I ended up in a Thousand Trails park for one night in Red Rocks area Arizona, and received all the promotional materials, I can't help but think it looks like a good deal. If I am reading it right, $525 for first 30 nights of camping, and each additional night is $3. Just have to move every two weeks, and spend a week outside of the system between the two week stints, which is my normal travel pattern anyway. Using 30 nights works out to $17.50 a night and gets cheaper per night the more it is used, the way I read it. So: Nights per year $ per Night 30 $17.50 40 $13.88 50 $11.70 60 $10.25 70 $9.21 80 $8.44 90 $7.83 120 $6.63 180 $5.42 I travel for 3 months a year, so with the week long exclusions I could end up spending 60 nights in an encore park for $10.25 a night with full hookups and it seems usually a pool. I've stayed in parks with poor service and customer relations for alot more than that. Can anyone comment on experience with the basic value of Encore / Thousand trails?
We like to travel to destinations of our choice. We aren't interested in choosing a destination because there's a TT (or any other) park there. Considering that quite a few of these parks get at best mediocre reviews I don't see any reason to commit to staying 20 nights a year there, let alone taking your advice of "doubling down" by increasing the number of nights to reduce the average cost. I know there are lots of people who swear by these parks, this is JMO.
We have stayed in a number of 1000 Trails and Encore parks, and the quality varies enormously. Even as fulltimers, we do not want to be committed to stay in those parks enough to make a membership pay, and when we looked into it the initial cost of membership was in the thousands of dollars, although they are available much less expensively on the resale market. One reseller that we were very happy with is Campground Membership Outlet. We didn't buy a 1000 Trails membership from them, but we did buy another. Remember, you may need to drive hundreds of miles to find the next 1000 Trails or Encore park. Do you really want to spend all your time in one of the parks in those two systems? One common caveat with 1000 Trails membership is to carefully review what you need to do to get out of the membership contract when the time comes. If you are really interested in a membership that saves you money and has many, many more parks than 1000 Trails or Encore, consider joining a network of independently owned parks such as Coast-to-Coast or RPI. They cost little to join and their annual dues are under $100. Many 1000 Trails and Encore parks belong to those same networks. To join them you need to own a membership in one of their participating parks, but a reseller like Campground Membership Outlet can hook you up with one of those for very little money. The quality of the parks in those networks is also highly variable, but you have campgroundreviews.com to help you find the good parks! Hope that helps.
Some of these membership places are like an STD, once you have it, you always have it. If for some reason like age or change in circumstances, you want to stop membership, the annual dues don't stop and can become a real pain. There is a secondary market where you can buy somebody's membership at a reduced rate.
Hi, It works, sorta kinda, but divesting yourself of the membership can be a royal pain. Further I can stay here $12 to free quite often for free with power and water laid on.
QUOTE(Lindsay Richards @ Jul 1 2013, 02:26 PM) [snapback]33997[/snapback] Some of these membership places are like an STD, once you have it, you always have it. Good way to think of it. Thanks for the giggle. J-half
Stay away from Thousand Trails unless inexpensive is most important; they are all under local control, with almost no amenities carried through from one to another, or level of service. The fees, and extra’s you pay for will vary greatly; from power, sites, mail/packages, WiFi etc... You can not count on anything; preserve, to preserve. Except a varying state of neglected mantinance. They all cater to a large population, of “seasonal/annual” sites; and their local buddies, who more often than not, do not follow the rules. It is especially disheartening to be a “See something Say something “ person, and be ignored. While the few of us that actually bought into it get treated like second class folks; for following the rules. Like actually staying in your site; and not using, a 50 amp site, in a restricted stay preserve, as your private storage lot. While the park is FULL. Or packing your stuff up late; then leaving for the day instead of vacating the site for others coming in... Oh ya mine for sale
I assume you realize you responded to thread that is more than 6 years old. It's highly unlikely that any of the participants are still awaiting posts in it.
------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Joel - I've noticed of late that you've been reminding new posters on the forum, of the fact that they are responding to posts that are several or more years old. Perhaps it might be a good idea for a general post be made from an admin person, that new posters should check the bottom left corner of the post they are responding to so they will see the date and realize what they are doing. Just a suggestion, one that might save you and the other admins some posting time for other posts, etc................??? Regards, Terry.............(aka BankShot)
