Picking a place to stay

When we pick destinations for traveling with our small travel trailer, we focus on picking campgrounds based upon atmosphere, amenities, and overall quality. Often, we decide to pay a premium for a place we think we'll really like. But when we are on the road traveling to a destination, our criteria is not the same.

While many people do it, we are just not comfortable staying at free places like Walmart and Cracker Barrel parking lots. We never carry our own water, and always want a place that has at least electricity and water hookups. Other than that, we tend to focus on price, as long as it seems like a place that will be safe.

America the Beautiful Senior Pass

There are two passes we have that have saved us a lot of money nationwide. The first is the America the Beautiful Senior Pass. This is a government issued pass that provides a 50% discount on camping at many National Recreation Sites. Of particular interest to us have been the Corps of Engineers campgrounds, which are always located on some body of water.

The pass offers a 50% discount on campsites. You must be 62 years of age or older, and can purchase a lifetime pass for a one time fee of $80. The biggest disadvantage for us is that most of the campgrounds are not in areas we commonly travel to. However, the pass is certainly worth having if you travel to the right areas.

Passport America

This has been the good one for us. Passport America offers 50% discount during the week at about 1500 campgrounds and RV parks across the U.S and Canada. These campgrounds all tend to be privately owned, so are located all over the place.

The biggest disadvantage here is that you need to do a little research to see what the place you want to stay is like. Some of them are really nice RV resorts that have extra capacity, others are new campgrounds that are not yet well known, but unfortunately, some of them are places that nobody (including us) wants to stay. Doing some searching on Google usually gives us enough information to get a pretty good idea of what a place is like. (Be sure to use images.google.com to look for photos of places you consider.)

This pass is available to anyone and is just $44 per year. They offer discounts for multiple years, but I'd recommend you try it for one year first to see how well it works out for you. Since we only need to use it a couple of times each year for it to pay for itself, we have found enough value that we have renewed it for the last 6 years.

What it is

Why I like it

• It saves us money!
• Affordable one-time fee

What it is

Why I like it

• It saves us money!
• Pays for itself with just a couple of nights stay
• Printed directofy and phone app to help find places while on the road