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Campground Memberships and Full-Time RVing -
Is a Membership Campground for you?
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Campground membership parks can supplement your RV park
options...if you know what you are getting into.
There are two types of RV campground memberships to be discussed. First are the
membership campground systems where you purchase a membership in a campground and have
camping privileges at affiliated RV parks for a deeply discounted rate. The other type of
membership is a discount camping club where you camp
for a set rate or fixed percentage discount off regular rates. If you aren't certain, we
recommend starting with a discount camping club and
see how that works out.
Membership Campgrounds
Membership campgrounds can be a touchy issue. Whether one is right for you depends on many
factors including, how much can you spend, do you intend to live within your membership
campground system of parks, are there enough (or any) membership parks in the area you
want to visit, and many other factors that pertain to your individual preferences.
We joined a couple of well-known membership systems and very much enjoyed the experience.
We had access to a few parks not available to the general public and since we utilized our
memberships in traveling frequently, it worked out well for us.
Of course, as with anything, there are the inevitable drawbacks. Most of the membership
parks are probably not going to be exactly at the destination you have in mind. A great
many of them are within accessible distances from destination points (another way of
saying you may have an hour or two drive).
During busy tourist times, it may be very difficult, if not impossible to get into an
affiliated park when you want to be in a specific place. Try getting into a Florida resort
in the winter if you can. Even if you can get in, you may have very few amenities (water,
sewer, electricity) available at your site. If you arrive at an affiliate park during
their busy season, don’t be surprised if they aren’t overjoyed to see you when
you present your discount membership card. Even during off season, you may often find
yourself parked out in a pasture with no water or electricity while the full-hookup sites
with cable sit vacant, or are rented to overnight traffic at full price to RV’ers who
aren’t members of the campground system.
Old Faithful Geyser erupting on September
11, 2001
If you intend to live within a membership campground system, plan on
moving every week or two. This is not a bad thing. Living costs can be very low, you
aren’t on the road all the time, and most of the parks are relatively pleasant to
live in. Additionally, you have the stimulation of routinely living in new places and
meeting new people.
Although the rules of each membership system differ, typically you will have limitations
such as not being able to stay at any affiliated park within 125 miles of your home park
(the park you own a membership in), two week limitation for total days of camping (and not
more than one week at a time with at least one week between visits), and other such
Byzantine rules.
Campground memberships can be purchased from individuals who transfer their membership to
you, or directly from the campground itself. You’ll also find listings in Trailer
Life magazine and Motor Home magazine.
The major reciprocal use (affiliated) campground membership organizations are Coast to
Coast at www.coastresorts.com and Resort Parks International at www.resortparks.com both
requiring purchase of a membership in an affiliated with them. The good news is that many
resort campgrounds have affiliation with both organizations, so your local membership
gives you access to the entire Coast to Coast and RPI network or RV parks. One minor, but
obvious hitch, is that there are many campgrounds common to both park systems. You will
not be able to exploit the common membership to acquire more time at a park where you have
already used your allotted number of days.
Discount Camping Clubs
The objective with discount camping membership parks
is to obtain overnight camping at a deeply discounted rate. These offers are sometimes
presented as a “Camping Club”. In fact, these aren't camping clubs at all, but
lists of campground owners who have agreed to give you a discount for using the referral
service.
If you are staying at an RV park a week or longer, you may get a better weekly or monthly
rate without the discount card. You can find discount camping offers with a simple search
on the internet.
In our travels, we have used discount camping cards and were very well satisfied with the
savings. Just call ahead to make sure there is space before you go. The campground owners
participating in these programs were always happy to hear from us and were most helpful.
If you subscribe to more than one discount camping service, you’ll probably find that
there are duplicate listings. You always can go online, look at their campground listings,
and decide whether there are too many overlapping entries.
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