Campground and Recreational Vehicle Sites
For some people, the idea of staying in a posh, five-star resort with a gourmet restaurant and a balcony overlooking the beach is nothing short of hell. Sure, it is a pretty enough environment with more than enough fun things to do, but the crowds and noise and fluorescent lights interfering with the stars in the night sky all add up to a vacation that some people would simply rather do without. Sometimes, getting away from it all means just that: getting away from everything and being one with the great outdoors.
If you are one of these nature buffs, then the odds are that you enjoy camping. And because there are plenty of other people out there in the world who think the same way that you do, there are companies trying to sell you ever more camping services. Hence the birth of the “campshare” idea — taking the principles of timeshare resort vacations and applying them to timeshare campground vacations.
E-ALERT
Campground timeshares are like resort timeshares in that you need to use your membership in order to make it a financially worthwhile purchase. If you simply want to camp once every couple of years, you might be better off sticking to inexpensive state parks or paying one-time fees at private facilities than joining a campground timeshare that is part of a network of private grounds.
The organizing structure behind timeshare campgrounds is that you pay a fee for use of your home campground (just as you would pay the price of a home-resort timeshare unit) and then get access to both your home campground and other campgrounds in the timeshare company's network. Sometimes, access to these other campgrounds is included in your membership, while at other times, your membership entitles you to discounted fees at campgrounds nationwide.
There are annual maintenance fees for your home campground, just as there would be for your home timeshare resort. There also are additional usage fees if you want to purchase extras like a deluxe cabin or a spot to park your recreational vehicle, which can run as little as $1 per foot of RV, per night. Some of the fancier timeshare campgrounds even have activities that are similar to those offered by timeshare resorts, such as family-friendly crafts and games.
One major difference, though, between timeshare resorts and timeshare campgrounds is that with resorts, you usually are able to purchase a time increment of just one week. With campground timeshares, you usually are forced to purchase shares that are more substantial — sometimes as much as eight weeks' time in a single share.
This is, in part, because people who like to camp often go for a month or two during the summer, packing up their tents in their recreational vehicle and heading out cross-country for weeks at a time. Other reasons that campground shares tend to be for longer usage periods than single-week resort timeshares include the fact that campgrounds themselves tend to be on the inexpensive side, so campground timeshare owners need to offer you, the buyer, a package of sorts instead of just a single week's worth of use.
TRAVEL TIP
If you prefer to camp in a recreational vehicle, be sure to compare not just the annual membership fees of different campground timeshare networks, but also their campsites' nightly RV charges. They can range from $1 to $8 — a significant difference during a two-month vacation.
Just as there are different timeshare resort exchange networks, there are also different timeshare campground networks. A few of the better-known companies are called Adventure Outdoor Resorts, Camperworld, Coast to Coast Resorts, and Resort Parks International.
Adventure Outdoor Resorts
Adventure Outdoor Resorts started out with just three properties in 1991. Today, the company's network boasts nearly 500 campgrounds and resorts throughout the United States and Canada. The company is similar to Resort Condominiums International or Interval International in that you must become a member through your home campground resort. You simply cannot call the company and sign up for an annual membership.
The nightly camping fee that members pay is $6 at all Adventure Outdoor Resorts, which you can search for by location through the company's interactive Web site. You are allowed to camp for as long as twenty-one nights in a row during low-demand seasons or for as long as fourteen consecutive nights during high-demand seasons. You actually get two fourteen-night stays during those high-demand periods, but you must wait seven nights before using the second fourteen-day period (meaning you cannot use the two fourteen-day periods back to back). Adventure Outdoor Resorts is based in Gunnison, Colorado. To learn more, you can check out the company's Web site at
Camperworld
Camperworld is a smaller operation that is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It has been operating since 1977. Its network of camping and recreational vehicle resorts includes what it calls ten of the finest sites in Utah, along with nearly a thousand other parks that you can access through affiliations that Camperworld has established with Adventure Outdoor Resorts, Coast to Coast, and Resort Parks International.
You can explore the Utah resorts that Camperworld recommends on its interactive Web site,
E-QUESTION
Is there a resale market for campground timeshares?
Yes. Just as you can often find a good deal on a resort timeshare through the resale market, you can also find less-expensive campground timeshares up for sale. They are fewer and farther between, but a World Wide Web search for “campground timeshares” will often lead you to at least a handful of classified ads.
Coast to Coast Resorts
Since its founding in 1972, Coast to Coast Resorts has helped more than a million families vacation at close to a thousand outdoor resorts and campgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It also boasts a network of “Good Neighbor Parks” that are privately owned, open to the public, and available at discounted rates for Coast to Coast members.
Membership in Coast to Coast gives you some of the benefits that you might find with your timeshare resort exchange company, such as hotel and motel discounts, travel services, recreational vehicle insurance and financing, and condominium rentals. Like Adventure Outdoor Resorts, you must join Coast to Coast through your home campground resort. You cannot simply call and purchase an annual membership.
The Coast to Coast Web site,
Resort Parks International
Resort Parks International, founded in 1981, calls itself North America's premier network of private-membership RV networks and resorts. The company is based in Long Beach, California, and it boasts more than 100,000 members. As with Adventure Outdoor Resorts and Coast to Coast Resorts, membership in Resort Parks International is available only through your home campground resort. You cannot simply call the company and sign on for an annual membership.
The Resort Parks International Web site,
