Thousand Trails
WHAT IS THOUSAND TRAILS?
Thousand Trails (TT) is one of the largest and most successful providers of RV resorts & campgrounds in North America with 81 locations in 22 states & British Columbia, Canada. Many of their campgrounds are so big, they are called Preserves. The TT company is owned by Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) which is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). ELS also owns Encore RV Resorts and Resort Parks International (RPI).
Thousand Trails has grown throughout the years by building new campgrounds, and acquiring other campground memberships & their properties, and then integrating them into the fold. The first TT campground started from a 640 acre parcel of land near Chehalis, WA back in 1969. From then until now, Thousand Trails (TT) has built several other campgrounds & also acquired the following campground clubs & properties: NACO, Leisure Time Resorts (LTR), Mid-Atlantic (MA), and Outdoor World (OW). The full campground breakdown is TT (33), NACO (16), LTR (10), MA (07), and OW (15). Thousand Trails turned 50 years old in 2019, so it has a long history of success & growth within the camping industry. In my opinion, THOUSAND TRAILS IS THE THE BEST CAMPGROUND MEMBERSHIP TO OWN & USE. It is a no-brainer purchase/investment for most full-time RVers, and since there are many different membership levels, there is a membership level that can greatly benefit nearly any & all campers.
WHAT ARE TYPICAL THOUSAND TRAILS CAMPGROUNDS LIKE?
Thousand Trails campgrounds typically have asphalt roads with gravel parking pads. The hook-ups generally consist of electric, water & sewer. Most electric is 50 amps, but some can be 30 amps only. Some of the older campgrounds may have several campsites that do not have sewer, but they always have multiple, public sewer dumps. A picnic table & fire ring are the norm, and if for any reason your site is missing one or the other, simply ask for them & they will be delivered. The campgrounds are typically large & spread out, and often have all types of wildlife, walking/running/hiking/biking trails, children's playgrounds, tennis courts, pickleball courts, basketball courts, horseshoe pits, shuffle board courts, gyms with treadmills/lifecycles/weight machines/free weights, swimming pools, jacuzzis, lodges/family centers, saunas, restrooms with showers, laundry rooms, and RV storage lots. Besides RV parking, the campgrounds often have cabins (two different sizes), yurts, and permanently fixed travel trailers. The campgrounds can accommodate tent campers, pop-ups, travel trailers, 5th wheels, as well as Class A, B, & Cs. Each member is given an annual, printed campground directory, and has 24/7 access to their online membership page with an online directory. You can book or change your own campground reservations online, or call in to get free, personal assistance with your bookings. Your booking window is decided by your level of membership, and you can change or cancel your reservation with as little as 24 hours advance notice. When you make a reservation, you are only guaranteed a campsite. All campsites are on a first come, first serve basis; in other words, you pick your own site, after arrival & checking in, when staying at a TT, NACO, LTR, MA or OW campground. If you are staying at an Encore Resort, then your campsites are assigned to you, but can usually be changed by simply asking the Park Manager. Encore Resorts are often used because they can be a permanent Bonus Park as part of your contract, they can used with The Trails Collection, they can be used as a discounted park with RV On The Go or Ready Camp Go programs, or they can be used with RPI or Enjoy America. Of course all of these TT campground descriptions are what we have typically found since using the system between 2009 to 2019, but as usual, there can be variations found. Even Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) designates Thousand Trails as CAMPGROUNDS/PRESERVES & Encore as RV RESORTS/PARKS.
HOW MANY DIFFERENT THOUSAND TRAILS CONTRACTS ARE THERE?
Thousand Trails has numerous contracts they have sold over the years as they grew, expanded, and added benefits; likely as many as 100 different contracts. Also, each time they purchased another campground company, they also honored all of that companies previous contracts. Today you can purchase a resale Thousand Trails, NACO, Leisure Time Resorts, Mid-Atlantic, or Outdoor World contract from a fellow member at a greatly discounted price. The reason these members sell at discounted prices as much as 66% off is because they already got their use & benefits from their memberships. Also, many of the developer benefits & perks do not transfer to new owners. Currently Thousand Trails is selling four (04) levels of new contracts & one (01) reciprocal program: Camping Pass; Elite Basic; Elite Connections; Ultimate Odyssey: and The Trails Collection.
