RVing the Florida Keys

A First-Timer’s Guide to the Florida Keys

Our Bucket-List RV Trip, What We Loved, and What We’d Do Differently

We just finished our dream trip. Sun-tanned skin, 10 days in the Florida Keys, man we feel bliss oozing out of every pore of our bodies! 🤩

BUT... WHY DID IT TAKE US SO LONG TO TAKE THIS TRIP?

For us, planning a trip to the Florida Keys felt… overwhelming. There are dozens of islands, endless RV resort options, and a lot of hype. Researching would leave us thinking... "yeah is that true or are they exaggerating?" And with so many options, we faced decision fatigue.

As many of you know, we travel the USA all year long competing in professional fishing tournaments. Our travels have taken us to 32 states over the last 5 years and when the first event of the 2026 tournament schedule was slated for Florida, we knew this was the time to cross off that bucket list trip. We've been having a lot of discussions in our house about how precious time is and just how short this life can be. We've experienced the loss of some friends and colleagues this year and we want to be able to look back and say "I CANNOT BELIEVE WE DID THAT"... instead of "I wish we would have." So from us, our advice is ...take the trip.. while you can... while you're able...

Now let's get to this trip! It exceeded my expectations! And we want to prepare your mind to have the right expectations. Maybe through this blog, you'll see exactly what the Florida Keys offers RVers. So we’re sharing exactly how we planned our Keys RV itinerary, where we stayed, what we loved, and what we honestly wouldn’t do again—so you can plan with confidence.

Here are our TOP 10 TIPS from our KEYS ADVENTURE:

1.The Route: We dropped our bass boat and the Tundra that tows it at a friend's house

in Okeechobee so we could be in one vehicle together to experience the drive. AND OH MY GOSH... WOW! But first, the route we took from Central Florida was a tad different than what the Maps App recommended. We opted to take a more rural route, rather than face the possible traffic on I-95 through West Palm, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, etc.

1. 

   From Okeechobee, we took Hwy 98 which went southeast alongside Lake Okeechobee, then we hopped on Highway 27 and headed south. You'll see miles and miles of sugar cane farms. There are tons of commercial vehicles and 18 wheelers so it's totally safe for RVs.

   
   

   Also, at the bottom of this route (before you get on legendary Highway 1, there's one last stop for diesel with the Open Roads Fuel Card. It's a Racetrac and saved us about 35 cents a gallon and gave us a chance to fill up before we hit the Keys.

   If you dont have Open Roads, it's a fleet fuel card for RVers. Here is a link to it. No monthly cost and saves us over $1,000 in fuel costs each year.

   
   
   
   
   
   

2.Duration of Stay: When this trip landed squarely on our bucket list for this year, we knew we wanted to do it right—not rushed, not chaotic. We alloted 9 days and if I were being honest, we would want to stay longer next time. If you want to explore all the Keys (from Key Largo to Key West), it's quite a bit of driving and one of the BEST parts of our trip was RELAXING... so our advice is designate days for exploring and days for chilling and enjoying the resort.

3. Choosing a Resort based on Location: There are so many resorts to choose from, but we had points of interest in the upper keys and also in the lower keys that we wanted to experience. So, we opted to spend half of the time at a RV Resort in the upper region and the other half of our trip at a highly recommended resort in the lower Keys. WHY? Did you know that it takes approximately 2 hours one way to get from Key Largo to Key West? So we opted to savor each region without all the driving back and forth eating up our time.

4.Resort Review #1:Fiesta Key RV Resort: Pulling into this resort was so exciting. Here's a video of what that looked like: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRzPjDokd5f/. It was so nice to be welcomed in our truck at the gate for checkin. The staff that escorts you to your site were so helpful. With all RV Resorts, there are a variety of sites that have different amenities, views, and spaces so pick based on what experience you want to have. We had an Elite Waterfront near Sunset Point.

The 'beach area' with the lounge chairs was by far our favorite spot at this resort. We spent hours there everyday - talking, relaxing, reading, playing music... just BEing! It has umbrella shades and palm trees so if you want to be out of the sun you can. We loved that it had a VAST view of the crystal blue waters.

This area is right next to the elevated pool which gave some insane views of the water.

