THOUSAND TRAILS

We have one more day here at the Bend/Sunriver Thousand Trails Preserve, and our 2 weeks will be up. Two weeks is the maximum that we can stay at any one park. This is our second year as members of Thousand Trails, the largest membership camping organization in the country. We purchased our membership from a private party, and after paying the transfer fee, our cost to upgrade from our first year, limited membership was about $200. We pay $600 a year in dues, and that entitles us to unlimited usage, of the approx 80 parks around the U.S. Almost half of the parks are on the west coast, and we're visiting several this summer, like this one, that we have not yet seen. Like anything, the quality of the parks vary quite a bit. Most are 30 amp, full hookup. A few, like this park, are water and electric only, with a dump station. Overall, the parks are what I call forest service campgrounds, with services. Generally, we have been pleased with most all of the parks we have stayed, with one exception. That was an east coast park that was in a scenic area, but the Virginia Landing Thousand Trails left a lot to be desired! Last year, we stayed in Thousand Trails parks all over the U.S. for a total of 100 days. Our first 50 days of usage costs us nothing to stay, and any days over 50, we pay $5 a night. Our per night average cost last year was $8.50 per night, which makes the membership very cost effective. Particularly, when the average cost of your average RV Park is now $25-$45 per night. There are many variations of Thousand Trails Memberships, and most require 7 nights out of the system, after you stay 14 days at a park. Our membership allows us to go directly to another park, after staying the maximum 14 days.
Right now, Thousand Trails is offering a promotional membership package, that allows a person, or family to join one of the 4 zones, without paying any initiation fee. Just start paying the dues of $499 a year, and for example, a southwestern zone of CA, NV & AZ would open up 18 parks to that zone membership. Our friends Jim & Megan just joined the southwestern zone. The other important limitations to this promo, are 14 days in, then 7 days out of the system, and the first 30 days a year are no cost, then $3 a night thereafter. If the new member used the zone membership 30 days, the per night cost would be $16.66. The more you use the system, the more your per night cost drops. At 50 days a year usage, the per night cost drops to $11.20. It's a pretty good deal, but like anything else, you have to use it, or it doesn't make any sense. If interested, more info is available at 888 886 5754. For the many years we were both working, and had limited time away from work, a Thousand Trails membership wouldn't have made any sense. But now that we spend at least half of the year in our motor home, it works very well for us.