HarryL
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Joined: 11/17/2001
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We just purchased our new 35' Thor Dutchman Fifth Avenue fifth wheel and are planning to make lots of weekend and a few extended vacations a year.
Can anyone recommend a campground membership that would save us money and provide good campground accomodations throughout the US? What are the plus and minus sides to obtaining a membership?
How often do we need to travel each year to make it worth our while.
Thanks in advance,
Harry
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mscamping
any place, USA
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Joined: 10/27/2000
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We have both Coast to Coast and Passport America. Both work great for us. Passport America was $39.00 a year, but believe it's now $44.00 yearly for new members...Camping World was running a special rate ($39), but don't know if they still are or not. The membership gives you 50% off the nightly rate of participating campgrounds.... you get a directory of some 700+ campgrounds. That means if a campground is $20 a night, you pay $10. You can easily recover the membership fee in 4 or 5 nights camping then the rest of your savings that year is money in your pocket. If you don't like it, it's easy to drop out unlike some memberships. The only hitch to PA is restrictions placed by some of the campgrounds (no holidays, not good at some parks in FL or TX in the Jan, Feb.), but we've been able to work around that. Most are located close to highways and are listed in Trailer Life or Woodall so you can check the ratings. We feel it's still a good value and more than recover our membership fee.
Try www.passportamerica.com for more info.
You might also check some of the older threads. This has been a topic several times before. One of them might give you some info that I've forgotten.
Happy Travels!!
Sharon
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5thwheeler
Southern California
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Joined: 08/08/2001
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How much was your coast to coast membership and why do you need two of them?
Battery Maintenance
2001 Toyota Tundra
2003 KZ-inc, 24ft. 2253 Sportsmen Ultra-lite fifthwheel.
N6ES
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BG1811
Paducah, KY
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Joined: 02/11/2001
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I've been having problems with Passport America. I have had several of the listed campgrounds tell me they are no longer in the program and they won't honor the discount. Makes you wonder if they sign up and pull this when you try to use the discount.
2004 Monaco Diplomat 40DST (Bath and half) - 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid FMCA F288615
AND Our Wonderful Norwegian Forest Cat, Mackenzie
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Bea PA
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Joined: 12/28/2000
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Sorry to hear that, we used PPA for 8000 miles this past summer and had no problems, also have reservations at the Elite Big O in Ochochobee(sp?)FL for this Jan.
Bea PA
2004 Winnebago Journey
2008 Saturn Vue
1998 Venture Van
Brake Buddy/Remco Pump
2003 Gold Wing 1800 recently triked (Big Red)
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Marv
Lakeland, Fl
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Joined: 08/31/2001
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We used Passport for 6 months this year and no one refused it. We traveled over 15,000 miles through 34 states. Only two places limited the length of stays.
If you are looking into campground memberships, give a call to the Campground Membership Outlet in Clermont, Fl. They have some very good deals and go out of their way to protect the buyer. They don't push one group over another and will not pressure you. I have spoken with Dan Monaghan at (800) 272-0401. Website is: www.membershipresale.com. Not pushing you, but, will save you money.
Do a search and you will get others comments from past posts.
Marv
God Bless America
2004 Allegro Bay 37DB
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mscamping
any place, USA
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5thwheeler,
We bought the Coast to Coast membership before we heard about Passport, but will keep both. The above post by Marv is a good recommendation if you're interested in CtoC. We bought ours as a resale at a rally 3 or 4 years ago. We paid $249 to get us started...our home park dues are frozen at $99 a year and we have 14 nights a year we can stay there for free. Free being that the $99 includes those nights. Plus we pay CtoC $79.95 yearly. We can resell our membership or just let it "revert back" if we don't want it anymore. We more than recover our money. We can stay at any CtoC park for $6 a night or Good Neighbor parks for $11. We've had some great stays...the CtoC parks we've been in are usually really nice.
As far as Passport....we've never had a problem getting into parks. We do check them against Trailer Life or Woodall ratings now since we've been in a couple that were pretty bad. Still think it's a good value though.
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HarryL
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Joined: 11/17/2001
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Thanks so much for the great information on memberships Marv. Passport America sounds like a can't miss money saver and I will check out your recommendation on Campground Membership Outlet.
It's so nice to be able to come here and tap into such wonderful resources. Hope to return the favors sometime.
Harry
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Kirk
Livingston, Texas.
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Joined: 06/17/2001
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We are fulltimers and we like Passport America, but for us the C2C type membership just is not worth the cost. C2C parks are usually well away from the attractions that one might wish to visit. Most are destination parks and just are not our cup of tea and we don't wish to pay the annual dues to a park in one location that we may not return to for years at a time. You must have a "home" park to belong to C2C. The cost of the home park can be as little as $250 or as much as $7,000 and annual dues also vary as you must pay dues to the "home" park as well as to C2C. But if you choose to stay where the C2C parks are located, you can usually stay for two weeks at each one free so that can save you some money. If you do get one, look to find a home park that is located where you will visit it often to get some value for the dues and initiation fees. And like was said earlier, get a resale. But I would suggest that you go very slowly on the purchase of any of the membership parks until you are sure that you will use it. With Passport America, the cost is less than the annual dues at most of these groups and there is no initiation fee.
Good travelin! ........Kirk
Professional Volunteer
Fulltimer for 11 years,
URL: www.adventure.1tree.net
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