Camping Clubs?

[Ron & Alice]

Hi everybody,
Before we get too far into camping (just bought our 264SR) - do you recommend joining any of these camping clubs that offer cheaper rates, etc? There are SO many of them to choose from, so how to we decide, or do we not??

TKX, Alice

 

[poppyandnana]

We belong to Good Sam but in all honesty we do most of our camping in state campgrounds....so if we are looking for a private campground we do try to find a Good Sam affiliate.

I'm sure it will also depend on how much camping you do....other will be chiming in I'm sure.

Oh by the way - welcome to the club!

 

[pwb01]

I think you can save some money with Good Sam if you do a lot of camping in private sites. We joined for a year but never saw any advantages for the cost since we mostly camp at $21/ night state sites. We do have RV insurance through AAA for about $80/year for car and trailer.

 

[SteveC7010]

In the past few years, we've spent at least 32 days a year in New York State operated campgrounds in the Adirondacks on our own plus another 3 or 4 days with the folks here on sunlineclub.com at the ADK Meet & Greet.

Other than that, we do occasional weekends at other NYS operated campgrounds around the state.

Our experience may not be typical, but we have shied away from private parks because of sky-rocketing costs, preferential treatment given to seasonal residents, and some other factors.

A camping club membership doesn't fit our camping style, but others have different experiences.

 

[Honda03842]

Camping Clubs

We belong to three camping clubs. Good Sams offers a small discount at a lot of campgrounds, Passport offers a 50% discount at about 1500 campgrounds in the US and Canada and Escapees offers about 20-30 of their own very nice campgrounds in the US that are about $15 a night and a 1000 campgrounds that are 15% off with some that are 50% off.

We camp at least 7 months of the year and Passport usually pays for it self in the first couple of weeks. Last year we discovered that Ohio state parks take Passport, nice parks great price.

I think it depends on the kind of camping you do and how much of it, we are not weekend campers, but rather travelers, therefore some of our stops are simply way point stops..

We typically spend at least a month a year in Escapee parks, easily covering our fees in some of the nicest parks. In addition Escappee discounts are greater than Good Sams.

Unfortunately I'm not too familiar with Canadian camping clubs though we've done extensive camping in Canada.

Of course our best deal for camping is our Golden Eagle pass for national park camping offereing a 50% discount at all US National Parks.

a rather disjointed response,
Norm

 

[Ron & Alice]

Ok, thanks folks,
BIG help. I am quite familiar with Good Sam's, and my bil has Passport, but that is all.

Since we plan on trying to do this inexpensively (yeah, right, eh?) we will probably do State parks also. Also, some of the RV parks we have seen just don't fit our lifestyles or personalities. We like the quiet life, getting to know people on a couple basis, rather than be swarmed at spaghetti suppers, Bingos, etc.