Royal Coachmen RV Resort

Horrible map of campground was given at checkin. Copy of many copies I’m guessing but since it’s 3 rings and we were the outer ring, should be easy, wrong!! Said make first right however first turn says”No RV Traffic!”! Next turn is so tight and skinny street that looks like it dead ends (that we learn was our turn) and no sign! Can’t make next turn as its very skinny and finally a street we can barely fit but there’s a fork which way? Thankful for resident who helped us find which way to go. We are just under 39’ and we unhooked tow. Park is mostly long term fifth wheels. I can see surrounded areas for a resident would be nice to ride a bike or golf cart but not built for short term campers like is or large cars and definitely NOT FOR COACHES! I’m really tired of campgrounds calling themselves Motorcoach resorts when they are the farthest thing from it.

$20 price reflects membership. What a wonderful example of what a 5 star RV resort should be. Large spacious sites, large pool with all the right touchiest, activates room, waterfront access for kayaks, and kayak rental and large clean restrooms. Nearby you will find beaches, restaurants, and shopping as well as a host of other activates.

The only down side is Encore as part of Thousand Trails, Trails collection membership is not sold into the membership they are selling. Like many other Encore resorts, over 50% of this park is occupied by yearlong leases... This particular park has over 50% occupied by park models, and then the remaining RV lots many of them are leased on renewing 6 month leases leaving only about 20-30% for Thousand Trails plus Encore members to book. Which is why this is the first time in three years, I’ve been able to get a reservation here.

Everything you need is there to entertain all ages. My husband and boys (12 & 14 year old) did not need to leave the resort and played ping pong, pool and poker then would go swimming all day at the pool, taking walks, canoeing, worked out at the gym and much more. I was able to do the laundry peacefully, caught up with some work in the computer room, and showered in a spacious and clean restrooms. I mostly enjoyed the events the resort provided like movie nights at the pool, popcorn days and live music by the bonfire was more than expected. I do recommend gravel in the RV spots so that the dirt does not get your place messy and puddle when it rains but other than that everything was awesome! Will defiantly come back here again with my family!

I contacted Royal Coachman ahead of time with 1 site request. We like evening shade so we can sit outside. They did an amazing job with site 86. While it did get some evening sun it had some great trees that provided shade.
From the office staff, to the maintenance, and seasonal/annuals everyone was very friendly and helpful. We received lots of great suggestions for dining, activities, and sites to see.
The facilities including the pool, laundry, dog park, and bathrooms are kept clean and well maintained. The fitness room is one of the best I’ve seen in any Encore park.
Park models are well cared for. Even the older models appear to be very well maintained. You can tell that the people who are long term take great pride in their park.
There is an amazing walking/biking trail behind the RV Resort. In total it is over 20 miles and will take you very near to or to Venice, the beaches, dining, shopping and a state park.
CONS: It would be nice if there was direct access to the The Legacy Trail. They could put in a gate with code access. The trail is less than 12 feet directly behind the back fence.
They need a fountain or spray feature in the pool to circulate and cool the water. In June the water was already tepid like warm bath water. Not so refreshing as it could have been.
Verizon 6.83 download 10.2 upload
Tmobile 82.0 download 31.7 upload

Campground Name: Royal Coachman RV Resort
Location: Nokomis, FL
Overall Campground Rating (1-5): 2
Maneuverability*: Very difficult to maneuver through the park. Roads are two-way but only a single width. If someone is coming the other way you must find a place to pull off the road into someone’s site or the grass. Even golf carts have to pull off.
Campground Notes: This campground probably would have gotten a 5 if it were easier to get around and if we did not have issues with Mary in the office regarding our mail.

Site #: 53
Site Rating (1-5): 3
Site Notes: Very nice site. We had full hookups with 50 amp electric. It included a picnic table but no fire ring. The only negative was the fulltime site behind ours had a shed on the back of their site and their ground mat and picnic table were in our site.

