Campgrounds Membership Programs
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Gotta Catch Em’ All
“I got a free 1 year membership to Thousand Trails with my new travel trailer, are they any good?” I said to my friend whose photos of travels in HIS trailer are the reason I got mine (he knows who he is, and I blame him for this debt).
I went on a bit of a camping group binge at first. I felt like I had to collect them like pokemon to get THE best campgrounds and the best deals. I had subscriptions to Thousand Trails, Passport America, Good Sam, and signed up for so many free email lists it was insane. I had an email filter JUST for campground emails, newsletters, etc. And this was before my travel trailer even went on its maiden voyage!
It was a LOT. Trip planning became analysis paralysis our first season. Which campground did we want to go to, who had the best deal, who had full hookups, was it a blackout weekend on Passport? Did Good Sam have a better deal? I was pulling my hair out.
Memberships Options & What We Learned
In our second season, we let all of our camping passes, trials, and subscriptions lapse. Nearly 2 camping seasons in, and we barely used any of them, some we didn’t use at all! The one we used the most was our Thousand Trails trial subscription which also expired.
Let’s review each membership we had and what I learned.
Thousand Trails
Speaking with other Thousand Trails members I met along our travels, everyones results vary wildly.
Thousand Trails is a membership organization where you choose one of 5 regions of the US you want to camp in, and pay a base fee of $475/year. This gets you nearly unlimited access to all of their campgrounds in that region, whenever you want, as long as they are open with availability, up to I believe 2 consistent weeks per park at a time. You can add “regions” to your camping pass which tacks another $140 per year onto your membership, and if you want some of their nicer and more luxurious campgrounds, its another add-on fee of another $475 I believe. As an example, our trial membership was for the Northeast region only and covered only their base campgrounds. If we had renewed, it would have been $475/year, but if we also wanted to add the Southeast, it would have been another $140/year, and if we wanted the upgraded group of campgrounds, another $475. $1090/year. Honestly, if you’ll use it, it’s not a bad deal.
However. There’s a lot to consider. Quality of their campgrounds is wildly different. Many of their campgrounds that I visited were generationally owned family campgrounds that needed significant facelifts, and were primarily long term seasonal campers. One of the campgrounds had about 90% seasonals and most of their sites looked like hoarders junkyards. I also visited some that were relatively nice and had a great staff.
My biggest complaints about Thousand Trails are the predatory contract, how unsafe the campgrounds are for getting your sites, and the website. I’ll explain.
Complex Subscription Cancellation Policies. If you search on the internet, you’ll find hundreds of stories of people that are unable to get out of their contracts because they didn’t properly follow a very complicated cancellation policy. That, or they did, and customer service wouldn’t return calls or emails, and since it was out of the cancellation window, they would get stuck with the contract. Laws have become tighter, allowing people to get out of predatory timeshare agreements, and I feel (vibes, not proof), that many of those folks got into the campground business. Looking at the history of Thousand Trails, they used to be owned by a timeshare company which divested in the late 90’s, and are now owned by a massive real estate investment trust. Luckily, I was in a trial and never signed up, so I had nothing to cancel, but I mostly enjoyed our membership while we had it.
No Assigned Sites = Dangerous. Not a single Thousand Trail campground assigned sites upon checkin. When you arrived and checked in, you were instructed to drive around the campground until you found a spot you liked, then call the office, tell them your site #, and they’d register you. At first I liked this because I got to pick whatever site I wanted. But after a few stays, I found this to significantly increase the risk of damaging our rig, and it increases the likelihood of kids being struck. There were several times we drove around in circles for a while because we couldn’t fit a site that properly fit our rig, or the site was unreasonably un-level. Once, we found a nice spot, set up, hooked up, started relaxing, and we were told it was a seasonal site and had an hour to move or they’d tow me. That was the last time we visited a Thousand Trail and never renewed.
