Boating

Sun Resorts & Residences Horseshoe Cove

137 RV Sites, 7 Cottages, 1 Apartment

Horseshoe Cove in Bradenton, Florida, offers 138 full-hookup RV sites and eight apartment and cottage units in a waterfront community on the Gulf Coast, with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 44 feet behind a gated entrance. Super, standard, value, and standard pull-through categories join a pool, hot tub, fitness center, boat docks, and library. One hundred thirty-eight sites run in value full hookup, standard full hookup, standard full hookup pull-through, and super full hookup categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with site WiFi, sized to 44 feet, with picnic tables. The value tier keeps a lower-priced option on the table in a market where waterfront pricing runs high; note the 44-foot cap before booking a larger rig. Eight apartments and cottages round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, showers, and recycling handle the practical side. An outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna anchor daily recreation, with a fitness center, recreation center, clubhouse, game room, library, pavilion, and on-site dining besides. Boat docks open the water for boating, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing, with pickleball, sports courts, billiards, shuffleboard, horseshoes, walking trails, and picnicking filling the grounds. There is a large open pet area for long walks, and a state park is nearby. The waterfront setting gives the resort a natural quality uncommon among Florida's densely developed Gulf Coast communities. Winter is decisively the season. Book well ahead for January through March.

from $58/night

River Vista RV Park

57 RV Sites

River Vista RV Park in Ruskin, FL, offers 57 full-hookup back-in RV sites with 30 and 50-amp service and room for rigs up to 40 feet. Every site is a cove full-hookup site carrying water, sewer, electric, and cable TV with site-delivered WiFi and a picnic table. This is a 55+ age-qualified community. Laundry, a dump station, and a recreation center cover the practical side. Pets are welcome. An outdoor pool, sport courts, shuffleboard, horseshoes, a boat ramp, and a fishing pier fill the grounds, with boating, fishing, and planned activities on the water. Ruskin sits along the Little Manatee River between Tampa and Sarasota, and the secluded riverfront setting gives the property a natural character uncommon in age-qualified communities. Rates for monthly and seasonal stays are on the booking page. Confirm the 55+ requirement before reserving, and book early for the winter season.

from $23/night

Timberline Glamping at Sarasota

4 Glamping Sites

Within Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, Florida—on the Sarasota County coast where the scrub-oak landscape, the South Creek paddling corridor, and Lake Osprey's warm-water swimming create the specific habitat mosaic that scrub-jays, gopher tortoises, and the bird diversity of a Florida state park's managed natural environment support in one of the most ecologically significant preserves on the Suncoast—Timberline Glamping at Sarasota provides four luxury safari tent accommodations on 10 acres at the edge of Oscar Scherer's trail network, combining the immersive park experience of a state park stay with the interior comfort of a 320-square-foot furnished tent that includes a king or queen bed configuration, air conditioning, a Keurig coffee maker, and a mini-refrigerator. Rates starting at $152 per night reflect the specific combination of park access and furnished comfort that the property provides in a market where Sarasota hotel rooms at comparable rates offer less natural experience and considerably less square footage of outdoor living. Four safari tents—available in Deluxe configuration (king bed and two sets of bunk beds) and Double configuration (two queen beds)—accommodate single couples, families, and the range of group compositions that a 320-square-foot luxury tent can serve across the Sarasota glamping market. Interior furnishings include floor rugs, multiple lamps, high-quality bed linens, comfortable seating, heating and air conditioning units, electrical outlets for device charging, and the Keurig coffee setup with Timberline-branded mugs that makes morning coffee in a tent genuinely pleasant rather than an expedition logistics problem. Each tent's gravel-base exterior features two hammocks for tree-hung lounging, a charcoal grill with cooking grate, a wood fire pit, a picnic table, and string lights that create the warm evening ambiance that fire pit camping and glamping guests specifically seek. The pet-friendly policy—with an additional fee for furry companions—extends the welcome to the dogs and cats that Sarasota area travelers bring. Oscar Scherer State Park's ecology provides the glamping experience's natural programming. Lake Osprey—warm enough for swimming through the Florida season—provides open-water swimming and fishing access from the park's beach area, with largemouth bass and panfish in the lake's vegetation-lined shallows. South Creek, winding through the park's interior, offers kayak and canoe access (rentals available through the park) through a paddling corridor that the park's scrub-oak forest and freshwater marsh flank with the specific ecological transition that makes Oscar Scherer's natural character distinctive among Sarasota County's preserved areas. Fifteen-plus miles of multi-use trails through the park's pine flatwoods, scrub habitat, and marsh edges provide the hiking and biking access to Oscar Scherer's wildlife—Florida scrub-jays (a threatened species whose oak scrub habitat Oscar Scherer specifically protects), gopher tortoises, sandhill cranes, and the year-round diversity of the Sarasota County bird community. The park's scrub-jay population is accessible for wildlife photography along the scrub-edge trails with a consistency that serious bird photographers travel specifically for. Timberline Glamping at Sarasota operates year-round in Florida's mild Suncoast climate. The park's spring wildflower season, summer lake swimming, and fall bird migration create distinct natural seasons within a year-round operating environment. The Sarasota cultural infrastructure—the Ringling Museum, Sarasota Opera, Siesta Key Beach (routinely ranked among the finest beaches in the United States)—provides the day-trip programming from a glamping base that the park's natural setting complements rather than competes with. Reserve your safari tent, pack a paddling outfit for South Creek, and let Oscar Scherer State Park's scrub and creek ecology deliver what Florida glamping looks like when the nature experience is the point.

