By Chris Mott
Every morning I look out my window, mostly to remind me where I am, because it changes. At age 57, I stopped working, sold my house and all my stuff, bought a new fifth wheel, and moved 1,100 miles from the warmth of Southern California to the gloom of the Pacific Northwest. The reason is simple and small, my new granddaughter!
After 14 months of staying with the kids, watching the baby grow, and helping my son with his fixer-upper home, my wife and I hit the road.
Why I chose the Thousand Trails Camping Pass over other memberships
We were not newbies to the RV life—we’d owned a Jayco hybrid camping trailer for 22 years and had camped in every state west of the Rockies, and several on the other side, even Canada. But those were three-week trips, and living in an RV full-time comes with logistical challenges—not the least of which is a place to park every night.
I looked into options including KOA, Harvest Hosts, Good Sam, and Thousand Trails. There were varying prices, options, and features. Ultimately, I chose the Camping Pass offered by Thousand Trails. This is a nationwide chain of RV “resorts” that offer short- and long-term stays. They also have an ownership program, but which the company refuses to acknowledge is actually a timeshare. It’s like the old saying about walking and talking like a duck, then it must be a duck!
The TT Camping Pass offers 12 months of camping with no nightly fees for an annual fee of $725 per region. We purchased the Southwest Region, which included California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. There are restrictions, naturally, but it sounded great.
The reality was far from the sales pitch! We’d stayed at a couple of TT parks in the past so we kind of knew what we were getting into, but overall we were very disappointed.
Here are the top three reasons we canceled our Thousand Trails membership
- Stay restrictions—You are limited to a 14-day stay, which is reasonable. However, if you stay 14 days then you can’t stay again at any property for another 14 days. So I paid just $570 ($625.86 with tax) for 180 days of camping. Now I’m not so naive as to believe that we were really going to get that many days, but I figured we’d try it out and see what we could get.
- Reservations—Like any campground, you need to make reservations far in advance. With a Camping Pass, you are limited to 60 days out. If you want to reserve space farther ahead, then you need to upgrade your membership. The first, and only, time we used our Camping Pass we reserved a 14-day stay at their Thousand Trails Palm Springs “resort”. It was the only property in our region that had any availability, for members.
- Non-members given priority—Only one property in our region had space available within our 60-day reservation window when I logged in. But when I opened a separate web browser and checked the TT website without logging in, I found lots of space available, at the full retail price, of course, starting at around $90 per night.
- Lack of properties—Another issue was that although the Southwest Region pass we bought encompassed six states, two of them, Utah and New Mexico, had no properties. On top of that, Nevada and Colorado only had one each and in Arizona, all of the properties except one were part of their Encore Resorts program, which wasn’t available to us on the Camping Pass.
We kept our membership after that experience hoping to use it occasionally. I kept logging in but everything was booked out for members. I ended up calling TT and canceling my membership. They refused at first, but ultimately they relented and sent me a cancellation email.
In the end, for my 14-day stay, the $625.86 I paid for my membership averaged out to $44.70 per night. This is far above the $3.47 per night it would have averaged out to had I been able to achieve the maximum 180 nights of camping, but is still half the $90 retail rate.
Do you have a Thousand Trails Camping Pass membership? Do you have a similar story to tell? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
##RVT1171
Thank you for sharing your experience. Often the catches are in the details, so your post was useful!
You are welcome. We all learn by helping each other. I have never not been able to stay at my first choice campground. This includes places like Verde Valley, Palm Springs, & Two Narrows at Bar Harbor. I also started with a Camping Pass to see if I would like it. I can say I have stayed at private campgrounds that were much worse than some of the Thousand Trails!
I can empathize. Also, the numerous Passport America restrictions, impediments, and some down right crappy campgrounds warranted our nonrenewal of that membership.
Very smart, GrumpyVet! 🙂 We had delusions of Passport America being a good deal and extended our “annual” into a “lifetime” before having those same realizations as you had much earlier. 🙁 Have a great day, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂
Thousand Trails has not changed a bit. We had this same problem when we tried them over 15 years ago. Thanks for the update. We find ourselves using our Harvest Host more and more. Last year when we crossed the country in the heat of summer we could not use them and had to cancel a couple of times because we had to have AC This year we find electricity listed on more sights.
