The following is a list of groups, memberships, and products that we have found incredibly valuable.
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Full Time Families
We joined FtF almost immediately after we hit the road. The Facebook group was an invaluable link to a bunch of families out on the road that were able to offer tips on everything from mechanical issues to homeschooling and parenting while on the road. This organization has a lot more to offer though, including the community we were so worried we would lose by becoming transient. Our whole family will strongly encourage you to join this organization, attend a rally or meetup and find your family on the road. We attended a hangout in Bend OR for the solar eclipse, and then hosted a Rally in Menifee CA. These two events landed us a tribe over 40 families that we now talk to on a regular basis, travel with at times, and look for when traveling. Since those events, there have been very few camps where we haven’t been with someone that we know. This has been great for Triann and me, but invaluable for the kids. Membership is $45/year or $295 for a lifetime membership. Membership gives you access to the family finder (see where other FtF members are in your area and arrange meetups) and allows you to join the rallies and meetups. You also receive discounted or free memberships to other clubs (Good Sam, Passport America, Escapees, etc) Check them out here and find your tribe!
Good Sam
Although Good Sam offers discounted camping (10% off at all of their parks), we have used the other benefits much more often. Primarily we use this for the fuel discount. We get .05 off of unleaded and .08 off of diesel at Pilot and Flying J truck stops. We have also used it at Camping World to take 10% off of our purchase. There are a ton of other perks as well that make this worth the $30/year. You can check them all out here.
Passport America
We were turned onto this by our good friends over at Fummins Family Road Trip. Simply put the Passport America card takes 50% off tons of campgrounds around the country. We have paid for this membership many times over. We primarily use it for one night between Thousand Trails parks. There are limitations on the number of nights and times of the year, but we have always been able to find a park that will work for us. Click here to find out more.
Thousand Trails
Thousand Trails is a membership camping program offering 81 campgrounds around the US. We started with a camping pass which allows for unlimited camping in a specific zone (the US is divided into 5 different zones). We could camp for 14 days in any of their campgrounds, then had to leave the system for 7 days, at which point we could camp for another 14 days. This got a little bit spendy as most of the campgrounds we found for the 7 days out were $40-60/night. We quickly decided to upgrade to an Elite membership which allowed us access to all 81 campgrounds, 21 days at a time, and we could travel park to park with no out of system days. There are many other perks (RPI, Enjoy America and Encore parks, cabin rentals, access to condos, cruises and more) but we primarily use the parks. We have stayed in parks in Washington, Oregon, California, and Texas and have had zero complaints. All have been safe, clean and offered us a great base to work out of while we explore the areas. Whether you are traveling full time or camping over 14 nights a year, this is far and away the most affordable way to camp.