THE FOUR (04) CURRENT MEMBERSHIP LEVELS & THE TRAILS COLLECTION RECIPROCAL PROGRAM
As I stated earlier, there are around 100 different contracts that Thousand Trails honors because of program changes & upgrades, as well as acquisitions of other campground clubs. Thousand Trails/ELS is currently only selling four (04) different membership levels & they also offer one (01) reciprocal program that is available to all levels, and even all older contracts. The 4 membership levels are Camping Pass, Elite Basic, Elite Connections, & Ultimate Odyssey. To see all the details of these 4 membership levels, simply click on the links shown here.
As of March 2017, Thousand Trails offers the new reciprocal program known as The Trails Collection. It essentially gives all Thousand Trails members access to about 100 more Encore RV Resorts for an extra cost of $214.00 per year. To see all the details of this reciprocal program, simply click on the link shown here.
OUR HISTORY WITH THOUSAND TRAILS?
Using us for example, we purchased our first Thousand Trails Platinum Plus membership on the resale market back in 2009 for $3,000.00 plus a $750.00 transfer fee. That member purchased his contract decades earlier for around $8,000.00, full-timed with his wife for all those years, and then sold his membership to us after his wife had passed away & he stopped RVing. The previous owner Mr. Williams, told me he got his money back 4 or 5 times over, and was still able to sell it for a few thousand dollars. That contract allowed us to do unlimited camping with no nightly camping fees, a 90 day booking window, 21 day stays, park-to-park privileges with no time out of the TT system, and included the 33 Thousand Trails parks, 20 NACO parks, & 07 Leisure Time Resorts for a total of 60 campgrounds that were mostly located out west. The TT Platinum Plus contracts DO NOT include the 22 parks acquired by Mid-Atlantic & Outdoor World which are mostly included in the Mid-West & Eastern USA, nor did it include any Encore Bonus Parks. I truly enjoyed that membership level from 2009 to 2014, and many people would be totally happy with that membership, without any further upgrades. Since my wife & I are full-timers that travel all over the country (not just out west), we wanted to go more places, have longer stays (travel slower), and have something we can both enjoy with & give to our children, then upgrading made perfect sense. So far my wife & I have purchased the following Thousand Trails contracts: Platinum Plus (2009); Elite Connections I (2014); Ultimate Odyssey I (2017); and Ultimate Odyssey II (2019). In fact, if ELS ever comes out with an ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING contract that includes every Thousand Trails campground & Encore RV resort, we will most assuredly be updating again.
This is only the first of many Thousand Trails articles I am writing, and all of them will be linked from this one article. I do not think there is another RVer alive that loves Thousand Trails more than my wife & I do. We can't say enough good things about the company, the campgrounds, & the campground employees. We love our TT membership so much, we have actually upgraded our membership level three additional times since our first Thousand Trails Platinum Plus purchase back in 2009. We have been full-time RVers since 2010, and are proud to say we have convinced & helped numerous family members, friends, acquaintances, and former co-workers to also become full-time RVers, as well as Thousand Trails members. Furthermore, on 03/08/19, we were told by corporate that we are the first Thousand Trails members to ever become Double Ultimate Odyssey members by upgrading/merging an Ultimate Odyssey I & Ultimate Odyssey II contract to get the best of both. The great thing about TT contracts is that EACH UPGRADE CAN ONLY ADD, NOT TAKE AWAY BENEFITS; so there is no fear of losing any benefits already acquired (they stay grandfathered for your life/lives), when acquiring newer & higher levels of membership benefits through contract upgrades.
