This is a guest post series from Danielle of Roadschooling with The Frugal Navy Wife.
Daniele and her family homeschool while on the road in their RV – also known as roadschooling! Come follow along with Daniele as she shares her wisdom in this Roadschooling series here on FHD! Danielle will teach us tips for buying an RV,organizing an RV, her thoughts on RV insurance and memberships, and tons more.
Once you buy an RV, one of the first things your dealer will try to sell you is their partner RV Membership.
What is an RV Membership?
This is a club to which you pay a yearly due, and in return, get free or discount camping at their RV parks. Some have other benefits, however, they all have their pros and cons.
Let’s take a look at the basics.
Discount Camp Sites
The first memberships that RVers research are discount camp sites. Examples are Good Sam, KOA, and Passport America.
Members pay a yearly fee of around $30-$50, and you get a discount any time you stay at a park in their network. This discount is normally around 10% off but can be as high as 50% off, depending on the park.
The discount does not apply to package specials like weekly and monthly rates.
This membership type can save you about $5 a day on daily rates. If you are a full-time traveler, that’s $1800 per year if you stay at one of these parks and save $5 a day all year!
Even if you only use the discount once a month for 4 days, you will be saving over $200 a year.
So think about how often you will use the membership and analyze if the savings will be more then you pay.
Price Per Night Membership
The next type of membership is a set price per night membership. Ready Camp Go is most known for this.
They have several levels from which to choose, starting at $50 for the year going up to $300 for the year.
Each membership allows for a certain amount of nights for the year at their parks for only $20 a night.
The $49 package allows for 15 nights at $25 a night, and the $299 package allows for 90 nights at $20 per night. They also have a few membership sizes in between.
Make sure you read the fine print on this type of membership. Depending on your package, you can stay either 7 or 14 nights in a row, and then must leave the park for 7 nights before you are able to stay again.
Will this benefit you?
Estimate if you plan to use all of your nights each year and plan to stay in areas where they have designated parks. Then add up the total costs.
We grabbed this membership because my family is in Florida, and the peak season in Florida is January through April. You can pay over $1,500 just at the monthly rates so being able to use this membership for an average of $600 a month is a huge savings for us.
Even if you don’t use it during Florida’s peak time, most RV parks charge $45 -$50 a night and you will pay half that!
That means for 15 nights of camping at $25 instead of $50, you can save $375. At 90 nights of camping at $20 instead of $50, you can save $2,700.
Sounds like a good deal to me!
Camp for Free Membership
The next kind of membership is a yearly fee to be able to camp for free. There are two types of memberships that do this.
The first membership type gives you access to boondock-like camping. This means that while the site is free, there are no hook-ups.
Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome are two that are known for this.
Harvest Hosts is around $45 a year, and this gives you access to farms, wineries, breweries and more that offer you a place to stay. Some offer hook-ups, but most will not.
Boondockers Welcome is a site where hosts list their camping spot along with size and specifications and will allow you to camp up to 2 nights free. Many will not offer amenities, however, some will offer water hook-up, Wi-Fi or use of a pool.
Thousand Trails membership is another in this category but quite a bit more expensive. They have 2 types of memberships.
The first membership type is their ‘zones’ membership. They have essentially split the US into 5 zones. You buy one zone and can stay at any of their parks in your zone for free.
The cost per zone is $550. If you stay at only the parks in your zone for 15 nights or more you have saved around $200.
You can stay up to 14 nights in a row, and then have to wait 7 nights before you can start your next stay.
The first 30 nights are free, and then after that you pay a $3 fee per night for amenities.
The second membership option they have is their Elite membership, which costs between $3,000 -$8,000. You can buy a used membership, which starts at around $3,000.
After the large upfront payment, members pay a yearly fee of about $400 -$700. This allows you to stay at any of their parks across the US for free.
You can stay 21 nights in a row, and then you have to move to another park.
To make your money back, you will need to stay 15 nights a year to make the yearly dues worth it. Then you will need to stay an additional 23 nights per $1,000 spent buying the membership.
This membership is a favorite amongst full time families, as they make their money back and then some the first year.
If you only RV a few times a year this may not be worth it for you.
What RV memberships do you have and love?
More RV Articles about Roadschooling
You might also be interested in these other posts about Roadschooling:
How to Find the Perfect RV for Your Family
Where You Can Camp For Free in the USA with an RV
What Vehicle is Right to Tow Your RV?
5 Ways to Save Money at Campgrounds
Are RV Memberships Worth It? – this post!
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Click here for a bunch of additional articles to help you in affording the homeschool life!
Danielle is a mom of 4, Former Navy Wife, Homeschooling mom, frugalista and blogger at The Frugal Navy Wife. She and her family of 6 are currently setting out on their lifelong dream to travel via RV around the United States. They are documenting their journey on Roadschooling with The Frugal Navy Wife.
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