Periwinkle Park & Campground

So I have to admit, having "Trailer Park" in the name made me a bit skeptical at first. However, with it being the only RV park on Sanibel Island we decided to give it a try. We lucked out and scored three nights during Christmas week due to a last minute cancellation. Upon arrival, we were greeted by warm, friendly hosts and escorted to our spot through a beautiful "Island-vibe" park. Part of the park is long term residents and part is short term, with all of the homes being extremely well kept with beautiful landscaping.
With this being our first time here, we were surprised and delighted to find out that this place is well-known on Sanibel for their mini "zoo" with beautiful birds of paradise and adorable primates. Several times a week, Libby the "bird lady" comes and give both guests and the public a free interactive show. This was the highlight of our entire time on Sanibel Island! Such an amazing experience being able to touch the birds and have them sit on your shoulder. After talking to some of the other RVers staying there, they said we were super lucky to have gotten a last minute cancellation as most people come back year after year and book far in advance. We would HIGHLY recommend staying here and hope to come back in the near future!

Note: Payment by Cash or Check Only (No Credit Cards)

We stayed here April 6th to April 10, leaving a day early because we weren't all that enthralled with Sanibel Island and our experience at Periwinkle. Don't get me wrong, everyone was friendly and the campground was clean. It's just the fact that that there was no privacy at our site, the caged birds were 3 sites down from us (swans, geese,parrots, cockatiels,etc) so you can imagine the noise at times. As you walked around the campground part, you could smell the septic. Granted, the campground was at full capacity so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Also, Sanibel is not what it used to be. At Bowman's Beach, parking is $5 an hour, It takes forever to pull out onto the road due to traffic and they have to have traffic cops at the intersections due to the volume of vehicles. Not my idea of a vacation.

This campsite had it all. Friendly people excellent site and very quiet. The location is perfect. Minutes away from the beach. Excellent for people that like ride bike. I will definitely make this a frequent visit location.

We could not have had a better experience! The campground is clean and quiet, nicely maintained and has unique features like an aviary with parrots and cockatoos and a little zoo with lemurs and squirrel monkeys. There are wild iguanas and bunnies, too. Restaurants and grocery store nearby and a convenience and liquor store next door with pathway access to the campground.

Easy walk to beach (just under a mile) but no parking at that beach access so you need to walk or bike. There is no free beach parking, but the public access areas have $5 hour lots.

We rented a golf cart from Sanibel Carts- they have a deal with the campground and will deliver a cart right to your site and pick it up, too. It was a great way to get around and made the trip for us!

No-see-ums are tough, but that’s everywhere on the island.

We stayed 4 nights. Easy 15-minute walk to the beach. Short drive to Sanibel shops, beaches, Captiva Island. It’s a fun spot to RV camp, with two caveats: 1. The no-see-ums eat you alive just after sunset (October). 2. They have no WiFi and our cell carrier, Sprint, has one bar, which is useless. We met up with friends who had good data connection via AT&T.

Sandy back in sites, had to have some trees trimmed to get into spot. Maintenance came quickly and took care of trees. Friendly staff. Short walk to beach. On site bird zoo. NO DOGS ALLOWED! Only campground on Sanibel Island. Close to restaurants

Only RV Park on Sanibel island. Bit of a deceptively long walk to the beach but its a nice bike ride. The beaches are amazing. The Island has tons of park/open spaces to explore. Nice level site on very clean grounds. They have exotic birds and some lemurs that are caged in a central area, also a pond with migratory birds. Cant wait to come back and stay.

Spacious sites, but we didn't have a pull- through. The staff seems nice, but particular, which was fine. They don't want casual passers-through, so manage the gate area pretty tightly. Good shade, walkable to the beach (0.7 miles).

Periwinkle is a nice enough campground. It has a small rescue bird zoo which is nice and it is a quick bike ride to the beach. The reason I gave 3 stars is due to the following. Our site ba ks up to some sort of sewer plant. The smell can get annoying ( the campers next to us left because of it) and they have trucks going in and out all the time. The trucks are not super loud but you can hear them. Crows are abundant and if you leave food on the pick nick table and step away for a moment they will be on it.
There is some sort of stagnant creek between our site and the sewage plant. Not sure if its natural or not but the ducks didn't go in it...
All that said we would like to return however not be in the row that boarders the sewer plant. Note that im calling it a sewer plant but not really sure what it is officially. As one of my neighbor campers said " don't know what it is but it smells like s**t"
The young girl working at the gate was super nice and the campground is very clean.

We just left this park after “staying” one night of what was supposed to be 8 nights. BEWARE!
I cannot recommend anyone stay here.
When I saw they only excepted cash or a personal check it should have been a clue. I instead thought they were just old fashioned. After the experience we had we both think differently about that fact.
We checked in around 5pm yesterday and set up camp. We left for a few hours to get groceries and the like in ft Myers. Coming back everything was fine and we cleaned up and got in bed to watch some tv.
About an hour later I tell my husband something smells off like when you don’t put water in the toilet so it lets the sewer smell come up into the camper.
He didn’t really smell it at first and we checked our connections etc and could find nothing wrong. He promptly falls asleep but I keep being awakened by the smell. Around 2:30 in the morning my husband wakes up and goes “oh man, I smell it now!” In the space of a few hours it had gone from an offensive odor to you literally felt like you couldn’t breathe. Hiding under the covers didn’t help, this is the kind of smell you can’t get out of your nose. As my husband put it, imagine sticking your entire head in the black tank.
Calling the emergency line yielded a call back from someone sounding very disgruntled and told me we were smelling the sewage plant that was directly behind our site. I asked why that wasn’t disclosed when booking and was told it just recently became a problem. Looking at old trip adviser reviews proves a different story about that. We were promised a full refund and basically dismissed by him but told they can help you find a new place and a refund at 8am. We spent the night in our truck on the causeway. Showed back up clearly in pajamas at 8am after dozing in our vehicle on the causeway to escape the fumes to get a refund and help finding a new place to stay. The woman was extremely rude and condescending. My check was unceremoniously shoved toward me so great attitude and smirks and I was told she would not be helping me find somewhere else. Also was informed they would be keeping my deposit and not refunding as promised. No remorse was shown but plenty of attitude and smirks at me. Where in the world is customer care or service? I was also informed they had just been to the site and “there was no smell.” Who would sleep in their truck for no smell!?!? Try noxious cloud of permeating odors. I was afraid we would have to burn our bedding. Our neighbor informed us they had been smelling it off and on for 3 solid days. They appeared to be leaving as well. The fact that smirks and rudeness are what you get instead of disclosure and apologies should have you steering clear even if you discount the stick your head directly in a sewer smell. Given the reviews showing this as a problem one from several years ago, I feel this should HAVE to be disclosed to renters before they make a reservation. I highly recommend avoiding this place!