Winter RV Florida Gulf Coast

12 years ago when my wife and I started camping, you could pick up and go to Florida on a whim and find a spot. The economy is strong and people have more disposable income now. We have a great place we stay for 2 weeks in February on the Gulf Coast between Tampa and Sarasota, but we have to book a year in advance. You'd better start looking NOW for winter 2020 if you want to camp anywhere near the water. That's the downfall of a strong economy...

pamo wrote:
Looking for Winter RV Parks for Florida Gulf Coast. Every place we tried has nothing available.

You need to be more specific about where on the gulf coast you’d like to be...
Pensacola to the Keys is too big an area for such a general question.

Here's what we did. Disclaimer: This was over the 2015-2016 winter which was before the big push in buying RVs, but I believe that 90% of the big push was bought by working people who won't be spending the winters on the Gulf Coast.

We left New England Nov. 1st and got back on May 4th. We stayed at most places 1 week, usually traveling on Wednesday. We knew where we were staying next and I was looking for a place to stay the stop after that. We had advanced reservations only at places we wanted to be at a certain time.

We never had a problem getting into a place, and I don't even think I had to call more than a couple of campgrounds in one area. We alternated between private and public CGs. We started down the east coast (Myrtle and Hilton Head) then the W. Palm area in FL, over to the Sarasota area then out the panhandle and around the gulf coast to Galveston. We worked our way back through OK, Arkansas, the Ozarks, KC and east from there.

I believe the reason this worked is because I was picking up cancelled plans. The roughly 2 week out period, plus not checking in on a Friday seemed to work for us.

We wanted to get further south in Florida - like down towards Naples - and there were sites available at private CGs, but the price was above what we decided was reasonable (> $100 a night).

The closer you get to the water the harder it is to find a spot. More $$$ also.

Another possibility is Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort in Clermont. You don't have to golf to stay there but it is helpful to get your exercise.

Most places book a year out. Trying to find something only months out is gonna be a challenge. The pan handle may be your only choice, like I tell everyone who wants to be south of I-4 for the warmer weather, 40 degree nights and 60 degree days are still better than -5 wherever your coming from.

Did you include the panhandle in your search?

Try Blueberry Hill in Bushnell. They used to always have sites but so many are not permanent residences (where the RV's don't move) the number of available sites is down substantially.
What they have is long concrete sites, all full hookup, set on an angle so even tho you may be right next to another it doesn't seem so.
Lots of good eating in Bushnell although you probably never heard of the town.
Also, a Walmart is just across the side street! What more could you want.