dougdevine

I just ran across some camping discount program called Passport America. For $44, you get one year's worth of 50% off camping fees at participating campgrounds. There seems to be a ton of them (over 1,900 in the US). For someone doing a long tour with plenty of camping nights, this sounds like a no brainer. What am I missing? Is there a catch?

Erick L

I checked one site I stayed at. The passport isn't valid between july 15th to august 15th. I guess others have similar limitations. Still looks good though.

Here's a map of the campgrounds: https://www.passportamerica.com/campgrounds

prathmann

When I checked the local area around my home all the listed sites were nominally RV-only. In my experience one can occasionally negotiate a special rate at some of these for a small tent, but it's certainly not clear the discount would apply and many don't allow tents at all. In my experience bicycle tourers are usually better off looking for public state and local parks with small camping areas and in the western US there are quite a few national forest lands that allow camping.

indyfabz

Right. It's no deal if you can camp for free or next to free on federal state or even municipal land, such as a town park. The member campgrounds in these types of programs tend to be RV-style parks that may or may not allow tent camping. Such places tend to be more expensive from the git go. Also, saying in an RV-heavy campground is not always pleasant with generators and what not.