Comparing RV Clubs

[Raining Star]

There has been lots of discussion of the merits and liabilities of campground clubs. Likewise no shortage of praise and faults based on individual experiences. I've read a lot of this and gained a good overview of the deal.

What we are trying to decide now, as we hope to be full timing in a year or three (yeah, I'm that uncertain) is which particular club will best suit our needs. I'm hoping to find a side by side comparison of the features, and hopefully reviews of the different clubs. Researching them one by one feels like I must be reinventing the wheel. Anyone know of a good comparison overview?

[mel s]

Originally Posted by Raining Star

There has been lots of discussion of the merits and liabilities of campground clubs. Likewise no shortage of praise and faults based on individual experiences. I've read a lot of this and gained a good overview of the deal.
What we are trying to decide now, as we hope to be full timing in a year or three (yeah, I'm that uncertain) is which particular club will best suit our needs.

Raining Star
Check out Passport America, Passport America The original 50% Discount Camping Club - Passport America Discount Camping Club

For years we were "clubbed to death", (aka: belonged to, and paid $$ to, far to many clubs).
5 years ago we narrowed it down to only PA because we found that is the ONLY club that actually "pays for itself".

However, I do have a 2014 membership to the Good Sam Club, (but only because they wanted me back so bad they sent me a FREE one year membership).
BTW, now I remember why I quit them 9 years ago.... (the Good Sam JUNK MAIL" keeps coming.....and coming.... and coming)!
Mel
'96 Safari, 135k miles

[twogypsies]

If you're full-timing the first one you should join is Escapees RV Club and get involved with it and stay in some of their co-op parks. Explore their web site. The also offer mail forwarding which we've used for 18 years. We just finished the Albuquerque Balloon Festival with 40 members and we had an awesome time crewing for the pilots.

We also use Passport America. If you're 62+ get the national park pass for seniors for a one-time fee and 1/2 off on camping.

We didn't get a Thousand Trails of Coast to Coast membership because we don't like those kinds of parks and they're expensive if you don't use them. We prefer public parks.

So...kind of figure out what type of campgrounds you like for what you will purchase.

[missourijan]

I have never seen a side by side comparison of the different membership clubs. You may have to compile that yourself. Since you aren't fulltime now it doesn't make sense (IMHO) to buy into Thousand Trails or Coast to Coast. You have to travel quite a bit for them to pay for themselves.
For example, a resale Coast to Coast membership can be purchased for around $500, then there's a transfer fee and the yearly fee and the yearly maintenance fee for the home park. All total that can be around $1000. You have to camp in their parks quite a bit to save that $1000 back. Consider this your first year of fulltiming or extensive travel, Passport America is $44/yr, you can easily save that on your first stay. Some of the parks are not "resorts" but we use it for those 1 night stays as we travel. We also have Good Sam, which we rarely use, just to get the free shipping from Camping World. We also stay overnights in Cabela's, casinos, and city/county parks that you can find in Don Wright's Free Campground books (east & west editions). It also lists free and low cost campgrounds like federal & BLM campgrounds. There are a LOT of ways to save on campgrounds without purchasing a costly membership. Oh yea, x2 on the Escapees membership, $29 until end of October!