We stayed at Encore Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina, in Ohio Key, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A large park in the Florida Keys.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-02-04
• Check out: 2024-02-18
• 14 nights

Weather:

• Partly cloudy; rainy in the first couple of days
• High temps 66-76°F, lows around 61-74°F
• Windy most days, gusts to 32 MPH

Noise:

• Significant highway noise
• No train noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #406, front in, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
• Very level; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel site about 50 feet long by about 40 feet wide
• Picnic table on gravel area
• No fire pit
• A bunch of small bottlecap-sized garbage on site

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, inconveniently located on passenger side (when fronted in)
• 35 PSI water, inconveniently located on passenger side
• Loose sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2-3 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 40-50 Mbps down, 40-50 Mbps up, 22 ms ping
• AT&T: 830 Mbps down, 70 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
• Verizon: 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Pool
• Swimming beach
• Marina with kayak etc rental
• Package delivery to office
• Garbage dumpsters
• Frequent food trucks and other vendors onsite

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Waterfront and road noise

We have a Thousand Trails Adventure membership, but that did not help us get a reservation here at all. Considering how hard it is to get a reservation in the Keys, we bit the bullet and paid retail for a two-week stay in a waterfront site that was the most expensive site we’d ever booked. I should point out that site 406 really shouldn’t be considered a “Premium waterfront” site. There is a peep of the water through the mangroves, but nothing like a panoramic view. However, we enjoyed watching the water and the ibises hunting in the mangroves from our front window, so I’ll let it slide.

While the peek of the water was nice, the constant highway noise was not. No matter where you are in the park, there is a constant hum of the Overseas Highway, although it’s somewhat reduced on the far edge and towards the marina.

The park has definite drainage issues. We arrived after a major thunderstorm swept through the Keys and there was a large lake at the entrance and in several other places around the park, including the road our site was on. They had pumps going to try and divert the worst of it out to sea, but it took days to completely dry up.

They allow motorhomes to front-in at the waterfront sites, which is nice even though the hookups were then on the wrong side of the coach. Luckily, we have pretty long power cables and hoses, so we’re able to reach across the nice wide site.

One downside of the waterfront site is that people think it’s okay to walk through your site on their way to the beach. It is not.

There are lots of activities and a robust social scene if you’re into that. We liked that it was convenient to everything we wanted to do in the Keys, but $300/night would be a dealbreaker if we wanted to visit the Keys again. We camped at Encore Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our power and water hookups were on the passenger side, since we fronted in. Fortunately we have a long power cord and hoses, so it wasn’t a problem (I didn’t even need to use my power extension cord).

I flew my drone for some aerial views; this first one is above our site:

Entrance sign:

Direction sign:

Rental golf carts:

Rental Slingshot:

Mail room; quite well organized. People go in to claim their own packages:

They regularly had food vendors onsite:

Birds in front of our site:

Our coach next to a rental tiny home:

More tiny homes:

Rental trailers:

Other sites:

Dog park:

Swimming pool:

Marina:

Fish in the marina:

Sunset Pier, with a swimming area and fishing:

People checking out a grounded boat:

Beach access down from our site:

An old bridge, now a walking path:

The old bridge next to the newer Overseas Highway bridge:

A glimpse of our coach from the water:

A large, nice RV park. It would have been nicer if we could have stayed for free via our Thousand Trails membership, but the premium site was nicer.

We stayed at Mt Hood RV & Camping Resort in Welches, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our second visit to this nice Thousand Trails Encore park; we stayed here last year in late July.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-06-30
• Check out: 2023-07-09
• 9 nights

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temps ranging between 74-90°F, lows around 50-61°F
• No significant wind

Noise:

• No road noise
• No train noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• Hemlock Meadows #97, back in, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad; parked beside coach (on gravel)
• Unlevel; used blocks on the front jacks
• Fairly large site: gravel about 50 feet long by about 22 feet wide, plus about 20 feet wide weedy bark area
• Picnic table and fire pit on gravel

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 55 PSI water, conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, a little inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 22-83 Mbps down, 5-11 Mbps up, 35-110 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 11 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
• Verizon: 10-13 Mbps down, 5-8 Mbps up, 150 ms ping
• AT&T: 6-8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 90 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Closed indoor pool
• Onsite restaurant

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Excellent campground near Mt Hood

This was our second stay here, and still really love it. We were originally assigned a site in the Vine Maple Loop that would have been too small for us, so we asked if there were any open sites in the Hemlock Meadows section, which is a more open area with bigger sites. The helpful staff member at the front gate gave us a couple of choices and told us to let her know which one we picked. Seeing as it was the weekend of the 4th of July, we were so relieved that there was availability. We picked site 97, which was on a corner and gave us a large living area backing onto trees, with a good view of the sky for the Starlink. On a side note: We had dinner at the Dragonfly Cafe, which has really good food, but they seemed to be having some massive staffing issues. It took nearly 2 hours from ordering to checkout, and I’m pretty sure the one and only waitress walked off the job while we were eating as the one and only cook had to act as cashier. We never went back, fearing a repeat, which is a shame because I’d been dreaming of their eggs benedict for the past year. We camped at Mt Hood Village RV Resort in a Motorhome.

The campground map:

Interactive map:

Our site was nice and spacious, and we made use of our new flagpole for the Starlink dish (and you may notice something different about our truck; more on that on Monday):

Steak and potato salad, watching a Mariners baseball game on the outside TV from the tent:

 

Unlike normal Thousand Trails parks, Encore ones assign sites. We had originally been assigned a different site, but asked when checking in if they had other options, since we thought this wouldn’t fit us; they agreed it wouldn’t be a good fit.

Looking at it later (the left one in the following picture), we were definitely right to change; it was narrow and very sloped:

The main plaza area, with the (closed) indoor pool, rec center, offices, and cafe:

We enjoy when there’s an onsite restaurant; this campground has the Dragonfly Cafe:

We went there for dinner on our first evening (always nice not having to cook on a travel day). Which was a rather drama-filled experience; we waited over an hour for our food, then the server walked out partway through, and the cook had to come out and accept payment from us and others. It was tasty, though; burger for me:

Prime rib for Jenn:

Laundry:

Other sites in the Hemlock Meadows loop:

See our previous visit for lots more pictures of other loops.

We enjoyed our stay here, and would definitely stay again in the future.