We stayed at Twin Lakes RV & Camping Resort in Chocowinity, North Carolina. (Campground Reviews listing.)

An Encore park, mostly full of full-timers and seasonal sites, but with a section for transients.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-05-12
• Check out: 2024-05-24
• 12 nights

Weather:

• Partly cloudy, some rain
• High temps 73-81°F, lows 52-65°F
• Little wind, gusts to 28 MPH

Noise:

• No road noise
• Distant train horn noise
• Some neighbor noise

Site:

• #D13, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
• Level site; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel driveway about 75 feet long by 10 feet wide
• About 20 feet to neighbors on both sides
• Picnic table
• No fire pit
• Some tall trees, but not providing any privacy
• A lot of trash around the site

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, inconveniently located
• 40 PSI water, inconveniently located
• Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (3 10-foot pipes needed)
• We did park more forward than most people, though; utilities were at the rear of the site, so we could have been closer
• Water was shut off for a couple of hours during our stay due to a broken pipe elsewhere in the campground (not a big deal, since we have our own water tank)
• Interestingly, the sewer is actually an underground holding tank, that is pumped out periodically

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 14-17 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
• Verizon: 20 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 56 ms ping
• AT&T: 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 51 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Pools
• Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Water, water everywhere, but not a beach in sight

If you’re looking for a place to stay so you can visit the Outer Banks, keep looking. If you’re looking for a place to stay with nice waterways and fishing but not an actual beach, this place is good for that. It’s a nice campground with water all around and lots of seasonal/annual residents. There’s one main area where they place the “transients,” and it’s okay. Our site was not huge, but it was large enough for our 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle, with room for our table and chairs on the side. We camped at Twin Lakes RV & Camping Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

The utilities were at the back of the site, and we parked at the front, so I used two 25 foot water hoses and three 10 foot sewer hoses (it’s good to have extras):

The sewer was actually a holding tank, periodically pumped out:

Trash collected from around the site; worse than typical:

A bunch of aerial photos of the campground and environs, via my drone:

Entrance:

The gate requires a magnetic card for access (which is more convenient than a code, as most places do):

Dumpsters near the entrance:

Office:

They had some flooding a while back, so were stil working on restocking the store:

Swimming pool:

Playground:

Bathrooms:

Dog park:

Clubhouse:

Ice and water machine:

Other sites:

Another playground:

Boat storage:

Another pool:

Geese:

There were lots of squirrels roaming around:

We’d be happy to stay here again.

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

TTO (as it’s commonly called) is the flagship Thousand Trails park, with over a thousand sites.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-01-07
• Check out: 2024-01-21
• 14 nights

Weather:

• Mostly cloudy, some rain, mostly drizzle
• High temps ranging between 63-80°F, lows around 35-65°F
• A little wind, gusts to 38 MPH

Noise:

• No road noise
• No train noise
• Some neighbor noise, dogs and kids
• Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings

Site:

• #178, back in, asphalt
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
• Rather unlevel, high on right and front; used hydraulic leveling
• Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by about 18 feet wide
• Passenger side to next site’s driveway about 10 feet
• Driver side to next site’s driveway about 20 feet
• No picnic table (but apparently available upon request)
• No fire pit
• Steep drop-off next to rear of site
• Mostly clean site

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, very inconveniently located; needed to use my extension cord
• 75 PSI water, inconveniently located
• Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 47 Mbps down, 6-14 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 24-30 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
• Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
• Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

The flagship Thousand Trails park

It’s good to know what’s what before showing up at TTO. Half the park is older, with rundown pads and a kind of state park feel, and half the park is newer, like a perfectly manicured RV resort. And if you’re used to the usual Thousand Trails “first come first served” rigamarole, you might be confused by how they do things here. I prefer the orderly check-in process with the rangers knowing what sites are available and guiding you to what’s there. This place is so huge, that you’d be crawling the lanes for hours before finding one on your own. I hate having to find a place at other TT parks. Our site was on the “older” side of the park, backed up to some trees, which was nice. There was a bit of a drop-off at the end of our pad, but it was long enough for our 40′ coach, and we were able to park our truck on the grass alongside it. It was kind of downhill in a hollow, so cell reception was not great but Starlink was just fine. We camped at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

A rather steep drop-off:

I needed to use my power extension cord for the first time ever (other than at Mom’s):

I had fun tossing a ball for this very good boy whenever I went to top up our water tank or dump our waste tanks:

The nearby bathrooms were closed the entire time, but they had portapotties for the few people who needed them (and I did use one once, as we sanitized our fresh water tank while here):

There were a few big storms that rolled through; here are a couple of screenshots of one (with a potential tornado southwest of us!):

Big checkers board:

Rec center:

Mail info; they charge $5 per package, and suggest alternatives:

Group fire pit:

Mini golf:

Pickleball courts:

Boat launch:

Hibiscus flower:

Tortoise:

Grasshopper:

A large crane-like bird:

There were several that roamed the grounds:

Other sites:

One section has buddy sites:

A massive campground. We’ve already been back again since this, and no doubt will be back more times in the future.