The bottom line is that Thousand Trails is THE BEST CAMPGROUND MEMBERSHIP to have if you worked hard for your money & want to get the most bang for your buck; if you live on a budget & make less than $100K per year; and/or if you are a full-time RVer or at least plan on camping 3 or more weeks per year. There are many other reasons to own a Thousand Trails membership, and I will explain them in my numerous Thousand Trails articles.
WHAT IS THE NATIONWIDE AVERAGE CAMPING COST?
According to the RV Industry, the average nightly cost for RV camping fees in 2018 was $31.53, which also happens to be 6% more than it was in 2017. After 9 years of RV full-timing, and seeing the amounts being charged by campgrounds nationwide, I find this to be more like a minimum or off-season cost. Keep in mind, this is an average figure for nationwide & all seasons, but the popular regions of the country during the popular seasons such as FL, TX, CA, & AZ in the winter or WA, OR, NY & ME in the summer, are going to cost you a lot more than this nationwide average. If you are a full-timer that camps up to 365 days a year, even paying this "supposed" average cost can be hard for the budget to handle at $11,508.45 per year. There are many ways to cut this cost which includes slowing down and paying for discounted, monthly stays (unrealistic for most); boondock & dry camping (free camping) more nights on public lands (no hook ups); join a dry camping clubs such as Boondockers Welcome & Harvest Hosts, and then move every night or two (no hook ups & more fuel costs); take advantage of Casino Camping & Fairgrounds Camping (free boondocking or low cost camping with hook-ups); join discount camping memberships such as Passport America & Good Sam (10% to 25% off nightly stays); using military campgrounds can often be cheaper than the nationwide average (HOWEVER, they can only be used by Active & Retired Military); Coast-to-Coast, Good Neighbor Parks, RPI, Enjoy America (most campgrounds are $10.00 to $15.00 nightly), or join Thousand Trails which offers different membership levels and all have no nightly camping fees (prepaid camping - the longer you own it, the cheaper your nightly average cost ends up actually costing you). My wife & I have joined and/or use all of the methods to discount camping & I am retired military too. As you can see, we like discounts, but we also like many options. All of the ways to get discounts can help you save on camping fee costs, so you have more money to spend on other things, such as enjoying life & retirement. Once again, Thousand Trails is the main option that allows more people to save the most money while enjoying the RV Lifestyle.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO FULLY RECOUP YOUR PURCHASE PRICE WHEN FULL-TIMING?
Each level of upgrade costs different amounts. If you are buying a Camping Pass, they cost $585.00, but you can reduce that cost by an immediate $100.00 by simply using us as your Referral Friend. So now you take that $485.00 cost divided by $31.53 (average nationwide nightly camping fee) and your One Zone Camping Pass is back to fully recouped in only 16 nights of your first year. On your second & subsequent years you will pay a yearly maintenance fee that is currently at $585.00, so your yearly break even point will be 18.55 or rounded up to 19 days. The maintenance fee can rise slowly with the cost of living, but then again so does the average nationwide night camping fee that you would pay if you did not own Thousand Trails.
Another example, lets "guestimate" that a current Ultimate Odyssey upgrade for an owner that already has a Basic Elite level membership is $10,000. Using the $31.53 (average nationwide nightly camping fee), you will recoup all of your money after 317 nights of camping; since there is 365 days in a year, it takes less than one year. After the Break Even Point is reached, YOU WILL BE CAMPING FREE 11 MONTHS PER YEAR FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. If you are asking why only 11 months and not 12 months, it is because each year, starting after your first year, you will also pay a maintenance fee of $585.00 per year on your annual anniversary, which covers campground repairs & upgrades. I simply look at it as that amount is covering 19 nights of camping costs, and I round that up to one month per year. Even if they raise the maintenance fee each & every year, for the rest of your life (to cover inflation), that is no different than all other campgrounds. The great thing is, you will only be dealing with inflation costs on the yearly maintenance fee (equivalent to 19 nights of camping), but all the non-Thousand Trails RVers will be dealing with inflation costs on 365 nights of camping.
