This confirmed my interest in this membership! We will be traveling living full time doing music in Florida and I've found several that would be great for us!! Completely beats hotels!
We love our membership. It has given us the opportunity to see more of what the USA has to offer. Yes some are better then others but we always make the most of where ever we are. Lots of boondocking in the Quartzsite Arizona area and you will have no issues finding a place to park it.
Monte Vista Village Resort is a Encore campground in Mesa, Arizona that is very nice and has good location to activities and big cities. It can take BIG rigs with no problem as I see many of them here.
How to go full time camping? Specifically I'm looking into go full time and would like to use Thousand Trails only how can I use them without going to a different company due to the 7 day policy before you can go back
You aren’t going to be able to skip the 7 days out with a zone pass, you’ll need a bigger membership. We have a great membership specialist if you want their info. They can explain what is available and the differences in the memberships as well as pricing and help you find the best package for what you’re trying to achieve.
It was a pleasure meeting both of you at TT Chesapeake Bay. It is definitely all about expectations. Enjoy your time in the Keys. We are currently in Bradenton at Winter Quarters Manatee (no manatees here). Maybe we will see you in Williamsburg.
It was great meeting you guys. Always love meeting people on the road. We still love 1000 trails even though they have a lot of issues. Best bang for the buck!!
We are out west and set up for boondocking. We have a TT Elite Basic - we don't buy the trails collection. We do use TT for about 30% of the years - after out boondocking for a couple weeks go in, get full hookups, do laundry, maintenance go shopping so over the long haul its worth it as long as we don't do all the upgrades and encore - so there are many ways to use it and keep it affordable.If you buy all the upgrades and aren't a heavy user, it can end up costing you more than you think.
Best description of TT I've heard!! Highly recommend Jim and Brandy!! They helped me easily upgrade my membership last year. They have ALL the answers!! I found trails collection to not be as good as RPI and much more expensive. I had lots of problems getting reservations with trails collection as most parks don't seem to have many sites allowed for it. And my experience was they were the worst sites in the park. But, you still had access to amenities.
Sorry to hear you didn't have good luck with trails collection. We have had great success we just left the Florida Keys and we were there for 14 days with an awesome site. We are at another Encore park back right up to a softball field with a ton of room. Actually better than most TT sites. Jim and Brandy are definitely great people to work with. Stay safe out there and hope to meet you on the road sometime!
We like TT so much we actually bought a membership twice. We have been camping over 38 years. It has been our experience the staff can make or break a park.
We bought the Elite Connections Membership second hand for $2500. It will pay for itself in one year. I paid over$3k for a condo in MB for a week 2 years ago. Thousands Trails was a no brainer.
As full timers we agree with you that for us TT is a no brainer. We have traveled from FL to Maine and stayed at as many TT as we could traveling out west. We then went from Washington State to Calif and headed to Sunshine Key this spring. We would rather spend our money on excursions as well. Our favorites are usually the next ones that we are going to as we are always excited for a new adventure. Thank you for sharing. Mary 💕 Fred
Nice video. One note regarding Encore parks. They limit the number of Thousand Trail member spots. A while back I tried to make a reservation as Sunshine Key and they told me there were no spots left. Passed by.... Park was about 1/2 full. You asked in the video the worst one I've stayed at? Pio Pico in Southern California is terrible! I had to try 4 50amp spots before finding one that wasn't out of order... the ONE remaining 50amp spot I had to cut back the trees myself to fit in. Stay away from Pio Pico.
I was kinda looking into it. I found that as someone in my 40's on the West Coast working every other month all the TC parks in Arizona are age restricted. So it made a lot less sense to me since I couldn't stay in the majority of parks that were in the area I can travel and make it back to work. I don't get the 55 or over thing. No children sure, but no 50 year old adults...
I dont know for sure but I've been told that if you contact those parks or member services they will make exceptions for people like you and us, adults with no kids 🤔 We have also been using Passport America while out west, they offer 1/2 price camping. You can check them out at passportamerica.com let us know if you have any questions and if you decide to give it a try, we can give you a coupon code!
We had to stop FT for family obligations (still pays having it while we use it when we can) and have upgraded and it will be paid for before going back FT. Win-Win. Are there problems and frustrations, YES! Especially when the TC spots are decreased during high season, but still a good value.
