Community Forums

beepaj · 08-15-2013, 11:50 AM

I've been looking at Passport America campgrounds. 50% off is pretty amazing ... when you can use it!

All the places I visited were pretty restricted as to when you can use your PA membership. For example,
"P.A. discount is valid Sunday - Thursday. P.A. discount is not valid during July and August and during holidays and/or special events. P.A. discount is valid on Standard Sites only"
I suppose for $44/yr You can't expect a lot but...
Any thoughts?

Skip426 · 08-15-2013, 11:55 AM

I, found that the membership, paid for it's self in three nights stay, true there are restrictions , but seldom have I joined a discount club that the break even point was so quick.

mikebrls · 08-15-2013, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beepaj

I've been looking at Passport America campgrounds. 50% off is pretty amazing ... when you can use it!

All the places I visited were pretty restricted as to when you can use your PA membership. For example,
"P.A. discount is valid Sunday - Thursday. P.A. discount is not valid during July and August and during holidays and/or special events. P.A. discount is valid on Standard Sites only"
I suppose for $44/yr You can't expect a lot but...
Any thoughts?

I also think you can only use it for 1 day of your stay

okgc · 08-15-2013, 12:13 PM

We primarily check for & use PA campgrounds for the one night stops while traveling. Even with restrictions PA membership has paid for itself many times over.

danes-on-tour · 08-15-2013, 12:16 PM

We find "tons" of Passport America (PA) campgrounds with no or few restrictions on our travels. Of all the memberships that we have - and we have many - PA is by far the best deal. Nothing else comes even close. For us it's a "no brainer".

Campgrounds will apply restrictions during periods where they tend to be busy anyway. This makes perfect sense to me. Why offer a 50% discount if you can fill up your place with customers paying full price. If you camp outside these busy periods, then a membership is well worth it.

rgvtexan · 08-15-2013, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danes-on-tour

We find "tons" of Passport America (PA) campgrounds with no or few restrictions on our travels. Of all the memberships that we have - and we have many - PA is by far the best deal. Nothing else comes even close. For us it's a "no brainer".

X2

Do a search lots of good things said for PA.

UFO Pilot · 08-15-2013, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danes-on-tour

We find "tons" of Passport America (PA) campgrounds with no or few restrictions on our travels. Of all the memberships that we have - and we have many - PA is by far the best deal. Nothing else comes even close. For us it's a "no brainer".

Campgrounds will apply restrictions during periods where they tend to be busy anyway. This makes perfect sense to me. Why offer a 50% discount if you can fill up your place with customers paying full price. If you camp outside these busy periods, then a membership is well worth it.

We have stayed as many as 4 days in a row at an RV Park with the discount. Each Park is free to set the restrictions as they like.

RedWing Nut · 08-15-2013, 12:47 PM

PA is one of the best bargains for RVers that you'll ever find. A big money saver when traveling.

vsheetz · 08-15-2013, 02:14 PM

We often use PA, it quickly pays for itself. Yes, there are restrictions but they are usually reasonable. Also I have found that if you ask the CG they will waive restrictions. They would rather have 50% than zero if they have the space available.

beepaj · 08-15-2013, 02:20 PM

Thanks all! I joined.

It certainly is cheep enough & as we get deeper into this lifestyle, I'm sure it will more that pay for itself!

TdogKing · 08-15-2013, 03:32 PM

I just joined PA before my 10 week Alaska trip from So Cal and I used it 5 times . There is a lot of different restrictions etc but I felt it was worth It. I still have a year to go since they threw in 3 free months . You just have to look ahead and plan to work around the restrictions.

catonine · 08-15-2013, 03:57 PM

We have been using Passport America for a long time. The key word being using. We easily recoup our membership fees and save a good bit of money over the year. While there are restrictions on days and length of time you can use it, for us it has been a very good thing. The money saved buys a lot of fuel which equates to more trips for us. But, if you don't use it, it is not worth anything. We try and plan trips where we can use PA as much as possible.

ChasA · 08-15-2013, 06:41 PM

Each park has its own restrictions. In May we stayed a week in a very nice park, 3 days at 1/2 price, 1 day at regular price, and another 3 days at 1/2 price. That week alone more than paid for the PA dues.

chasfm11 · 08-15-2013, 09:04 PM

We've been PA member since we've owned our RV. For many years and many trips, it paid for itself several times over. The last two years, it has not be worth the investment but that was because of the type of traveling that we've done.

I'd recommend that anyone considering PA look carefully at where they want to travel and when. If you only travel on weekends, for example, I doubt that you will find much value. In certain areas, there are almost no PA affiliates.

The other thing is that you have to watch the descriptions carefully. We used a PA CG on our last trip and it was a disaster. They didn't have anything close to a level site and the whole CG was terribly rundown. We're normally very careful but this one caught us by surprise. There was another PA CG nearby that would have been a much better choice that a mile and a half dirt road that was more mud than road.