The upgrade cost for each person is based on your current level of membership, the higher level you are when you upgrade, the cheaper the cost for that level of upgrade. I think, if you walked in off the street not owning any kind of Thousand Trails membership whatsoever (not even a Camping Pass), lets take an "educated guess" here and say the cost to buy an Ultimate Odyssey (the highest level & most expensive membership) is $18,000.00. Once again, I am using this figure only as a guess for now, when I find out the actually cost I will post it here. So here is the math: $18,000.00 (estimated purchase price) divided by $31.53 (average nationwide nightly camping fee) equals 571.00 nights of camping then divide that by 28 days in a month and the answer is 21 months. So even if an Ultimate Odyssey was to cost $18,000.00, it only takes less than two years to recoup all of your money. Don't forget, you would have had to pay this amount for camping somewhere else anyhow (unless dry camping & boondocking), so why not prepay Thousand Trails for two years of camping, and then CAMP FOR FREE FOR 11 MONTHS PER YEAR FOR THE REST OF YOU & YOUR SPOUSE'S LIVES. I hope you see that no matter what level of membership you buy, you will be free camping 11 months per year for life in as little as 2 years or less. After those two years of full-timing and visiting your 81 Thousand Trails campgrounds, you will have recouped all of your purchase price, then it only takes 19 nights of camping per year to recoup your $585.00 annual maintenance fee.
After that first two years of full-timing in Thousand Trails campgrounds, you can then RV all over the USA, Canada & Mexico knowing you already got your money's worth from Thousand Trails. If you ever want to get rid of your membership, don't forget you can even do a resale and recoup 33% to 50% of your purchase cost. Furthermore, you will no longer feel obligated to ONLY go to Thousand Trails and/or Encore Resorts, because you already recouped your entire purchase price in saved nightly camping fees. There are so many naysayers out there that will IGNORANTLY tell you don't buy a Thousand Trails membership, because you will have to use "those parks only for the rest of your life", just to make it cost effective. We are the living proof, and the math doesn't lie. Even the most expensive & highest level of Thousand Trails membership you can buy will be fully recouped in less than two years if you are full-timing within your 81 Thousand Trails campgrounds. If you only use Thousand Trails 6 months per year, it will still only take you 4 years to recoup your investment. The Ultimate Odyssey membership lets you stay 28 nights per campground, so you only have to move one time each month, which also saves you lots of money in fuel costs.
We not only talk the talk, but we also walk the walk, so I will use us as & our Thousand Trails history as an example once again. We have spent $16,970.00 on 4 contracts (which includes the original $750.00 transfer fee), and then add 10 years of maintenance dues at the current rate ($585.00 x 10 = $5,850.00) for a total expenditure to date of $22,820.00. Now take that total expenditure and divide it by $31.53 (average nationwide nightly camping fee rate), and it brings us to a cost recuperation point of 724 nights of pre-paid camping. Between June 1, 2011 to Dec. 31,2019 we have stayed in numerous RPI, C2C, Escapee parks, military campgrounds, fairgrounds campgrounds, casino camping, public campgrounds, boondocking & dry camping, gone on several caravans, camped at several RV rallies, and even spent numerous nights in our many timeshares, AND we still have been able to take advantage of 1,216 nights in Thousand Trails campgrounds thus far. Therefore, we have recouped ALL OF OUR CONTRACT FEES & MAINTENANCE DUES ON 4 CONTRACTS OVER A 10 YEAR PERIOD OF TIME. By Dec. 31, 2019 we will have camped free for 492 additional nights more than what we actually would have paid for if staying in campgrounds that charged the nationwide average nightly rate. From now on going forward, we truly can camp for up to 11 months per year for FREE for the rest of our lives utilizing any of our contracted Thousand Trails campgrounds. Another way to look at it is that we have paid $22,820 during the past 10 years for 1,216 nights of Thousand Trails camping for a very frugal $18.77 per night camping fee costs, and that includes electric. This nightly average is going to drop tremendously now that our only expenses going forward is $585.00 per year for 365 nights of camping per year. Our 4 Contracts (which includes Platinum Plus, Connections Elite & Double Ultimate Odyssey contracts) give us 108 permanent Thousand Trails/Encore Bonus Parks that we can stay in for 28 consecutive nights per visit. If we book each one of them for a one month (28 day) stay, it will still take us 108 months (which is 9 years) to