Fiesta Key RV Park, Florida Keys, Florida

 usbackroads destination--Fiesta Key RV Park, Florida Keys, Florida.

Travel Dates at Fiesta Key-- Feb 25-28, 2015

We stayed with friends for the first half of the trip and had already rented a home in the Florida Keys for the latter half of the trip. Unfortunately, that left a gap of four days where we would be homeless.

Now being homeless in the Florida Keys has its advantages since it is so warm and even hot in the winter at night.  All we needed was a tent, sleeping bag, and cooking gear and we were back to the future where we backpacked and lived out of tents instead of RV's.  We bought two zip together sleeping bags and had them shipped to Florida.  We will use them RV'ing this summer.  We did have a hard time finding a cheap tent for sale.  Wal-Mart was sold out, put fortunately K-Mart did have a nice, cheap dome tent for $40.  We had plenty of backpacking stoves and cooking gear so that was not a problem.

The only problem was finding a campground!!  We called all the Florida state parks in the Keys.  No vacancy.  Most Florida State Parks have one or two campsites available on a first-come, first serve basis.  Good luck.  AND the state parks are EXPENSIVE, but well worth the money.  IF you can get into a Florida State Park in the Keys.....DO IT.  They are booked seven months in advance and BOOKED exactly eleven months in advance!!  Good luck.

Here are the links for the Florida State Parks in the Keys.

Bahia-Honda State Park

Curry Hammock State Park

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Long Key State Park

Good luck in finding a spot.  It is worth it if you get lucky.

Susie started calling the private RV parks looking for four nights for a TENT!  The only place we found was Fiesta Key RV Park run by Encore Corporation.  The reviews of the campground were fairly negative for maintenance, rowdy campers, and tight quarters.  We agree on all points.

This campsite was $72.50 a night.  It had streetlight as bright as the sun illuminating all the tent sites and they were located right next to the entrance road to the campground.  Come the weekend we got to share the adjacent tent sites with a party group from Miami.  They finally fell asleep at 3:00 am in the morning.  So much for the concept of quiet hours.

The maintenance and cleanliness of the campground was rather haphazard.  One restroom building was not cleaned for two days. Of course, it had a filthy toilet.  I don't know if the campground was waiting for a guest to clean it or just figured it would clean itself.  They were trip hazards all throughout the campground.  You should be very careful just walking around the campground.
The campground had plenty of signs up that they were going to fix things......soon.  So your mileage may vary.  In our case, there is no next time.

This was the bar, hot tub, and pool area of the RV Park. It was rather removed from the camping spots.  So, of course, the management closes the area at 9:00 pm so the party people can keep the rest of the campground up all night.

The RV Park only had free wi-fi in the office.  To get wi-fi in the camping areas you had to pay extra.  The cell connection was good for Verizon so we just used our cellular connection for internet.

The fish cleaning station was in the "boat" area.  If you have a boat and can secure a slip this park might be worth the time and tribulations that the campers are subjected to on a daily basis.

We did not check out the other RV parks in the area.  They all looked crowded.  Read the review carefully and book accordingly. 

Don't be a homeless person.  Remember in the winter the entire east coast of the United States wants to move to the Florida Keys. Plan your trip ahead of time.  The Keys are not a place for freelancing.