. They work great for me.

In 2015, I had 65 TT nights- mostly in the western part of the country. That averaged $7/night with the cost of my membership and add-on costs (some parks charge for 50-amp service).

In 2016, I have had 35 or so and have another 65 planned through October at this point. I might actually end up with more as we don't know what our summer plans fully are yet. But my cost per night has gone up since I upgraded my membership to a higher level.

They really help me manage my overall cost per night. In 6-months of fulltiming in 2015, I ended up at $31/night. 2016 is all over the board as we've spent quite a bit of time at Disney's campground.

And lastly, the biggest thing to be aware of is that all of the parks are "first come, first served". You're not guaranteed a specific site, full hookups, or 50-amp service. Just that there is somewhere for you to park.

And, you can only make reservations 60/90/120 days ahead of time- depending on your membership contract.

[srderby]

This is our second year with the thousand trails single zone pass. As stated above the camps are good, not great. Paid 299 so don't need too many nights to justify it. We are near cape cod and have one about 12 miles from home that works for quick getaway weekends. I would look close and read reviews of the specific camps you'd be using...single or multiple zone.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by ependydad

...Longest story shortest- the parks are best described as "the price is right". The parks are usually not great and are more like somewhere between "meh" and "good". I'm not picky at all and am just looking for somewhere to hookup for 1-3 weeks. They work great for me...And lastly, the biggest thing to be aware of is that all of the parks are "first come, first served". You're not guaranteed a specific site, full hookups, or 50-amp service. Just that there is somewhere for you to park.

And, you can only make reservations 60/90/120 days ahead of time- depending on your membership contract.

Very well said Doug. You nailed it!
Orlando could be a beautiful park, but as of Feb2016, it is just a place to park.

[phillyg]

We got some free nights at Encore/Thousand Trails parks and we've used two nights in FL. As has been our experience everywhere in FL, "resorts" are essentially trailer parks with full-time non-movable units or snowbirds who have permanent sites. Both locations were a bit dumpy. This may just be a FL thing; we'll find out as we continue north. If we were paying for the sites we would be very disappointed as this type of camping is not our thing, but we realize some folks are okay with it.

[GreenImp]

In my opinion, the best thing about TT is having access to a swimming pool while camping (all of the TT parks I have stayed at had them...don't know about the rest). The overall TT experience however is very well described above.