Community Forums

brobox · 12-24-2016, 06:54 PM

I live in FT Myers. With the bad weather currently up north, everything filled up early this year. The worse the weather is up north, the more people want to come to FL. You might want to plan accordingly.

Monacoach · 12-25-2016, 10:26 AM

I just want to leave two feet of snow and get two feet in the sand.
Leaving tomorrow with no reservations and I have never had problems getting into parks in central Florida.

If there has been a change this year from the previous 30 years please clarify.

Good girl · 12-25-2016, 05:26 PM

Hey you can follow us if you like. Planning on leaving 0700 from Spring lake,MI. We are a class A 40 Monaco pulling a red Saturn. Heading south on US 31 to Indy then I 65 south to Us331 to Destin for January. We stay at Destin RV in Miramar Beach FL. We then head to Cocoa for February staying at JOY RV Park. You should call ahead for reservations now. If booked, there are some alternatives.
Hope to see you.

woodosgood · 12-25-2016, 06:13 PM

A nice Florida State Park with full hook-ups (and cable TV) is Topsail Hill Preserve. It is located about 10 miles East of Destin, near the intersection of US 98 and 30A (This is in the panhandle of FL, south of I-10). The state park is on the beach, but no campsites are on the beach. A free shuttle is provided throughout the day to take you the 3/4 mile to the beach or you can walk or ride a bicycle to the beach. The park has lots of hiking trails, dune lakes, paved roads to ride bikes on, rental cabins, and most sites have concrete pads (the others are gravel).

Kxbronco · 12-25-2016, 06:22 PM

Thanks everyone for the additional input. I have a couple of leads from people on the forum to follow up on tomorrow.

Good Girl & Woodosgood, we love the panhandle area, especially Destin. We spent a couple of weeks in October in Orange Beach. Drove over to Destin to check out Topsail and we definitely want to stay there sometime. Wasn't really sure if it would be warm enough there for us. I know they do get some cool weather at times. We may end up ther, who knows.

I will post my progress in getting the trip together as I go forward.

Monacoach · 12-26-2016, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Good girl

Hey you can follow us if you like. Planning on leaving 0700 from Spring lake,MI. We are a class A 40 Monaco pulling a red Saturn. Heading south on US 31 to Indy then I 65 south to Us331 to Destin for January. We stay at Destin RV in Miramar Beach FL. We then head to Cocoa for February staying at JOY RV Park. You should call ahead for reservations now. If booked, there are some alternatives.
Hope to see you.

We are crossing at Buffalo and taking interstates 79 77 29 26 95 04 301 75 ending up at a walmart directly facing blueberyhill resort in Bushnell. It will be late so we will stay at the walmart for the night. From the walmart parking lot I will be able to see if there are empty sites at the park. Walk over in the morning and book our stay.

Monacoach · 12-26-2016, 06:20 AM

19 not 29 ooops

Roadmagic · 12-26-2016, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monacoach

I just want to leave two feet of snow and get two feet in the sand.
Leaving tomorrow with no reservations and I have never had problems getting into parks in central Florida.

If there has been a change this year from the previous 30 years please clarify.

Can you tell me of some parks in Central Florida area? I am familiar with the Avon Park/Sebring area, but anywhere south of Ocala will do, if possible leaning a little toward the east coast. Thanks.

jergeod · 12-26-2016, 09:48 AM

Take a look at Orange City RV Resort stayed there last year. Nice place reasonable price.

Monacoach · 12-26-2016, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadmagic

Can you tell me of some parks in Central Florida area? I am familiar with the Avon Park/Sebring area, but anywhere south of Ocala will do, if possible leaning a little toward the east coast. Thanks.

I can start you off with two in Bushnell which is about 45 minutes south of Ocala along the l 75. Blueberry hill resort and paradise oaks resort.

pushtrk99 · 12-27-2016, 11:15 AM

Wilderness in Silver Springs is super but reservations should be made NOW !!!!-It is exactly a one hour drive to Daytona beach-not much traffic and real nice road-Super Flea market there on Week ends-Check out Daytona track tour even if you don't like racing-Rich

Monacoach · 12-27-2016, 11:53 AM

We have had some unexpected delays. ....our rig seems to have an alignment problem. ....the first walmart we came across after crossing the border was in Hamburg ny and the coach pulled to the right......1.5 hours later we are rolling again and then in erie pa the coach pulled hard to the left...... right into Presque isle downs casino......I dont know when we will get out of here....... I told dw to please fix the alignment. ....so we can go straight to Florida.

I will let you guys know if we get into a park without reservation s

angelbones · 12-28-2016, 02:07 PM

Well this is a timely post. We are Floridians for over 20 years (wife for 30+) and are in the Tampa Bay area. This past summer we bought a coach with the intention of going Full-time by the middle of summer 2017 (ironically that's when a lot of Floridians go north to escape the heat). We're still on track, but with the recent influx of snowbirds starting to arrive, it got me thinking about where we're going to winter next year. We definitely want to be somewhere warm, i.e., not cold. We also will probably like, although we haven't decided for sure yet, to stay somewhere for 1-2 months with the goal to come back and make a little money (Honestly though even we aren't sure how, or if, this will work). We've lived in FL too long and our blood has thinned so anything below 60 degrees is cold for us. LOL (sort of).

Seriously though, I wanted to offer some tips for those looking to stay warm in winter, in Florida. As others have said, north Florida will be easier to get a place to stay. HOWEVER, it can and does get cold (at least compared to what we're used to in the Tampa Bay region). In other words, it does get below freezing fairly often and it is possible, albeit rare, to get dustings of snow there. If you're looking to usually avoid those kinds of temperatures, I suggest you stay south of Wildwood or so if on the western side of the state. Certainly no farther north than Ocala. Orlando or further south if you're staying in Central or even east coast of FL. Just giving food for thought. Heck, even Tampa can get down in the 30s on occasion though.

Now, I have a question for the snowbirds or other Floridians. How far in advance do you book a CG for longer stays such as 1-2 months? What about 1 week or less stays, are those hard to get? How hard are the state parks? Do any Floridians know if being a resident gives an advantage in booking state parks? For those that "wing it" which we have a tendency to do at times, what success, if any, have you had finding a place to stay?

Monacoach · 12-30-2016, 12:37 PM

We are now in central Florida and have booked into a nice park for two nights without reservations. We will be in central Florida for a month and will not be reserving ahead of time.