And All the birds, different species of fish in the crystal clear waters, and the lizards were so fun to watch. The resort even hosted a Pet Pawty and gave treats and tennis balls to all the pups.

If you are bringing your boat, the slips they have at the resort are wonderful. There is even a resort/marina store that sells baits along with other essentials. I do wish we would have packed an outdoor rug. There isn't grass at these sites.. it's rock so walking barefoot at any time wasn't an option. ;) And if you have pups, you may want to plan your site according to where you want to walk your pups with grass if they don't like to potty on the rocks.

We also got quite a dolphin show a few times. Be sure to check out our REELS for that.

5. Now, let's move further south to Resort #2: Sunshine Key RV Resort

I don't like to pick favorites, but I'm going to have a hard time NOT saying that this might be the best RV SITE in all of the Keys under $250. Check it out here:

THE SITE: 🤩

This is a premium waterfront site. As I mentioned above, nearly every RV resort has different site stypes (interior, corner, waterfront, etc) and the site you pick definitely influences your view and experience. When we travel for work nearly 8 months a year, we penny pinch at most resorts, but for this experience, we wanted it to live up to our bucket list dreams. AND the GREAT NEWS is that they offer deals OFTEN on their website. Like right now, as I type this on Dec 15, they have a 50% OFF WEEKLY STAYS. Here is their website.

The actual site we stayed on is site 455 and it was magnificent. There is only one more site past it (to the right in this photo), but it is a site intended for a smaller rig and wasn't booked while we were there which made our site feel even larger and more private. I did take a video of other Elite Waterfront Sites so if you would like that, drop a comment and I can send it your way. There are about 15 other sites that I would love to book there to have that waterfront experience.

There are not many sites in the Keys were you have a gradual slope/beach to the water. It is different than typcial beaches in Florida. But this site did have a gradual slope so we could walk out and enjoy the water at our site.

This site we stayed on is near the boat docks area, the fishing pier and cleaning station is just down the way. The staff kept the area super clean and changed out the trash cans often so that was wonderful. During the evening times, all the fishermen would harvest their catches from the day so it was fun to walk over and visit and see their lobster and fish. By 8pm (dark) that was all over and there didn't seem to be people coming and going.

THE RESORT:

Our pups loved the dog play area! We loved the putting greens (we golf and dont play

pickleball but they had those courts too, lol). They also had a playground, basketball court, and soccer area for kiddos. The pool area had a great tropical vibe with tropical landscaping which allowed shade for those who wanted it. But again, it was really hard to leave our site!

This is literally right behind the camper. As water levels fluctuate throughout the day, you can move your chair around. It was my favorite place to relax and read. If you notice, the placement of this site and the sun gives you so much afternoon shade when you are enjoying the water.

Picture yourself here ❤️ Now go book that bucket list trip!

6.Our favorite EATS:

I mean is it even vacation if the whole day isn't thinking about which meal are we eating today? Here are our TOP EATS and places we will definitely eat again:

Irie Island Eats - my personal favorite of the whole trip! The Tropical Tuna Poke Bowl was INSANE!!!!!! Fresh ingredients and amazing flavors. I am still thinking about it. Darold had their legendary ribs and there was NOTHING left!

The Square Grouper - I had the butterflied fish and it was DIVINE! Darold had the fried grouper.

Eaton Street Seafood Market - the LOBSTER rol!

Garbo's Grill - Korean beef tacos!

Our favorite key lime pie slice was at Kermit's.

Forks & Stix - D had the Korean Burger and truly felt it was a top 5 burger! I had a bite and it was so interesting and delicious.

7.Key West: Take this with a grain of salt—maybe we’re just getting older, or maybe we’re more Keys people than Key West people—but it wasn’t our favorite part of the trip. Between the golf cart rentals, crazy expensive parking fees, and a lot of walking, it felt more hectic (and expensive) than the rest of the Keys, even though it was very clean and we felt completely safe. That said, the food was absolutely incredible and alone makes Key West worth at least a day trip. It also RAINED on us this day so that probably added to the frustration of trying to navigate around in a golf cart and walk and getting soaked. We also got a ticket (we had out receipt inside the window of the cart bc it was raining) so that was another $55! I'm sure that plays a role in this too 😂

8.Beaches: The Florida Keys aren’t a traditional beach destination like Destin or Sarasota. