Any one have a thousand trails membership

[BreakfastinAmerica]

We are headed to CA in January. Closest place to family is a TT campground @ $50/ day. TT is offering membership for about $580/year for 2 zones. Is it hard to get reservations.? Any info would be appreciated.

[BB&LAB]

We were given a TT membership in January when we purchased our 5th wheel. We have used it 3-times (twice at one park) two months a part and have and have reservations for another TT the third week of this month. So far we have only been unable to get a reservation at one campground calling 2-weeks ahead. We have had a mixed experience between the two TT we have stayed at. The first was Menifee, CA which was ok, not all that great except it did not cost us anything for the week we were there. On the other hand a great experience at the TT Bend-Sunriver RV Resort and stayed twice for 2-2-week stints.

[livinthelife]

We are headed to CA in January. Closest place to family is a TT campground @ $50/ day. TT is offering membership for about $580/year for 2 zones. Is it hard to get reservations.? Any info would be appreciated.

We got a free Thousand Trails membership when we bought our rig. We were able to make a reservation, but only space available. That is, we had a reservation at a campground, but, when we got there we were not assigned to a site, we had to drive around and see if there was an available site that would work for us. There were like 5 sites open, but only one would fit our rig (and we normally wouldn't have selected it, but it was all there was). That's the way it works, unless you have one of the premium memberships.

We cancelled our membership about 3 months later.

[geotex1]

I will give you a frank opinion. Nikki and I had a TT membership for 12 years, and it was at level that hasn't been offered in over a decade. So we had priority over many in booking, but not all. For 9 of those years, we thoroughly enjoyed our membership using it extensively in the Northeast but also throughout the country. It really worked for us. Then came the HUGE boom and return of families to camping. TT FAR OVERSOLD memberships, and there was really no more exclusivity and the campgrounds were CROWDED and their care really took a nose dive in general as not much of that revenue was being reinvested to the campgrounds. We renewed our membership that last time, and in the 3 year period we could only get into TT campgrounds that we wanted, when we wanted TWICE! Total waste of money!

A fresh membership will have very low priority compared to those long paid in and you will likely find yourself very frustrated with not being able to get reservations where you really want to go, when you want to go.

Was a great concept that used to work, but it went corporate with all the goals and greed that go with! We don't regret at all breaking our affiliation.

[D2Reid]

We have had the TT SW/NW three out of 8 eight years. We bought it because there were specific campgrounds we wanted to stay at. Our plan was the 2 week out 3 day plan. We made reservations when we purchased the plan, that got us "guaranteed" reservations.

Over the years the TT campgrounds have gotten a little run down. We always try to arrive in the middle of the week. This got us choosing sites before the weekend warriors arrived.

I think if you have a specific plan TT still works pretty good. But if you are buying it thinking you can just roam around at will you will be disappointed.

[Scousers]

We bought a membership this year, were only able to get into two campgrounds, both were run down and under whelming. Will cancel this year

[DaveMatthewsBand]

We are headed to CA in January.
Closest place to family is a TT campground @ $50/ day.
TT is offering membership for about $580/year for 2 zones.
Is it hard to get reservations?
Any info would be appreciated.

Instead of just complaining about what we don't like, I'll share our experiences overall with Thousand Trails over the past 2 years...

We paid $500 for the zone pass in 2018. This is when we first reached the West coast after going full-time and leaving Texas, and we started out at the Bend Oregon Thousand Trails, and when you spend most of your life in either Texas or Florida, Oregon is like wonderland! The zone pass is the cheapie pass that either gets you hooked or lets you realize TT isn't for you.
This pass is very limited but allowed us to stay for 4 days at each park and go park to park. Or we could stay a week or two then we would have to be out of the system for a week.
Since we were trying to see as much as possible we didn't mind moving every 4 days. After spending the Summer doing this, we upgraded to the Elite membership which runs about $4000-$5000 (one-time cost). We bought ours used and paid $2800. These memberships can be bought and sold several times so you're not actually losing any money. This pass allows us to stay up to 3 weeks and still go park to park, staying 2 to 3 weeks at each one, back to back, over and over as long as we want. Obviously if you're a full-timer this is an incredible deal! We have literally saved thousands of dollars using this membership and the best part is we're really only "losing" about $550 for the annual dues. We can sell the membership back later on if we decide to stop traveling.