We dont have any experience buying used. We thought about it but with so many rules and things we decided to just buy new so we knew exactly what we were buying
People should start telling the whole story about Thousand Trails. Yes it sounds great on TH-cam but the cold hard truth is even though you have your rigs dimensions in you account the parks spaces are on a first come first serve basis which means even though the website said there is a space available that fits your rig only to find that these sites are full of vans, tents or short Trailers so now you get the worst sight in the park that more than often you do not fit into and Encores are the worst they do not even attempt to put you in a site that you will fit in unless a crane drops you into the spot.
The sites are first come first served, but most parks try to steer rigs into size appropriate sites, although if someone pushes, they have to let the go wherever they want. Only 1 time have we not been able to fit and the site was big enough but due to a bad storm there was a rut that made it impossible for us to get into the site. We do have friends who have a large toyhauler and they always call the week before to the park directly to ensure that they will fit and that has always worked for them.
Need to start enforcing speeding of golf Carts and E-BIKES!!! Also go after SEASONAL S with UNSIGHTLY SITES and NO FULL TIME SEASONAL RESIDENCE, before it becomes the HOOD.
This confirmed my interest in this membership! We will be traveling living full time doing music in Florida and I've found several that would be great for us!! Completely beats hotels!
We really like the membership. In our description we have the people we recommend to buy from if you are interested
Hey if you go to Clerbrook Golf & RV Resort don't get site # 97 hard to get in and out of , I drove big truck for 15 years got big trees 😒
Thanks for the heads up
We love our membership. It has given us the opportunity to see more of what the USA has to offer. Yes some are better then others but we always make the most of where ever we are. Lots of boondocking in the Quartzsite Arizona area and you will have no issues finding a place to park it.
We love our membership also. We have been in the Thousand Trails system for years!
Monte Vista Village Resort is a Encore campground in Mesa, Arizona that is very nice and has good location to activities and big cities. It can take BIG rigs with no problem as I see many of them here.
We are headed out that way in July. Might have to check them out. Thanks for the info
How to go full time camping? Specifically I'm looking into go full time and would like to use Thousand Trails only how can I use them without going to a different company due to the 7 day policy before you can go back
You aren’t going to be able to skip the 7 days out with a zone pass, you’ll need a bigger membership. We have a great membership specialist if you want their info. They can explain what is available and the differences in the memberships as well as pricing and help you find the best package for what you’re trying to achieve.
I have the trails collection but have no idea how to find them
When you go to look for reservations click @my campgrounds” they should be a different color
It was a pleasure meeting both of you at TT Chesapeake Bay. It is definitely all about expectations. Enjoy your time in the Keys. We are currently in Bradenton at Winter Quarters Manatee (no manatees here). Maybe we will see you in Williamsburg.
Go to the power plant manatee park!
It was great meeting you guys. Always love meeting people on the road. We still love 1000 trails even though they have a lot of issues. Best bang for the buck!!
We are out west and set up for boondocking. We have a TT Elite Basic - we don't buy the trails collection. We do use TT for about 30% of the years - after out boondocking for a couple weeks go in, get full hookups, do laundry, maintenance go shopping so over the long haul its worth it as long as we don't do all the upgrades and encore - so there are many ways to use it and keep it affordable.If you buy all the upgrades and aren't a heavy user, it can end up costing you more than you think.
We use it as much as we can so we get our moneys worth but out west boondocking is our new favorite but TT definitely fills in the gaps!
Best description of TT I've heard!!
Highly recommend Jim and Brandy!! They helped me easily upgrade my membership last year. They have ALL the answers!!
I found trails collection to not be as good as RPI and much more expensive. I had lots of problems getting reservations with trails collection as most parks don't seem to have many sites allowed for it. And my experience was they were the worst sites in the park. But, you still had access to amenities.
Sorry to hear you didn't have good luck with trails collection. We have had great success we just left the Florida Keys and we were there for 14 days with an awesome site. We are at another Encore park back right up to a softball field with a ton of room. Actually better than most TT sites.
Jim and Brandy are definitely great people to work with.
Stay safe out there and hope to meet you on the road sometime!
How’s the park availability? Are there parks that don’t have open spots or do you have to book stuff months out?
We usually don't have any issues. We do try to book out as far as possible. Some of the more desirable parks maybe a little harder to get into!
We like TT so much we actually bought a membership twice. We have been camping over 38 years. It has been our experience the staff can make or break a park.
The management can definitely make a park not desirable
There are no TT where we want to stay at. We plan on staying at military campgrounds and it cost the same as the encore and we don’t have any fees.