from $185 $161/night

Myakka River RV Resort

23 RV Sites, 2 Tent Sites, 21 Park Models

Myakka River RV Resort in North Port, FL, offers 24 full-hookup RV sites, 21 park models, and 2 tent sites, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and room for rigs up to 66 feet. Sites come in three categories — 30/50-amp deluxe waterfront, 30/50-amp preserve, and 30/50-amp pull-thru preserve — all carrying water, sewer, electric, and cable TV with a picnic table. The resort is rated big rig friendly and the 66-foot maximum takes long coaches. Laundry, a bathhouse with showers, a clubhouse, a pavilion, propane fills and exchange, a dump station, and on-site recycling round it out. Pets are welcome, with a dog park. An outdoor pool, walking trails, horseshoes, live music, and boat rentals fill the calendar, with kayaking, fishing, biking, hiking, and birding along the river. Golf and the Gulf beaches are nearby. The resort sits directly on the Myakka River in Sarasota County, where the blackwater flow through flatwood prairie, cypress swamp, and tropical hammock makes this the most wildlife-rich river corridor in southwest Florida. Rates for sites and park models are on the booking page. Deluxe waterfront sites are limited and book earliest for the winter season.

from $50/night

Spanish Main Sun RV Communities

Spanish Main in Thonotosassa, FL, offers full-hookup RV sites carrying water, sewer, and electric. Both pull-thru and back-in layouts are available. The grounds are gated and open all year, with laundry, a bathhouse with showers, a general store, on-site dining, personal mailboxes, and a community fire pit. Cabins are available for guests without a rig. Contact the community for site count, amp service, and maximum rig length, since those specifics aren't published here. The amenity list is resort-scale: an outdoor pool, a hot tub and sauna, a fitness center, a clubhouse, a game room, sport courts, basketball, bocce, shuffleboard, horseshoes, a playground, and a lake and pond for fishing, boating, and birding, with planned activities through the season. The community is pet friendly with dedicated open space for dogs. Thonotosassa sits in Hillsborough County 20 minutes northeast of downtown Tampa, near Lake Thonotosassa's 903 acres and Hillsborough River State Park's cypress swamp and spring-run trails, with I-4 putting both coasts within reach. Golf is nearby. Rates and availability are on the booking page. Winter season books far ahead.

from $60/night

Cross Creek RV Resort

16 RV Sites

Cross Creek RV Resort in Arcadia, Florida, offers 17 RV sites on the Peace River, with cable TV and rigs accepted to 75 feet, open all year behind a gated entrance. An RV Super Site category joins a standard back-in tier, with an outdoor pool, hot tub, fitness center, clubhouse, craft room, library, and bar. Seventeen back-in sites run in RV Super Site and standard back-in categories, carrying cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 75 feet. Confirm hookups and amp service with the resort for your rig when you book. Seventy-five feet accommodates a long coach with a tow — generous for a property this size, and the Super Site category gives the longest rigs a proper home. A laundry handles the practical side. An outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna anchor daily recreation, with a fitness center, recreation center, clubhouse, craft room, library, and bar besides. Sports courts, tennis, pickleball, bocce ball, shuffleboard, billiards, horseshoes, a lake, pond, beach, dog park, and hiking fill the rest, with boating, canoeing, kayaking, water sports, fishing, live music, and planned activities through the season. A golf course is nearby. That amenity list at 17 sites is genuinely remarkable, and it shows in the resort's Good Sam 10/10/10 rating — a perfect score achieved by only six resorts in all of Florida. The property is owned by a small South Florida company rather than a national chain, and the attention shows. DeSoto County's ranch and citrus country puts the Peace River, Arcadia's antique district, and the Gulf beaches within reach. Winter is decisively the season. Book well ahead for January through March.

