What are your priorities?

Tequila:

Is that Lake Chapala?

A view like the one from my current Rv park

We have been "playing" at "snowbirding" for the past 4 winters in Florida. Our forays have been from 21 days to full months. Our first foray was with our rig, to St Augustine (late winter/early spring).

Each time we go, we do recces to the south and to the west searching for areas we eventually would like to snowbird at with the RV. Three of the past 4 years have been without the rig; we have been renting fairly luxurious condos (over 1400 sq ft) with direct ocean views, as a "pied-à-terre". We looked for a condo further south (south of St Augustine), to launch forays from, however, the price (during the core of winter) was very prohibitive (we could only find shoe-boxes, miles from ocean-front about 1/5th the size of our St Augustine beach-front digs, costing 2.2 x the price); and campgrounds south of Jupiter / Tampa near ocean-front costing 1.3 x what our luxurious ocean-front condo costs, up at St Augustine!).

Anyhow, when we eventually head south with the rig (ie. not opting for the condo), we could not see ourselves staying at any one place/area camp in Florida longer than 2 weeks at a time, before moving to another area to explore. One of the constraints is RV size, so hanging out "inside" the RV for any period outside "sleep time", (like during prolonged periods of rain) would drive us crazy. So, we would choose Central Florida perhaps 5 miles inland from the Coast(s), and make forays to the coast, and back inland, where restaurants, museums, protected areas, good extensive beach walking, and other areas of interest would be accessible, say, within 45 minutes drive....at a price-point of a State, National or Municipal park-- or, in the private campground realm, the ~~ $400 a week range.

We've found a small campground outside of Chiefland, FL. Honestly, it was all about price. The place looks a little run down, but the owers are very proactive and it's clean. Upon spotting small fire ant hills when we checked in the owner came right back and sprayed. Most of the rigs are older and weatherworn. The bathrooms and laundry are clean and there is a gate that is closed at night. That's pretty much all that matters to us. Most of the residents are quite elderly and have been coming here for years. One of the first things everyone asked was did we have a place to go for Thanksgiving. The campground owners host a Thanksgiving dinner. That spoke volumes about the type of location this is. We're 35ish, but are full-timing and love it. Hubby works full-time in IT and I'm a indie yarn dyer.

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.

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. :)

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.

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

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.

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.