Thousand Trails memberships are similar to other camping membership programs. There are limited spaces available at each location with each membership. I have been a full-timer for over five years. I have memberships with Thousand Trails (I started with the camping pass), Coast to Coast, RPI, Passport America, Harvest Hosts, Good Sam, and KOA. I usually start my search online with the web. If I don’t find space, I call the respective call center. I will finally call the location directly. Each has a different availability and booking options. Thousand Trails availability seems to change most often. Being persistent is my best advice.
Thank you, Chris! 🙂 Your third reason is the biggest reason we have never considered joining Thousand Trails. We don’t travel enough to buy anything more than the Southeast package (?) and it is pretty empty outside of Florida. But, I think that we did make a mistake in buying a lifetime membership in Passport America. Although there are campgrounds nationwide, the “fine print restrictions” render it close to useless. I continue to check their website for locations when we plan a trip, but nothing ever works. Looks like the first time that we stayed in one (2 1/2 years ago and counting) will be the last.🤔 Thanks again, have a great day, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂
I also purchased a lifetime membership with Passport America. I felt similarly until this year. I was able to book a stay at half off the rack rate, which was almost half of my lifetime membership. It made me feel better.
We got the SE region of TT for one year with our campervan purchase. Went to two parks and were not impressed. Both were crowded and run down. Sites way too close together. Utilities in bad shape. Just generally low quality. We much prefer state parks. We are not full timers. The parks we saw are definitely not something we’d consider a destination in our trip planning. We let it expire at the one year point.
We belong to TT and have experienced the same thing about 6 months ago (only time in 4 years). I had to call because their website would not show any spaces available for more than 1 or 2 days when I was logged in, but when not logged in and looking as a non-member it showed spaces available for a 2 week stay (which I was trying to reserve). The person I talked to was able to reserve a two week stay for us 1-2 days at a time until it totalled 2 weeks. the only reason we keep our TT membership is that the cost of membership is equal to about 2-3 weeks at a KOA
We had a TT membership, bought the first year on a promotion. Used it once in our state at Camp Verde, not great site but OK. Then it took some emails, letters, etc to cancel our membership after the first year because they don’t make it easy so they keep charging you. We like to plan our longer trips more than 60 days in advance as we attempted to book up the West coast. We did not want to up our membership to get the 90 days. It just didn’t fit our travel lifestyle. If we want to stay at TT we will just pay the full price in the future.
$3.47/night assumption?
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
As with most any “corporation” greed takes precedence.
We are coming up on one year with a TT camping pass. We rarely book more than 2 weeks in advance and have never had an issue getting a site, even on a busy holiday weekend. We have stayed about 70 nights. Sure, some of the parks need improvements but for us it has been a great value.
We bought a higher level of TT planning to be full time or almost full time. We went to La Conner WA. It was an okay campground but the first come first serve doesn’t go well with us. Arriving after hours, in the dark, was our fault. But hunting for a spot to park was near impossible. In the end we didn’t hit the road and after paying 9 years of dues we canceled it. Yes that was on us but it began to dawn on me as I searched for campsites they weren’t there.
We have the camping pass also for the South region and it’s frustrating. I’ve found that many of the parks TT also have other rates via Passport America, Good Sam, etc. and that your sites are better many times. We stay in a very nice Encore resort in Donna, Tx and reserved direct for a month. It was $900 for a premium spot. They have a small TT section in the back next to the dumpsters and highway.
We started full-time RV life on December 1st this past year, so we’ve been traveling for just over 8 months. We spent 3 of those months parked at an unrelated resort that we had booked far in advance. We just crossed 120 days of TT parks though, and for us, it’s been worth it. We travel to the Pacific Northwest in the summers (our former home area) and to Florida in the winters to be near my folks. We do have the upgraded membership giving us access to the whole country and earlier reservations, and because I plan our trips so far out, we haven’t really run into any problems booking. For us, it’s been worth it, but your mileage may vary. It’s obviously not for everyone.
Yup, Timeshare.
A little more research, and your experience might have been different. You are only required to be out of system for 7 days not 14. With the purchase of the trails collection you would have access to lots of really nice 5 star resorts. I spent a winter in Arizona for $600. With the majority of Thousand Trails concentrated in the pacific northwest, I’ve never had a problem booking a site.
When we first started out, friends advised us to join CRA (Calif River Adventures) and Resort International. We did, and also learned the hard way that it wasn’t worth it. Back in 2012, getting reservations across the country turned out not to be difficult nor that expensive (even though CRA told us it would be). Their places were out of way and/or unavailable. We paid a lot for very little. Le$$ons learned…
About eight years ago we went to a CRA campground off of Highway 50 in the California Sierras. It was pretty nice, a little hard to get into. During the sales presentation, seeing the buy-in cost and where the campgrounds were located, it was obvious that we would almost never be near any of their parks. Meanwhile, our full membership to Thousand Trails this past 20 years has served us well.