from $62/night

Cabana Bay RV Resort by Boca Grande

163 RV Sites

Cabana Bay RV Resort by Boca Grande in Placida, FL, offers 163 full-hookup back-in RV sites with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and room for rigs up to 75 feet. Sites come in two straightforward categories, water sites and non-water sites, both carrying water, sewer, and electric with site-delivered WiFi. At 75 feet the sites take long coaches. The grounds are gated, with laundry, a bathhouse with showers, a clubhouse, a library, golf cart rentals, and visiting food trucks. Pets are welcome, with a dog park. An outdoor pool, a hot tub, a spa, a fitness center, sport courts, pickleball, shuffleboard, billiards, a community fire pit, a lake, and walking trails fill the grounds, with access to the Cape Haze Pioneer Trail from the property. Fishing, swimming, and planned activities round it out, and the beach, golf, boating, a water park, and a state park are all nearby. Placida sits on the Charlotte Harbor coast between Cape Haze and the Boca Grande Causeway, in one of the least overdeveloped stretches of the southwest Florida coastline. Rates for water and non-water sites are on the booking page. Water sites are the premium spots and book first.

from $90/night

Shell Creek Sun RV Communities

154 RV Sites, 1 Cottage

Shell Creek in Punta Gorda, Florida, is a 55-plus community offering 154 full-hookup RV sites and a cottage with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 50 feet, open all year. A 24-slip marina, outdoor pool, hot tub, and fitness center sit on the banks of Shell Creek in Charlotte County. One hundred fifty-four standard full-hookup back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp with site WiFi, sized to 50 feet, with picnic tables. The sites are spacious, and the 30- and 50-amp service covers most rigs comfortably. A cottage rounds out the lodging. A laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, restrooms, showers, and recycling handle the practical side. The marina is the distinguishing amenity — 24 slips giving direct waterway access to the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor beyond. An outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna anchor daily recreation, with a fitness center, recreation center, game room, and on-site dining besides. Pickleball, shuffleboard, billiards, horseshoes, a beach, and a dog park fill the grounds, with boating, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and water sports from the creek. Pets are welcome. Shell Creek's freshwater-to-brackish transition supports genuinely varied fishing, and Charlotte Harbor is among the most productive estuaries on the Gulf Coast. Winter is decisively the season for Florida's 55-plus communities. Book well ahead for January through March, when snowbird demand fills the Charlotte County corridor.

from $55/night

Three Lakes Sun RV Communities

Three Lakes in Hudson, Florida, offers full-hookup back-in RV sites on Florida's Nature Coast, with water, sewer, and electric and site WiFi, behind a gated entrance. Three fishing lakes, an outdoor pool, fitness center, clubhouse, library, and pickleball courts serve an all-ages waterfront community in western Pasco County. Sites carry water, sewer, and electric with site WiFi in back-in configurations. Contact the community to confirm amp service and length limits for your rig — the published site records are incomplete. A laundry, restrooms, showers, RV storage, and boat storage handle the practical side. An outdoor pool anchors daily recreation, with a fitness center, clubhouse, game room, library, and community fire pit besides. Three fishing lakes give the property its name and its character — a trio spread across the grounds rather than one shared waterfront, which means you can usually find a quiet bank. Pickleball, shuffleboard, billiards, corn hole, walking trails, hiking, and biking fill the rest, with planned activities through the season and a state park nearby. The all-ages designation is worth noting. Much of the Pasco County market is 55-plus, and this one is not, which broadens who it suits — families and working travelers can stay here when much of the surrounding inventory is closed to them. Hudson sits on the Nature Coast, trading the crowds of Florida's better-known shores for quieter lakeside living. The Gulf beaches are minutes west, Weeki Wachee Springs and its manatees are close, and Tampa is about an hour south. Winter is decisively the season. January through March fills with snowbirds. Book well ahead.

from $64/night

Cypress Campground & RV Park

197 RV Sites

Cypress Campground & RV Park in Winter Haven, Florida, offers 197 full-hookup RV sites 2.3 miles from Legoland Florida, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 45 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. Back-in, deluxe back-in, and premium pull-through categories join a water park, pool, mini-golf, and library behind a gated entrance. One hundred ninety-seven sites run in back-in, deluxe back-in, and premium pull-through categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 45 feet, with picnic tables. A laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, RV storage, and restrooms handle the practical side. A water park and outdoor pool anchor the warm months, with mini-golf, a clubhouse, craft room, library, and casino besides. Pickleball, bocce ball, shuffleboard, basketball, billiards, horseshoes, and sports courts fill the courts, with a pond, biking, boating, water sports, and a playground across the grounds. A golf course is nearby. Pets are welcome. The position is the proposition. Legoland Florida is 2.3 miles away, with Peppa Pig Theme Park adjacent and the broader Polk County attraction landscape south of Orlando within easy reach — close enough that families can return to the campground midday rather than committing to a full park day. Directions from I-4 eastbound out of Tampa: take Exit 45B toward Orlando, then merge onto the Polk Parkway (SR-570 toll east) via Exit 27 toward Lakeland and Winter Haven. Theme park season and winter drive demand. Reserve well ahead for school holidays.

