New to this, advice for Georgia/Florida

So Jim, can you give me towns and states the top 3 are in? Presnells,Yellow Jacket and Cedar Key. Boy you got it right about pictures. I've always been amazed at how some of these places look online and then how they look when you get there. I also am amazed when we figure because a park has all 8's and 9's in the camp book that "gross" wont be a word that comes to mind when we get there. NOT THE CASE! lol Thank you for all this info, we need to be moving soon again and not sure where to go.

jim1521 wrote:
Wife and I are going on a road trip next weekend. We will be visiting 10 campgrounds in FL. 6 of the campgrounds are in the Eastpoint/Carrabelle, FL area, and 4 are in the Crystal River/Homosassa Springs area. We're planning on checking them all out because in a couple of years we're going to begin moving around the FL/GA/SC/NC/AL area and want to look without having to tow the trailer around.

CRYSTAL RIVER/HOMOSASSA SPRINGS AREA
http://www.carefreecommunities.com/rv-parks/florida/homosassa-river/
http://gulfcoastrvfl.com/
http://bmarinacampground.net/index.html
https://www.eleanoroaksrvpark.com/
http://www.cedarkeyrvresort.com/index.php
http://www.yellowjacketrvresort.com/

EASTPOINT/CARRABELLE, FL AREA
https://presnells.com/
http://www.coastlinervresort.com/
https://www.hohumrvpark.com/ho-hum.html
http://www.sunsetislerv.com/

UPDATE: This past weekend we drove up to N. GA to look at a campsite up in the mountains. While on the way up, we stopped at each of the above listed campgrounds and visited them personally. For off: PICTURES CAN BE VERY DECEIVING!



Here's our impressions:

HOMOSASSA RIVER RESORT: Nice, but packed pretty tight; a little too tight for our liking.

GULF COAST RV PARK: Nice, clean park, sites spaced out well, so you're not one on top of another. Clubhouse was very small.

B'S MARINA AND CAMPGROUND: Terrible. Not a campground at all. There's a dock/boat ramp/marina there, and then there's about a dozen trailers all in very close proximity to one another just across the path in front of the dock.

ELEANOR OAKS: Similar to B's (in fact, just down the street). Very tight spaces, and looked rather unkempt.

CEDAR KEY RV RESORT: Beautiful! Large sites, well spaced out, lots of amenities - EXTREMELY CLEAN AND WELL KEPT. Definitely put this site on your "short list".

YELLOW JACKET RV RESORT: Very nice campground. You're right on the Suwannee River - I mean RIGHT ON IT. Nice campsite, plenty of amenities, lots of things to do.

There were two deal-breakers for us:

1) ZERO cell phone coverage (at least for AT&T). I could not get the slightest of signal, because you are REALLY out in the middle of nowhere.
2) There is nothing around (gas stations, etc. are about 8 miles away, large grocery stores are even further. You're out there on your own.

For me, because I'm still working and really need my cell phone (I work from home) that was a killer. Other than those two things for us, we loved Yellow Jacket.

Next, we headed further north up to the Carrabelle, Eastpoint, Port St. Joe area.

Presnell's Bayside Marina & RV Resort: BINGO! HOME RUN! This is the place for us. Absolutely beautiful and everything we were looking for in the winter. On the water. Boat ramp. Boat storage. Jet Ski storage. Gulf access. Port St. Joe is a beautiful little town. Very charming with everything you'd need right there. We fell in love with it.

We took a look at the remaining sites on our list, but unfortunately (for them) we just happened to see Presnell's first, and that ended up setting the bar that the others just couldn't get up to. They were all nice, clean, good locations - they just didn't have what Presnell's had to offer.

jim1521 wrote:
Wife and I are going on a road trip next weekend. We will be visiting 10 campgrounds in FL. 6 of the campgrounds are in the Eastpoint/Carrabelle, FL area,

We've stayed a couple of times at HoHum in Carrabelle, and really enjoyed it. It was just laid-back, peaceful, beautiful. During low tide, we were able to walk down the "beach" for quite a way :-) The only drawback (for me) is that I don't like to cook, and we had to drive quite a ways to find a restaurant for dinner. Our last visit was probably 5 or 6 years ago, so that may have changed?

rockhillmanor wrote:
Here is why I do NOT live, RV, or plant in Wisconsin any more!!