Military bases seem to be a great campgrounds. Unfortunately we can't camp there anymore. When I worked for MWR we camped at a couple
We bought the Elite Connections Membership second hand for $2500. It will pay for itself in one year. I paid over$3k for a condo in MB for a week 2 years ago. Thousands Trails was a no brainer.
Absolutely 💯
We like TT but it definitely has some opportunities. Nothing is perfect but we make it work. Thanks!
As full timers we agree with you that for us TT is a no brainer. We have traveled from FL to Maine and stayed at as many TT as we could traveling out west. We then went from Washington State to Calif and headed to Sunshine Key this spring. We would rather spend our money on excursions as well. Our favorites are usually the next ones that we are going to as we are always excited for a new adventure. Thank you for sharing. Mary 💕 Fred
We agree with you. We would always rather spend our money outside the park rather then spending a lot for RV parking.
Nice video. One note regarding Encore parks. They limit the number of Thousand Trail member spots. A while back I tried to make a reservation as Sunshine Key and they told me there were no spots left. Passed by.... Park was about 1/2 full. You asked in the video the worst one I've stayed at? Pio Pico in Southern California is terrible! I had to try 4 50amp spots before finding one that wasn't out of order... the ONE remaining 50amp spot I had to cut back the trees myself to fit in. Stay away from Pio Pico.
We just left Sunshine Key and they are open to 30 members now
Thank you for this video!!
Thanks for watching!
Do you have the camping pass? Are you full-time campers?
We have the Elite Connections. Yes we are full time!
So for a VA resident who primarily weekend warriors. Which zones would you select and how often would you need to use in order to make it worth it?
If you are getting a zone pass we started with North East and South East. It doesn't take too many nights to pay for itself!
Thanks for info
Any time. Do you have any other questions we can answer
We like our 1000 trail membership we definitely use it.
Glad you like it. We definitely get our money out if it!
I was kinda looking into it. I found that as someone in my 40's on the West Coast working every other month all the TC parks in Arizona are age restricted. So it made a lot less sense to me since I couldn't stay in the majority of parks that were in the area I can travel and make it back to work. I don't get the 55 or over thing. No children sure, but no 50 year old adults...
I dont know for sure but I've been told that if you contact those parks or member services they will make exceptions for people like you and us, adults with no kids 🤔
We have also been using Passport America while out west, they offer 1/2 price camping. You can check them out at passportamerica.com let us know if you have any questions and if you decide to give it a try, we can give you a coupon code!
We had to stop FT for family obligations (still pays having it while we use it when we can) and have upgraded and it will be paid for before going back FT. Win-Win. Are there problems and frustrations, YES! Especially when the TC spots are decreased during high season, but still a good value.
Hope everything works out great for you and you can hit the road again soon. High season traffic is a nightmare to navigate but we make it work.
Did you mention trails collection?
We sure did. At the beginning and around the 3:00 mark! Thanks for asking.
We totally agree!
It is our favorite way to RV and save money
Do you recommend buying a used membership or going directly to TT?
We dont have any experience buying used. We thought about it but with so many rules and things we decided to just buy new so we knew exactly what we were buying
People should start telling the whole story about Thousand Trails. Yes it sounds great on TH-cam but the cold hard truth is even though you have your rigs dimensions in you account the parks spaces are on a first come first serve basis which means even though the website said there is a space available that fits your rig only to find that these sites are full of vans, tents or short Trailers so now you get the worst sight in the park that more than often you do not fit into and Encores are the worst they do not even attempt to put you in a site that you will fit in unless a crane drops you into the spot.
The sites are first come first served, but most parks try to steer rigs into size appropriate sites, although if someone pushes, they have to let the go wherever they want. Only 1 time have we not been able to fit and the site was big enough but due to a bad storm there was a rut that made it impossible for us to get into the site. We do have friends who have a large toyhauler and they always call the week before to the park directly to ensure that they will fit and that has always worked for them.
I've been a member with Thousand Trails for 25 plus years they are definitely hit-and-miss
Thats for sure. We have been to some not so great parks!
Need to start enforcing speeding of golf Carts and E-BIKES!!! Also go after SEASONAL S with UNSIGHTLY SITES and NO FULL TIME SEASONAL RESIDENCE, before it becomes the HOOD.
Agreed, but I unfortunately enforcement seems to be different from park to park. Some do a really good job and some not so much.