Bulow RV Resort - Thousand Trails

We had a 5-star experience here, but if you poke around online you'll see that the reviews are mixed and I can understand why. I'll talk about our great experience and where things could have gone wrong.

First, the price. This campsite is part of Passport America, so we got 50% off of the $35/night rate for April. Plus the $4/day resort fees and tax, we paid $167 for a week of camping here with water and electrical, or just under $24/day. We felt this was an excellent value especially given the location, but I'm not sure I'd feel that way if I had to pay full price.

The resort has a pool, bathroom and shower facilities, laundry facilities ($1.25 wash/$1.25 dry), a fenced in dog run area, and a clubhouse with a volleyball net, a crude mini-golf course, and scheduled weekly events (potluck parties, bingo, a free weekly coffee and donut thing, etc.). We did not attend any events as we had our dog with us and she wasn't allowed in the clubhouse, but we did use the laundry and it was fine. Bathrooms were dated and not the cleanest, but this wasn't a big deal to us as we use our RV.

There is also a large pond within the resort, but no swimming because of alligators - and we did see one when out walking!

This is a big snowbird location - we met people who had been set up there for months. There were a whole spectrum of campers here, from shiny new massive motorhomes to shabby yellowed pop-ups. There are also a few one-room cabins for rent scattered around, and a few connected streets to the RV resort are mobile home setups. Everyone putzes around on a golf cart.

When we arrived, we were given an assigned site - squished in between the campsite dumpsters and an old 70s camper with a huge barking dog that looked like it had been set up there for years. We took one look at the site, said no way Jose, and went back to the front desk to politely ask for alternative options. The woman at the desk was very generous and gave us a list of every single site open. We chose site 164, which had no immediate neighbors, was on the edge of the campground, and was under some beautiful trees covered in Spanish moss. If we hadn't been allowed to move, I doubt I'd be giving a 5-star review, but site 164 was private, spacious, and wonderful.

Location can't be beat for the price we paid. We stopped by a different campsite right on the beach to scope out prices and were shocked at the $125/night waterfront sites. That is insanity!! At Bulow, we were 3 miles from Flagler Beach, a quick drive to Ormond/Daytona Beach to the south, and St. Augustine made for a great day trip to the north. If you're looking for suggestions of things to do in the area, check out our blog post on our trip here (http://www.twopluslu.com/northeast-florida-coast-we-love-you/)

Locally, the Bulow Plantation Sugar Mill ruins are right next door, and there are a whole network of walking trails around the area that are wide enough for golf carts. While out walking, we ran into javelinas and armadillos.

Great Verizon and AT&T reception.

Overall, we loved our stay here and would have investigated staying longer if the Florida heat and humidity didn't drive us north.

The location of this park was pretty good because we were under 10 minutes from the beach and a wonderful little community!

This RV park was pretty large, had a really good pool, cheap laundry, and plenty of events to attend. We were surprised that there was a clam bake the day we checked in as well as a lot for the kids to do.

We noticed a lot of longer term people staying there and even though we got a FHU site, there were a lot of sites around the outside that were no sewer - just prepare for that.

The site we had (I cannot recall the number) was odd because it was in an area that seemed all sites would be backin but ours was a pull-in. We were lucky that the people across from us had enough space for us to pull our truck through after we checked in because otherwise we would be stuck without getting the truck out. Not a problem on Class A / C motorhomes, but for 5th wheels, those sites were not ideal.

Oh yeah, our GPS tried to take us past this RV park which just caused us to need to hit the brakes pretty hard, so as you get close to the RV park on the navi, slow down...

We would stay again for sure!

Stayed here over Thanksgiving 2019. Reservation was made last minute and had a few sites left. Park looks to be laid out in several sections, Snowbirds, weekenders, fulltime with camper and park models. The campground was pretty quiet, only noise was from the rental cabins but we were not too close to them. They do have several cabins and are building more. Staff was friendly in the office. Our site had no fire ring so Charlie the maintenance guys helped me get one from another site. Only issue was the dog poop, seems many don't bother picking up after their dogs...anyway, we'll likely be back as we usually make plans last minute and they seem to have sites. ATT cell coverage 2 bars, 4 Mbps down, .15 up. Have camplink wifi, 3 days for $10. Does not work on FireTV so we used laptop to stream and an HDMI cable but it was fast enough to stream.

We pulled in around midnight as we were trying to get out of the path of hurricane Sally. We started to back in to our site then realized the hookups were at our door... with RVs behind our site, we assumed it was a back in. After looking at other sites, we realized it was a pull thru... there is a small drive in between the sites behind ours, but it’s all grass so you have no idea what you are doing in the dark. The sites are mostly grass... there’s a little concrete pad for the picnic table. Lots of permanent residents here. We stayed for 5 days... the trees provide nice shade, so it didn’t get super hot in the rig. Pool looked nice. Didn’t check out any other amenities. Publix and Winn Dixie are close by. I probably wouldn’t stay again. (Stayed here free with our TT Membership)

Join us on a video tour of the Bulow RV Resort in Flagler Beach, Florida; video uploaded here on Campendium for your immediate reference. Bulow RV Resort is part of the Trails Collection add-on available to Thousand Trails members and camping pass holders. The campground is also available to the general public. Massive live oak trees give this expansive campground plantation style southern charm. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 71.1 Mbps download speed and 2.31 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 43.1 Mbps download speed and 6.82 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 4.25 Mbps download speed and 1.26 Mbps upload speed.

Campground Name: Bulow RV Resort
Location: Flagler Beach, FL
Overall Campground Rating (1-5): 3
Maneuverability*: It’s a little tricky getting into the campground and doesn’t seem wide enough turning in but it’s fine. Other than that, it’s easy to get around. I don’t think big rigs would have any issues.
Campground Notes: Beautiful campground with lakes and trees with Spanish moss hanging down.

