Thousand Trails Cabin Pass What I learned during the First Few Months of Membership
Thousand Trails has a pretty cool new deal called the Cabin Pass. In the past, we bought and used the Camping Pass. We actually bought this twice. The first year was ok, we got our money’s worth but the second time we only ended up using it twice. My husband needs internet to work and most of the campgrounds close to us didn’t have very good internet. Although, at the places where internet is available, they are helpful and explain where the strongest connections are. We upgraded up our hotspot game and decided to give this one a try.
These are the details of the Cabin Pass as I understood them to be. They are offering a one year membership, for $1,695. You can stay for up to 7 nights at one location with a 14 day break in between stays and can book up to 60 days in advance. You get to choose between yurt, cabin, cottage or similar accommodations. It includes all of the thousand trails locations as well as some additional locations for the first year that include the Trails Collection Reciprocal Cabin Pass. It does auto renew so you have to make sure to cancel if you don’t want it keep it for another year.
So, the price was $1695 but that didn’t included tax, which was kind of a bummer. We live in Oregon and look forward to not paying the tax but they charged it anyway for a grand total of $1,881.45. We have already used it twice and this is what we learned.
The first trip we booked was near Yosemite at the Yosemite Lakes campground. We stayed in a yurt that was designed for 4 people. It included a kitchenette with enough room to make meals. It had a full size fridge and electric cooktop, plenty of pots and pans a coffee maker and toaster. We did visit a local diner and several restaurants in the park which was very close but could have made all of our meals at the yurt with no issues. The bathroom was spacious with a small shower but plenty of hot water. The bed was small but comfortable enough with plenty of warm blankets. The second bed was a futon, we didn’t sleep on it but it was comfortable to sit on.
We planned a second trip and had no trouble booking it however we had to change our plans. I cancelled it, super easy on the website but it did trigger a cancellation fee, which was unexpected because I cancelled it with plenty of notice. The good news is is we didn’t have to pay it. The not as good news is you have to call them to remove the fee and it took awhile to get through. The booking process is super glitchy when you have that fee on there so it took a minute to get that sorted out. They outsource their calls (at times) and not everyone is actually able to help so they needed to transfer me to someone else who was able to remove it.
The third trip we booked was a cabin in Florence, Oregon. I do like the cabins a bit better but have zero complaints about the yurt. The cabin was a little more “closed off’ and felt less spacious but it was cozy and would work better if you had kids or more people traveling with you. The bathtub was a bonus too as my husband is a bath guy. The kitchen is basically the same but does have an oven and a little less counter space. The bed, blankets and appliances were about the same as the yurt.
Each new place (or favorite) place introduces us to some great restaurants and cool little towns. This last trip to Florence, Oregon we were able to visit two of our favorite restaurants, Nosh and Little Brown Hen Cafe. I can’t say enough about Nosh…the food is so good. It’s a reasonably priced for amazing food and super friendly service. We ate gf cheese curds, a wedge salad and halibut tacos. The green goddess dressing came both with the cheese curds and on the tacos. It was divine…yum. Little Brown Hen Cafe is always a favorite too. It does get crazy busy and you have to pay with Cash so hit up an ATM before you visit but also tons of GF options (yay for me) and last time we grabbed a bag of their custom blend of coffee beans. Like lots of little cafes they offer a selection of jams, jellies and mugs.
And bonus we visited a brewery in Reedsport, just about 20 minutes outside of Florence. Two Shy Brewery, nice selection of craft brews with a few Ciders options too. I tried the Cranberry Cider, which was tart and refreshing. We bought a few extras to try later on the weekend.
That brings us to this weekend. We decided last minute (around noon on Friday) to stay at a TT location that is about 45 minutes away from our California home base, just for fun. But alas, you can not book same day stays online. So I called and got put on a “call back” list (that was the only option available) with a wait time of about and hour but no one called me back. Then I attempted to call the property to see if there was another way to reserve the cabin and nobody answered. Kinda bummed but now we know.
I am excited to visit some of the other locations. We have one trip lined up for February that includes staying at Soledad Canyon and then hopefully this summer we can visit some places that are further away. I am overall happy that we bought it and as long as we plan at least one day on advance and we should be good from here on out.