visit all of our campgrounds for even one visit each. YOU TOO CAN DO EXACTLY THE SAME THING!!! BUT, If you are considering acquiring an Ultimate Odyssey contract, I strongly urge you to do so as soon as possible, because there is talk that they may stop selling them soon. If the talk is true & I had to guess why, I would say ELS realizes they are not cost effective contracts for them to sell; they likely have realized they are simply giving away the farm. Most RVers can't see the real value in them because of the initial sticker price shock; however, those of us that have cognitive thinking skills & can do the math, are setting ourselves up for awesome, Full-time RVing retirements. The sooner you join Thousand Trails, the quicker you start applying the nightly campground fees you are currently paying to others towards buying a lifetime of cheaper & cheaper camping. Make the purchase, do a 1 or 2 year travel plan that takes advantage of Thousand Trails as much as possible until you recoup your purchase cost (use the average nationwide nightly camping fee rate of $31.53), then know that from that point on, anything over 19 nights per year is FREE CAMPING FOR LIFE.
DON'T FORGET, when you buy any of the three higher membership upgrades from Thousand Trails, they also give you 5 to 10 years worth of one week free cabins valued at $300.00 per year, large discounts off of all standard cabin rentals & getaway cabin rentals for life, and the Ultimate Odyssey membership also gives you six $500.00 gift certificates that can be used one per year for a free timeshare vacation, or applied towards an annual cruise. These extra perks & benefits are only some of what they offer, I will cover all of them in a separate article for each type of membership upgrade.
SHOULD YOU BUY NEW (WHOLESALE) OR USED (RETAIL)?
Only you can decide this for yourself, there are Pros & Cons for each. I purchased my first contract which was a Thousand Trails Platinum Plus, but it did not include the 22 MA & OW parks, I got none of the valuable developer perks & benefits, and I also paid a $750.00 transfer fee that does not exist when purchasing a new contract. I did get a good price, and easily got my purchase price back in campground cost savings in less than one year. Today, the Thousand Trails Camping Pass is actually a very good deal. You can purchase a Camping Pass (with or without additional zones), and visit all of those campgrounds while testing the water to make sure Thousand Trails is a good fit for your family. You can even change the zone(s) each year at renewal time, so you aren't going to the same campgrounds year after year. If you come to love your Thousand Trails membership like we do, you will likely upgrade to a higher level of membership. NO MATTER WHICH LEVEL OF MEMBERSHIP YOU ACQUIRE, YOU WILL GET ALL OF YOUR MONEY BACK & MORE IN CAMPGROUND COST SAVINGS! The more you use your membership, the quicker you recoup your purchase cost. The longer you own your membership, the cheaper & cheaper your overall nightly camping costs end up costing you. The higher the level of membership, the more it costs to purchase, but also, the more perks & benefits you get. In fact, ELS adds in so many extra perks & benefits, such as free & discounted cabins, cabin reimbursements, multiple $500 timeshare certificates, right to trade free cabins for timeshares & cruises, and so on. If you use all of these (and you definitely should), you recoup at least one-third or more of your purchase cost; and then don't forget, you will be able to resell your membership for about 33% to 50% of your purchase price, decades from now after you have gotten your purchase cost back in saved camping fees, over & over again. Anyone that knows me knows that I am MR. FRUGAL. I always aim to live a Champagne Lifestyle on a Beer Budget. I never pay full-price when I don't have to, and a penny saved is a penny earned. It really doesn't matter if you buy Thousand Trails as new or used, both are good buying decisions. Simply know for sure what you are buying, learn how to squeeze every ounce of benefits from your purchase, and don't let the naysayers rain on your parade. I always do my own research, and then I do what is best for my family. Being full-time RVers & owning a Thousand Trails Double Ultimate Odyssey membership is how we roll. We have already gotten all of our purchase costs back in saved camping fees, and now our nightly stay costs just keep getting cheaper & cheaper the longer we own it. We are currently in our 50's, and we plan on staying as full-timers for the rest of our lives. Any Thousand Trails membership, no matter which level you end up buying, will do the same thing for you too. A huge percentage of people that start off with a Camping Pass (aka Camping Zone Pass) eventually upgrade, because they come to love Thousand Trails & want a higher level of membership benefits.
