Coast To Coast?

[JoeTrekker]

Has anyone had experience with a Coast to Coast membership?   We recently purchased an RV from Camping World, and the Coast-to-Coast membership was offered to us at that time.   My understanding is that a prospective member needs to select a specific, affiliated resort to join, and then once they become a member of one of the affiliated resorts, they can join the Coast to Coast network.   It sounds similar to a time sharing situation to me, and I'm not interested in getting hooked into that.   But what do I know?  The allure of being guaranteed a spot in a campground in my desired travel destination sounds too good to be true.   I'd appreciate any thoughts from fellow Escapees.  Thanks very much, gang.

Joe 

[Barbaraok]

You are correct, you have to have a home park for C2C.   Was there a home park as park of the package?  We have several memberships and affiliate memberships and use them extensively.  Saves us thousands every year.   I did a blog page on Membership Parks that you might find helpful.   Also, C2C knows of a couple of home parks that are very inexpensive to join, places that most people will never visit, and that might be what was included in the offer.

 

[sandsys]

My experience with Coast to Coast is old but I think they are still mostly considered to be destination parks. You go there and stay and use all their amenities. Therefore, they are not often ON the beaten track. If that's your style of travel then have at it.

Linda Sand

[FL-JOE]

There are folks that love the park memberships and then there are folks that don't think much of them.  We looked at TT (Thousand Trails) and a couple other ones during our first stint of full timing but never made the plunge. 

We need to "park" or camp someplace 365 days a year.  Before with our fiver we never dry camped and went where we wanted to.  Used PA (Passport America), Good Sams, and KOA annual memberships for small discounts.  We were able to stay around $9,000 a year in campground fees, or about $24.00 a night average.

This time around we are supplementing some dry camping here and there and staying a month at a time in a couple different places for much better rates.  I anticipate our annual fee will be closer to $7,000 a year, or just under $20 a day.  If we didn't stay 4 months in SW Florida every winter we could easily go way lower than that.  

For us I just never thought these time share type memberships would be worth the money.  Everyone is different and should make their own decisions about them though.  I like planning my annual travels around where I want to go and not what CGs I need to use. 

[Kirk W]

There is some good advice in this thread. The only thing I would add is that we chose to wait until we had been on the road for a time to choose whether to buy a campground membership or not. Memberships are great when you use them a lot but some of us just do not travel that way. I consider it to be a matter of lifestyle. 

[Barbaraok]

If one is on the west coast, it is really hard to beat having membership parks to help with keeping the costs down.   For other parts of the country the return probably isn't as great.  Our out of pocket costs for June through August will be $210,  2 weeks under AOR ($15/night for 50 amps) all the rest will be Thousand Trails and ROD at $0 per night out of pocket.   When you figure in the yearly dues, it comes out to about $3/night.    So when mixed in with Passport America, a few Good Sam, and Escapee Parks, our costs average out at about $11/night.    Again, it works for us.

[missourijan]

I would second what Kirk said, wait a while to see how or where you will be traveling. I didn't see anyone recommend buying a resale membership. Look at the website for Treasure Lake in Branson, MO. They post resale memberships on their site and the cost to transfer them. Their "home park" dues are reasonable and are affiliated with a lot of those memberships. Several years ago C2C offered a 1 year membership for about $75, we signed up and really liked it. We volunteer has camp hosts several months a year so it didn't make sense for us to get a permanent membership at the time. I would consider buying a resale membership when we stop volunteering

[JoeTrekker]

A big Thank You to all who replied.   There's great advice in your shares.   I think that it's best to wait and see what kind of RVing we're going to do long-term, and then make a decision.   Buying a resale is probably the way we'll go IF we decide it's for us.   

Barb, thank you for your blog.  I'm definitely going to study that; it should be really helpful.

Thank you again, to all of you, and may you all have Happy and Healthy Trails!  

Joe

[Mr. Camper]

We've been a C2C member for over 15 years.  Our home park is in TN.  We've been there a few times but the cost savings for the rest of the country is what keeps us in it.  We haven't run into any issues with restrictions or availability but have met some that have.  Whatever you choose, try it and if not happy look at a re-sale.  We can do that without a heavy, expensive entry fee.  Don't know if those type of membership is still available but if they are, try it.