More of the discussion from the news group Subject: Re: Resort Parks International Questions Most of this has been covered already in this thread, but let me reprint an old post of Lon's. IT is the best summary I have ever seen. I updated the prices and wa-a-a-ay back received his permission to repost it: Coast to Coast & Resort Parks International They are both membership camping associations. Campgrounds sell memberships in their campground, charge annual dues, and give their members the opportunity to join the membership association. Typically, a campground will sell a membership in their campground for about $5,000 (if they can get it, less if they can't) and charge annual dues up to $500 per year. We paid $300 with an annual fee of $49. This membership usually allows the member to stay in the "home park" for a set number of nights each year, for free or a small fee. Ours allows us 3 weeks at $2 per night. By belonging to the association, the campgrounds give their members the right to join the association and camp in other member parks for a small fee. Resort Parks International (RPI) has a central reservation system which charges$2/ reservation, (20 reservations for $30, or unlimited for $49/year) and the parks charge you $8 /night. Some parks add extra for extras like cable TV. Annual member dues in RPI is $65. Coast to Coast allows you to camp for $8 /night in member campgrounds and you make the reservation with the campgrounds. Annual member dues in C2C is $79.95. With either system, you may stay at that price for up to 7 nights, up to 3 times each year in each park. (7 in 7 out of that park). Many parks belong to both, so _theoretically_ you could stay 7 days under RPI, 7 days under C2C, and repeat 3 times for a total of 6 weeks. C2C also has a large number of "Good Neighbor Parks" which will allow you to stay at $13 /night. Both systems provide you with a campground directory which is pretty thorough. If you want to buy, watch out for things like NO ESCAPE. Many contracts with the campgrounds leave you with a lifetime contract which you can get rid of 3 ways. You can will it, you can sell it, or you can transfer it. DON'T DO IT. As a lawyer, you probably could handle the problem easily, but many who aren't lawyers have had major problems with such contracts. There have been a few examples of estates being liable after death. Some of these people will go after heirs. [Added Note from NAM - We have not been able to find 'anyone' who can corroborate this from their own experience!] Our contract has a clause which allows us to cancel at will any year by certified letter within 30 days of our renewal date. We bought from are-seller. I asked for, and got, a written guarantee that if our home park drops out of RPI or C2C the re-seller will put us into another home park FREE with the same annual dues FROZEN. (Another thing you want to watch out for is that some parks don't offer frozen dues so they can go through the roof). Of course, if the re-seller we bought from goes out of business, our replacement guarantee isn't worth the paper it is written on, but I don't have much invested. <G> For us, it isn't _just_ about saving money. It is allowing us, as I type, to be in a park so nice and so expensive, that we otherwise wouldn't be here.....and we are here for a week at $49 for the week. Our budget allows $15/night, or $450 /month. We expect to save a _lot_ of that budgeted money for other things in the future. We will see how expectation meets execution. HTH Lon |