GET AN EXTRA $100 DISCOUNT BY USING US AS YOUR REFERRAL FRIEND!
If you want to start off with a Thousand Trails Camping Pass, then simply click our INVITATION & REFERRAL LINK, watch the video, and get started. If you do, you will get an EXTRA $100.00 discount as our referral (so you only pay $485.00 for your first year), and we will get a $50 referral fee which helps to pay for the cost of this website; it is a WIN WIN for you & us. If you want to buy a higher priced contract such as as the Elite Basic, Elite Connections, or Ultimate Odyssey from Thousand Trails, we strongly recommend you only purchase them from Membership Specialists/Sales Agents located in the state of Oregon, so you do not pay any unnecessary sales taxes. If you call a Membership Specialist in Oregon or drive into any Thousand Trails campground, tell them to list Donald & Deborah Potts/Member No. 298854970 as your friend that referred you, and you will still get the EXTRA $100.00 discount.
WARNING
FOR ALL BEFORE UPGRADING!!!
Once again, if you ever decide to buy or upgrade to a higher priced contract such as a Elite Basic, Elite Connections, or Ultimate Odyssey from Thousand Trails, MAKE SURE YOU ONLY CONTACT A MEMBERSHIP SPECIALIST AT ANY OF THE THOUSAND TRAILS CAMPGROUNDS LOCATED IN THE STATE OF OREGON. [If you are purchasing a Thousand Trails Camping Pass with 1 to 5 zones, then buying it online from Chicago, IL or at any TT campground isn't too bad with regards to sales taxes, since they are the least expensive memberships with the lowest amount of sales tax charges.]
The reason for purchasing all higher priced memberships & upgrades from Membership Specialists that are "currently" working in Oregon is because OREGON IS THE ONLY "NO SALES TAX STATE" THAT SELLS THOUSAND TRAILS MEMBERSHIPS. You DO NOT have to visit Oregon to make the purchase since all contracts are now done electronically anyway. To make a phone call to Oregon, and sign the online documents is NO DIFFERENT than driving to your closest campground; you still do the exact same process by signing electronic documents. For example, to buy an Ultimate Odyssey contract from a Membership Specialist not working in Oregon would cost you $500.00 to $750.00 dollars more. Make sure you click on the Sales Tax Map to see the sales tax percentages that will be added onto your purchase price, depending on the location of the Sales Office. If you purchase from CA, you add 8.54%; if you purchase from Arizona, you add 8.33%; if you purchase from TX, you add 8.17%; if you purchase from WA, you add 9.18% and so on. We purchased our Ultimate Odyssey I upgrade in 2017 from a Membership Specialist in FL and got slammed with $500.00 in sales taxes alone. We purchased our Ultimate Odyssey II upgrade in 2019 from a Membership Specialist in OR and paid ZERO SALES TAXES. The sales taxes are based on which state the Membership Specialist is working in, IT IS NOT BASED ON YOUR LEGAL RESIDENCE STATE. Make sure you understand this most important information: YOU DON'T PAY ANY SALES TAX IF YOU PURCHASE OR UPGRADE USING A MEMBERSHIP SPECIALIST LOCATED AT ANY OF THE FIVE (O5) SALES OFFICES LOCATED IN THE STATE OF OREGON.
