I have the opportunity to buy a Coast to Coast Deluxe membership for $750.00 plus all the transfer fees. Transfer fees seem to be about 550.00. The yearly park fee is $99.00 and located in Georgia. So all told it would be about 350.00 a year. Is this a good deal? We do not even have the RV yet, but I was offered it and thought that it might be a great deal.
Sorry I have not been on lately, but 'Real Life' has been intervening.
Terry and Jo said
05:41 PM Nov 15, 2013
Wendy,
I don't personally have an answer for you, but if you use the "Search" function with Coast to Coast as a search phrase, you will find some links that apply. One of those has a comment by me directing the questioner to a link in which Bill Joyce (bjoyce) did a review. The link to Bill's comments are below and is down a way in the thread.
In addition to what I said about Coast to Coast Deluxe (C2CD) on the thread Terry referenced, I also have some general advice about membership camping. Plus a bit more about C2CD.
Membership camping can save you money and be rewarding. But you have to use it and you have to like the campgrounds. If the campgrounds are not where you will be camping, you won't use it. If you can't get into the campground because it is full or the membership sites are full, you will not be using the membership. If you can't live on weak 30 amp water and electric, you will not like many of the campgrounds. (Weak power means the voltage will drop when under load so on a hot day your air conditioner will not run). If you want large campsites, you will not like many of the campgrounds. At some C2C campgrounds you will be a second (or third) class citizen, at others they will treat you well so you might join or tell your friends to join that particular campground. There is no consistency.
We do not have Deluxe, we have a standard C2C membership and only use it one to two weeks a year. In the past our usage was higher, but not very high. Most C2C campgrounds are not Deluxe, so you will be still be limited to one week, twice a year, with a month between stays at those campgrounds. Deluxe only gets you two week stays at Deluxe campgrounds. It is a rare C2C extended travel or fulltime member that can use C2C for more than 25% of their camping. Most will use it for 10% or less.
Campgrounds come and go with these systems, normally slowly. But they can also change the rules. In 2012 The Lakes in Chowchilla CA allowed big rigs, in 2013 they have a 35' maximum.
bjoyce said
08:06 PM Nov 16, 2013
Sorry if I came across negatively, but I find that many take an overly positive view of these systems and think they will use them more and be happier. There are many who are very happy to have C2CD, they use it a lot and like the campgrounds. All I am asking you is to be realistic. One of the most common reasons people quit fulltiming in the first couple years is they were not realistic.
Alie and Jims Carrilite said
03:58 AM Nov 17, 2013
We have a deluxe C2C. For us to break even on it, we have to use it about 90+ nights a year to make it worth while. This includes the cost of buying in Travel Resorts of America, park membership, associated fee's etc.
Now that we are fulltime, we have used it enough to make it worth while.
bjoyce said
10:15 AM Nov 17, 2013
That Thousand Trails membership is an Alliance membership, one of the more popular due to slightly lower dues and a longer reservation window. You have to move every two weeks unless you upgrade. We have a Thousand Trails membership that we can stay 365/366 nights a year in a TT campground for no fees, but do have to move every 3 week. One year we stayed just over 100 nights, but most years it is 50 to 80 nights. In our travels, we find that between TT, C2C, Passport America, Escapees and Elks, we stay about 200 nights a year at a discount and the rest at full price. We don't want to limit our travels and our campground choices. There are also individual membership parks we avoid, since they are not where we want to be, they have no cell phone or internet service, they are not good fits for our RV, they are not good campgrounds because of dust or other reasons, so we stay other places instead.
My experience is those who try to stay only in membership parks to save money are some of the more unhappy fulltimers. They often get in ruts, going the same routes, not seeing anything new, because they refuse to stay anywhere else. Many won't change their ways, they have a plan to always use the membership they spent so much money on and are going to stick to it no matter how miserable they are.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Sunday 17th of November 2013 10:56:30 AM
WendysPhotos said
05:39 PM Nov 17, 2013
Thank You Bill, Allie and Jim for your input.
I guess I should say what we are trying to do. We are going Full-time as soon as the farm sells (could take awhile). What we are trying to do is either get club memberships or other things to keep our monthly park fees to 300-500 a month. Looking at what some of the campgrounds charge for nightly and stuff to me seems outrageous. I mean 30-40 a night x 30 days is more than a mortgage payment in our area for a pretty darn nice house. I know that they usually have discounted weekly and monthly fees, but I want to make sure we always have options.
My parents have thousand Trails Deluxe or something that gives them the 50 nights free and 5.00 afterwards that they say we can use, but I was looking to get two or three different memberships that would pay for themselves and allow us to do what we want. Our big plan is to go see all the things we have never seen in the US. I already have a list of about 500 places Seems we traveled abroad a lot but never visited the US. TT doesn't seem to have as many parks near a lot of the real popular national parks and stuff.
