50% off, but not today

While I lament the end of the camping season for us in NE Ohio, I’m finding ways to look forward to next year already.  One of the things I was thinking about was getting a discount camping membership to save on some camping fees next year.  But as I look into discount camping clubs further I’m finding they may not be as useful as I would have thought.

I do actually have two camping discounts already.  One of them I got by accident.  Our Good Sam membership started out as a discount at Camping World.  I got it a few years ago when we started shopping there because it would pay for itself after a few trips.  Then Good Sam kinda merged in there, and now I have 10% off some campgrounds as well.  I've used this one a few times this season.

I also have a KOA Value Kard Rewards membership because there is one nearby that we stay at a few times each year.  We've also found that we rarely have a bad experience at a KOA so when we travel to parts unknown we often look for them.  I've found that this one readily pays for itself because we probably save $10-$15 each time we stay there, and we earn $10 off rewards from time to time.  They even had a free night one weekend which pretty much paid for the membership itself.

I was looking into Passport America because they seem to have a large network of campgrounds that accept it and it looks like a great deal.  50% camping for about $40/year.  Staying just 4 nights would seem to make this one pay for itself.  Even some of the Ohio State Parks participate which is great because we love to stay at the State Parks.  I also looked at a few other discount clubs that have similar offers.

The problem is the limitations that are imposed by the accepting campgrounds.  For many that I looked at on the websites they have maximum stays (which I can understand) and they limit the days of the week that the discount can be used.  Most of the time the limitation is that you can’t use it Fri-Sat.  For weekend warriors such as ourselves, not being able to use the discount when we do most of our camping makes it useless.

I think the point here is twofold.  One is to always read the fine print.  ”Certain limitations and exclusions may apply such as every day that you want to camp…”  I think the other is to know your camping habits and needs and use that to determine if a camping discount or club would be useful.  I think if I were full-timing a discount that is valid from Sunday to Thursday would be beneficial.  But for the part-timers/weekend warriors it may not be such a great deal.