The website is horrific. It is constant ads, trying to get you to upgrade your membership on a regular basis. Also it was hard to see what other campgrounds may or may not be available on a given day/week, and you had to go into each individual one to enter your camping details to get availability. It was excruciating.
VERDICT: On a scale of 1 out of 5 with 5 being the best, I give it a 3. The bad contract, not able to secure a site, and bad website. Otherwise, if you’re a full timer or 3/4 timer and need longer term places to stay with some variety, TT is a good deal. If you’re just starting out in your RV life, there are other places you can put your money.
Passport America
PA is more or less just a discount program at participating campgrounds. Membership starts at $50/year (there are sales pretty often), with a 3 year option at $129, 5 years at $199, and lifetime at $400.
Honestly, its not a bad price. However, you have to jump through hoops to book with any of their campgrounds. We had our membership at a discount for $40 for a year, and we never used it once. We tried to book with several of their participating campgrounds, but at the time, you had to call the campground directly, ask if they would still accept the discount, and if they did, you couldn’t use it during blackout periods. Blackout periods were mostly weekends and holidays, ya know, when most people want to camp. In addition, the list of campgrounds that participate gets smaller year by year.
The PA card also has other benefits such as RV insurance discounts, a trip planning tool, and other discount programs.
Verdict: Out of 5, I give it a hard 1. I really cant vouch for their participating campgrounds since we never got a chance to book one due to blackout days. However, for the price, and again, if you travel a ton and are on the road more than I am, it may be worth it. But I felt that with all the hoops I had to jump through just to book a campground since I HAD to call each campground, had no website to book reservations through, and many blackout periods, it wasn’t worth it.
Good Sam
The value in the Good Sam membership is for the rewards at Camping World. There is a lot of talk about the quality of RV service at Camping World , and i’ll let you look that up yourself. However, I LOVE the Camping World stores for gear, getting to see new gadgets in person, and pick up some backups of things. The good Sam membership gives you discounts at the campgrounds they partner with as well.
We only stayed at a few Good Sam campgrounds, and they were ok at best. Just like Passport, its a partnership and you have to ask if they accept it, with some blackout days.
However, the blackout days weren’t a huge deal because we had the Good Sam card for the Camping World benefits and earning rewards, not so much the camping benefits, that was more of a bonus for us. At the end of each season I typically wind up having to pay a lot less for antifreeze because of my accumulated Camping World points.
Verdict: I give it a 3.5/5, solely because the campgrounds that accepted it were just ok, but the rewards points for Camping World are fantastic.
KOA Rewards (Kampgrounds of America)
To be transparent, i’m a huge fan of KOA’s, so i’m definitely going to sound biased. But to be clear, as i’ve stated several times before, we accept no money or influence from campgrounds to provide fair and honest reviews. I’m just personally a big fan of the brand.
KOA Rewards is $40 a year. You immediately get 10% off all of their campgrounds. You can rack up rewards points with a transparent point system. You get a free night during their KOA rewards members weekend annually. If you get enough points, you use them for $’s off reservations. Last, but not least, if you accumulate enough points in a year, they automatically renew you for the rewards program at a “VIP” tier for the following year for free. The VIP tier gets you more rewards points per dollar, thus, more free money to spend on stays.
Not to mention, great discounts at their partners like Goodyear, RV Mattress, Progressive Insurance, Coleman, etc. The deals can get bigger at certain times of the year as well. At one point I got 20% off of a set of Goodyear Tires (higher than their usual 10-15% off for KOA members), it saved me a boatload.
Their campgrounds, while some can be hit or miss, are still pretty great. There’s plenty to do for the family, are usually close to many attractions, and are well kept campgrounds. Even the KOA’s that were a “miss” still tend to be pretty good.
