SNOWBIRD Winter Destinations

[MarkWeg]

Hello, My Wife & I bought a 2019 Grand Design Reflection 297RSTS and are looking forward to RVing! We are from Pekin Illinois and would like some recommendations of good Snowbird winter destinations that you would recommend for 1-4 month extended stays from Nov-March. Thanks again....Wegs!

[Buckskin]

I would highly recommend somewhere on Gulf coast. We stay in Florida State Campgrounds in winter months but you are only allowed 2 weeks stay at a time. There are plenty of private campgrounds with extended stays or you could move from one state campground to another every 2 weeks and you can go back to the same one again for another 2 weeks once you leave. There are a few Federal campgrounds that with Senior pass you can get 50% off; they also have 2 week rule. Some state campgrounds in South Carolina on coast have snowbird deals with extended stay and it rarely get below freezing for any length of time.

[bertschb]

We stay at Outdoor Resort in Palm Springs and LOVE IT! Highly recommended but it's not cheap.

[howson]

The wife and I haven't done the snowbird thing yet, but let me welcome you to the forum. There is a lot of good information on here about your TT.

Safe travels!

[Bob/OlallaWA]

Lots of options in the Southern US. Depends if you are looking to stay away from lots of traffic or enjoy the local nightlife. We picked AZ. and not the Phoenix area because we don't like the traffic and all that comes with it. Now the wind, well I guess you get used to it.

[Cate&Rob]

Wegs,

We have been doing the Snowbird thing for four winters and our destination plan has evolved. We started out drifting around from park to park until we found a couple that we liked, narrowed it down to these two for a year and most recently have gone back to the same one for the whole season.

In general terms, the further south and the closer to the ocean, the smaller the RV site and the higher the cost. As mentioned earlier, the Gulf Coast seems to have more RV parks.

The Florida State Parks are a great deal and definitely the most “rustic” camping in Florida. Often dirt sites, sometimes FHU, but usually spacious with lots of trees. The problem is booking these sites. Particularly for January and February, you have to book a site 11 months ahead of time. And I mean 11 months exactly at 8:00:01 EST to the fraction of a second that site becomes available. There are hundreds of folks all over North America waiting to hit the send key on their computer for every site. The frustration at missing out time after time, kind of turned us off the whole Florida State Park thing.

For our first couple of years , we would manage to find State Park sites and then drive about the area looking at the private parks. Usually the ones that look the best online are’t so nice in real life, but often the ones without much of an online presence are really nice parks. A good excuse to drive around Florida!

There is certainly a sliding scale on price depending on how long you are going to stay. The monthly cost can be less than half the cost per day of the the daily rate. Difficult to find a central northern Florida site for under $600 per month in the busy season, whereas you could spend 4 or 5 times that much for a postage stamp size site in the Keys. Extended stays are usually electricity extra. This can approach another hundred a month . . . depending on how much you use your AC.

You don’t mention if you have a dog. This is a key discriminator at many Florida parks. Some don’t allow dogs at all, some allow only small dogs, some are breed specific. If you have a dog, make sure you ask about this when booking a site.

Rob

[Dick Noble]

Don't know how far you want to go. We go to southern Calif. for 5 months each year. Take a look at Sunbeam Lake RV Resort, El Centro, CA.(good luck getting in). The southern most city in Canada during the winter is Yuma and we have stayed there a few years. Also check out Big River RV park in CA across the river from Parker, AZ. Parker itself has some nice places. It all depends on what you are looking for. Social, sight seeing, gambling, and what you want to spend.

[MarkWeg]

Thanks Everyone for the Reply’s! Rob, we do have a 85 lb Labradoodle so pet friendly will be a must! Appreciate everyone’s responses and looks like we better get booking something soon since we are getting such a late start! Thanks again....Wegs

[WhittleBurner]

We've been doing the snowbird thing in Florida for 4 years in the Bradenton area near the Gulf. We've been to the same park every year but have checked out a lot of other parks. We started there because they were one of the only parks that would take three dogs of any size. We keep going back not only because of the weather but also there is so much to do in the area. When we first started going down there my brother-in-law advised us to stay south of I4 in Tampa as above that line it can get cold. Texas and Arizona have a lot of real nice parks and they are half the cost of Florida. Just research what you want, weather daytime and nighttime, things to do in the area, cost and distance to travel. Whats good for one person may not be for someone else.

[Cate&Rob]

Thanks Everyone for the Reply’s! Rob, we do have a 85 lb Labradoodle so pet friendly will be a must! Appreciate everyone’s responses and looks like we better get booking something soon since we are getting such a late start! Thanks again....Wegs

Wegs,

The Florida State Parks allow all dogs but they must always be on a leash . . . and most of them are very strict about this. State Parks have absolutely no off-leash areas. With border collies who need to run and catch frisbees, this was another reason that State Parks were not working well for us. Sometimes there are nearby city off-leash parks and we have made use of these . . . there is even a "dog beach" in Estero. (picture below)

Many private parks have a "50 lb" limit on dog size . . . as if size is any measure of temperament . Many also have breed restrictions . . . but I doubt that Labradoodles make the "unwanted" list .

Rob