Winter Quarters Manatee RV - Thousand Trails

The check in process was very good. Our site had everything we needed and nice trees for shade from the sometimes hot sun.
The pools, hot tub, clubhouse and laundry facilities are well maintained. Monday Bingo was lots of fun! Very welcoming seasonal residents. Office staff is great, especially Marilyn!
Our rate reflects the Thousand Trails “Trails “ collection price.
Location is right off I75 so you have typical highway noise but it becomes background noise after a day or so.

Overall we enjoyed our stay here!

Pros:
- friendly staff and fellow campers
- nice pools and hot tub
- big dog park
- good size sites once you make it in
- lots to do in the area
- small boat launch
- good cell coverage
- lake in the middle
- clean

Con:
- tight roads/hard to get in our spot
- quite a bit of traffic noise
- not a negative if the campground, but the area was busier than we’d pick, feels like the suburbs

Place is decent for passing through. Not a lot to do for young families with kids. Most of the people here are older and a lot of them are permanent with mobile homes on sites. Getting into our spot was not that much of a challenge because we were towards the end of a curve but if you have anything over 40 feet some of the spots are pretty tight to get into. The only downside I could see of the spot was they are very narrow and very short so your rear jacks / tires may be in the sand and you would have to reinforce them with some sort of base. I was able to park our rig without detaching since I got the truck at an angle and the rig straight in. Otherwise, you will have to detach.
Location is very close to Walmart and there’s actually a Trader Joe’s not too far from here as well overall decent older park. There is no hotspots other than two locations at the clubhouse and at the entrance so if you do not have your own Wi-Fi capabilities you’ll have to sign up for a data plan while you’re here or go to the hotspot for everyone located inside the common pool area.

I stayed here for 2 nights in mid April (spot 1263) and it was my first time staying here. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The grounds were ok overall and internet worked fine. The electrical (30 amp and 50 amp) was farther back than the water, which wasn't a huge deal but might be inconvenient for some. Overall, I'd stay here again.

Stayed here for 7 days. We were working from the RV for a portion of that time. Cell service on T-Mobile was poor (1 -2 Mbps) without the directional antenna attached to our MoFI 4500. With the directional antenna we could get 16 Mbps down and 5/8 Mbps up (Band B26). We did notice that from time to time we would loose signal all together but wasn't bad overall. My cell phone would connect at 5UC on some occasions but most of the time it was on a much slower link. My 4G rating is based on my cell phone only and assuming you don't have a directional antenna. I would recommend having one if your going to work from the RV at this location.

As mentioned backing in can be a bit of a trick due to the trees which are across from the sites. We didn't have much of an issue but my bumper did come close when backing in with our 37 ft. 5th wheel. Our site didn't have much tree cover so the afternoons were a bit hot as our awing was facing into the afternoon sun.

Office staff was friendly and helpful, facilities seemed well taken care of. Visited the pool which looked to be in great shape. Dog park was nice and shaded and had enough room to let our two labs run. Didn't get to drop the kayak in at the small boat/kayak ramp but it looked like it would get you out to manatee river with no issue. The TT sites are of course by the highway but we didn't really have an issue with the noise.

There's a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc near by so most of the items your likely to need are within 1-2 miles. We had a really nice lunch at Woody's Roo on the river, grouper was cooked perfect and a good portion. All in all we would stay here again.

The rate is to counteract the listing showing $0

Great RV park. IGNORE all the negatives on Google, look at who is posting them. I find that in life some people are always miserable. I have not been traveling long but had stayed in at least 20+ rv parks and this is one of the nicest.

The office is very nice.
The grounds person is very nice.

Nothing is perfect in life. The best part is if I do not like my neighbors, I can ask for another site, or I can leave.

They are reasonably priced I think I paid like $47 per day full hookups.
Wifi is extra but it's cheap.

Nice large lake with gators. It is a quiet park. I'm adding it to my destinations for when I am in the area in the future.

Office staff were kind and welcoming. We were assigned a site that required us to parallel park our 33’ Airstream. Just be aware…
We were among full-timers. They were OK. No one bothered us. Not all permanents were maintained to the standards that are supposedly set by Encore, but most were fine.
We would stay here again but it would not be our first choice in Florida.
Starlink quality was great.

Great location with plenty of sites. My only complaint is the noise from the free way but the park is conveniently located down the road from a Walmart and several gas stations with diesel. The cell signal here for Verizon and att is pretty good and the pool and hot tub are very nice. The gym was open in December 2020 in light of COVID-19 with enough equipment to get a good workout. If you want to see a tour of the park and more content check out my review on my YouTube channel. https://youtube.com/channel/UCHerxx1Y_hdtWDUTS7VfxWg