Yup those are minus signs in front of the temperature.

Give it time. Won't be long till you're cold at 50 degrees and complaining about it full time to the neighbors.

Nice thing about the minus temps it keeps bugs, rodents, snakes, gators, and vagrants all at bay.

rockhillmanor wrote:
You WILL get cold/freezing temps for long periods of time in the top of Florida.

You need to come down to the Ocala area. Tons of affordable CG's and the weather is nice. Yes if a cold front drops down the temps will drop for a few days and then go right back up to the 70's.

They predicted one or two nights of freezing temps on my first trip south in the RV. I ran around battening down the hatches in the MH, cover this insulate that. Had it all done way before sundown. By 6 o'clock I was roasting in the RV.

Come to find out that in Florida the temps drop 2 to 3 hours before dawn! That's it, a couple of hours before dawn. :R

Up north when they say freezing temps? That means that when that sun even thinks about going down the temps plummet down and it STAYS that way ALL night!!

Not Florida. Just 2 or 3 hours of cold before dawn. I think I can live thru that! :B

I agree. It takes all night to get cold and when the sun comes up in the morning, the temps shoot back up. The other thing I've noticed is that there's really only a couple of weeks in January when we get cooler weather and then the daytime highs and nighttime lows start creeping up. Not like the Midwest (where I'm from), where it's real WINTER from about Thanksgiving till the beginning of March.

You usually can get the 7th day free if staying a week, but I don't think you will get additional discounts added to that. Sometimes there can be a separate weekly rate. Monthly rates will be much better but I've not seen discounts added to an already heavily discounted monthly rate. Sometimes electric is included in the monthly rates and sometimes it's not.

Many people use I-4 in Florida as a dividing line for warm vs cool temps. In general you will pay more the further south you go below I-4.

I am near Port Charlotte and am still running my AC. For comparison purposes add the following locations to your weather app and look at the 7 day forecast - Fort Ogden (my location), Gainesville and Tallahassee. You will see why places can charge more in South Florida.

There are pictures out on the net of snow on I-10 in north Florida. I lived in the Orlando area for 15 years and saw flurries in the street lights on a couple occasions. But basically it snows only at Disney World.

I use RVPARKREVIEWS.COM when looking for campgrounds, RV resorts, etc.

Here is why I do NOT live, RV, or plant in Wisconsin any more!!

Yup those are minus signs in front of the temperature. :W



:B

When you are not familiar with an area and its

"average low temps"

,

I found pulling up the 'planting zones' map give you a very detailed zoned map regarding temps! :B

I made a lot of my decisions while RV'ing around the different states where to stay based on planting zones maps!

A lot of gov funding goes into these maps to insure their accuracy. Agriculture lives and dies by these zones!

These aren't square cut guesstimate zones they are pretty detailed in regards to the what the temps are regionally.
So if you are unfamiliar with an area this map will let you know just how low it can possibly go during the winter months.



So add a planting zone map to your RV camping arsenal.:C

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/

Here's a chart showing 4 Florida locations:
Carrabelle - (N. Florida Panhandle)
Ocala - (C. Florida)
Sarasota - (SW Florida)
Fort Myers - (SW Florida)

You WILL get cold/freezing temps for long periods of time in the top of Florida.

You need to come down to the Ocala area. Tons of affordable CG's and the weather is nice. Yes if a cold front drops down the temps will drop for a few days and then go right back up to the 70's.

They predicted one or two nights of freezing temps on my first trip south in the RV. I ran around battening down the hatches in the MH, cover this insulate that. Had it all done way before sundown. By 6 o'clock I was roasting in the RV.

Come to find out that in Florida the temps drop 2 to 3 hours before dawn! That's it, a couple of hours before dawn. :R

Up north when they say freezing temps? That means that when that sun even thinks about going down the temps plummet down and it STAYS that way ALL night!!

Not Florida. Just 2 or 3 hours of cold before dawn. I think I can live thru that! :B