Is Thousand Trails Membership Worth it? Membership explained- RV Living Full Time
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- Опубліковано 4 бер 2023
- Is Thousand Trails Membership Worth it? Membership Explained- RV Living Full Time
We bought a Thousand Trails Basic Elite Membership after buying a Thousand Trials Camping pass! Need the Thousand Trails Membership explained? We walk you through the cost, how it works, and if it is worth it! We share why we believe we will save money while living in our RV Full Time with using the Thousand Trails membership. We hope with us sharing all this information we help you make an informed decision on if a Thousand Trails membership is right for you!
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Joel, Deb, and 🐕 Maya
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Do you think we made a mistake buying a Thousand Trails membership? Let us know- our math tells us it will be worth it in the long run! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
I really appreciate your willingness to be open and upfront about costs and the reality of the system, good and bad! Great video guys
You are welcome! And was just trying to book something online and keep getting an error message- not authorized to book! 😂 But we have poor internet connection where we are right now, so that might have something to do with it. Hope you are enjoying the 4th of July holiday- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
We have said it so many times. Everyone travels differently, Thousand Trails works for us! We have loved it so far and would recommend anyone that travels full time to investigate. Good video!!!
Hi Donna & John- Exactly- everyone travels differently- so far it has worked for us & glad to hear it works for you guys too! It's a great tool to have in your pocket for places to stay. Thanks & safe travels- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
We are so undecided and your video is helpful. Stay safe!
Glad we could help- it is confusing and a tough decision. We are still back and forth some days if we made a mistake or not buying in. We recommended a zone pass to see if you like it to start with and go from there. As you learn a lot from using the zone pass- wish you the best of luck in your decision as we know it's not an easy one- Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Y'all did an excellent job explaining the ins and outs of Thousand Trails of hopping from park to park and staying out of the system a week and the difference between Encore and Thousand Trails. It is a wonder they don't make you do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around, LOL 😂 Glad y'all are enjoying your experience with TT! ~ Shion and Matthew
We are still confused by most of it, but hope it works out in the long run for cost savings! Just knowing we have full hookups is all we really need and can make the best of anything! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Great information on TT membership. You are correct it has to work for you. Thanks
Hi guys- thanks & we know you have had your membership for years! Thanks for all the advice on it! Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
good job on explaining,were heading out in a year and prob will go with TT regards
The year will go fast and hope to see you out here! Thousand Trails, if used right can save money in the long run. You guy have to make it work for you and be prepared some of the campgrounds are not the best! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
We have it and love it. For us it has worked. Our membership has already paid for it self. Now we do have our dues and the trails collection plus every year but still worth it.
Hi guys- that's so awesome and we hope to get to that point too! We can see the cost-saving benefits of being members! Thanks - Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Very informative. We have really enjoyed our zone pass, but may consider a bigger pass in a year or so. Good job on explaining everything. Lynn and Danny
Hi guys- Like we talked about with you, it is a tough choice and has to work for with the way you travel. We really felt trying the zone pass out first is the way to go! We know you will crunch the numbers and see if it works for you guys to upgrade or not! thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Thousand Trails is not for everyone but it has been very good for us. It has been very profitable for us. We chose the Adventure package when it first came out and it has paid for itself a long time ago. Thank you for sharing. Mary 💕Fred
Hi Mary & Fred- we are glad you share our opinion on it's not for everyone. However, the numbers financial show it can be a good decision in the long run! Thank you - Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
love thousand trails! We have the Adventure and the trails collection. Plus park to park and never have to be out.. at a few cents above $3.00 a day now, you just can't beat it.
Wow! That's amazing and awesome job!! Thanks for letting us know! Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
We purchases our elete basic in March of 2022, about the same time as you. It has saved us a good amount the first year. We have had good and bad parks, but in general, it's been OK. Most of the time we have found that you have to call to actually get a reservation, the on-line system does sucks. It always takes an hour or two to call, so this is not a quick system, but we have been able to get in to parks that were unavailable through the on-line system. Good look on your travels, maybe we will see on on the road, we are heading west this year, hope to get to Utah by May.
We are not caring for the online system either- got an error message to call, called and they hung up after getting a voice message they are not taking calls at this time! 😂 We are learning as we go and believe it will pay off in the end. We hope to cross paths with you guys too! Safe travels and thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Still on the fence with TT's. So darn hard to get a reservation when you need one. Great review!
We hear you! It has a lot of rules and can be difficult to make and get reservations for sure. We will see if buying it was a good idea or not in a couple of years- thanks Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Great info! Thanks!
Hi- we hope we helped you and answered some of your questions on Thousand Trails! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
@@ChasingOurSunshine you really did. I think this will be one of our options once we get going. I forget, when you had the zone pass, did you have much trouble reserving sites?