I've heard people with large rigs have difficulties in some of the parks, and I've seen it for myself. All of the resorts we've been to were built decades ago and apparently for smaller campers. If you have a big 40 footer you're going to have trouble getting through some of their campgrounds for sure. But that's probably true with a lot of places.
This is one reason we purposely chose a small 5th wheel.

We spent the last 2 Summers at nearly every Thousand Trails (TT) park on the West coast. That being said, I'll share some info about each one so you know where to go and where not to go.
Stay away from Soledad Canyon TT park! It was the worst in California. Gang bangers, loud music all day and night, trash, half the park had no electric, overcrowding because management didn't police the park (picture 2 campers in each RV spot). We had a week reservation but left after the first night because we didn't feel safe!

There are nice TT parks in Southern Cali though. We stayed at Palm Desert TT half a dozen times because everything works and it's such a convenient location, close to lots of shopping and restaurants. Pio Pico is also very nice. Rancho Oso has horseback riding and is very pretty overall but I wouldn't recommend it because it has no cell signal (but WiFi) and there's nothing within a 20 minute drive of it. I think it got severely damaged in the recent fires.
We stayed at the San Benito TT as well. That one was a little bleak because of the no-watering rules in California, but it was clean and the park rangers were very strict so no one was speeding or breaking rules. Just don't walk your dog in the middle of the night there without a powerful flashlight. My buddy Dan did and when he looked up to see what a weird noise was he realized he was standing 100 feet away from about 40 wild boars. This location is in the sticks so keep that in mind. It was a massive park though with some pretty good walking trails and a decent general store. Most of the TT locations had a general store and a pool.

I'll note that all of the California locations had dead grass and were all a little run down, like they were all built in the 50's or 60's.
We stayed at Morgan Hill and Russian River too and both were really pretty. The Summer of 2018 we were alone at all these parks but this past Summer we were caravanning with our friends who have a 37' Reflection and they had difficulty getting around at Russian River. He said he wouldn't visit there again because it was so tight and very hilly. Since our 220RK is 27' we had no problems at all, and have yet to have any problems fitting at any campground. So I doubt you would have any problems with your 27RL.

South Jetty TT is one of our favorites but again, a little tight for large rigs. Whalers Rest TT and Pacific City TT are next heading North and both are flat and wide with plenty of room for large rigs. Seaside TT is next up and a really good one too. The Summer of 2018 we basically drove up and down the Oregon and Washington coast staying at each of these TT resorts several times. The WiFi was decent, the parks were clean and everyone was friendly, and there was always something going on like Pickleball tournaments.
South Jetty and Pacific City TT are both heavily wooded, very unique campgrounds with wild rabbits all over the place.
If you only go to one TT campground go to Pacific City and walk the path to the beach, it's magical.

There's only one more TT in Oregon and it's the Bend/Sunriver TT. This is one of our favorites, most of it tucked away in the woods. They have a great general store, 2 food trucks at the entrance year round, kayak rentals right there on the river, and tons to do in the area. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the country we've been to.

Then you cross over the massive and very high up Astoria bridge (not for the timid) into Washington state and we stayed at the Oceana TT and the Longbeach TT. Both were decent, a little run down, but clean with beach access within walking distance. We spent the Summer of 2019 staying at practically every TT resort in Washington state and found every single one to be very nice and well kept. The Washington parks were all amazing. We've never picked so many blackberries in our lives, right off the bushes next to our trailers and all over the parks. If all we did was spend our days going from one Washington TT resort to another, the membership would be worth it.

We have obviously spent a great of time in all of these Thousand Trails parks and made hundreds of reservations doing so.
We've never had any problems with making or keeping reservations. Any time that we've had questions or needed help with the online reservation system we simply called the customer service line and they've always been able to get us the days we wanted.
We also prefer the way they don't reserve spots and make it first come first serve. This is better for folks that are new to a particular area, and keeps the locals from reserving all the good spots. If you like to pull into a campground late in the day or at night and if you have a large camper, then yea, you're going to have issues, you get the spot I didn't want and I might have taken a larger spot even though my rig is 10 feet shorter. If you do a little planning and arrive during their actual check-in times you'll be fine. We have always had loads of choices as long as we arrived before 1 or 2pm. Most of the parks aren't well-lit so arriving after dark would be a really bad idea.

My advice would be go for it! Just make your reservations in advance at least a couple weeks, and show up on time. You'll be fine.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Ed Morris