What are your priorities?

[Bowti]

For Florida Snowbirds how do you go about choosing a site where you will be bound to, for months at a time.

You can assume safety, warmth, and cleanliness is a priority, but what else is it that you highly value.

[Retiredblade]

NanciL wrote:
Two things are a must for my wife and myself.

1. Must not be too far from water, since we are canoers and kayakers

2. Must be in a climate that we know is going to stay warm.

That is why we pick Key Largo.

Any place above south Florida is liable to have frost now and then, even though the snow birds that stay up around Ocala won't admit it

Key Largo gives us access to the Everglades National Park (one hour away) and all of the Keys (the Atlantic side and the Florida Bay side)

Jack L

I'll admit that I stayed in the Ocala area, I did for three years in a row, the reason, made good friends. Then, one couple bought a home on the coast, one couple quit snowbirding because husband getting up there in age and should not have been driving. We left Ocala area because of that. I must admit though, it does get cold sometimes, seen ice on the ponds with fish kills after it thawed mid mornings.
As fas as going to Miami-Key West, not for me, I was raised in Miami and would not go back on a bet! Key West? Unless one is into fishing, nothing to do down there.

[2gypsies1]

pennysmom09 wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
If this is your first time going for 'months at a time', I wouldn't go to one specific park. I'd try different parks, different areas, different states.

The best places in Florida are booked a year ahead for long term. You would very likely be moving around a lot in the transient sections..week here week there.

We have no need to go to the 'best' places. 🙂

[Bowti]

NanciL wrote:

Bowti wrote:

pennysmom09 wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
If this is your first time going for 'months at a time', I wouldn't go to one specific park. I'd try different parks, different areas, different states.

The best places in Florida are booked a year ahead for long term. You would very likely be moving around a lot in the transient sections..week here week there.

We are good on the hunting for CG thing, just interested in what others value.

Our problem is we like it all, social activities, beach, fishing, shopping, boating, sports bars nearby, and local attractions for something to do.

The bottom line for us is cost, if not for limited funds I'm thinking we would be in the Keys for the duration.

If your bottom line is "cost", you might as well forget the Keys and most of south Florida

Jack L

I should have worded that better, as we have spent time in the Keys in the past and are schedules there again for this year. I should have said if we had unlimited funds I guess.

[NanciL]

Bowti wrote:

pennysmom09 wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
If this is your first time going for 'months at a time', I wouldn't go to one specific park. I'd try different parks, different areas, different states.

The best places in Florida are booked a year ahead for long term. You would very likely be moving around a lot in the transient sections..week here week there.

We are good on the hunting for CG thing, just interested in what others value.

Our problem is we like it all, social activities, beach, fishing, shopping, boating, sports bars nearby, and local attractions for something to do.

The bottom line for us is cost, if not for limited funds I'm thinking we would be in the Keys for the duration.

If your bottom line is "cost", you might as well forget the Keys and most of south Florida

Jack L

[Parrothead_Mike]

We're coming up on our forth snowbird season. The first year we hit about 8 different areas of Florida, including the Keys over a 6-7 week period. It was fun to check out different campgrounds, staying about 3-4 nights per park.

I did research prior to going to FL that first time mostly using RV Park Reviews.com as well as this forum. I listed about 35 parks that looked interesting. Obviously we didn't get to all of them, but enough to get the idea of what we were looking for.

The second year we went for a longer time period and checked out a few more parks, but kept coming back to the one we preferred. First it was one month, then two months last year, and this season we will do three months at the same place.

Much of it boiled down to the comfort feeling we had with the park we liked most. And when I say "comfort" that's really an individual thing that may not translate the same for everyone. The park environment as well as the warmth we felt from meeting other residents made us feel welcome. We didn't care for the "subdivision" style park and opted for that state park feel with lots of trees, plants, and some privacy at the various sites we stayed at while there.

Now that we've spent months in our favored park we have some people we call real friends. I played in the golf league, mostly last season, and really got to know a lot of different people. My wife does aerobics and has also met several friends. Having a few drinks with the neighbors leads to meeting more people. I can't wait to go back this season. We miss our family and friends up here in Michigan, but we'll be back in the spring.

BTW, we stay at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park in Crystal River. It's cooler than south FL, but while we like warm weather we don't really care for hot weather. It's not really beachy along the Nature Coast, but we have a pool and there's plenty of other water activities and biking in the area. Cool nights, warm days, good seafood in the area, and a more rural-small town atmosphere is more to our liking.

