Of the two, Resort Parks International (RPI) and Coast To Coast (C2C), if you were to choose one, which & why. Thanks

     Spot

Edited June 16 by $Spot

I have no experience with RPI but was very disappointed with C2C. C2C parks tend not to be on anyone's travel path, they are destination parks, and some of them are quite old and shabby. Plus, our home park closed without notice and moved to another location a couple hundred miles away then tried to tell us we still had to pay. We paid an attorney to write them a letter and they stopped dunning us.

Linda

I don't belong to any of the park groups but I hear by far the most positive comments about Thousand Trails.

We have checked into several over the years.  We even stayed at a couple Thousand Trails to get a small sampling of what some of those parks were like.   Membership parks, or time shares, or whatever you want to call them are not for us.  Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance.

Over the years  we have looked into various membership parks.  They never seemed to be where we wanted to go at the time or since and we didn't want to feel obligated to go someplace just to get our "money's worth".   Also we didn't want to be confined to time limits in a park. 

Many people do travel the membership park routes and find savings.

Where do you want to travel? If those destinations are in one of the catalogs of membership parks your looking into choose that one.  Also begin with the end in mind: can you resell it if you no longer want it or use it? Do you still have to keep paying the annual fees? How will it affect your credit if you can't sell and stop paying?  What happens if your home park bows out of the system? We know of a couple in Arizona and Nevada.

The best advice we received when we first hit the road was not to obligate ourselves to any membership campground system until we had been on the road at least a full year. It will take you that long to get out of vacation mode and begin to define your own traveling style.

And don't forget the Escapee Club discount park system:  https://www.escapees.com/benefits/rv-parking/discount-park-directory/

Safe Travels,
 
 

Thanks folks, this is some of the info I was hoping to glean, and hopefully those with experience with these organizations will chime in as well. Background; We're beyond vacation mode and in life mode now. And though there are places that I avoid as I've no interest there, the majority of our nation is our home where we'll live for a spell. Knowing that weekly, monthly, and seasonal rates go far to extend the budget, we've been for a time considering a membership to enhance the budget even further. Also, to lay this to rest, we are not work camper or camp host material. As a potential Thousand Trails member the option of RPI exists, (and of course the C2C option) in addition to the recently added Trails Collection within the Thousand Trails network. So in a nutshell, after crunching the numbers and not being too particular on where we'll spend a few weeks as there are so many options available (just hitch up & go), we've been considering the advantage, if any, of joining a membership setting to stretch the thin budget a little further. I appreciate your responses & consideration in helping a little here

     Spot

Edited June 17 by $Spot

If you are thinking about TT then it is RPI to go with it.  A no brainer of sorts.

Don't forget there is a "Home Resort" requirement for RPI. In other words you have to own in a resort somewhere and pay their annual dues as well as RPI's.

TT is expensive if you pay for it at a resort it's much better to buy one online "Used" and to pay the transfer fee.

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2017/11/thousand-trails-good-and-bad.html

BnB

Thanks for starting this thread, I’m finding everyone’s opinions fascinating. If the house ever sells, I’m  going to go full-time and have once again thought about membership campgrounds. I thought about and researched (briefly) the subject 4 years ago when I bought my RV initially, deciding it wouldn’t fit into my style of RVing. Now that I’ll be full-timing, I’m wondering if one would fit into my life better.

I have two friends who own membership campgrounds, one owns at an ROD resort and the other a resort with membership to C2C and RPI, premium levels. That one prefers C2C with the ability to stay for free, rather than RPI, which they haven’t used much. And they are thinking of dropping out of it next year.

So I thought the comment above about preferring RPI over C2C interesting, a different perspective. Love hearing everyone’s point of view, it really helps when it comes to making informed decisions.

checking in... Thanks for the posts folks  

@ Barb & Dave, I'm now examining that relationship between TT & RPI

@ Brian & Barbara, thanks for your link & the updates within

@ fpmtngal, thanks for your "two friends" reference, & your last line is the reason for the thread  

@ Linda, when viewing the C2C "Find A Resort" state by state I can see how having a travel path can limit available parks in relation to one's plans, and also that not having a plan can have the parks available. Seems that this could wear out though as day trips then get further from camp with each stay, leading to "Why don't we just stay over there and not use C2C this time?"

