Community Forums

csp · 01-19-2011, 08:53 PM

Is Passport America worth joining? We are planing a trip west and the park we are spending 10 days is a Passport discount park. It sounds to good to be true, half price camping.
Please let me know the good and the bad about it.
Thank You Chris

freeisme · 01-19-2011, 09:50 PM

We have used Passport for 10yrs. We travel from Mn. to Ca. Read each parks description closely,some restrictions,weekends,holidays,limit how many days. Most parks are nice (view parks on the web)We use passport 1 or 2 days at a time,while we are on the move.We save alot more than the membership price every year.

faye · 01-19-2011, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csp

Is Passport America worth joining? We are planing a trip west and the park we are spending 10 days is a Passport discount park. It sounds to good to be true, half price camping.
Please let me know the good and the bad about it.
Thank You Chris

your first park will pay for a year of passport america and it is truly half price camping for the days the park honors the pa.

Route 66 · 01-20-2011, 04:52 AM

Yes. It paid for itself immediately.

Wayne M · 01-20-2011, 09:17 AM

Well, since no one else mentioned it, here is my PA # 477540. Feel free to use it as a reference when you sign up. Doesn't that seem confident?

We have been members of PA for several years now. It cost $44 a year and if you stay 4 nights at a normal price of $40+ dollars, you will see a 100 percent return on your investment.

Please visit the Passport America web site and look around. Click on the areas that you normally camp in to see if there are parks in that area. We have found that the Southern part of U.S. has more parks, and less restrictions. You can view the restrictions, which are length of stay restrictions, at each of the campgrounds that they have listed. Do remember to call ahead for reservations once you are a member. I have found out over the years that CG's base their availability on a percentage of sites that they have. If the percentage is met but they are not full they can still give the discount. It is a courtesy to call ahead for availability and mention that you are a PA member.

I hope you found this informative. We enjoy PA and stay at their members CG as much as we can. We utilize the RV Park Reviews for information on the park.

Happy trails.

GaryKD · 01-20-2011, 09:25 AM

Hi csp,
I have been a PA member for several years. I am a lifetime member. If the CGs are where you will be, then it is a good deal. Each CG has their own restrictions, read them to ensure there is no disappointment. Because PA accepts just about any CG, the quality varies greatly.

RickO · 01-20-2011, 09:36 AM

We full time and PA membership is probably the easiest choice we make. It's a no brainer. But, the generic "half price camping" is in fact too good to be true. Most PA parks restrict the days, dates and stay lengths at discount rates. We found that, although there are exceptions, one or two nights mid week is the limit eligible for discounts at most parks. Therefore, we really seek out PA parks when we're on the move but usually not for extended stays since weekly rates are not discounted.

Good luck. It's a good buy.

Rick

phxmtngirl · 01-20-2011, 11:12 AM

Chris,
You asked this same question over at rv.net, and have different answers than here, so I guess it's all up to you. I do not use PA, but would IF we camped in areas where their campgrounds are and they had a good rating.
Be safe on your journeys

historyljc · 01-20-2011, 02:50 PM

Chris,
I've found PA to be a valuable assistance and pays for itself every year. There are some restrictions by the various camp grounds, some parks are better than other, and sometimes there isn't one where you want to go. Still, it's one of the most used cards in my wallet.

Lindsay Richards · 01-20-2011, 03:39 PM

We have stayed at PA parks at least 100 times. The theory is to fill sites that would otherwise go empty. Smart business people realize this. They would be stupid to allow campers to camp at half price doing the Tulip Festival or some other time when they would be full. Without the restrictions, there would be no half price clubs. The restrictions are all in the book and just work around them. They also have a really neat free app for the Android smart phone and I think IPhone too. It has GPS maps and such and it kept much more up to date than the books as you would expect. Camp Club America is another one and we see no reason not to belong to both. If you are going to be camping much at all, it sure pays. The quality of the campgrounds accepting it runs about the same as all private campgrounds: poor, fair, and excellent. You can also look them up on Trailer Life and Woodall's to get the quality numbers. There are actually two PPA's, but they act as one company. Go for both

csp · 01-20-2011, 06:29 PM

Thank You for the responses. I talked to the campground we are staying at and they told me the would do the half price which will save me about $250.00. If it does not work any where else, I guess it will more than pay for it self this one use. I will make sure I call each campground that is a passport campground and just ask if it will work before we decide to go out of our way to save a few bucks. If it is on the route we are traveling we will stay and hope it will save us.
Thank You again Chris

1ciderdog · 01-20-2011, 06:34 PM

We have used Passport America for several years and will continue to use it. You need to be advised many of the locations are not near where you want to stay or be. Some are very old and have many full time residents which tends to make it appear more like a "trailer park" than an RV park. There is nothing wrong with that unless you are expecting a new shinny RV resort with a lot of amenities. We have never been uncomfortable in any of the Campground America parks.

Lindsay Richards · 01-20-2011, 06:45 PM

We have stayed in many shinny type PPA parks ourselves. I think it is especially prevalent in areas that have a season which includes a lot of places. Our experience in over 100 stays is that you get the same range of parks with or without PPA. I think the notion that they are all trailer parks has been out there a while, but that hasn't been our experience at all. I have talked to a lot of owners about it having been in the lodging business myself and the smart one usually realize that it is extra business and it only has to cover the variable costs to help defray the fixed costs. The question an owner has to ask himself is do I want half or nothing. Of course, they have to think they are going to be less than full that night. If anybody has any doubts about the quality of the parks, they can easily just surf around their website and satisfy themselves.

ralper · 01-20-2011, 08:43 PM

You do not always get 50% off all days at a PPA CG. Some CG's will not discount summer weekends or will only give the discount for 2 or 3 days. Some honor it for your 2 week stay. Different CG's honor it in different ways but it is still the only one you need except for the one time $10.00 fee federal "Senior Pass" for age 62 and over seasoned citizens.