hello there and welcome back to the channel if you are new here my name is Charity and I'm Ben and in
2018 we bought our very first rv and we set off to travel the country with our family and explore the
us in today's video we are going to talk about camping memberships now there's all sorts of
camping memberships out there and quite frankly it can be confusing as to maybe which ones are
worth it which ones are not so make sure to stay tuned and watch until the end as we share with you
what we feel like has been worth it for us and what hasn't so let's go ahead and roll the intro
so there are two different types of memberships available out there on the market there are those
discount clubs and there are those camping prepaid type memberships so we're going to talk about some
of the ones that we own and also some of the ones that just haven't made sense so let's go
ahead and let's jump right in so what are some of the ones we've said yes to one of the ones
we've said yes to is passport america and that's more of your discount club type of membership
it's only 44 a year and it has seriously saved us when we were in Camp Verde in Arizona
it gave us a 50 discount on the nightly rate and so that was definitely one of those times where
just the price of the membership more than paid for itself with the amount of time that we stayed
there and it was a really super nice campground another discount club membership is Good Sam
now we chose Good Sam for a variety of different reasons when we very first started off rving we
did own a gas engine RV and not a diesel engine RV now Good Sam in addition to getting you know
ten percent discount at a lot of rv parks also provided for a fuel discount and when we had
the gas engine rv that made a lot of sense for us because we were putting obviously a lot of
gasoline into that rv and being able to have that discount on gasoline was definitely helpful now
since we use a different fuel discount since we're using diesel and we'll have more on that
in another video coming up so make sure that you're subscribed for that but with the Good
Sam membership you do get discounts on not only camping but also on fuel and on purchases at
places like camping world and gander Good Sam is actually very very inexpensive it's only 30 dollars a year
and you can get a discount if you purchase it in like three or five year increments so the next
camping membership would be your koa membership and we do currently have a koa membership and
we've used it quite a bit over the past few years we like staying at koas traditionally
in the scenario where we're wanting something to help keep the kids busy koas do tend to be very
consistent regarding providing certain amenities most all of them always have a playground
and if you stay at a KOA Holiday or a koa resort there's always fun things to do and you should
definitely check out our video on the koa resort that is in the black hills of South Dakota it's
one of our favorite places yeah we had a blast there yeah we've been there so many times the only
caveat with these places is that they're not cheap especially the resorts or the journeys because
they're set up basically to where there's a ton of stuff to do there and you really don't have to
leave but again I don't think that's really the point of rv life you're there to sleep and then
leave during the day to go adventure and explore so what the KOA membership is going to get you is
it's going to get you 10 off the published rate as far as the nightly rate is concerned and then you
also accumulate points and their point system kind of goes on a little bit of a sliding scale where
the more that you stay you actually earn higher points per level so at this point we've reached
whatever the top level is I forget even what the top level is where we earn max points on our stays
just because we've stayed at so many over the past few years and then you can redeem those points for
free camping so this is a membership that we're on the fence about if we're going to renew or not
but I'm definitely going to keep it until I get my almost hundred dollars of free camping
that I've got coming to us and then we'll kind of reevaluate and decide if it's something we want to
hang on to or let go so now let's talk about some of the memberships that we are on the fence about
or that we're considering so as we're doing our trip planning for 2021 and make sure that you are
subscribed because we'll have another video coming out on that also very very soon but we're thinking
about are there other memberships that we would benefit from or that we would possibly use and
find use from and one of those is Harvest Hosts Harvest Hosts is 79 dollars a year at the time of this
recording and what it does is it allows you to boondock at breweries wineries museums and other
locations the only thing that they expect is that you do purchase something part of the reason that
we haven't purchased the harvest host membership is because boondocking is just really not our
preferred camp style we do boondock and we have boondocked but it's been out of necessity where
we just needed a place to stay very quickly going from one place to the next and weren't really
planning on staying a very long length of time in a specific area and so we just at this point
haven't felt like that maybe we would benefit from it as much the other thing is is looking at where
some of the locations have been just haven't been in the areas that we've traveled much as of yet
now this next year could change because in addition to wineries and breweries there's
farms and so that's something that I could see we might would enjoy with the kids being able to
um explore farms explore orchards things like that to where it's a little bit more family-friendly
not just centered around beer and wine but some of those locations could be fun but it just kind of
depends upon your camping style and where you're going so it's something we're thinking about
but not necessarily sold on yet another camping membership that we currently don't have that we
have considered and maybe we'll consider again this year is Boondocker's Welcome now Boondocker's
Welcome is where people that maybe have a little bit of land or that have a very very large
driveway where there's no hoa restrictions with rvs can let you boom dock in their driveway or
on their property now some of these particular sites will ask that you pay a very small fee to
help offset things like electricity if they're offering electric to you now the biggest reason
we haven't done this is because we have a 40-foot motorhome and there's not a lot of places where
you're going to be able to fit this on a driveway or maneuver it around tight corners out in the
country depending upon how fencing's laid out or whatever so the biggest reason that we haven't
done it yet is because of the size of our rig and the fact of having kids with our family
it makes more sense for us to stay at an rv park with full hookups especially if it's going to be
a couple days if it's just overnight we'll stay at you know cracker barrel or a Walmart if it's
available which a little tip if you look on RV Parky you can find out if there's a Cracker Barrel
or Walmart available nearby that does allow for overnight parking yeah and that works out really
well and that's more kind of our boondocking style is just that one night in between destinations
