Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina

we stayed 5 nights in site #423 waterfront site on the Gulf. We had beautiful sunsets from our site. The staff was so nice and very helpful. We have a 22’ Travel trailer and needed to borrow additional sewer hoses. The site we were in requires more then 2 so we had to borrow some. They could have put us in a different site yet we didn’t want to move.
There is a pool, 2 swim areas one has a nice swim beach. There is a marina which the side of it near site 423 has so much marine life. Tarpon, Nurse Sharks, Grouper, reef fish and Manatees. I walked over many times each day to see what was there. Lots of Iguanas too. There is corn hole, horseshoes, a game room, basket ball and volleyball. There is a gas station and small store too.

Lots of shore birds, it’s a sanctuary there near the dock. Green Herons, Egrets, Blue Herons, Ibis, and much more.

Close by on Marathon there is plenty of good places to eat. Porky’s, Keys Fishery Raw bar, El Ninas and more. There are 2 grocery stores, and anything you need shopping.

Heading towards Big Pine Key Bahia Honda State park is amazing and has a beautiful swim beaches. 3 on the Atlantic side and one where the Gulf and the Atlantic meet. The old Flagler bridge is a big part of history in the keys.

Big Pine Key has the No Name Pub (good pizza) and Trianos Taco truck by far the best Tacos ever. Open Mon-Thurs till 5. The small key deer are all over Big Pine Key. There is a Winn Dixie, 2 hardware stores, some shops, and pharmacy stores.

We are not a member of Thousand Trails so we paid high prices to camp. The price doubled in the pats few years.

Sunshine Key RV Resort and Marina

If you are looking for a park in the Florida Keys that is non-stop party time, then Sunshine Key RV Resort is the place for you.  The people in the office and the parkers on the carts were extremely nice.  Standard Spots maintain about 12 - 15 feel between rigs.  We did not have room to park our Dually that pulled our 5th wheel.  The neighbors on left and right use every inch of their site with Boats, tents, chairs, tables, grills, multiple golf carts, trailers, right up the line on the road or past.  It was very hard to pull out of the spot.  There is no speed limit in the park because most carts are going 40 or higher. 
 
They do have a guard at the gates, but they let rigs set up at all hours of the night.  We had people setting up right next to us from 11-1 at night.  No sleep that night.  If you walk around the island, the water has a strong stench to it.  The roads are just a foot on each side of the Fifth Wheel.  Pretty much all the roads are gravel, and the sites are too.  The dog park had two very large shipping containers in it.  I have to say they do have a nice marina.  A lot of the people come from Miami and stay from Thursday to Sunday, every weekend and leave all their stuff.  During the weeks get ready for loud music into the wee hours of the morning.  We asked to be moved and they said they couldn't accommodate us.  After 13 days into our 21 days stay, we just left.
 
The root cause of this resort is a lack of employee that are willing to enforce the rules they have in place.

We have visited friends at this RV resort over the years, but December of 2021 was the first time we were able to enjoy a full two week long stay here in our RV. We are writing a short review here, and have a much more thorough review on our website at RVLove.com (link below)

Hurricane Irma damaged this park severely a few years prior, which closed the park for one season, but also allowed the opportunity to make some great improvements to the resort. Being located on Big Pine Key, it is very close to the middle of the Florida keys which makes it a great base for exploring all of the keys. But we imagine that many guests spend the majority of their time in the resort itself, especially if they are paying full retail prices which are over $200/night, especially for the waterfront sites. These prices are pretty high for RV resorts, but are are not uncommon prices in the Florida Keys. Worth noting, they also have tiny homes, and RVs that you can rent if you don't have your own RV.

Thankfully we have a Thousand Trails membership with Trails Collection add-on which allows us to stay here for $20/night. You can also learn more about Thousand trails memberships at our website.

The resort is super easy to access, and most of the sites are very level being an island at sea level. Some sites are very close together, but the pull through sites in the section we were in were much more roomy by comparison. It helped that we were in a smaller RV (a 25 foot motorhome) on this trip. Sites are composed of small white gravel, and all appear to be full hook up. There are multiple bath houses/restrooms, and has very nice amenities in the center area. Sports courts and playgrounds were frequently active, and the social calendar seemed well attended during our stay as well.

If you have a boat or other watercraft, this RV resort also has a boat launch and marina, and you can launch paddle boards right from the beach. There is also a fishing area.

Being next to the overseas highway, there is a little road noise if parked on that side of the park, but elsewhere in the park the road noise is subtle and overridden by other sounds. Cell phone coverage is pretty poor here. Our Verizon didn't work, but we had one bar of T-Mobile. Campground wifi, including the paid service, didn't work well for us, but we heard from others that had a better experience.

Overall, we were very happy with our stay. The staff were excellent, the weather and location were amazing, and with only paying $20/night to stay here, it was amazing value for us.

Again, we have much more detailed information available on our website if you want to learn more. But wanted to be sure to leave a review here for others to enjoy and learn from.

https://rvlove.com/rv-camping/review-sunshine-key-rv-resort-and-marina/

Thank you,
Marc and Julie

Sunshine Key RV Resort in the Florida Keys exceeded our expectations. In this video, we provide a walking tour of Sunshine Key RV Resort Florida. Sunshine Key RV Resort is a premier RV destination and is part of the Trails Collection under the Thousand Trails umbrella. We stayed here for $20 per night using our Thousand Trails Membership with the Trails Collection Plus. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 2.14 Mbps download speed and 0.54 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 5.69 Mbps download speed and 1.12 Mbps upload speed. Verizon cellular service clocked was one bar LTE and a speed test failed due to poor connectivity.