Amenity Rating (1-5): 4
Amenity Notes: Very nice pool. Laundry was cheap, big, and nice. Kayaks available for $5 for a few hours. Mini-golf was nice but no playground. Nice indoor amenities like a library and sitting area that were open during Covid-19.

Reason for camping here: Good reviews and location
Miscellaneous Notes: Local beach, Nokomis Beach, has lots of shells which is interesting but you need to keep your flip-flops on. Close to the amazing Siesta Key beach and the Manatee Public Beach on Anna Maria Island. Shamrock Park has an awesome playground (with an elevator!) and has some great biking paths. Visited the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium which is always good and honors a 50% AZA discount.

Dates Stayed: 12 days – 12/20/2020 thru 01/01/2021
Price Paid: $307.33 with Thousand Trails membership
Weather: Christmas Day was cold but other than that it was in the 70s and sunny
Verizon Cell Quality: 13.5Mb/s download, 7.2 Mb/s upload
T-Mobile/Sprint Cell Quality: 22.3 Mb/s download, 15.9 Mb/s upload
Mail: So big issues with mail at this campground. Some of it is USPS’s fault but mostly I blame Mary in the front office. Mail is sent directly to your site unless you are an annual resident at the campground. My parent’s wanted to send us a Christmas present but couldn’t ship it until we had checked in and had our site number. When we checked in and got our site number, we gave my mom the number and she sent us the package the next day, the 21st, 3-day priority mail. It should have been delivered the 24th, Christmas Eve, and predictably it was delayed until the Monday the 28th. On Monday the 28th USPS updated the tracking information saying it was currently in Newark, NJ (so in seven days it had traveled 50 miles). On the 31st, the day before we were checking out, USPS hadn’t had any further updates so I went to the office and spoke with Mary asking if she could leave a note or message with the people checking in to our site that if our package arrived to bring it to the front office so we could drive over and pick it up. Mary very firmly said no, that she wouldn’t bother the next guests with our issue. At this point my Mom filed a package intercept so that it would be held at the local post office instead of being delivered, for an additional fee of ~$50. A few days later the USPS returned her money and said that an intercept was not possible. At this point we figured the package was lost. Around the 13th of January my Mom started the process for a lost package. Surprisingly on the 15th of January I received a text message from the USPS that the package had been delivered. I called the office and Mary picked up. I told her that the package had been delivered and I wanted to come and pick it up. She was confused and said she would not hold it at the office and that it would be delivered to our site. When I told her we were no longer staying there she said she would refuse delivery and return it to sender when it arrived. Then I said it’s already there, having been delivered, in her office. She was pretty upset at this point and given no other option to make our lives more difficult finally agreed that if we made it there by 4:30 we could pick it up, otherwise she would return it to sender the next morning when USPS arrived to drop off the mail. This call took place around 11:45AM and I was Homestead, FL. So I dropped everything, drove 4 hours up to Royal Coachman, walked in the office and picked up my package, and drove 4 hours home. Because of this whole incident with Mary and her terrible and uncaring customer service, we will never stay at Royal Coachman again.

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’.
Verizon - two Google Pixel 2 XL on Verizon’s ‘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.
T-Mobile/Sprint – Alcatel Linkzone 2 on unlimited Calyx Institute Sprint/T-Mobile plan.
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/).

We do really love this park. It's well kept and has a lot of tree coverage. We like it because they sort of fit the sites in around the trees vs. the racked and stacked feel of many RV parks. But this means that your site may be funky shaped. Our last one #131 was very narrow at the front for parking but then got wider as it got deeper. A palm tree blocked our rear awning from being usable, though.

RV spots are a mix of park models and RV spots. The actual RV spot is all dirt with a little grass. There are no pads and getting situated on your site is sort of a, "I guess this'll do."

It is not a place that I would want to arrive in the dark and try to get parked. And utilities can be weirdly laid out, also. I needed 25' of sewer hose and needed my power cord's extension.