[Bill___Kate]

Weather, weather, weather and water in that order .....

We want to wear T-shirts and sandals all the time, and preferably see the water a lot. The State Parks in the Keys are our favorites, but it is a pain to get a site reservations, you have to haul your sewage, and you can only stay in a given park two weeks at a time. We have pretty well resigned ourselves to grabbing the checkbook, and writing big checks for waterfront sites in private Keys RV Parks, but still have to plan way ahead, and often get on a waiting list until a site opens up. Most of these parks require to to pay up front. Once we get to the Middle of March or so,we start moving further north, usually the West Coast - prices go down and the reservations get easier the further you move north in the Spring. We usually end up in Cedar Key, the Panhandle, and/or St Augustine before heading back to New Jersey when the weather breaks.

[John_Joey]

When it comes to Florida, the biggest one (after the expected ones) is lot width. Florida is mostly made up of sardine alleys. The dirty little secret that no one ever talks about.

[joebedford]

soren wrote:
I have spent the last two winters within an hour of Ocala. I would be happy to admit that on at least two, maybe three occasions, I have seen a very thin sheet of ice on puddle

We like the Ocala area. It's away from (salt) water, nice countryside for riding, and we don't mind the occasional overnight freeze. Would like to find a better RV resort so we've stayed away from there for a few winters.

[soren]

NanciL wrote:
2. Must be in a climate that we know is going to stay warm.

That is why we pick Key Largo.

Any place above south Florida is liable to have frost now and then, even though the snow birds that stay up around Ocala won't admit it

I have spent the last two winters within an hour of Ocala. I would be happy to admit that on at least two, maybe three occasions, I have seen a very thin sheet of ice on puddles, while walking the dogs at sunrise. Typically, within a few hours after a frost, it is 70ish and sunny. OTOH, staying in a top notch resort here is about 1/3rd the cost of a fair place, near the coasts, south of I-4. Leaving a grand a month is the bank account, while staying where the weather is typically pretty sweet, suits me just fine.

[MPI_Mallard]

We got lucky actually, our first winter was at a rv resort that our friends stayed at and I hated it, it was truly "God's waiting room" so it forced us to take that season to really look around and look around we did! What really struck me was how many rv parks in Florida were out-dated and very small, packed in like sardines, I had trouble navigating my dually through a lot of them let alone my Daydreamer! The following winter I had decided in a place at the bottom of Tampa bay but luckily I got a call on a private lot near St.Cloud which we jumped on as it had all the things we wanted and the following year be bought it and I couldn't be happier with our choice. I think you need to look around a bit to find what you need, there's a lot to choose from!

Sheryl Crow: "Its not having what you want,Its wanting what you got"

[Bowti]

pennysmom09 wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
If this is your first time going for 'months at a time', I wouldn't go to one specific park. I'd try different parks, different areas, different states.

The best places in Florida are booked a year ahead for long term. You would very likely be moving around a lot in the transient sections..week here week there.

We are good on the hunting for CG thing, just interested in what others value.

Our problem is we like it all, social activities, beach, fishing, shopping, boating, sports bars nearby, and local attractions for something to do.

The bottom line for us is cost, if not for limited funds I'm thinking we would be in the Keys for the duration.

[TomG2]

Bowti wrote:
....snip......., but what else is it that you highly value?

I wonder how many will admit, "price, price, price"?

[pennysmom09]

2gypsies wrote:
If this is your first time going for 'months at a time', I wouldn't go to one specific park. I'd try different parks, different areas, different states.

The best places in Florida are booked a year ahead for long term. You would very likely be moving around a lot in the transient sections..week here week there.

[NanciL]

Two things are a must for my wife and myself.

1. Must not be too far from water, since we are canoers and kayakers

2. Must be in a climate that we know is going to stay warm.

That is why we pick Key Largo.

Any place above south Florida is liable to have frost now and then, even though the snow birds that stay up around Ocala won't admit it

Key Largo gives us access to the Everglades National Park (one hour away) and all of the Keys (the Atlantic side and the Florida Bay side)

Jack L

[2gypsies1]

If this is your first time going for 'months at a time', I wouldn't go to one specific park. I'd try different parks, different areas, different states.