Forum Discussion

mlts22's avatar
mlts22
Explorer
Jan 14, 2014

RV park or resort?

I know this is a beginner's question, but what exactly is the official difference between a CG/RV park and a resort? To me, a RV park is usually a "sardine alley" -- park your rig so your slides don't hit the neighbor's, and it is a place to spend the night. A CG is more rural with more space between pads, perhaps a lot more rustic. Not sure what exactly a resort would have that separates it from the other two.
  • The only difference is what they call themselves. We've seen some places that call themselves resorts and were far from it in our book.
  • It really varies, and some seem 'misnamed'. Best if you can see actual pics on a website to be sure.
  • IMHO there are no real definitions for any of the three terms, although I agree that places that call themselves campgrounds are likely to be a bit more rural. But RV Park and RV Resort are used interchangeably and I don't pay much attention to either. If you want to charge more for your sites, be sure you call your "park" a "resort"; that will justify at least a 20% price increase!

    We have been at a few places that could truly be thought of as "resorts" because of all the other amenities they have, such as pools, hot tubs, exercise rooms, etc. But, in our experience, the overall nature of the place is not a good guide as to how big or attractive the individual sites are. "Destination locations" often have RV resorts with very small sites, such as those found in many of the snowbird parks in AZ. The park we are currently at in South TX has sites that range from pretty good to fair but we are on the beach in a popular area and these are good compared to many.