We say to get and try out the zone pass first to see if you like it- we did have no issues with the 60 days. But we were on 60 days to a tea in advance. We still have the 60 days for Encore, but the 120 for TT makes things easier to plan.
Pickle ball anyone? We've only played once in our jersey complex but TJ really enjoyed it. Thanks for the information. No bloopers!?!? impressive.
Pickle ball is super fun!! We are glad we are playing now! Yes no bloopers 😂 thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Angie and first purchased zone passes in 2015 (northeast and southeast) I had just retired from Logan City and the plan was to spend a year on the road. We headed to Montana the first part of Aug, then headed across the northern states to Maine, ending up there just after Labor Day. We then jumped park to park every 4 days from Maine to Florida, ending up at the Orlando TT just before Thanksgiving. One of our favorite TT parks is Lynchburg. We just loved the atmosphere there, even though it seems they are letting it get pretty run down. Unfortunately while in Florida we got called back home prematurely due to a family issue. I went to work for the D.A.s office in Jan, 2016, then in 2019 I retired again. We went full time in Feb 2019. In Oct. 2022 we purchased a zone pass for the southeast and used it quite a bit last winter while wintering in Florida. We have used it here in Tex. this winter. Not sure if we will ever buy into one of the big packages as using the zone pass has worked pretty good for us so far. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Safe Travels to the both of your and at some point hopefully our paths will cross. Safe Travels!! 🍻 Sean, Angie & Jazz
Hi guys- so glad you could be in the live on FB! So glad to meet you! We really thought about just sticking to the zone passes and making it work when we could. However, longer stays and booking windows won out for us. Got to do what works for you and we so hope our paths cross! Safe travels & thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
If you use this correctly, you will save a great deal of money. Good luck and happy travels!
We hope we can save money to spend it on fun stuff and support local establishments! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Great information. We have an older membership. It's a Platinum that they don't even offer anymore, but it's been good for us. We just wish more parks were offered, and that they did a better job keeping up all the parks. We have more than paid for our initial payout. We are down to just dividing out our membership annual fees. Yes, learned how to play pickle ball last summer. We played just a couple weeks ago. We don't have any tricks, but Bill has found that he has better luck if he actually calls directly to TT instead of using the online reservation in the harder areas to get into. Be safe guys, Bill and DeAnna
We have had better luck now on the phone too! Nice to be able to get your money out of it and it would be nice if there were updates to some of them. We will have to play pickleball next time we get together!! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
@@ChasingOurSunshine Just be warned- I'm terrible. 😂😂
@@LivingtheSilverLife We can’t wait to play then just to see it! 😂
So we went with a used Elite Connections plan. It was about $6700 including transfer fees. And so far the biggest frustrations I have had is discovering that a lot of parks in the east that show on the website as regular thousand trails parks, used to be Outdoor World and Mid Atlantic resorts. And my old plan has 90 day restrictions on all of those parks. I glossed over those details when reading everything before making a purchase. New members that purchase new, don't see those parks like that. So that's been frustrating. But, so far I'm making things work. Another issue that can be costly, is the amount of holidays you can have booked at once. That's costly because booking somewhere over a holiday can be super expensive. I had to pay $700 for a week over the 4th of July at a KOA. Thanks for this video and breaking it all down.
The “rules” all the rules are what get us and we have friends that run into the same issues. They are not considered in their “membership” as parks. It is so confusing!! But you have to make it work for you and you got a good deal on the Elite Connections used plan. We believe it will save money in the long run! Hope to run into you out here on the road! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Howdy, recognize y'all from being in some videos of our good friends Chris & Katrina. We have the horse ranch Stoney Acres that they boondocked at in May 2022. We never plan on going full time, so I'm sure this would not be for us; BUT if we were I'm sure it would still not be for us. Sounds like a shell game like timeshares years ago. :) Plus it just sounds like too much WORK and very confusing to try to stay ahead of the game. But I do appreciate your explanation of the program as it seems like the best explanation I've seen.
Hi- we remembered them saying they stayed with you guys! We are so grateful for our friendship with Chris & Katrina! Thousand Trails has so many ins and outs and you are right timeshare-ish! That's a great word for it. We have been making it work for us & it is not for everyone for sure. We are glad to hear you thought we did a good job explaining it! Thank you- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
This video helped a lot, and this program would not be good for me. I'm looking for extended/long term stays in the Southwestern area, since I'm retired and don't want to move around every 2 weeks. Thanks again!
We are so happy to hear it helped! It is not for everyone and have to do what works for you! We wish you safe travels and find the perfect place for you to stay. Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
We had thousands trials for a few years, we got tired of getting screwed. Getting to campgrounds and not having a site. Since they like to over book and its first come first serve. Its also very hard to cancel your membership, lots of cancellation fees. Its pretty much an rv paek timeshare. It used to be nice but it just wasn't worth the headache to us anymore.