There are many Thousand Trails members with websites that recommend people to buy or upgrade their memberships using their work camping friends (working as ELS membership specialists). Sales Prices on all Thousand Trails UPGRADE Contracts are FIXED, there will be NO NEGOTIATIONS WHATSOEVER on upgrade contract prices with the ELS Corporate Office, so it does not matter which Membership Specialist you contact to purchase an upgraded contract, but it does matter very much which state a Membership Specialist is working at when state sales taxes are concerned. Membership Specialists simply explain the 4 current plans, and you can do that research right here yourself; they tell you the prices for each plan that is set by corporate; they gather your name & address & date of birth to be placed on the contract; they "should" gather your referral persons info so you get the EXTRA $100.00 discount, but if they don't ask, please tell them (Donald & Deborah Potts/Member No. 298854970); they gather the payment for your selected contract minus the $100 EXTRA referral discount; and then they have you sign the electronic documents. Membership Specialists DO NOT write the contracts and they CAN NOT alter contracts in any way, they CAN NOT negotiate lower prices (even for all cash deals), they CAN NOT verbally promise you anything outside of the standard written contracts, and they CAN NOT forget to charge you extra for the state sales tax if they are not working for one of the five Oregon sales offices. In about 3 weekdays, you can log into the Thousand Trails website & start booking the campgrounds available to you in your contract. There are around 81 Thousand Trails Campground Sales Offices, but only five (05) of those offices are located in Oregon. The odds are against their friends working at one of the few Oregon offices, so the unsuspecting buyers get slammed with 6% to 10% higher costs for sales taxes, which is TOTALLY AVOIDABLE. Please remember, the reason you are upgrading your Thousand Trails membership is to save yourself money, and buying from "their" friends, that are likely not working at a sales office that is located in Oregon is NOT GOING TO BE THE BEST THING FOR YOU. We learned this fact the hard way, so please take our warning to heart here, unless of course throwing away hundreds of dollars is no big deal for you.
Thousand Trails Sales Offices in Oregon (ask for the Membership Specialist & give them our info as your Referal friend to get your EXTRA $100 discount: Donald & Deborah Potts/Member No. 298854970). The Membership Specialists in Oregon have either Tues & Weds or Weds & Thurs as their days off and their work hours are 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 PM (PST).
Bend-Sunriver (541) 593-8494, ext. 8
Pacific City (503) 965-6919
Seaside (503) 572-7613
South Jetty (541) 991-3773
Whalers Rest (541) 867-3101
MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD OUR FREE GOOGLE EARTH MAPPING FILES FOR THOUSAND TRAILS, AS WELL AS MANY OTHER CAMPGROUND CLUB MEMBERSHIPS
Back in 2010, when we first started living fulltime in our RV, we saw that it was very hard to plan RV trips because each campground membership & discount program used their own maps. So, I started creating Google Earth Mapping Files for all of the various camping systems, and that includes Thousand Trails. Google Earth is the best free map program with satellite imagery, GPS coordinates, street level views, and it only takes one click to bring up the Google Maps view from Google Earth. I plot all campgrounds onto Google Earth, so you can see the locations, see the address & phone numbers, zoom in on actual camping sites, click on the live links to jump to that campground's booking page, and you can add or remove all other campground memberships with the click of a button. These mapping files have been shared all over the internet from camping blogs to facebook and so on. I have given hundreds of copies of them to people I meet in campgrounds. These Google Earth Mapping Files have been downloaded over 150,000 times during the past 10 years. Here is the page to download these files (which are updated often) as well as the free Google Earth Pro software. You are going to love these programs, everyone does. I spend countless hours creating these files, and I do not charge for any of them. All I ask is that you give our information as your Referral Friends if joining or upgrading with Thousand Trails. The small referral rewards we collect help to pay for this website.
Also, take the time to visit Our Articles page for many ways to save $100s of dollars per year on your internet services, TV services, and more.
Thanks for any & all Referrals you give us. Referrals don't cost you anything extra, in fact you get an EXTRA discount you would not have gotten without giving a referral, and we certainly appreciate your help. Thank You!