Verdict: $40 a year for 10% off all campgrounds, accumulative rewards points to use for money off reservations, a free enrollment or auto-renewal for VIP rewards if you earn enough points in a year, and great partner discounts. You really can’t beat it. There are KOA’s all over the country, and with different tiers of campgrounds (Journey, Holiday, Resort), they have amenities for every need. The only downside to KOA is they tend to be a bit more pricier with higher than average camping costs. However, in some of their campgrounds, I almost consider them the Disney World of campgrounds. Sure, you’ll spend more money, but the value per dollar is higher.
Others
State Park Passes are worth looking into. Many states offer an annual, or sometimes even lifetime state park memberships that can provide HEAVILY discounted camping. My parents have one of these for Maryland and I think they pay maybe $20 a night now after purchasing their golden pass for life.
Resort Parks International (RPI) A reciprocal access network with a large number of resorts across the country. Often purchased as an add-on to a Thousand Trails membership, but available standalone.
Coast to Coast RV Resorts Similar model to Thousand Trails. Known for offering a free 2-night introductory stay -- which comes with a sales presentation. Worth researching before committing.
Escapees RV Club Community-focused and popular with full-timers. Discounts on campgrounds, mail forwarding, healthcare resources, and a strong peer network. Less about saving on individual nights, more about support infrastructure for life on the road.
Harvest Hosts Under $100/year gets you free overnight parking at farms, wineries, breweries, and museums. No hookups at most locations, so you need to be self-contained. A genuinely unique experience if you’re not chained to full hookups every night.
Boondockers Welcome Access to private property hosts -- real people who let you park on their land for free. Over 3,500 hosts across the country. Add it to a Harvest Hosts membership and you’ve got a solid alternative camping stack for around $169/year combined.
Campright / Elite Resorts A smaller regional network with a footprint in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Worth knowing if you camp heavily in that corridor.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Most experienced RVers don’t pick just one. They stack programs, maybe a Thousand Trails zone pass for their home region, KOA rewards for discount nights elsewhere, and Harvest Hosts for something different on the road.
That said, read the contracts before you sign anything. Some of these programs are straightforward annual subscriptions. Others come with multi-year commitments, transfer restrictions, and exit headaches that are harder to undo than they look on paper.
My recommendation to you is if you are just starting out, don’t sign up for any. Learn how you like to camp and where you like to camp. Figure out what type of campgrounds you like, what amenities work best, and what are truly “nice to haves” versus requirements.
Once you figure out what works best for you, THEN buy your memberships or affiliations. Or, you’ll wind up like I did in the beginning, with a stack of cards in your wallet, a full email inbox, and a face full of confusion.
I also like KOA. About 15 years ago, we bought a 13-year membership to a Resorts of Distinction campground in PA which qualified us to also join Coast to Coast and use Hopaway Holidays. Our campground had a sister campground in NY which we could use about the same as our home campground. We didn’t use the membership at the ROD campgrounds as much as we would have liked, but I loved the security and sometimes went tent camping solo. We used the Coast to Coast several times, getting a particularly good deal once near Disneyland and took the whole family. Loved Hopaway Holiday and got some super deals on it. These trips help offset the expense of the ROD membership. About 7-8 years in, we paid to extend the 13-year period to lifetime.
Around year 11, the owner of our home campground sold it but assured all the members that our memberships would be honored by the buyers. A couple months short of the 13 years, all members were informed by the new owners that the memberships would NOT be honored. Hit hardest were members who paid to have permanent sites for trailer-type homes and folks who had just signed on. Some people lost up to $20,000. In light of that, I’m thankful we lost only the upgrade money which was significant but not nearly what others did.
Of course, not signing onto another home campground and no longer belonging to ROD, that automatically wiped out being eligible for Coast and Hopaway which was also a real bummer.
Live and learn - the legalese of the contract was such that if the owner sold, new owners weren’t obligated in any way. So, the owner we contracted with basically got away with a whole lot of money.
If you sign on to such thing with a home campground, MAKE SURE your contract is done in a way that this won’t happen to you.