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Half-price camping club keeps RVing affordable
Chuck Woodbury
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COMPREHENSIVE DIRECTORY!
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| The Happy Camper Club's directory lists more than 700 RV parks where RVers can stay for half price. |
We've seen many so-called discount camping clubs, but when we came across the Happy Camper Half-Price Club we found a winner. The club is a family-run business founded and still operated by the owners of two private campgrounds. From the start, they realized that most of their fellow campgrounds owners would rather fill their extra campsites at discounted rates than have them go vacant.
RVers who join the club can choose from nearly 1,000 private campgroundsincluding dozens in Canada. In most cases, a full-hookup space is $10 or less, and often in the $6 to $8.50 range.
A one year membership is $49.95 plus $5.95 for postage and handling. Members receive a membership card, plus an informative 270-page directory that lists each participating half-price campground, its amenities, driving directions and even its rules about pets. Most of these quality campgrounds are operated by their owners, and are in popular locations, many right along the shores of lakes and even the ocean. Memberships come with an unconditional 30-day money-back guaranteee.
Unlike membership campgrounds like Coast to Coast and Thousand Trails, no contracts are required. And there are no hidden fees. The annual $49.95 membership is the entire financial commitment except for nightly camping fees at participating RV parks.
The club is thriving these days, in part because RVers are trying to cut their costs to cope with high fuel and campsite prices. "We are full-timer RVers with a 40-foot bus," one RVing couple recently wrote. "We usually travel about 10,000 miles a year, but our plans were changed by the rise in gas prices. We are on a retirement income and could not afford to double our travel budget. Luckily, we stayed in a Happy Camper park and found out about your 50 percent discount. We joined. . . and have saved enough on our camp sites thus far to keep on with our plans."
Members may camp at participating parks as little or as often as they like, whether ten nights a year or 365. In 1999, the average Good Sam Club-affiliated RV park charged $18 a night for a full-hookup site. At those rates today, Happy Camper members who use their card only 50 times a year at a Happy Camper half-price park would save $450.
RVers who join Happy Campers receive their directory and membership card immediately by first class mail and can begin half-price camping that day if they wish. Campgrounds are located all across America and Canada.
JOIN NOW
Copyright 2007 by Out West Newspaper
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