How to Save Thousands on Campground Fees!
In this video and post I wanted to talk to you all about how to save TONS on campground fees while you are RVing throughout the United States. The more you camp, the more you will save, and turns out we camp a lot!
DISCOUNT MEMBERSHIPS
GOOD SAMS
GOOD SAMS CLUB MEMBERSHIP LINK
Although this is our least used discount membership, Good Sams still has quite a few nice benefits. The reason it is our least used membership is because we normally stay at a location on a weekly basis. As far as camping goes, Good Sams USUALLY only applies to 10% off the daily rate. If we get a weekly rate, it is usually cheaper than the 10% discounted daily rate.
However, if you are the majority of RVers in the RV community and don’t live in your RV full-time, this is definitely a beneficial membership to have in your arsenal. You save 10% on the daily rate at participating campgrounds (over 2,400) and there are also quite a few other perks with the membership.
Some of the other perks include saving money at outdoor retailers including camping world/gander outdoors and you can save money at some pilot flying J locations. We’ve actually used the discount at camping world a couple times so I don’t feel like we wasted our money completely on this membership haha. Also never know when we are traveling an extra long distance and there just happens to be a Good Sams campground between us and our destination for an overnight stay.
KOA (PHOTOS OF CAMPGROUNDS ABOVE)
Although we have been living on the road for about 12 months now, we have really only stayed in 4 KOAs thus far. This is because they are usually a tad more expensive than the other surrounding campgrounds and we don’t really care about all the extra amenities most of the time. (We do splurge every now and again).
If we do want or need to stay at a KOA though, their rewards program can pay for itself within a week’s use. The membership price is $30 for the year and again, you save 10% on all KOA campgrounds. On top of that 10%, they have a rewards program where you can accrue points over time to save further money at KOA campgrounds.
After staying 4 weeks at different KOAs in the last year, we accrued enough points to save like 10-15 bucks at a KOA haha. So it isn’t life changing, but we certainly enjoy saving money whenever we can. If you are only taking the camper out a couple times for the year, this probably isn’t for you. Full-time RVing on the other hand, we take as many discounts as we possibly can.
THOUSAND TRAILS (PHOTOS OF CAMPGROUNDS ABOVE)
To save $100 on your Thousand Trails Membership, send an email to [email protected] with the subject: “I want a Thousand Trails” and I can send you a referral link. (We can make a portion of money if you purchase via our referral)
If you don’t want to save $100 bucks: THOUSAND TRAILS MEMBERSHIP LINK
Now a Thousand Trails membership is where you can really start to save serious cash. Again, if you are only camping a couple times a year…none of these discount programs will save you THOUSANDS of dollars, but the more you camp the more you save. In fact, if you only camp a couple times a year >>>DO NOT GET A THOUSAND TRAILS MEMBERSHIP<<<.
If there is enough interest, I will make an entirely new video/blog post on Thousand Trails membership options as their plans can get a wee bit complicated. We actually got our membership free with the purchase of our Grand Design Reflection 150 Series 5th Wheel, but we liked the membership so much that we paid an extra $200 to include the resort campgrounds as well.
Unlike Good Sams, KOA, and Passport America, Thousand Trails isn’t a % off your stay. Once you get the Thousand Trails Membership, you get to stay at any of those applicable (to the package you purchased) Thousand Trails campgrounds for FREE. Well, the upfront cost isn’t cheap, so it isn’t REALLY free.
With this membership we have saved over $1000 in campground fees over the past 6 months (only have had this since January of 2019). Make sure you check out the different zone passes before even thinking about getting this plan though. The campgrounds are spaced out quite a bit and if you try to camp during peak season, those campgrounds could already be booked. We ran into that issue while camping in Florida during the winter, but EVERYONE is camping in Florida during the winter.
Even WITH that issue in Florida, we still saved a ton of money getting the southeast pass and staying at as many Thousand Trail campgrounds as possible while we were exploring that area. While traveling on the west coast this next year we will definitely be renewing our Thousand Trails membership once more to rack in those savings.
PASSPORT AMERICA (PHOTOS OF CAMPGROUNDS ABOVE)
PASSPORT AMERICA REFERRAL LINK We make a small profit off each person we refer to Passport America. After you join, you can also refer others to make money yourself.
If you are RVing full-time or part-time, I feel like Passport America is the no-brainer discount program that you really must get. This has been our #1 money saver ever since we started RVing and was also the first discount membership we purchased.
This membership is currently as of June 2019, $44 for the year. In our first year, we got our money back after our very first campground (weekly stay). I should really keep track of all the exact savings, but we have definitely saved over $1000 over the past year using this discount program as well. More likely over $2000.
For an upcoming example, next week we are staying at a Passport America campground that would have cost us nearly $800 for the 2 weeks stay. Instead, it is going to cost us about $375 for the two weeks. That is nearly $400 in savings just within 2 weeks time. If you subtract the $44 membership from the nearly $400 in savings…we basically got paid or saved $356 for being a member in those 2 weeks alone.
Again, the more you camp the more you save, but half off any stay seems like a pretty dang good savings to me.
The great thing about Passport America is that you save 50% off the participating campground for however many days they say it is applicable. The one major thing to keep in mind about Passport America is that you really need to read the fine print for each individual campground. Some campgrounds only allow the discount for certain seasons (sometimes not peak season), some only during the week, and some only for a certain amount of days. It really just depends on the campground and how restrictive they are.
We have come across Passport America campgrounds that literally have 0 limit on how long the stay is, others you can only use it 2 nights. So make sure you research on Passport America’s website before booking your stay for what that particular campground’s rules are. It also wouldn’t hurt to call the campground just to confirm that the website is up to date before booking.
SUMMARY
I may have mentioned this in every single discount membership, but the more you camp the more you save. If you don’t camp a lot, maybe NONE of these discounts programs will help you out depending on where you want to stay. If you camp a lot, then at the very least I would look into Passport America and Good Sams.
KOA and Thousand Trails are a bit more specialty items that usually have more expensive campgrounds to begin with. However, if used strategically in your travels, you can save a TON of money just as we have.
Is it more work to limit your searches to campgrounds that have these memberships? Absolutely. The main question you have to ask yourself is how much money do you want to save and are you willing to go a little bit more out of your way to save that money. For us, we always try to save money when we can.
Do we use these discount programs for every single park we stay at? NOPE. However, when we do not stay at one of these parks it is because there literally just wasn’t an option in the area, or we found a campground that was even cheaper not using a discount membership program. And yes those situations do exist.
Hopefully this blog post was helpful and can help save you money on your travels! As always, feel free to ask questions in the comments section below, via email, or on our various social media accounts. We love interacting with you all and we want to help everyone get out there and adventure on.
NOTE FROM WRITER
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Also be sure to check out Deanna’s food blog, The Harvest Skillet, when you get the chance! A lot of awesome and healthy recipes to use there!
Adventure On!
