Have you ever?

[somertime]

Have you ever gone to Florida in January with no reservation? We really want to be on both sides of the state to see what we really like and not so sure we want to be tied down to one place. BTW...we don't want to break the bank.

[Parrothead_Mike]

lbrjet wrote:

somertime wrote:
Hey Parrothead Mike, that sounds good. We did make a reservation at Bayshore RV park in Tarpon Springs. We hope to get there in time for the Greek Epiphney celebration. The fellow at the camp ground said it was a really fun time. Do you own a parrot? Thanks for the info.

Parrotheads are Jimmy Buffet fans. There are Parrothead clubs all over the country. If you have have never experienced tailgating at a Buffet concert you are missing out on quite an experience.

Thanks for giving the proper definition Iberjet. I like the Jimmy's music a lot. He's also an author and his books are very entertaining. His concerts are a lot of fun with most of the fans singing the lyrics right along with Jimmy. And you're right about the tailgating too.

[Dog_Folks]

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
And at times parts of Florida, especially the Keys, seem to be 99.5% Parrotheads.

I agree but not "at times." It is all the time. LOL

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

And at times parts of Florida, especially the Keys, seem to be 99.5% Parrotheads.

[lbrjet]

somertime wrote:
Hey Parrothead Mike, that sounds good. We did make a reservation at Bayshore RV park in Tarpon Springs. We hope to get there in time for the Greek Epiphney celebration. The fellow at the camp ground said it was a really fun time. Do you own a parrot? Thanks for the info.

Parrotheads are Jimmy Buffet fans. There are Parrothead clubs all over the country. If you have have never experienced tailgating at a Buffet concert you are missing out on quite an experience.

[retispcsi]

Florida state parks are great places to stay but in the snowbird season you will need to make reservations many months in advance for the best locations. Try 11 months out. There will be space at some you just need to go on Fla. state parks web site. Private rv and campgrounds will have reservations available but you will generally pay higher rates at this late day especially if you want to stay near either coast. If you are in the Tampa area the RV show has dry camping at the fair grounds parking. You can go to the show for two days on the same ticket and as stated before you can get some good deals on camping spots. I got a great deal last year for a site in the Keys. Check the web sites for info. Welcome and don't be cheap we love tourist money. Good luck and Happy travels.

[Tripalot]

Another suggestion - if you can get to the Tampa RV show (Jan.15 - 19th this year)you can visit the vendor booths and pick up some good deals.
Last year some resorts were offering $99/week and we picked up several 3 night free deals.


Sun RV Resorts and Carefree also have specials but we have not stayed at any of their locations. Those ones aren't always available Jan. - March but that could be flexible if the parks aren't busy.

[GoPackGo]

When you hit Florida, make sure and pull into that first big Welcome Center Rest Area on the interstate. Go in and ask the nice person at the desk for the map that shows campgrounds and also ask for a copy of the Florida Campground Directory.

* And don't forget that cup of Orange Juice !

Tim

[somertime]

Hey Parrothead Mike, that sounds good. We did make a reservation at Bayshore RV park in Tarpon Springs. We hope to get there in time for the Greek Epiphney celebration. The fellow at the camp ground said it was a really fun time. Do you own a parrot? Thanks for the info.

[The_Painting_Te]

North Beach Camp Resort (in St Augustine FL) has had several open sites during January in the past. Monthly rate is under $750 with additional charge for electric ... water, sewer, and cable are included. Camp on!

[Parrothead_Mike]

Last year, our first snowbird season, we sorta went without reservations. We lucked out when a fellow poster on this site posted that he was cancelling a reservation at Oscar Scherer State Park down in Osprey. I jumped on part of the reservation and then another poster offer the dates he'd taken. We ended up with 9 days at the state park. This was the only true reservation we made.

Over a six week period (February 1 to March 15) we traveled around Florida staying at 8 different parks (one of them twice), 7 without reservations made well in advance. Note: Not made well in advance meant we didn't make reservations before leaving Michigan. However, when we knew where we wanted to go next we called ahead a day or two in advance and reserved a 3-4 day stay. We never had a problem getting into our desired park. We even extended our stay at one park from 4 to 7 days because we liked the park, area, and temperatures. We were near Miami and the weather was cooler up north so we decided to stay longer in the warm temps and moved north when Weather.com told us when the warm up was going to happen.

Prior to leaving I did some serious research on campgrounds/parks in areas we were likely to travel. I created a chart with 35 parks on it that listed the address, phone numbers, websites, and some general info regarding daily/weekly/monthly rates, amenities, general comments/ratings I found on RV Park Reviews.com, and directions. This helped us determine where to go next.

We had a great time seeing the different areas of the state. We'll be leaving in about a month for a 2 month stay and have reservations at 6 locations, including 3 state park stays for a total of 11 days and one of the reservations is for a month long stay. Our plans are loose for the first part of the trip because we don't know the exact date we'll leave as it will depend upon the weather along our route south. Last year we left on a specific date and that was a mistake because the weather somewhat bit us in the butt just prior to leaving. We'll give ourselves a window of about 10+/- days to depart and watch the weather forecasts. We'll stay someplace as we work our way down south to our first reservation at Myakka State Park near Sarasota.

Note: Staying periodically at state parks will help reduce your overall expenditures (average per night costs). Also, the longer you stay at one location the costs will be lower as daily rates are the highest compared to weekly or monthly, with monthly the least costly.

Go for it!

[Dog_Folks]

Jayco-noslide wrote:
After many years of going to Fl in mid-winter, I wouldn't go without reservations if you want southern Fl and on the coasts. But then we always go for state parks and I don't know a thing about private campgrounds availability. Problem is that by now if you don't have reservations, you can't get them for the Parks we like the most. Good Luck.

The limited supply state park sites is a major problem. There are only 3,454 campsites in the entire Florida park system with probably ten times that number of people that want to stay.

As I said before, you can always get a day or two here or there, just because of cancellations. Getting a week or more at one state park will be tough.

You can do it without reservations, but you will be moving around a lot.

[DutchmenSport]

We made reservations at Falling Waters State Park for the week of Christmas (campsite 3 if anyone wants to visit that week). We made reservations about 3 months ago, and it was difficult finding THIS spot as it seemed EVERY State Park campsite in the entire state of Florida was already booked for this week. It took several days searching, going from web-site park-to-park just to find this one.

So, unless you're parking in a private campground, resort, or someone's back yard, I think you're out of luck with the State Parks!

[Jayco-noslide]

After many years of going to Fl in mid-winter, I wouldn't go without reservations if you want southern Fl and on the coasts. But then we always go for state parks and I don't know a thing about private campgrounds availability. Problem is that by now if you don't have reservations, you can't get them for the Parks we like the most. Good Luck.

[Jack_Diane_Free]

The further south and closer to each coast you will have more of a problem. In-land and north not so much.