Dayl

[Dayl]

We're going on a month long motor home trip with our 40' motorhome.  I'm curious at what the average cost of a campground is.  Thanks.

[TXiceman]

Cost depends on the area of the country and if you get any discounts.  It is cheaper to stay by the week or month.  You will see cost ranging from $25 per night to $75 per night.  It all depends on where you are and what you are looking for ....rustic to resort.

Or do you want to do some boondocking.

Ken

 

[NDBirdman]

Welcome to the forum!  Ditto on previous post.

[sandsys]

For a one month trip you won't want to be using weekly or monthly rates but joining Passport America usually recovers it annual dues in one or two stays. They are a discount program that offers 50% discounts at parks all over the country but only when they think their parks won't fill up otherwise. So you need to pay attention to the restrictions for each park. But, it means, for instance, a $40 a night park with some nice amenities will only cost you $20 during their discount periods. I suggest you check out their website to see what they offer along your proposed route. https://passportamerica.com

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums! Linda's suggestion is also what I would suggest. In addition, the directory that you receive from Passport America will allow you to get a good feel for what the prices are. In addition, use Campground Reviews and/or Campendium to check out the possible campgrounds in cities & towns along your route. You will find that not all areas have campgrounds that are listed in the Passport America directory. If you share your planned route with us we can probably make some suggestions on good campgrounds and give better information about the possible cost. 

Edited June 29, 2019 by Kirk W

[2gypsies]

Cost depends on where you go and what kind of parks you stay at.  If going to a very popular attraction such as Disney or national parks, or to big cities you'll pay more for a campsite nearby.  If you need a 'resort' then you'll pay big time.

If you travel secondary roads you'll find the cost goes way down.  Some small towns have city or county parks. We've stayed in them with our 40' motorhome.

If you're 62+ get the America the Beautiful Senior Pass. You can save 1/2 in the national park campgrounds and free admissions to the national parks.  This also extends to national forest campground, Corp of Engineers and others.

You can also boondock on public lands such as national forest lands and this will be free.  We really enjoy this!

Have a good trip.

[Dayl]

Thank you all for your responses.  We have joined Passport Club, Good Sam and Escapees.  Hopefully between all of those clubs the costs won't be too crazy.  We did a 30 day trip 10 or so years ago and lately I was just amazed at the increases in prices now.  Thanks again.

[Kirk W]

Glad that we were able to help. Don't be a stranger and return often to take part in the community!

[sandsys]

7 hours ago, Dayl said:

Thank you all for your responses.  We have joined Passport Club, Good Sam and Escapees.  Hopefully between all of those clubs the costs won't be too crazy.  We did a 30 day trip 10 or so years ago and lately I was just amazed at the increases in prices now.  Thanks again.

I kept all my discount cards in one wallet and would pull them all out and ask for their best deal. One place took PA for the weekdays but then took my AARP card for 10% off the weekend rate. I was surprised by that. Try  everything.

Linda Sand

[Pieere]

FreeCamgrounds.com also is a good one to check out!

[scouserl41]

The link is to an article I did about controlling camping costs. The $25 a night is easier to achieve AS AN AVERAGE over a full year but some of the tricks and tips can still be used to lower the AVERAGE costs.

http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2016/06/camping-for-25-night.html

Brian

[Lou Schneider]

1 hour ago, scouserl41 said:

The link is to an article I did about controlling camping costs. The $25 a night is easier to achieve AS AN AVERAGE over a full year but some of the tricks and tips can still be used to lower the AVERAGE costs.

http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2016/06/camping-for-25-night.html

Brian

Good article, except for a missing hyphen.  

"The Escapees have “Coop Parks” that are owned by the people who stay there."

The word should "Co-op", from their co-operative ownership structure.   Not "Coop" as in a chicken coop.  

Edited July 2, 2019 by Lou Schneider

[sandsys]

7 hours ago, scouserl41 said:

The link is to an article I did about controlling camping costs. The $25 a night is easier to achieve AS AN AVERAGE over a full year but some of the tricks and tips can still be used to lower the AVERAGE costs.

http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2016/06/camping-for-25-night.html

Brian

That's an excellent analysis!  Yes, stay in some "expensive" parks but offset that by occasional nights at Walmart. Very freeing to learn how it can be done. Of course, we'd already done all that but I love that you are sharing this method of averaging costs with newbies.

Linda

[agesilaus]

We just got back from our summer trip. We tried to alternate no-hookup and boondocking with FHU parks. I'd say that we averaged $30-35 at FHU parks. No hook up ran from $0 to $15. We would never stay at some place that charged $75, for one thing we have no interest in shuffle board or camper activities. KOA prices have gone up a lot several years ago and we've pretty much avoided them since then. I recall one KOA in Bozeman was $60/night and I think the one near Devils Tower was about the same.

The Florida Keys cg have extortionate pricing in winter as another example even the Florida State Park--Bahia Honda is the most expensive in the state system.

Of course with a 40 ft Class A you'll have a lot more trouble than we do with a 30 ft Arctic Fox TT.

The only discount we used was Good Sams except Idaho has a senior discount that applies to out of state campers.

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by agesilaus

[SWharton]

COE campgrounds are a good value especially if you are over 62 and have the America the Beautiful card. Most of them have at least water and electric.

[agesilaus]

We are real fans of COE cg. More of them west of the Mississippi. And their sites are mostly long pull thrus that are 75 ft long.

The cg are much newer than National Park CG

[sandsys]

2 hours ago, agesilaus said:

We are real fans of COE cg. More of them west of the Mississippi.

Lots of them right along the Mississippi as well. If you are headed to the SE you might want to check out the Tennessee Valley Authority. https://www.tva.gov/Environment/Recreation

Linda

[LindaH]

On ‎6‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 4:41 PM, Kirk W said:

the directory that you receive from Passport America will allow you to get a good feel for what the prices are.

Passport America has an android app (I assume there's also one for iPhones) that one can download and use without being a member.  It gives all the information on all the parks in their system that the directory does.  (Do they even have a paper directory any more?  Other than when we first joined, we've never received a directory, even when we've renewed.)

[Kirk W]

7 minutes ago, LindaH said:

Do they even have a paper directory any more? 

Yes. We have the current one. 

[Dayl]

All great suggestions.  Will look into COE CBS.  Thanks again.

[Kirk W]

17 hours ago, Dayl said:

Will look into COE CBS. 

Check out Don Wright's Camping with the Corps of Engineers

[2gypsies]

Some information in Don Wright's books are outdated unless he's made revisions.

[hemsteadc]

On 7/2/2019 at 8:20 AM, Lou Schneider said:

Good article, except for a missing hyphen  The word should "Co-op", from their co-operative ownership structure.   Not "Coop" as in a chicken coop.  

There's also a wrong "it's," and $40 dollars is redundant.

[StraitRVing]

I can not offering up anything new that has not been covered.  However, I will say Welcome to the Forums! 🙂