Sunshine RV Resort

We stayed here a month in April 2019. We originally were going to stay two weeks, but we extended due to the great birding in the area. It was off-season and the park was very quiet. Many times, it felt like we had to place to ourselves. We are not 55+, but according to the office staff they are an 80/20 park so up to 20% of occupants can be less than 55. They do, however, restrict people with kids. Doesn’t hurt to call and ask if you are interested in staying. The park has many amenities, including, mail room, pool, spa, showers, laundry, pickle ball courts, horseshoe courts, and shuffleboard courts. Many of the occupants are full-time residents or winter-only with permanent structures, but they had numerous sites available for short-time stays. Our site was nice and level and we had full hook-up. The staff was very nice and accommodated our last-minute stay and our change to a monthly visit. This was a great spot for us because we were close to many good birding spots. Estero Llano, South Padre Island, Santa Ana, Hugh Ramsey Park, and Laguna Atascosa NWR are within an hour drive. The park is also close to grocery and other stores. Nearby is everything you need. As I said, the park was quiet, but there is a train nearby that would come through in the early morning sometimes which was annoying. The park was well maintained, but there were some potholes that need to be fixed. They were doing some sewer pipe construction when we were there, so hopefully some of those roads will be patched. The price for a month stay plus electricity was reasonable. It was starting to get a bit warm while we were there, but they do have a nice breeze most of the time, so mosquitoes were not an issue. Overall, we enjoyed our stay and will stay here again.

This is a wonderful Encore park. Office staff was very kind and we were given a remote control at check-in that allowed us to enter both secured gates without manually keying in the code each time. Very cool! We stayed in full hookup back-in site #3210 in the Lakeside section of the park. The site was spacious and very comfortable. This section has a heated pool with hot tub, a small fitness center and even a laundry room. You have to buy a $5.00 laundry card to use the machines so we went to a local laundromat instead. Everything was well maintained and available with minimal restrictions due to Covid-19. My wife was even able to use a sewing machine in the classroom building. The woman who runs this program was fantastic! A resident named Sharon helped us setup our mailbox and she was really nice. Paid wifi is available but we didn't use it. My AT&T phone had 4 bars and the wifi hotspot worked great. Recycling bins are also available.

We stayed at Sunshine RV Resort as part of our Thousand Trails, Trails Collection membership, thus there was no cost. Although on their map they have specific sites set aside for Thousand Trails members they put us in the Lakeside annex area. This is definitely a place for older folks, but it is a nice spot with good amenities and excellent T-Mobile and AT&T service (I work from the road so this is a major element in our selecting parks). Both the main part of Sunset and the Annex have their own pools, fitness centers, and laundry. The pool and hot tub at the Lakeside area were fairly small, but in nice condition, with lots of chaise lounges. There looked to be active groups for pickleball and bocce ball every day.
Our first spot was 3243 and the power was bad. It would go on and our surge protector indicated it was ok, but then at some point, it would flip off each day. With 12 solar panels on the roof, it took us a couple of days to figure out we needed to move which we did a few spaces away to 3239. Our site was spacious enough with some grass areas and a concrete patio. We backed up to an agricultural field and there was a tree at the back that periodically had 400-500 birds fly in for a few raucous songs before flying away.
We had very little interaction with the staff, but what we did have was very polite and friendly.
From Sunshine, you are about an hour away from Elon Musk's Spaceport in Boca Chica, as well as the beach a couple of hundred feet away from the launch pad. This is a beach without facilities, with 4WD you can drive out on it.
It's easy to get into and out of the park, and there is a security gate with a passcode needed for access.
It's close to HWY 77, but our space was fairly far away so no noticeable noise unless we had the windows open, and then it was only in the distance. Trains do come through nearby 1-3 times a day and are fairly loud, but it wasn't a problem for us.
Here are the numbers from our internet tests:
T-Mobile: iPhone 5G: 340 MBps DN; 49.2 MBps UP
On our Pepwave Router:
T-Mobile: 21.64 MBps DN; 4.08 MBps UP
AT&T: 57.99 MBps DN; 53.34 MBps UP
We would definitely return if we wanted a decent place in South Texas.

Only down side is the dogs barking 24/7 outside of the park.