Resort holidays

Sometimes in life you get the exactly what you run away from. As we already mentioned somewhere we don’t like last minute holidays and 5 star resorts in popular touristic destinations. Meanwhile we started our adventures with rv resorts, booking the first one few hours ahead from the highway on our way south.

Going to Florida we really hoped to stay at campgrounds with Passport America discount. We ordered Passport America card before we came to States. It gives up to 50 percent discount at almost 2000 campgrounds across USA. Of course as usually details are in small print or are not there at all. Discount is usually for one or few nights and there’s no discount during high season. So in Florida we did not have much to choose from.

Long search for discounted campground in January/February which would have sites available was unsuccesful. We ended up going to the resort. First three weeks we spent on Thousand Trails/Encore campgrounds which are quite popular private rv resorts in USA. We chose them because they offered a "week for 99 USD" (120 USD after taxes), which compared to 50 USD per night in other places seemed quite a good deal. Sleeping in Florida during the season for 17 USD is not really a bad option.

Like two Eddies put togother

All three of them were very similar. They offered a few hundred sites with full hook up (electric-water-dump), they all had WiFi (or at least that’s what they said), cable TV and other great facilities. But after closer look they were very different from one another.

About first campground - Southern Palms near Eustis, which was not so much southern, more central if you look at Florida map, we wrote before. It was first so everything was new for us. In ranking we would say it was second out of those three. We liked Southern Palms because of Albert who not only was there on Sunday but also helped us to get set up and when we found out that all our cables and hoses are too short we could borrow longer ones from him. Internet signal was weak but good enough. 

Roads were even and in good condition, there were not too many permanent residents and not too many Canadians. Peace and quiet (except for the dancing on Saturday), especially that the campground was pretty far from the main roads. We didn’t use swimming pool or activity room but they were there. Sites were not paved, but we didn’t mind. There was no table outside but back then we didn’t know yet that having one is a standard.

From central Florida we went east to Space Coast, to Vero Beach. From there we could go on day trips to see the rockets and to visit friends in Ft. Lauderdale. The same offer, the same name, but the campground (Sunshine Travel RV Resort) was completely different and out of the three it was our number one. Much smaller than the previous one but louder and more full of life. Situated by the highway it was full of Canadians and short term visitors. 

We were there only for a week but at least five sites around us changed residents. The service was nice too (we got a card to laundry for free) although we didn’t see them much, when we got there on Sunday there was nobody there. We managed to get set up without any help and as everything was perfectly fine we didn’t really have to deal with anyone.

Maciek loved swimming pool, fellow residents loved Kalina. At our paved site there was brand new wooden table. There was no free Internet. Unlike the previous resort this one had a gate, but to make up for this lack of trust, there were envelopes, in case there was no one to pay to you could leave the money in the envelope. Or if you don’t pay cash there was a place to write down all the data including credit card number. And then the drop off place was an open box near the office which was outside the campground gates…*

Campground was clean, very quiet and much more social and friendly than the first one. Maybe because we spent more time there. Activity room with ping-pong, foosball and other games was pretty impressive. Long list of activities at "activity board" suggested that the room is used very sufficiently. We didn’t use it.

Encouraged by the experience we thought it can only get better (yes, people quickly get used to good stuff). Our third and last resort (mosty because there are no more Thousand Trailes in Florida) was Pioneer Village RV Resort in North Ft. Myers. It was very Pioneer. To say it nicely it was … not well maintained. Cracked roads, bushes, no internet.

We had very nice and helpful neighbors but the personnel was just not good. We were supposed to get the table on the same day we arrived, we asked for it once everyday for 5 days before we got fed up and we never got it. Cabel for TV was cut, although we didn’t care, we haven’t had TV at home for years. French was the most popular language around and sometimes it was loud but friendly loud and never after 10 pm. It wasn’t that bad but it was worse than the other two.

It looks that it’s a rule that the better is the area, the mofe friendly campground. Eustis near Ocala is pretty poor but quiet and friendly. Vero Beach is quite wealthy and north-east part of Ft. Myers is rather poor and seems not too safe. French speaking Canadians seem much louder than those English speaking. But of course we haven’t seen enough to write about anything in general.

For now we’re not planning to explore more about rv resorts. After three of them now it’s time for national parks and free camping. We will probably go to private campgrounds when we leave Florida and when the prices with Passport America discount will drop below 15 USD per night. The adventage they give over sleeping somewhere for free is that they offer dump, which makes life much easier considering that our tank is getting full after two quick showers..

*Short explanation to our American readers: the level of trust here in States in overwhelming for us. In Poland, if there was a place to just leave money or credit card number in a box it wouldn’t last too long…