Thousand Trails:
We had similar experiences where availability was limited or non existent. The other issue that was even more disturbing is that many “parks” we stayed in had long term trailer trash residents that essentially lived in broken down, non-operable trash trailers. In many parks, we did not feel safe, and the “term” residents were often rude and acted like we were imposing upon their lives.
I had the same experience at the only TT “resort” I stayed at. I would have been so p1$$ed if I had bought a membership and that was my first stop. I too would be canceling like the author.
Please tell us which parks are the trashy ones so I can avoid them.
We have stayed at several Thousand Trails parks over the years and found them to not be the kind of RV parks we desire to stay at. We never purchased anything with them but tested them out for free when given some guest memberships. Most TT parks that we wanted to stay at would not fit our RV.
We have used Thousand Trails many times across the country, and it has paid for itself 3x over. I knew what I was buying and limitations. It’s not perfect, but I would buy again without hesitation. I have not found a better value.
We have the TT Adventure Package which allows you to book TT parks 180 days in advance, Encore Parks 90, provides access to RPI properties for 2 years w/o membership and stays generally run about $20 per night. We have used National/State/County and ACOE parks when a TT park was not available (due to our choice of destinations, i.e., Arkansas). We have already recouped our TT Adventure Package cost. Typically RVers who are unhappy with TT, we find, is because they’re not willing to make the proper investment. TT is not for everyone but it’s a good fit for many. I think it’s only fair both sides are represented here.
I think a TT membership might be worthwhile if you are willing to spend the time to “work the system”. There are so many hoops to jump through it would not be worth it for me though. I am not interested in stepping over dollars to save a nickle. Same for Passport America and Encore, just too much hassle. We were in a campground membership years ago called American Adventure and we used it only a few times. I could just never get the stars to line up to get the reservations we wanted. Timeshare is the correct description.
My family has enjoyed Thousand Trails for decades. It has worked well for us. We also keep Passport America, just in case an opportunity pops up, but it never does. At some point in a TTN upgrade, a requirement was added to our agreement that required us to have an active RPI membership to get a 50% TTN reduction at an Encore park. Too complicated! We had dumped RPI years ago because, like Passport, it was never available when needed. Too many twists and turns in today’s RV membership programs, but there are other options to check out, such as Harvest Hosts, Elks and Moose lodges, COE, small private and municipal parks, fairgrounds, and many more. Plan ahead and don’t give up.
I love reading how people think TT is a waste of money, I had the camping pass for a year, 2022-23, then upgraded to the adventure pass and it has saved me thousands. From August 2023 to August 2024 I stayed in TT and Encore parks 239 days and was able to go park to park and stay 21 days at a time in AZ, CA and CO with a bonus week for only $29 at TT parks. The camping pass is NOT for full timers, spend $5-15k on a full membership and you’ll be happier.
Retired at 57? Boy, you’ll take a Social Security hit. Average life expectancy is about 20 to 25 years after retirement at whatever age you retire.
Great. This discussion points to exactly the concerns that I had when I considered membership. I appreciate knowing that I made exactly the right choice.
I completely agree; we dropped our TT membership after only a year for the same reasons.
We could never seem to get a reservation in the timeframe we needed in either of the two regions we subscribed to.
On top of that, making reservations thru the app invariably led to a “call for assistance” message, and the customer service people really weren’t that helpful.
And on top of that it seemed they constantly inundated us with invitations to upgrade our membership. We concluded that, if they can’t give us decent service at our current subscription level, the odds were good that higher levels wouldn’t be much different.
Nice article! I’ve been trying to cancel my membership for months. I have a two year contract, but when they removed access to the calendar it made it harder to book dates. They said I can’t cancel but can’t point to a non-cancellation policy. Seeking legal advice
Many encore parks, I think they are called summer destination parks in the east coast now.. only have a few spots available per week. One park has 200 plus retail sites and in that 12 are designated for Camping pass members..Makes it hard if you have a lesser membership than the more costly one
We are FT RVers and TT has worked well for us. We use their web reservation system mostly, but have received awesome service from their chat and “call back” phone service. Agree that you need to be patient and work the system. If you do, then the per night cost is very reasonable.