Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina

So everyone knows, or soon discovers after trying to book a campground in the Florida Keys, that you have two choices: super expensive private parks or praying there will somehow be an open spot in one of the state parks.

As for the latter, unless you literally book a year in advance, you're basically out of luck. The state parks are gorgeous, and snowbirds apparently wait on their computers until the very second new bookings are excepted, and subsequently snatch them up.

However, if you go to http://readycampgo.com and sign up for a membership, you can get a big discount here at Sunshine Key RV Resort.

Basically, it's $49 / year for a membership. That gets you 15 nights at any of these Encore (aka, Ready, Camp, Go and Thousand Trails) parks in the southeast (it works in other regions too, but an annual membership only gets you access to one region), and those 15 night only cost $20. Compare that to $80 - $100 regular rate at Sunshine Key, and you quickly can add up the savings. There is also a "resort" fee, $3 / day, but if you stay the full 15 nights (and again, it doesn't have to be at this one park), you end up paying $26.27 / night.

Which is a pretty fabulous rate.

Aside from all of that top secret info I just dropped, the park is a-okay. The sites are decently spacious, you definitely don't feel stacked on top of one another. There are a lot of longer-term and permanent residence, but none of them appear trashy or "trailer park" like. There's a small man-made beach where we saw dolphins, and a quick jaunt across US 1 (on foot, 5 minutes tops) to see the sun rise over a completely undeveloped side of the island. There's a gas station on site, including a convenience store with "Wings" style souvenirs, shirts, etc. but most importantly decent beer. It's maybe 2 minutes to drive to Bahia Honda, and 10 - 15 to Big Pine Key where you can hit up bars, restaurants, a grocery store, that kind of stuff.

We were here right before Christmas, and all of the more permanent residence had decked their rigs out for the holidays so it was really fun walking all around and checking out their decorations. Definitely worse places to stay!

Our RV dealer gave us a 14 day free trial to Thousand Trails. We used the last 9 days at Sunshine Key. There's nothing really bad to say about this park from what I experienced. We stayed at lot 42. Accessing lot 42 via Tuna drive was a bit aggravating due to the big bush on the corner that was planted by the permanent resident that lives on the corner but he helped to keep us from scratching our class A. Once we got to the site, we found it spacious. Showers were very close to our lot as well. Nice pool and café on site. Laundry was $2.25 a load as well as the dryers. Credit card is the only method of payment and clothes dried very well. Probably wouldn't use this method again. Over all it was one of the nicer sites that TT had to offer. AND no we will not be TT members after all.

Yes, this RV park is expensive. No, we do not have a Thousand Trails pass. Even if we did, there would have been no TT sites available. Would we come back again? You bet. There is so much wildlife to see in the marina - nurse sharks, manatee, jellyfish and all the fish! Beach was ok, there was a ton of sea grass. Sites, grounds and bathrooms were clean. Tons of activities to do. Friendly staff.

This had pretty much everything you would expect for the price and location. We have ATT, Verizon, & T-mobile. While they varied throughout the resort, they were all unusable at our site. We paid $15 for a week of their Jabba WiFi, which was sufficiently fast but inconsistent.

We are Thousand Trails members but there were no TT spots available. We still got the 20% TT discount so we paid $121 each night for 2 nights. Full hookups (50amp, water, sewer). The park has been completely re-built after the hurricane.

Stayed in site 189 which was easily accessed on a paved road and pulled right into our level gravel spot. Brand new water/electric/sewer hookups.

The only con is that cell coverage was pretty spotty. We have AT&T and Verizon but we actually had to drive out of the park to have enough coverage for some work video calls.

It's a little less than an hour drive down to Key West so it's a good halfway point in the Keys depending on what you want to see and do.

Very nice place, but our AT&T cell service was No Service / 1 bar - occassionally could get it to 2 bars so had to purchase the WIFI package. There is a bit of traffic noise since HWY 1 is just outside campground and there are no trees providing a noise barrier but it's not too bad.

We had an awesome week here at Christmas. The campground did not disappoint. The only complaint was that the back of our site had thick woods and you couldn't see any of the ocean. I was hoping to be able to somewhat see the ocean since we were on the outside. It wasn't a long walk to the water and man was it beautiful. We were able to see manatees in the marina. It was hard to leave. Perfect distance to key west for a day trip. We did not have great cell service with Verizon.

Not at all upset about our stay here - the staff was friendly and accommodating. However the Verizon reception was almost nonexistent. And the (not free) WiFi would not even work at our site. We couldn’t even authenticate to pay for it despite what appeared to be a decent signal. If you are a nomadic worker, this is not the park for you. If you want to disconnect from the world, this place is awesome - beautiful and relaxing.

We truly loved our visit to this amazing park! The location in the Keys, being located directly next to Bahia Honda State Park made it even more special to us. We love to paddle board and the water is so calm between this Key and Bahia Honda that we would go out on paddles just to watch the sunset. We were in a site close to the marina, so it was easy to just grab the boards and walk a short distance to put in at the boat ramp. This convenience was a huge part of what made this stay so great for us.
We feel that your site in this park could greatly impact your stay. I would caution about sites 423 to 400. Although these sites are waterfront, there is grass and other materials that accumulate here and it smells awful! You also get a lot of traffic noise from the highway that is right there.
My first pick for sites would be 457-445 which are waterfront with calm waters and no smell or traffic noise.
My second pick would be the marina front sites 900-920. We went economical with a standard site and had #43 which was close to the marina and worked out great for us. Be aware that the roads within the park are very narrow. Our neighbors were kind enough to move their vehicles when it was time for us to pull out.
Our site was level and all utilities were easy to access and worked as they should.
We did not use any of the indoor facilities (i.e. bathrooms, showers, etc.)
The onsite marina and dock is wonderful. I imagine if you had a boat and a seasonal site, that would be a great way to spend the winter!
They do offer some fun outdoor games, but we were there for the water so didn't partake.
The sunset pier is lovely and we enjoyed walking out there to watch for fish and the sunset.
I was excited that they had Pickleball until I realized that they are actually tennis courts with tennis court nets. I saw just one couple playing tennis in two weeks. I don't know why they can't have one tennis court and convert the other tennis court to two Pickleball courts with actually Pickleball nets. But again, this is a minor issue.
All of the seasonal stay people we met were very friendly and welcoming.
Our check-in process was seamless and friendly.
The park is dog-friendly and it was enjoyable walking around the park with our dog getting our daily steps in.
Be aware when pulling into the park from the highway that the turn is somewhat tight. I'm not sure why they put the security gate station so close in that entry.
Now for the downside...as everyone has stated cell signal is extremely poor.
We did purchase the internet thru a local provider and it was adequate enough for me to work from for the time we were there. It did go down for a few days and I was able to get enough cell signal to work from during that time. But it was somewhat stressful to not have confident internet to work from.
The only reason I'm not rating this as a 5 overall is the cell and internet challenge.

Paid for WiFi but very poor connection. Very poor cell service . ATT and Verizon.I was assigned a site when I booked but given a different site upon arrival.