Wendy
PIEERE said
06:19 PM Nov 17, 2013
Here a suggestion: Check out; AllStays.com; also Pass Port America; I heard other RVers had good luck with...it gives discounts at participating Campgrounds. Then there are Federal and State Parks and county and some cities have limited spaces. I mostly used AllStays for locating places to stay; been awhile but I believe they list the costs and the Phone Numbers; and ratings! Pieere
WendysPhotos said
12:48 AM Nov 18, 2013
Thanks for the info Bill and you are right we do not want to stay in all membership parks. I just want to try and really manage our expenses. We will be living off of a single early retirement income, since I am still in my 40's and hubby is the only one old enough to early retire with his company. We will be trying to do this on a little less than 30,00 a year. We d not want to tap any of the principal of our 401k's. If I was 10 years older It would be no problem, but alas I want my hubby to make sure he enjoys all that we have worked for. So, I am really trying to make sure we manage every dollar for this adventure.
bjoyce said
03:12 AM Nov 18, 2013
There are many other ways to save money than just memberships. Longer stays, more dry camping, free sites via workcamping, having a smaller rig, managing your food budget, etc. It can be done. There are couples getting by on under $1500 a month. Start by not overspending on your RV.
Membership camping can be part of the savings, but don't overspend for a membership and make sure it will work for you. The standard advice is to not buy a membership the first fulltime year. Passport America and Escapees are not memberships, either is the Elks, but they can save you on camping and the later two have other benefits. That first year will teach you more about how you really like to camp than any advanced study. The other sad truth is that first year is when you truly find out if fulltiming is a good fit for you. Notice that many of the fulltimers here on the forum do not have memberships, they were not a good fit for them, at least so far.
I have the opportunity to buy a Coast to Coast Deluxe membership for $750.00 plus all the transfer fees. Transfer fees seem to be about 550.00. The yearly park fee is $99.00 and located in Georgia. So all told it would be about 350.00 a year. Is this a good deal? We do not even have the RV yet, but I was offered it and thought that it might be a great deal.
Sorry I have not been on lately, but 'Real Life' has been intervening.
Wendy,
I don't personally have an answer for you, but if you use the "Search" function with Coast to Coast as a search phrase, you will find some links that apply. One of those has a comment by me directing the questioner to a link in which Bill Joyce (bjoyce) did a review. The link to Bill's comments are below and is down a way in the thread.
Membership Camping
Terry
Membership camping can save you money and be rewarding. But you have to use it and you have to like the campgrounds. If the campgrounds are not where you will be camping, you won't use it. If you can't get into the campground because it is full or the membership sites are full, you will not be using the membership. If you can't live on weak 30 amp water and electric, you will not like many of the campgrounds. (Weak power means the voltage will drop when under load so on a hot day your air conditioner will not run). If you want large campsites, you will not like many of the campgrounds. At some C2C campgrounds you will be a second (or third) class citizen, at others they will treat you well so you might join or tell your friends to join that particular campground. There is no consistency.
We do not have Deluxe, we have a standard C2C membership and only use it one to two weeks a year. In the past our usage was higher, but not very high. Most C2C campgrounds are not Deluxe, so you will be still be limited to one week, twice a year, with a month between stays at those campgrounds. Deluxe only gets you two week stays at Deluxe campgrounds. It is a rare C2C extended travel or fulltime member that can use C2C for more than 25% of their camping. Most will use it for 10% or less.
Campgrounds come and go with these systems, normally slowly. But they can also change the rules. In 2012 The Lakes in Chowchilla CA allowed big rigs, in 2013 they have a 35' maximum.
Now that we are fulltime, we have used it enough to make it worth while.
That Thousand Trails membership is an Alliance membership, one of the more popular due to slightly lower dues and a longer reservation window. You have to move every two weeks unless you upgrade. We have a Thousand Trails membership that we can stay 365/366 nights a year in a TT campground for no fees, but do have to move every 3 week. One year we stayed just over 100 nights, but most years it is 50 to 80 nights. In our travels, we find that between TT, C2C, Passport America, Escapees and Elks, we stay about 200 nights a year at a discount and the rest at full price. We don't want to limit our travels and our campground choices. There are also individual membership parks we avoid, since they are not where we want to be, they have no cell phone or internet service, they are not good fits for our RV, they are not good campgrounds because of dust or other reasons, so we stay other places instead.
My experience is those who try to stay only in membership parks to save money are some of the more unhappy fulltimers. They often get in ruts, going the same routes, not seeing anything new, because they refuse to stay anywhere else. Many won't change their ways, they have a plan to always use the membership they spent so much money on and are going to stick to it no matter how miserable they are.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Sunday 17th of November 2013 10:56:30 AM
I guess I should say what we are trying to do. We are going Full-time as soon as the farm sells (could take awhile). What we are trying to do is either get club memberships or other things to keep our monthly park fees to 300-500 a month. Looking at what some of the campgrounds charge for nightly and stuff to me seems outrageous. I mean 30-40 a night x 30 days is more than a mortgage payment in our area for a pretty darn nice house. I know that they usually have discounted weekly and monthly fees, but I want to make sure we always have options.
My parents have thousand Trails Deluxe or something that gives them the 50 nights free and 5.00 afterwards that they say we can use, but I was looking to get two or three different memberships that would pay for themselves and allow us to do what we want. Our big plan is to go see all the things we have never seen in the US. I already have a list of about 500 places
Wendy
Membership camping can be part of the savings, but don't overspend for a membership and make sure it will work for you. The standard advice is to not buy a membership the first fulltime year. Passport America and Escapees are not memberships, either is the Elks, but they can save you on camping and the later two have other benefits. That first year will teach you more about how you really like to camp than any advanced study. The other sad truth is that first year is when you truly find out if fulltiming is a good fit for you. Notice that many of the fulltimers here on the forum do not have memberships, they were not a good fit for them, at least so far.