It is one of those things knowing going it that there are games that you have to figure out to make it work. It is not for everyone. Figures there would be selling fees upon fees! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Would like to know about trails collection (Encore) was told they only offer a very few slots at the Encore parks for Thousand Trails customers that have a trails collection add on.
I know its getting harder to book at any campground, Can only imagine how impossible it is to reserve an park that only offers a few stalls for us. I am thinking of joining zone pass with trails option till I read this. HOW BAD is it?
P.S. was told the Encore parks have only 10 to maybe 20 spots available to us zone pass people with trails collection add on.
I would probably only would want this zone pass / trails add on, but only if getting a reservation at a Encore park would be about the same as any TT park.
P.S.S. Why do they need to limit reservations? they are both owned by Lifestyle Properties. It feels a little shady that they sell the trails collection without warning us that its much harder to actually stay there unless you are a non member and pay full price.
Too bad if this is correct. I would have joined the zone pass / trails collection program.
Sorry it took us a couple of days to responded, we have been moving locations and wanted to be able to properly answer your questions.
First, how hard is it to book Encore parks- depends- You have heard correctly Encore parks only have a few sites they rent out to TT members and the rest seam to be permanent or seasonal sites at them. We we able to book the ones we wanted in Florida last winter, however, didn't try to get into the Keys. We haven't had any issues in Wisconsin or Arizona (so far & we can use the 55+) either. We will say the Encore parks in Florida we also older parks and more like mobile home communities to.
We personally don't understand the 60 day booking window and find it to be a pain. We like to book out six months in advance as we are planners. No way can we afford the Adventure membership at this point and can't justify the cost for us to up grade.
We do recommend giving the zone pass with trails collection a try and see if it works for you. We liked it in Florida and TTO is one of the best TT parks. We will see how it goes this winter in Arizona with it for us. We are not sponsored by TT either and just wanted to help others, like you, make an informed decision and see if the membership works for you.
Safe travels and thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
We bought into the Adventure pass right off the bat last August and it truly is a Love Hate relationship. Financially it's a no brainer after 6 weeks in the Keys and being able to resell. If we did right now we'd be money ahead. I for one did not care for Peace River, but we were the first ones in after reopening after Ian So I'll cut it some slack. But the management there left a lot to be desired. Beautiful park in the middle of nowhere. Right now we are at White Oak Shores and I'll say it's my 2nd favorite park to date. (It's hard to compete with Sunshine Key). But other leave a lot to be desired. Between that and the booking system, we'll see if we stay on.
I also do drone videos of all the parks we stay at on my channel so you can look ahead if you are going to a certain park
Love- Hate relationship is perfect for what Thousand Trails Membership is!! We will have to look at your drone footage and thanks for letting us know! Do you have the Encore Plus? What is the booking window for it?
We haven't been able to get into the Encore parks in the keys this winter. Amazing you go into for six weeks! So jealous
@@ChasingOurSunshine 180 days on TT, 90 days on everything else. We have all the pluses. RPI, C2C etc. What we've done is book 180 days out, then when 90 days hits we'll do a switch if we want to. We ran out of luck in Florida and couldn't get in anywhere (Well, if I was willing to run it down to the day of and catch a cancellation somewhere I'm sure we could have stayed. But I'm the kinda guy that needs to know we have a place). And I was kind of TTO'd out. So we headed North sooner than we wanted to. WE're spending 6 weeks in NC. Only thing I miss are the pools. But not the kids at TTO. But that's a whole other story. But as of right now we are booked into Sept in the pacific NW after we go home to MN for a month.
@@UncleBucksTravellingRoadShow The kids at the pools is always something 😂👍 We never had kids so we try to give them the benefit of the doubt! 🤣 We feel we got lucky to get in where we did with TT & encore parks this winter in Florida. We are hoping for no issues in Arizona. Thanks for letting us know about the booking windows.
@@ChasingOurSunshine Oh I love kids. We raised 5 of them. We hope to be in AZ in Sept maybe we'll run into you.
Wow...do they sell a decoder ring to figure out the rules, sounds complicated. Haha. Pam and I have looked at it, but we travel between zones too much I guess. Maybe we should slow down.
