My wife and I are hoping to start hitting the road 6 to 8 months per year when I retire at the end of the year, one of our main concerns is campground fees, 40+ dollars a night can really add up. Can any of the full-timers suggest the best way to address this issue, are there good clubs to join or memberships to buy? Hope to meet many of you on our travels, this has been a dream of ours for almost 30 years.
Lucky Mike said
02:24 PM Oct 2, 2013
Wecome and glad to hear your almost there!!!
Passport america.. will save you half off most times
Prep up for boondocking , this will save alot during travel and in areas where you can Dry camp.
most parks with 40. nites are cheaper if you stay a week or a month preplan where your going.
Loretta said
06:02 PM Oct 2, 2013
Congratulations. I am with Mike, Passport America is worth the price. It pays for itself over and over. We joined almost all of the clubs when we first started a year ago and find that we use PA and Good Sam, for their Camping World discounts, more than any other cards. Hope to meet up with you somewhere down the road.
igotjam said
01:57 AM Oct 3, 2013
Its hard not to travel all the time when you start out, but weekly or monthly rates are usually less than daily rates.
NWescapee said
02:55 AM Oct 3, 2013
We're also finding that county parks, in some areas, can be a real bargain. We seldom have FHUs, but usually W/E with access to a dump station. Our average for county parks over the past 10 weeks (4 weeks in county parks in various locations) has been $19/night. Next week we'll be in a county park in California, between Sacramento and the Bay Area for $25/night, believe me, for California, that is a REAL bargain. One advantage we're finding is that they are usually quieter, usually a little more room between the sites and unlike state parks, they are seldom full.
Note: we've only been FT for 11 weeks, but we've already paid for Passport America and we've only used it a total of 6 nights. Definitely worth it, and was really nice to have for a couple of enroute stops when we could have "Wally docked" but decided that for $15/night we'd rather have electricity. Both of those times it was either hot (90's) or cold (40's) and it was nice to be able to have electric to turn on the AC or heater.
Also, in one of Howard's August blogs he reminded us of freecampsites.net. We've only used a couple of the recommendations but one was for a city park in the middle of WY, donations accepted. Given that it was in the 90's, we were happy to have 50 amp electric hookups (no water, no dump station, but a very quiet location 2 miles from the Interstate) and stuck a $10 in the donation box and felt like it was a great bargain and a very easy one night stopover as we were enroute to Colorado.
TheNewhalls said
02:39 PM Oct 19, 2013
I agree with Mike & Loretta Passport America is worth the price.
My wife and I are hoping to start hitting the road 6 to 8 months per year when I retire at the end of the year, one of our main concerns is campground fees, 40+ dollars a night can really add up. Can any of the full-timers suggest the best way to address this issue, are there good clubs to join or memberships to buy? Hope to meet many of you on our travels, this has been a dream of ours for almost 30 years.
Passport america.. will save you half off most times
Prep up for boondocking , this will save alot during travel and in areas where you can Dry camp.
most parks with 40. nites are cheaper if you stay a week or a month preplan where your going.
Congratulations. I am with Mike, Passport America is worth the price. It pays for itself over and over. We joined almost all of the clubs when we first started a year ago and find that we use PA and Good Sam, for their Camping World discounts, more than any other cards. Hope to meet up with you somewhere down the road.
Note: we've only been FT for 11 weeks, but we've already paid for Passport America and we've only used it a total of 6 nights. Definitely worth it, and was really nice to have for a couple of enroute stops when we could have "Wally docked" but decided that for $15/night we'd rather have electricity. Both of those times it was either hot (90's) or cold (40's) and it was nice to be able to have electric to turn on the AC or heater.
Also, in one of Howard's August blogs he reminded us of freecampsites.net. We've only used a couple of the recommendations but one was for a city park in the middle of WY, donations accepted. Given that it was in the 90's, we were happy to have 50 amp electric hookups (no water, no dump station, but a very quiet location 2 miles from the Interstate) and stuck a $10 in the donation box and felt like it was a great bargain and a very easy one night stopover as we were enroute to Colorado.
I agree with Mike & Loretta Passport America is worth the price.
Gino