from $65/night

Oak Harbor RV Park

95 RV Sites

Oak Harbor RV Park near Haines City, Florida, is a 55-plus community offering 37 full-hookup RV sites on a 1,000-acre private lake, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 55 feet. Lakefront, lakeside, and canal categories join a standard full-hookup tier, with boat docks, a boat ramp, fishing pier, and recreation center. Thirty-seven back-in sites span canal full hookup, standard full hookup, lakefront full hookup, and lakeside full hookup categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 55 feet, with picnic tables. Three of four categories touch the water, which tells you what the property is built around. A laundry, restrooms, showers, and a general store handle the practical side. Boat docks, a boat ramp, and a fishing pier open the lake for boating and fishing, with a recreation center, library, sports courts, billiards, shuffleboard, and horseshoes filling the rest. Planned activities run through the season. Pets are welcome. A thousand-acre private lake is a substantial asset, and the setting stands in deliberate contrast to the manicured resort developments more commonly associated with Central Florida — this is a quieter, more genuinely residential lakeside community. Polk County sits between Tampa and Orlando, which puts both metros and their attractions within an easy drive while keeping costs and crowds down. Winter is decisively the season in Florida's 55-plus communities. January through March fills with snowbirds. Book well ahead for those months, with far easier availability through the summer.

from $41/night

Joy Bamboo Forest Farm

Joy Bamboo Forest Farm in Sebring, Florida, is a distinctive camping experience in Highlands County surrounded by the lush tropical character of Asper bamboo — a unique Florida farm campground with full-hookup RV sites and the small, intimate atmosphere of a working farm in the Lake Placid and Sebring lake country where the bamboo grove's visual density and its tropical microclimate give the campground an aesthetic identity unlike any other Florida camping destination in the subtropical inland lake region. Sebring's Highlands County position on US-27 south of Lake Wales gives the farm its specific south-central Florida character of an agricultural county known for the Sebring International Raceway, the citrus groves, and the most intact subtropical hardwood hammock landscape in the Florida Highlands' lake district between the Kissimmee Prairie and the Lake Okeechobee watershed. Full-hookup RV sites and small-scale farm campground accommodations in the Asper bamboo grove give Joy Bamboo Forest Farm the distinctive tropical farm camping character of a Highlands County property whose bamboo canopy and the working farm setting give guests the specific natural immersion that the conventional Florida campground's developed landscape does not provide — the bamboo grove's density and the farm's intimate scale give the Sebring campground the curated natural atmosphere of a property that the owner's specific agricultural and horticultural investment in the Asper bamboo has created as a genuinely distinctive camping environment. Pets are welcome. Highlands Hammock State Park, five miles northwest of Sebring on CR-634 in Highlands County, is one of Florida's oldest and most biologically significant state parks — a 9,000-acre old-growth subtropical hardwood hammock, cypress swamp, and pine flatwoods complex that Governor Doyle Carlton dedicated in 1931 as one of Florida's original four state parks. The park's ancient cypress trees (estimated at 1,000 years in the oldest specimens), the 8-mile tram tour through the swamp, and the Spanish moss-draped live oak hammock canopy give Highlands Hammock the specific character of an old-growth Florida swamp forest that the 90 years of state protection have preserved in a landscape where most comparable old-growth hammock has been cleared. Sebring International Raceway, two miles east of downtown Sebring on US-98 in Highlands County, hosts the 12 Hours of Sebring — one of the world's oldest and most prestigious endurance automobile races, held annually in March as the first round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 12 Hours' history since 1952, the challenging airfield course, and the international manufacturer entries from Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette, and Acura give Sebring the specific motorsports heritage of an endurance racing event that only Le Mans exceeds in age and prestige in the global sports car racing calendar. Joy Bamboo Forest Farm serves guests year-round in Highlands County's subtropical Florida climate, where the mild winters from November through March sustain the snowbird and Florida lake country visitor market and the spring and summer months give the bamboo grove's tropical character its most lush and visually dramatic seasonal presence. Lake Placid, 10 miles south of Sebring on US-27 in Highlands County, is the "Caladium Capital of the World" — the source of 95 percent of the caladium bulbs sold in the United States, giving the Peace River watershed's lake community its specific agricultural heritage and the Caladium Festival's late July celebration of the ornamental plant industry. Reserve sites ahead for the 12 Hours of Sebring race week and the winter snowbird season.