Thousand Trails Camping Memberships: Overview & Price Breakdown 

Thank you! Doing all that research for my own upgrade helped me so I'm very glad it has helped someone else too! 😊

Hi! We actually don't have a ton of savings we use to offset extra costs, we both work full time to pay for our gas, food, and insurance. Most maintenance we did ourself, we even installed our AC unit ourselves to save on labor costs. It can be difficult to book campsites in the high use areas like Florida and Arizona, which is why we ultimately upgraded our pass to get that 180 day window. Since then we haven't had issues booking in Florida (haven't booked in Arizona yet). For other less frequented places like Alabama, Washington, and Oregon, we have had no problem booking less than 180 days out. I will admit, I did the midnight thing trying to book the Florida Keys and was unsuccessful so I do understand that frustration. I typically compare the monthly lot rent to our monthly apartment rent because that's what we currently pay vs what we did pay. But everyone's experience is also different so what we experienced isn't what everyone else will experience 🙂 Edit: wanted to add that our RV spot is a monthly rental. There are definitely some cheaper yearly ones throughout the country, but where we are in Utah it's a monthly rental, we don't own it or anything.

@@anxietyinacamper Thanks for the response. That's awesome it works for you.

Wonderful question! Short answer: yes if you buy new, the membership can be sold down the road if you'd like to do so. Long answer: this is how we started our search, there are multiple groups on Facebook where people are selling their passes after traveling for however long they wanted to. I noticed a lot of great deals, and there are some pros to buying a used membership. The pros I noticed included usually a cheaper price (most people were selling the passes at either whatever they bought it for or whatever they owed), and these purchases can be done with the help of a Thousand Trails agent if you want. The reason we bought a new pass though, was because you can only transfer a pass once, so if you buy a used membership, you yourself will not be able to sell it later down the line. You also lose a couple of the side perks, but honestly I can't even remember what those were so they weren't exactly important... Regardless of if you get a new or used pass, I'd recommend keeping an eye on the booking window! That is the biggest reason we chose the connections over the elite 😊

You can also pause your membership down the road too! This is something we are considering for whenever we decide to take a break from full timing, and then if it turns into an extended pause... Then we would look into selling. But honestly we've had the pass for over a year so far, and it has benefited us so much full timing we don't see ourselves pausing it anytime soon lol

They are free because of the pass! There is no additional campground fee when we stay in Thousand Trails/Encore campgrounds. There are a couple very special ones (like in the Florida Keys) that do have a $20 a night fee because they are sooo coveted and have limited sites, but we avoid those to maintain the $0 a night campgrounds. Some TT campgrounds allow non-pass holders to stay, but they would have to pay a nightly fee. I will admit, it is very nice to book a TT campground and see the $0 due for your whole 3 week stay :)

We started with the membership that lazydays gave us with purchase of our RV, but we've been to some great thousand trails so far! I've noticed the experience varies depending on the region you select (if it's the basic membership) or where in the US you camp the most. I'm sorry your experience wasn't as great. I hope you've at least enjoyed camping in general :)

we camp strickly in State parks now , we enjoy nature , and quietness , something you can't get from a ( resort ) @@anxietyinacamper

That's a great question! The main reason was we wanted the 180 day booking window. Basic allows for 120 days, but then you are booking after the Connection and Adventure people booked a whole 2 months before you. Basic is still a great plan though, definitely worth weighing your options!

​@@anxietyinacamper great video, thank you. We have been full time for about 2 yrs with Elite Basic. The 120 day booking window has never failed to get us reserved into the park of our choice, no problem. We added TC this year to get into more Encore parks.

​@@leehappy3259TC was a huge help to us when camping in Orlando as there was only one TT campground and a ton of TC campgrounds. We were able to hop around for a bit but definitely would not have been able to stay as close to the in laws in Orlando without the encore campgrounds

Pre-November, we had no problem around Orlando/Clermont area which is where we stayed from September until right before Thanksgiving. Once snowbird season was in full effect, it did get more difficult booking a couple weeks out, but not impossible where we were. Although if you know when you're going I'd recommend booking asap for peace of mind! A note though, I had a lot of trouble getting anything at the two Encore's in the Florida Keys, but I know those are highly coveted.

Some campgrounds do, I think the encore ones since they're partnered with TT, not exclusively owned, so they have different rules. You'd have to check with each campground though as some might but others might not