RV Memberships

[FreeWheeler]

Does anyone have an opinion about RV Memberships (ie; Coast-to-Coast, RPI, etc)?

[jimh]

i've had one for 2 yrs and haven't used it yet.
there is a campground right off the strip in Branson that takes it. can't remember the name...treasure island? i will probably give it a try next time i go up there.

[SaskCampers]

I looked into one but we do not use the trailer enough to justify the cost of membership and I like the smaller rv campgrounds. I also find alot of campgrounds here in Canada give discounts if you have CAA so that is mostly what I look for now.

[marialee]

We have had a TTN membership for about 20 or so years. We have up graded a couple of times. It has been worth the money to us.. It just depends on how much you are going to use it. When we both worked we would take off on the weekends and over the spring and summer holidays. Now we use it most of the year. Like that we have a place to stay. Also belong to Passport America so we can fill in between TTN campsites. We are very happy with both.

[Momma Tac]

We were Passport members for a couple years and never used it. Read fine print...discounts are not honored on holiday weekends, honored only Sunday thru Thursday and not honored at all during peak seasons (January, February, March) in Florida. We do have a Good Sam membership.

[kenn]

We are Resorts Of Distinction (ROD) members and we use the heck out of it.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by FreeWheeler

Does anyone have an opinion about RV Memberships (ie; Coast-to-Coast, RPI, etc)?

I do not own any memberships. I travel around the country for 1-2 months a year and it is still not cost effective for me.

If you travel a few weeks a year during the summer it still isn't worth it unless you plan to do it for the rest of your life.

When buying into a membership that is not the only costs.
You still will have annual fees and even some of the parks still charge you a small fee.

Add up all the numbers aand make sure you know what your getting yourself into before you sign.

[BJGMFG]

We belong to ROD (Resorts of Distinction)and use it a lot. We made up the yearly membership fee in one week of camping. We also belong to AOR and use it almost as much. Sometimes ROD campgrounds are farther apart than we prefer to drive, so AOR comes in handy to fill in.

[FreeWheeler]

We went to a membership presentation that included Coast-to-Coast. Sounded pretty good but we just bought our Fiver and haven't even been out once in it yet. Thought we should get a season of RVing under the belt before making that jump. Think I will post a question about Campground Guides and Travel Guides as well.

[prof_fate]

Last year at the RV show we 'won' 10 days of camping at a local 'resort'. It's affiliated with ROD and AOR.

We bought in for essentially $500/ year- we'll see how it goes and each are of course different. We get unlimited camping year around at our home resort but we don't get a dedicated space (free storage area though). Everything is free there - pool, miniature golf, tennis and more - with kids this can save a bundle!
We can stay at one of the two (ROD or AOR, i forget which)for free and the other is $9/night. Other minor benefits is 24/7 security and gate at our home resort, adult lodge with tv, pool tables, a/c, (no kids), a seperate kids building (adults I suppose are allowed). Not having the same dedicated spot has it's pros and cons - you're not stuck with a PITA neighbor.

We spent a week at Gettysburg last year and paid $54 for out site...for the week. Many of these other resorts include free activities as well.

From our 3+ years camping at various 'public' campgrounds we've found there to be more of a 'membership' feeling to the resorts, more care about how folks behave (is that a PC way of saying it?). Can't say the resorts themselves are much different than public / state / KOAs.

If you're full timing it then by all means look into it. We stayed next to some newbie FT's from alabam (at gettysburg) and they're traveling all over the US without paying a single nights camping costs!

[rockwood06]

We have a Thousand Trails Membership and use it all of the time. Most of our camping is done in Hershey PA, and we are 6 miles from the park.

[kvtaylor]

We have both Thousand Trails and Outdoor World. Both are owned by lifestyle. We use both to camp in Florida during the winter months and camp in the summer here on the east coast. Looking back, i think i would recommend TT membership. TT is coast to coast where Outdoor world is only on the east coast. were considering giving it up this year. The dues have risen where it is not cost effective any more.

[rockwood06]

Originally Posted by kvtaylor

We have both Thousand Trails and Outdoor World. Both are owned by lifestyle. We use both to camp in Florida during the winter months and camp in the summer here on the east coast. Looking back, i think i would recommend TT membership. TT is coast to coast where Outdoor world is only on the east coast. were considering giving it up this year. The dues have risen where it is not cost effective any more.

When we go to Thousand Trails in Hershey we pass Outdoor world, it is not for far away. We didn't buy into Outdoor World.
Two years ago Thousand Trails had open the park up and started annual sites so we had one for two years., then Thousand Trails had changed ower ships and now the name Encore is stuck on the Thousand Trails sign. Encore is not in the rental business so they decided to sell all of there rental trailers and cabins, With all of the problems we have been having with our Rockwood we decided to pull our camper off of the annual site and we bought a log loft cabin this past July and what a sweet deal.

The first pic is the cabin and the second pic is the view we have from the porch, it may be hard to see but we look a cross the lake and as you look a cross the lake our annual site is at the high point on the far bank over looking the lake but the tree are in the way.