Full-Timing Corner

[KkrosAnnie]

Twenty years ago we "inherited" my parent's Thousand Trails membership. By the time all the paper work was done for the transfer, we were paying almost $500 a year compared to the $100 my parents had paid. At that time in our lives, that was a lot of money that we didn't have the time to make use of, and when we did get out "camping," we preferred (and still do) some of our state parks...Flagler, Cape Disappointment, Nehalem Bay, Pot Holes... We let the membership go and haven't regretted it.

[Jeff Collingwood]

Greg has some good suggestions.  Another one, get a membership with "frozen" dues.  Ours with Western Horizons is frozen at $199 per year.  And for sure, buy a used membership.  A membership with Western Horizons at full price can cost anywhere between $6,000 and up.  I got a used one that would have been about $8,000 for only $3500.

One of the cheapest memberships to be found is Coast to Coast.  You can get a used membership for as low as $200 and with dues frozen at $39 a year.  Camping fees with C2C are $10 per night.

If you are a full time traveler, memberships can be very cost effective.  Like Greg said, for the first two years don't buy one, see how your traveling style is going to be and only then can you make a decision if membership is the way to go for you.  I am keeping a spreadsheet of our camping costs.   After two years, I have not broken even on the membership parks, but that will happen sometime next year.  With us being in Alaska, the opportunity for staying in the membership parks is not there.  But when we travel in the lower 48 we do and we only need another 100 nights to break even.  Right now our membership park camping is costing us $32 a night.  That includes all first time cost, the dues, and the nightly fees if any.  As a comparison, our overall camping fees is at $13.69 a night (this is membership and non-membership park camping).  Of course, this includes a lot of free camping.  Like right now, we are camped in the parking lot of the hospital here in Anchorage.

Just remember, never buy from a presentation at full price.  Go through a used membership broker and save a ton.  Just be aware of what you are buying.
...Jeff...

[talltexan]

We concur with Jeff....we bought our Coast to Coast membership in 2006 while in Casa Grande, AZ.  We heard about a great deal from a fellow fulltimer (a retired Wisconsin firefighter) and made Breckenridge Lake Resort near Crossville, TN our home park.  Our total buy in costs was $254 and our annual dues are for the National C2C are $79 and another $99 to Breckenridge Lake Resort.  At $10 a night we figure we have to stay at C2C parks at least 18 nights a year to break even.  We normally stay at many more than that each year....at least double that, so it still works for us. 

We also like US Army Corps of Engineer parks, but can't stay yet at the senior rate, since we are only 61.  But, when we turn 62 we will likely stay more frequently at those parks and, at that point, we may decide to give up our C2C membership.

[mmturtle]

We recouped our membership cost in our first 2 1/2 years. We pay no yearly dues on WH and $150.00 a year on ROD and never boondock. We try to route our travels to use ROD or WH but it is not always possible.
jon

[jericote]

We have a Western Horizons membership for some body if any one is interested. We bought it in 03 before we knew what was going on. They also told us they were buying a park in Branson, Mo that never happened. That would of made it worth while for us. We've used it 2 years out of 7. We have made use of R O D and A O R which is part of WH, so it wasn't a total loss. Any one traveling out west, it is a good deal. They have a lot of parks there. Not so much east of Mississippi. Any one interested, send me a PM.  Elston