It is all top-secret clearance to find out & figure out all the rules 😂 It is a membership you have to make work for you and so far it has worked out for us. Safe travels & thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
I'm a Adventure member with Encore Plus (their highest package) . I don't have a problem booking, the issue with me Is the quality of the campsite. Getting a level 50amp with sewer can be a challenge. TT is letting the campgrounds go to the dogs. We stay mostly at the encore sites mostly cause these are more recently purchased properties that they haven't let fall down yet. There are only a handful of TT branded properties I would recommend. Most are dated 50s 60s 70s with every few upgrades, small, unlevel, with poor power and amenities. Many are along busy highways and near railroad tracks (like you can wave at the engineer). Of the 90 are so TT branded properties I would only recommend on 8 to 10 and less than that for a 3 week stay. We mostly use our package for wintering in Florida, Texas or, Arizona, most are over age 50 parks for seniors. I personally can not recommend TT for a young person for a long term investment, I can't see TT doing the improvements needed at their subpar dated parks, built on unlevel land no one had another use for. Trust me you tare up your stuff alot more than you will ever save.
We would agree with you on that most of the parks in TT are hit and miss. We have found that with the Encore Parks, especially in Florida- dated 50s, 60s parks that pack you in. We cannot justify the price cost for us to upgrade to the Adventure package & get the Encore Plus. Wish we could as we are heading to Arizona and would love to stay longer at some of those and go park to Encore Park. But we will make it work and we can use the 55 plus parks too. Any recommendations for what ones to stay at? Please let us know. Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
@@ChasingOurSunshine Most of the Encores have some good spots, but it depends on where they want to stick the TT members.
So true!!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Looks like a great deal for you. How far south are you going this time? My wife found a place 70 miles off the Keys called Dry Tortugas we just put it on our bucket list. Thanks From Wisconsin
Hi! Thousand Trails only works if it is good for you & can make it work! We are on a waitlist to go to the Dry Tortugas National Park - it is a bucket list for us too!! Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
@@ChasingOurSunshine Hope you get there 😃
@@robertdoyen5434 Crossing our fingers, and toes and praying! But there will be another time if not now! Thanks
I've been on the fence for the thousand trails membership for about a yr. I worry about sites with our long camper
We are finding the hard to fit into sites are the encore parks in Florida - older, right sites and narrow roads. The Thousand Trails we have stayed at we would say they are big rig friendly. We are a 35 ft diesel pusher and glad we are the size we are. There is a lot to think about to figure out if it is for you or not. Good luck and thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Does forget to add RPI. It enhances your choices.
We have that but haven't used it yet! But it could be useful! Thanks - Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Thousand trails seems to me like a timeshare like deal only for camping. It might be ok for full timers but otherwise I don’t think it’s worth it.
It is like a timeshare and you have to make it work for you. Thousand Trails is not for everyone and that's for sure. Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Hi I got a camping pass if I upgrade and rv for full time would it be cheaper than a house or would gas be more then $600-700 a month
We budget $300 a month for our diesel for our RV and $100 for gas for our car. We have been on budget when we still places longer and our Thousand Trails membership helps with it. We do have several full budget videos that might help you out for more planning & details for Full Time RVing. Hope that helps & thanks for watching- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Are their parks that you can stay in 3-4 weeks without having to move when you have the membership?
We can stay up to 21 days back to back at all Thousand Trails campgrounds. However, there are high peak times, and can only stay 14 days at some parks, like in Florida. It's all in the fine print of the contract.
We would need 50 amp, how often have you been able to get that?
We have had 50 amp at almost all of them, except Lynchburg VA- we chose to take a 30 amp as there was a $5 a day charge for 50 amp sites and we didn't need it. Some of the parks charge extra for 50 amps. Our RV is 50 amp but can manage on 30 amp with no issues. Thanks - Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Do they allow minivans @ any of these parks?
Yes, the allow Class B RVs - but not sure if you are just living out of a minivan is allowed or not. Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
@@ChasingOurSunshine well I asked about minivans but I actually have an Econoline (cargo) van.
@@deedeeotero4475 Sorry, from their rules- “Your Thousand Trails Camping Pass entitles you to day use and overnight camping in your recreational vehicle or tent.” So if it is a converted van to be an RV- we would say it would work- but best to speak with someone to confirm. We can say we have seen vans there.
We still love our Thousand Trails. What??? No Bloopers? I'm disappointed. You could've made something up. 😂
Like we said, we couldn’t believe it either and life is full of bloopers! 😂 Maya jumping up on the couch was about it and just left it in the video! 😂 Thanks- Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Thank you for the video. And for confirming our decision to pass on Thousand Trails. It all sounds a lot like a car salesman pitch with the confusing options and BS. Thanks again..... Just Say.... NOT!!!!!!
That is awesome and completely support you! We wanted to be honest and upfront about it all! It has to work for you and we have been going back and forth about it for years. Time will tell if we made a good financial choice or not. Thanks for your honesty & appreciate it!! Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya
Lord that forced fake smile….
No fake smiles here! We hope you can enjoy life to the point you can smile too! Thanks Joel, Deb & 🐕 Maya