@ Joe, I agree with your view, and basically this is another reason for the thread... can I be swayed into membership due to its value.

@ Velos, your very words are as an exact quote from our conversations as we motor down the road  

     Spot

If you are on the west coast, I would suggest you try a 1 year TT zone pass (or if you time it right get the 2 for 1 and get all of the west coast at one price).  This will allow you to try a number of the TT parks rather cheaply and decided if memberships are a good deal for you.   I'm in Birch Bay, Washington right now at a ROD/C2C park.  Just left 2 weeks at  TT park near Seattle, next week will go on to another TT park for 2 weeks, then one to an AOR park for 2 weeks, than to another Encore park.  We love the area (went to college in Bellingham, WA) and so have very little 'out-of-pocket' costs for the summer, just our annual dues.   The month of August will be at BIL's (who put in hookups for us) and then all of September will be again in membership parks.  This works for us because membership parks are so numerous throughout the west.   Now these aren't 5 star resorts, but then we don't see the parks as our 'destination' where we spend all of our time, but rather our 'place to sleep' as we explore the areas, visit favorite spots, etc.      

Our story, FWIW:

We started our full-time journey without any campground memberships, just a membership in Escapees. Our plan was to drive a day, stay for some period of time, and repeat. We then joined Passport America on an annual basis, and quickly found that we could save quite a bit of money that way, so after a couple of years we went to a lifetime membership. We also checked out some of the Escapees Parks. We found them attractive, so we checked out a couple of the co-ops and ERPUs, with the idea that maybe one of them might be a good winter headquarters for us. Earlier this year we became leaseholders at The Ranch.

Spot, you may want to do something similar. As was mentioned above, buying C2C or TT new is very expensive, while buying a used membership is much less expensive. Passport America is pretty cheap, and with a one-year membership you can try as many parks as you want. Each park sets their own rules about when and how many nights you can stay for half-price, so they aren't a great choice for long-term stays, but are great for traveling.

Now, if you are looking at C2C or TT just to be able to use their network of parks, and you may or may not make use of your home park, then look at the maps of where the parks are located and chose the one that best suits your planned travels. Just remember that your annual cost for your home parks will be part of your annual travel costs. If you don't make much use of the system you may well find that it is cheaper to just pay the regular rate.

  On 6/19/2019 at 2:29 AM, kb0zke said:

may or may not make use of your home park, then look at the maps of where the parks are located and chose the one that best suits your planned travels. Just remember that your annual cost for your home parks will be part of your annual travel costs. If you don't make much use of the system you may well find that it is cheaper to just pay the regular rate.

Also be aware that different home parks can have different annual fees. If you don't care where your home park is once you join, you might want to check into those fees.

Linda

Edited June 19 by sandsys

  On 6/19/2019 at 4:13 AM, sandsys said:

Also be aware that different home parks can have different annual fees. If you don't care where your home park is once you join, you might want to check into those fees.

Linda

Is there an easy way to find the annual fees for various parks? I started to look at a couple of park’s websites and found it frustrating to try to find out what they were.

In addition, it seems that home parks fit into different categories (at least as far as I could tell with both C2C and RPI when I was looking through my friend’s books) so buying into one doesn’t necessarily give you the same access and features as another one. I found the differences in annual costs on either RPI or C2C sites, don’t remember which.

I looked at several on-line resources (some resellers, a couple of individual membership parks as well as the websites for the various organizations like RPI, C2C, ROD, etc.) looking for the “fine print”, but either they gloss over some of it or else it appears complicated enough that my mind went into neutral. The various membership parks and their systems make successful timesharing (with all of the nuances that go with that) look simple.

I have no interest in a membership type deal it’s just not our style at this time. 

I can tell you that Escapees membership and Passport America have saved us a good deal. 

There are some limitations to how long you get a special rate but savings are there.