Campground memberships are tricky, because even the best membership might not be the right fit for you.

Keep that in mind as you read about some of the memberships we decided to purchase.

While they work great for our lifestyle, make sure your specific situation will allow you to get a lot of value out of them before purchasing. Here are the details of each membership we decided to purchase.

We purchased our Thousand Trails membership once we got out to the west coast, and it has saved us a fortune!

We started off with a camping pass/zone pass.

Cost: Our $585 annual membership allowed us to stay in areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and more….free for up to two weeks! We have met so many other families at these parks.

One con to Thousand Trails is that they don’t have many parks in the middle of the country, so make sure there are enough parks in your desired area to make it worth it. You can look up all of their locations on their website.

We quickly realized we wanted to upgrade from our camping pass to a lifetime membership, so we did and it has saved us so much money. We can now go from park to park and stay for 3 weeks at a time, with a 120 day booking window.

There are so many options for lifetime memberships that aren’t explained on the website, so we always recommend talking to our friend, Aaron Massa, who is a membership specialist as he can share the latest deals going on and help you understand the details of each membership type and help you find the one that will be best for you!

Tell him The Wanderpreneurs sent ya! Aaron Massa- 360-489-4407 Aaron_massa@equitylifestyle.com

Harvest Hosts is such a great concept. Over 1,000 wineries, farms, breweries, golf resorts and other attractions invite you to visit and stay on their property for up to 24 hours…completely free!

Cost: Annual memberships start at $99 per year, and each stay is free. You are encouraged to support the local business in some way, usually a purchase of $20 or more.

Our First Experience: Our first Harvest Host stay was at Bayou Teche Brewery in Arnaudville, LA. We pulled into their parking lot at 4:55pm, and their taproom closed at 5pm! While our time was short, their staff was very pleasant and welcoming. We sampled a flight (including an 18% quadruple IPA!) and bought a 6 pack of our favorite sample to bring back to the RV with us.

We parked right out front in their parking lot, enjoyed a quiet evening, then got back on the road around 10am the next morning. Instead of paying $30-$50+ for such a short stay, we stayed for free and spent $20 on great beer that supported the brewery. Great experience!

The details about Passport America are simple: “Save 50% at Over 1800 Quality Campgrounds”.

Cost: Membership cost is $44 per year, and each stay is typically 50% off the campground’s regular nightly rate.

Our First Experience: Our first passport American stay was in New Orleans at Three Oaks And A Pine RV Park. We booked directly with the RV park and simply mentioned we are a Passport America member, and we received 50% off!

An RV park much closer to the French Quarter was $125/night. Staying 5 miles away and using our Passport America membership, we paid $30/night.

We didn’t end up renewing our membership after the first year, as we started noticing more and more restrictions on dates and less savings at many parks. It might still make sense for you, but we don’t use Passport American anymore. If you want to try it out, click HERE and use our code: WAND3 which will give you an additional 4 months added to your membership for free!

Boondockers Welcome is a community of hosts who invite RVers to spend anywhere from 1-5 nights free of charge on their property! Some hosts even offer hookups or other amenities for travelers to use. 

Cost: 1 year- $50

Our first experience: We stayed on the property of a couple in Washington. The couple was out of town so we didn’t get to meet them, but their property was beautiful. They even offered a 30 amp hookup and water! We stayed 3 nights and loved our time there. This is our second favorite membership, next to our Thousand Trails membership, and we highly recommend it!