Florida Snowbirds RV Life

How to enjoy Spring Training Baseball, Fresh Seafood, the Beaches and Boating for visitors of all ages to Florida from active Snowbirds.

Beaches, Baseball, Boating and Fresh Seafood!

 We hadn’t spent a winter in FL until 2019/2020, which we all know was very unusual.  Scheduled to be in the South, on the Gulf for March, we ended up staying three months and experienced a bit of the “winter and spring”.  Keep it quiet, but it’s fabulous.  The heat is not full on, it’s breezy and there is little rain.  Prime season for boating, fishing, outdoors, baseball, beaches, dining and on and on.  Imagine going to the beach in March, clear skies, sunny, breezy and 80 degrees.  Perfect for fruity beverages and the freshest seafood.

Grapefruit League | Spring Training | MLB.com

Lake Worth

Maybe not the first location that comes to mind when planning a trip to FL but here’s a nice little secret if you love the Atlantic coast, West Palm Beach, Delray to Boca.  John Prince Park,  Parks & Recreation John Prince Park Campground (pbcgov.org) is a county park with a very large RV Park.  Part of the RV Park sits on Lake Osborne where you can enjoy all kinds of boating activities.  The park has bike and walking trails, pavilions, playgrounds and more. Right nearby is Lake Woof Dog Park – West Palm Beach Parks (wpbparks.com). It’s 15 minutes to Atlantic Ave. for upscale shopping and restaurants Oysters, Clams, Crabs, Fresh Fish, Filet, Ribs & Wings and the Best Burgers in Town | AbsoShuckinLutely Great Times (daveslastresort.com), they offer Gluten Free.   Making a reservation at John Prince is quite a trick though.  Be sure to study their website and understand the procedure.  Another nice RV Park in Lantana is Palm Beach Traveler  RV Park – RV and Mobile Home Parks (rvmhp.com).  It’s a little tight in some spots but we’ve stayed there for a month twice and always met nice people.  It’s well run with new friendly management (2021).  If you want or need to be in the area, this will work for anyone.  With all RV Parks near any coastline, we recommend making reservations a year in advance.

Sarasota and Port St. Lucie

Our first RV experience, before this industry took off like it is today, was a rental that we booked through Outdoorsy, RV Rentals: Explore the Open Road in Comfort | Outdoorsy.  This is a convenient way to get your toes wet with minimum investment.  We flew into Tampa, picked up a well-cared for, routinely maintained 1990’s, 30’ Class C.  We went to Sun ‘n’ Fun, RV Resort in Sarasota, FL – Sun Outdoors Sarasota.  This is a fabulous, full on, RV Resort, the exact definition.  After a week with family, exploring Sarasota and enjoying the great amenities at the park, we moved across the state to Port St. Lucie to visit some friends and family.  Here we stayed at Port St. Lucie RV Park Resort Camping | PSL Village RV Resort.  This park, at the time, was very basic, not a resort style park.  It is very well kept and organized, and they have added a nice pool.  It’s just 15 minutes to beautiful Visit Jensen Beach in Martin County Florida | Discover Martin or Hutchinson Island Florida – Vacation Guide & Attractions in Hutchinson Island FL (visitflorida.com).  You can enjoy the slow, small town life or get away and explore the barrier island, complete with everything from hiking, horseback riding to championship golf courses and fine dining.

The Gulf

As we are originally from Atlanta, we visited North Port in March of 2020 for Atlanta Braves Spring Training Baseball, Spring Training | CoolToday Park  but with Covid, the season was cancelled but we chose to stay put to see what the future would hold.  That Spring we stayed at Ramblers Rest RV Resort | Encore RV Park in Sarasota, Florida RV camp  a well-known Encore property.  They have everything a resort should have including pool, gym, pickleball, tennis, you name the activity, they’ve probably got it.  It sits right on the Myakka River and Myakka River State Park | Florida State Parks, so there’s even more to do and expect some wildlife.  In that area we have also stayed at Myakka River RV Resort. Myakka River RV Resort (myakkarv.com),  This is a basic park, small pool, half of the people live there year-round. It’s well managed, easy to get an answer if you need a reservation.  Book it with a single phone call if you call at the right time, or you can book online.  Florida parks book solid, it usually takes a lot of effort to complete the reservation so the easy phone call can be relieving.  We have stayed further South in Punta Gorda at Creekside RV Resort – Punta Gorda‘s Newest RV Resort.  It’s new and it is very nice with every amenity such as the pool, pickleball, live music, food trucks, large 70’ paver sites, 5 Star rating, no doubt.  Many years ago, a buddy of mine came south to build Camp Gulf.  Camping On The Gulf (campflorida.com).  This is a full on resort with two pools, a lot of amenities and just like the name says, you can camp right on the Gulf, on the beach.  Right out of your front windshield you can have the spectacular view of the Gulf of Mexico!  If you want to walk, in minutes, to the beach, never step on grass or pavement on the way, this is the RV Resort for you!

Bottom Line Bookings and Bucks

We’ve spent more than 12 months exploring a lot of Florida from the Gulf of Mexico to the Everglades to Key West and the Atlantic Coast.  It’s absolutely fabulous, especially in the Winter.  The cost for RV Parks has gone up, up and up.  Prime season, January, February and March easily exceeds $8,000 for many parks near the coast.  You pay for location and weather.  Old or new parks, it doesn’t matter much.    Some parks book spots 5-6 months at a time, a year in advance, for return customers.  Those people will get prime parking and get first right of refusal for their spot next year.  After the 6-month reservations are done, many parks only offer reservations for people looking for 3, then those are booked and they go to single months.  Book your reservations 12 months in advance, study the procedure and policies. 

BIG HUGS to our FULL-TIME SAILBOAT friends Jana & Cameron Pach for contributing pics from some small island FAR FAR AWAY! Follow them at MarionettesRevenge.com!

How to enjoy Spring Training Baseball, Fresh Seafood, the Beaches and Boating for visitors of all ages to Florida from active Snowbirds.