Site #: 305
Site Rating (1-5): 2
Site Notes: Bulow has weird pull-in spots. They are not pull-through but you’re supposed to pull head in. Probably not a big deal if you have a Class A/B/C, but with our Travel Trailer or a 5th Wheel its hard to drive in and then try to back your truck around your trailer and the trees, etc. Site was full hookups with 50 amp electric. Water had a yellow tint our two water filters couldn’t get rid of but no funny taste or smell. Site is tight, only a couple feet from your neighbor on the utility side, but the door side had plenty of space. Our site had a picnic table but no fire ring.

Amenity Rating (1-5): 4
Amenity Notes: Pool was open but we didn’t use it. Also had mini-golf and horseshoes but we didn’t use those either. We did use the laundry room which was large and cheap ($1.25 each and took credit cards) but 3 dryers were out-of-order. Every Tuesday they had a featured food they sold there, Taco Salad when we were there, but we didn’t go. They also had crafts and activities.

Reason for camping here: Northern most campground in Florida on our way South.
Miscellaneous Notes: Closest Thousand Trails to Clay County if you use St. Brendan’s Isle as your mail service. About an hour from Jacksonville and also close to the beaches.

Dates Stayed: 11/30/2020 – 12/6/2020
Price Paid: $0, with Thousand Trails membership
Weather: It was nice when we got there, in the 70s, but then had a cold snap and nights were down in the 30s. Sunny every day.
Verizon Cell Quality**: Excellent Signal, averaged 79.6 Mb/s down and 8.3 Mb/s up
T-Mobile Cell Quality**: Excellent Signal, averaged 11.1 Mb/s down and 3.2Mb/s up
Mail: We did not have any mail delivered to this campground.

* For reference we are pulling a 33’ long Jayco travel trailer with a 2016 F350 Crew Cab Short Bed 4x4 which is 22’ with hitch giving us a total length of 55’.
**For reference we have two Google Pixel 2 XL on Verizon ‘Play More” unlimited data plans. For data we have an Inseego 8800L on Verizon’s expired prepaid unlimited hotspot plan. In areas of low signal we use a Netgear 6000450 MIMO antenna. For T-Mobile we have an Alcatel Linkzone 2 and our plan is through Calyx Institute. Measurements are taken using the “Multi” test on Speedtest by Ookla.

A review by sdplusztravels, a fulltime family of three living on the road in a RV. This review is our opinion and we have not been sponsored or compensated by anyone. Follow us on Instagram (@sdplusztravels) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SDplusZ/).

So it’s included in my membership at no cost.
It is a pretty campground with lots of green grass and large trees and a creek running thru it. Full hookups Included my site #237 had a medium sized concrete pad. It was a pull thru, even though the directions on the map left for me with my site assignment pinned to the board on entrance said to circle around and back in which I did. This park has a nice swimming pool area, laundry, and several other activities. My Verizon works, good strong signal. Plenty of open space to setup my dish for satellite TV. I’m a happy camper. Good water pressure. And no problem with power. I would say this is one of the nicer parks I’ve stayed at. And it’s a great location to Daytona, the beaches and racetrack.

First I booked a standard site apparently that is with no sewer ok that’s on me I guess. Just water and electric and no honey wagon to offer for dumps, seriously?! I understand your full it’s peak season, we ended up with buddy sites ( I had never heard of) basically we were supposed to pull in instead of back in and stare at our neighbors across from us…. Nope! There is a site in front of us so we asked to move over one to give the guy behind us more room and so my digs don’t bark every time they come out of their rv. Nope can’t move site is booked, the person is still not here for this site and when we tried talking to Alicia in the office still no , asked for park managers number was told he would call, never called us. So then after calling up there for an hour and her REFUSING to answer the phone we get Justin’s number call and leave a message. Someone named holly calls us and threatens to kick us out and ban us because we want to move sites, what in the world! Honestly the park is just ok it’s pretty and the pups like it but I have never been made to feel so unimportant and that I wasn’t a paying customer because I was thousand trails. I wrote all the because I see the owner responds hoping to get some kind of response because the treatment we received was just horrible

We really enjoyed our stay here. We have TT and didn’t have issues, our site was back in and full hook ups. Just call ahead to make sure you are in the correct site.

Pros:
- pretty park with lots of trees and water. We enjoyed watching the gators, turtles and birds.
- nice pool
- clean overall
- friendly staff
- the area is great, Flagler beach is adorable and this park is a good hub for surrounding areas
- just down the road from a state park
- sites range from tight to spacious, ours was a good size

Cons
- the bar music Thursday- Saturday is annoying if you want to sit outside at night or are close enough to hear while trying to sleep
- there seems to be an issue with appropriate timing of garbage pick up as the dumpsters overflowed for days
- one spot in the water needs some garbage picked out.

All in all nice park. There is a very large fenced in area with big Oaks and grassy areas to walk. Nice Looking pool but did not have a chance to try. The space we had was sand and grass level. The sewer connection is uphill though, Plenty of room to get set up and park the truck. Restrooms were clean. Nice Dog Park. Check in is a touchless procedure. When you pull into the park go past the pool and start down the main road through the park right after you pass the pool you will see a small house with a bulletin board right on the road that will have your check in information.

Negatives Typical Thousand Trails probably half of the sites are taken up by Long term/yearly campers some of which are showing wear and tear. You are given a packet of rules and regs Which say your rig has to be clean and nice it also says no golf carts. Well let's say it's not enforced.

Overall it is a pretty park and we would stay here again.