Of the two Trails Collection campgrounds (Thousand Trails) in the Florida Keys, this would be my second choice, but it is still phenomenal and we’ve stayed a couple times over the years and will continue to return. You can’t beat the price if you are a member and the park is only about five minutes away from Bahia Honda State Park.

Main reason why it’s number 2 in my opinion, but still deserves 5 stars- the swim area at the beach is pretty shallow and the bottom is murky (Fiesta Key has a deep swim area with a sea wall at the beach). Fiesta Key also has trash pickup from your site which is a nice perk that isn’t offered at Sunshine.

We really enjoy staying here to go down to Key West and to explore the nearby area. The campsites are pretty big and all of the staff was super friendly. We also enjoyed the outdoor movie night during our stay. The campground has a laundromat that takes credit cards (super convenient).

AT&T plus the cell booster was how we stayed connected/worked remotely while here. Verizon did work, but upload was so slow and wasn’t sufficient for video conferencing.

We camped November 13-27.

We're a family of 5 with two pups and we travel full-time. It's the first time we had been in the keys with the RV and weren't sure what to expect. We made the trip on a whim when we ran into some friends headed down just a few days before. Check in was a breeze and staff was all exceptionally friendly. The gate is manner 24/7 which is nice because you are right off the highway. We stayed in the fall and it was perfect because the park wasn't busy! Check-in was a breeze and they even moved us to be closer to our friends.

Beaches are full of sea grass and natural and not what many people expect, but we loved exploring them. There's also a great fishing pier and you can swim there, but the current is pretty gnarly and I personally wouldn't, especially with young kids.

The park offers boat tours, fishing trips, and kayak rentals to guests and you book through the bate shop. The marina is AMAZING! We were told by many in the area that it's one of the best in the keys because of it's natural flow. We saw manatees, sharks, tarpon, barracudas, a dolphin, parrot fish, and dozens of others we couldn't name. Our family fished from the pier many days and nights and had a blast. Sunsets were also amazing from the pier.

The shower houses we some of the cleanest we've ever been in and the park was extremely clean and well kept. You are just off the highway so there is road noise and we were on that side of the park, but it wasn't super loud.

We were about a half hour from Key West and made two day trips down as well as close to Bahia Honda State Park and we made a couple trips there too.

We would love a seasonal or monthly site at the park. It was wonderful!

** We are TT members with the TC add on so our site was $20 plus taxes each night.

** The data was a bit slow to work remotely, but we plugged in the WeBoost and we had no issues. We then had 4 bars on both Verizon and Sprint.

Sunshine Key camping was a unique experience. The key was the campground. Our campsite was 133, and we paid $ 135/night. The site is tight! I mean, really close. We have a class C measuring 32 ft 11 inches and 8 ft 3 inches before slides are out. Fortunately, on day 2 our one neighbor left, allowing us some breathing room. Other family members traveling with us had a class A, so the closeness on that side was just fine.

The park is dog friendly, much more than the reviews led us to believe. In fact, I would say nearly 50% of the guests had at least 1 dog. The sites are very close and do not allow much space between them. If you have dogs that spook easily, this might be an issue. We let the dogs swim where you launch kayaks and took them to sombrero beach to swim, as there are no dogs allowed at the campground beach area. The negative here with dogs is that if your site is in the middle of the park, you might have a LONG walk to a grassy area for your dog to relieve him or herself. There was no grass on the interior sites. This large campground would be nice if there were additional dog areas. FYI there are nearby restaurants that allow you to bring your well-behaved dogs, even in Key West.

Our combined group of 4 teenagers was never bored. A rental company has paddleboards, kayaks, and bikes to rent, though; we did not use any of the rentals as we brought our kayaks. There is a ton for children and teens to do -basketball, volleyball, bean bags, and swimming at the pool.
There are gorgeous sunsets at night and plenty of room to walk around the park. The camp store location is outside of the park at the gas station. The store, as many are, was a bit pricey, but they had all of the necessities and more. They also fill propane there. Marathon is about 15 minutes away to shop or grab a bite to eat. There is a definite missed opportunity by the campground not having an on-site restaurant like their sister property Fiesta Key.

Cellular service and WIFI were terrible even using our Skyroam device and service. My son had to finish college homework, so working in the common areas wasn't an option. We struggled with our service.

Sunshine Key RV Resort is the only private land on Ohio Key. It's just you and 500 other RVs in a pea-gravel parking lot. And it's the Keys so it is wonderful. If you need to get away from the masses you can just walk under the bridge to the other side of the Key which is a National Wildlife Refuge. There you can wade out in the water to see cowfish, conch, urchins, nurse sharks, and other sea life. Maybe even catch a few fish. This is what makes the park such a nice destination.

The sites themselves vary in size. Some are a bit narrow while others are very wide. We were happy with the size of our site as we could fit our 12-foot popup shelter next to the RV, meaning the site was about 22 feet wide. This was a bonus because our investigations of other parks in the Keys indicated that most were much tighter. The staff did a good job of keeping the park looking good and were all friendly and helpful. And a particular shout-out to their mail processing service. No problems having packages delivered here. We really appreciated that.

The comments regarding mobile coverage are correct. Both AT&T and Verizon had weak signals without the booster. With the directional antenna and booster we had no problems with reception. However, Verizon was heavily congested. At 5am I was able to consistently get 35Mbps downstream. At 9am, 2Mbps was more common. Still usable however. The park does have free cable, so I did not notice any congestion in the evening from streamers. Also, Comcast does sell cable modem service in the park, though it is not cost effective for shorter stays.