The office and pool areas are beautiful. There are a ton of amenities and in the winter snowbird months, lots of activities. But, like mentioned, getting a space here in Jan-Mar can be nearly impossible. On Christmas and New Years, they've had parties/dances (though we haven't attended).

There is only 1 bathhouse at the center of the RV area. It's a bit dingy but not bad.

The staff is usually friendly, though they have off days like anyone else. We have had a "not great" experience with 2 different people there but usually just once per year. We've never had any kind of negativity to us having kids with the older folks.

You do need to drive 2-3 miles in either direction for any kind of stores. But there are a ton of offerings nearby.

Cell phone coverage is fine, but like most Florida snowbird locations- the towers get overloaded come November/December and speeds aren't great. Verizon works better than AT&T.

Note, our rate is a monthly rate of $1,075. We didn't get charged electric last year though they said we would and they didn't even bring it up this year. The park also participates in the Trails Collection program of Thousand Trails and is $20/night for up to 2 weeks.

Royal coachman is primarily an in season rv resort. Tennis club, pickleball, great heated pool, lots of entertainment and regular parties are all part of RCR. 15 to 30 minutes to gulf beaches including Siesta key, one of the top 5 beaches in the world. Shopping and restaurants are also all around.
You will be lucky to get a camping spot from December to March as it is usually sold out. We started as campers here and then bought a park model, absolutely no regrets!!!

We were on a random tour of Florida and decided that the Venice area was one stop we wanted to make, the problem was we could not get into any state park (our preference) so we found Royal Coachman RV Resort and the price seemed decent for a resort, $50 per night.

We arrived and were initially pleasantly impressed. The front was nice and the pool looked good. After walking in and trying to get someone to help us (they were not busy, the guy at the front desk looked busy, he pointed me to the person in the office "who could help me". The guy in the office took my money and give me details about the site location. We were put in site #1, who he told me many people don't like..........not sure why he share that.

After paying and getting directions we drove to site #1, which we drove by accidentally because it is located between two mobile home trailers that are there full time. The trailers are nice but it was an odd location. After unhooking the travel trailer, setting up the levelers, getting everything set up (in the hot humid weather) we could not get the electrical to work. I even thought I may have blown a fuse so I went into the camper and open up the electrical panel looking for a bad fuse. After looking at all the potential issues I realized that there was no power to the box (the electrical box is a metered box that was a bit confusing, it looked like it was working but in the end was not. I then drove back up front with my unhooked truck and found the office closed (it was now 5:05pm and no one was to be found. I hunted for a while and found a maintenance worker (Donald) who looked like he was about to check out.

Donald ended up going back and looking at the issue. He realized that the previous person who was there (for an extended time, had the electrical in their name and had it turned off). This place is 98% snow birds with either a perm mobile home or camper. It looks like most spend the season and then leave in May to go back home. Donald tried a few other ways to get electrical without any success. He then left to see if he could get the electrical turned on and then came back to let us know he was not able to do so. He offered a few other spots and helped us tear down camp, hook up the trailer and move to another location. We eventually found another location and set up camp again, it was not a fun experience. Donald was VERY nice and told us that he would speak to the front desk to take care of us.

We spent two days at this "resort" and can tell you that is is not a resort, it is a tightly packed campground with very sad, dirty showers. It is really a group gathering place for older snowbirds that are looking for a decent place at a decent rate. There were no campfire rings, I was a bit sad. It was located 5 miles away from Venice beach Florida which we loved very much. There is not much close to the campground, you really have to drive into town a few miles away to get food or anything.

We stayed our two nights and left to get to our next destination. We never heard from anyone, they never "took care of us". I did get a survey via email a day after we left, I was honest and filled it out. The manager emailed me explaining why there was an issue and apologizing.

I would suggest that is you want to stay in the Venice area that you book the state park in advance. Avoid this "resort" or the others we drove by (Pines RV, looked like a tightly packed low end trailer park).