so now let's talk about what we've said no to and why we have said no to some of the bigger
memberships out there now the biggest one out there probably that everybody has heard of
is Thousand Trails now before we talk about why we said no to thousand trails I want to clear
up a little bit of a misconception that I had about Thousand Trail campgrounds and that being
that you can only stay at a thousand trails campground if you're a thousand trails member
which is not the case we have actually stayed at a couple of different thousand trail parks
so we do have some experience with the park system having actually stayed at some of the
thousand trail parks to be able to experience what they're like and after we've stayed at a few of
these parks do you feel like that that reinforces our no to thousand trails yeah it just doesn't
fit our camping lifestyle so the two that we have stayed at have really been in disrepair one of the
thousand trails we did actually enjoy because of the sand dunes which was the pacific dunes rv
resort they've not been kept up as well as some of the other rv parks that we've stayed at now that
being said the rates were decent even though we are not 1000 trails members as far as just
being comparable with what other rv parks in the area were charging here is a little hint
and how that we got to stay at the pacific dunes in oceano which we love that one actually that one
was really nice the campground itself um isn't anything to write home about but the location
where it backs up to the dunes is a really amazing location to be at now every year the world series
is played and thousand trails if you're on their email list will send out an email and
if you guess the winning team of the world series they will send you a discount code for 50 off of
your stay and so I have booked us a thousand trail campgrounds even though we're not members at fifty
percent off by guessing which team is going to win the world series and I've been right both times
so let's talk about why we said no to thousand trails so one of the reasons that we've said no
is because looking at the park system and where the parks are located they are not really located
along a lot of the travel routes that we tend to take in places that we want to visit they tend to
be towards like the outskirts of the United States and there's not a lot that are like in mid-America
or like the midwest and so that tends to be routes that we take and then the other thing is
is that when it comes to just how we choose to budget and how we choose to handle finances
we're not really big on like pre-paying for things um we're not big on prepaid anything
really and thousand trails is a lot more like of a prepaid camping where you know you pay
a larger fee up front and then you can stay for free throughout the year the other thing
that I've personally found with thousand trails is so confusing it's like you get this zone but
not that zone unless you add this on oh and then that's an encore park sorry that one's different
because it's an encore park or this is a trails collection versus this one and it
just I still don't understand how it all it was so overwhelming and confusing now
we do know people that have thousand trails and they use it and they feel like it saves them money
but the people that we know that are using it are people that do not have any sort of a home base
they 100 percent live in their rigs full time and they also really don't have a set plan as far as
we need to be at this one particular spot or yeah these are the places we're going to go often so
they have that flexibility to just sort of bounce around wherever another downside about Thousand
Trails is that you're never really guaranteed a 50 amp hookup or sewer and if you don't have a 50
amp rig no problem there but sewer for us is kind of a big deal just because we're a family of four
and we will fill up a gray tank extremely fast especially if we're using our washer and dryer so
a sewer is an absolute must now when we stayed at the Thousand trails park in Winter Garden Florida
we were on our way over and I got a phone call from the gal at the front desk that
said we just want to make sure you're fine with 30 amp and I specifically put on the reservation
that we needed a 50. and so I explained no we need a 50. it's Florida in September we need to be able
to run both of our air conditioning units and so they did put us in a 50 amp site so that was fine
but especially as some of these parks get more full for example Florida in the winter some of
these sites do fill up sooner versus later so for us not being 100 full-time in the
sense of we do have a home base to be able to come back to and we don't live in our rig 365
and with really having set destinations that we want to go to and that we want to see she's a
planner I am a planner and I think you would say that's worked out fairly well I do appreciate
it it just doesn't make sense for us to say yes so we had to give thousand trials a thumbs down
and say no because it didn't make sense for us financially but also just to be able to have any
other sort of just benefit from having that type of a membership now it's not all doom and gloom
some thousand trails are decent one of them being thousand trails Orlando we've been there
to visit some friends and it is really a nice park they're adding a lot of improvements at the
moment they're adding a lot of extra sites they were doing improvements to their pool area and
so there are some parks that they're pouring some resources into to be able to improve and upgrade
but it's just still not enough to make us say yes we'd love to hear your thoughts down below
staying at any of the thousand trail campgrounds if you liked it disliked it another one that we've
said no to is Escapees now this is nothing against escapees we know a ton of people that have said
yes to Escapees but for us it just didn't make sense a lot of the benefits that they provide
really aren't something we need like you know mail service or mail service forwarding help setting up
a domicile in a specific state and of course events which events are always fun we're always
up for going and hanging out with other rvers but right now absolutely there really aren't any
of that can't really do events not a membership that has made sense for us right now it could at
some particular point in time down the road but we've chosen to say no just because the benefits
that we need aren't there so thank you so much for watching this video about campground memberships
make sure that you drop us a comment below let us know what memberships that you have found value
in and maybe some of the ones that you've said no to also make sure that if you enjoyed this video
give us a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell when you ring that bell or click
on that bell what that does is it provides you with a notification every time we release a new
video and you definitely don't want to miss some of the videos that we've got coming up we've got
the ultimate rvers gift guide coming up we've got our rv renovation series tons of fun stuff
that is coming up so make sure you stay tuned and until next time we'll see you on the road
you do better at that grab a beer oh [ __ ] shoot bee god I hate bees
sorry okay I'm not scared of snakes not scared of bears
or spiders or spiders but when it comes to bees I scream like a girl