DW and I are considering snowbirding in Florida next year during the winter months: January, February and March. This will be our first time to snowbird in Florida and have a few questions.
First we do not wish to spend the three months in one location but instead divide the three months into six segments staying two weeks at selected RV parks around the coastal area. We have selected the following six areas for a two week stay at each: St. Augustine, Titusville, West Palm Beach, Fort Meyers, Tampa and Panama City.
Second is a three month stay (two weeks each) at the locations mentioned possible without making reservations in advance? If not when would you recommend we start making reservations? Also plan to rent a car at each location rather drive the RV around as we currently do not have a toad.
Purchase of an RV lot for future stays is a consideration. Also understand that in Florida you can use a RV park or trailer park for a home base and Florida has no state income tax or personal property tax.
Would very much appreciate your thoughts and past experiences
My experience, tho limited, is: Take a trailer load of money with you, it ain't cheap. Beautiful, but expensive.
hershey - albuquerque, nm Someday Finally Got Here
My wife does all the driving - I just get to hold the steering wheel.
Expedition - Suzuki Grand Viagra
That's kinda the way we did our first year down there. We started in Tallahassee and worked our way down to Key West, via Crystal River, Spring Hill, Fort Meyers, then back up the center of the State. We didn't do much on the east coast. It's a good way to learn what part of the state you'll be comfortable in. However, I think you would be best off making your reaservations now rather than later, or trying to just show up and find an available site. We found that we could get a site for three or four days without reservations, but anything of a week or longer was very hard to find. And the further south you go, the tougher it's going to be. Good hunting!
First, I hope you planned your stays in West Palm Beach and Fort Myers for February as the other locations tend to be a mite chilly then. March would be the better month to explore north of the big "O".
As hershey said, "...it ain't cheap." Especially when many campgrounds offer only the (most expensive) daily rate during the month of February (and sometimes January too). In those instances, be prepared to pay more for those two weeks than what others are paying per month. In short, some campgrounds simply do not offer a weekly rate.
A day here, a day there, yes; the annoying thing is that you may find yourself doing that within the same campground in order to fulfill your requested time of two weeks.
The time to make reservations for next year was...last year. Good Luck.
Good luck on the reservations. We made reservations in Fort Myers Beach when we were there last winter and could not get the time frame we wanted because they were full. Might be different this year with gas prices but I think the gulf coast snowbirds may not be that affected by gas prices. We are towing to Florida and moving 4 times all winter with longer stay parks.
If money is a consideration, you may want to do three one-month stays rather than six two-week ones. That way you'll be getting the monthly rate, which is frequently the same as a two-week stay as was mentioned, and that will save you a bunch of money. You could do a month each on the east coast, Gulf coast, and Panhandle, and just do some two or three day stops enroute from one to the other, or some side trips from your long term locations. Here is a link to some Florida Campgrounds that have websites that you can look at. It's not nearly all of them, or even most of them, but it will give you a starting point. You can then check them out at RV Park Reviews to see what others have had to say about them. I honestly wouldn't wait though. Get your three one-month (or six two week) reservations right away, and then you can make arrangements for the shorter trips later, or even while you're down there.
Because what you plan is precisely what we did, I think you're a wise person (lol). In '06 we spent a week at a time at about 10 different places going down the west coast of Fla, into the Keys, and up the east coast ... ending up at Hilton Head SC. Based on what we liked and didn't, we decided to spend '07 doing the same but with a month in St. Augustine, which we liked best in '06. After '07, we decided we liked St. Augustine best so in '08 we spent our entire three months there. It might be cooler there, but the crowds were almost non-existant; and there's plenty to do, lots of history, great restaurants, and a bunch of sight-seeing. Good luck in your search. Camp on!
I think your plan makes a lot of sense. We did much the same thing for about three years; staying longer and longer in places we liked. We finally zeroed in on two parks and then in 2006, on one - and there we perch.
We discovered we did not care for the east coast at all; liked the central area well enough to spend two months a year there; and ended up on the west coast - just south of Tampa.
I would call now to see about reservations. Seasonal renters have probably all renewed, and cgs will have a decent idea of available sites. One note - you may not get a choice site, but you will probably get "a" site.
Good luck and have fun!
Pat
May the road rise with you, the wind be always at your back.
You might have trouble booking for just two weeks in the popular areas as they might accept your reservation but if someone comes along and wants to stay two months they will drop your reservation. They do not like to risk losing a longer term reservation because of a two week booking.
They will do it for drive up/no reservations,as they can see what their usage is for the next two weeks, but you might have problems at the more popular parks.
North of Fort Myers and South of Sarasota might see the odd frost, but North of Tampa can be cold on several occasions!
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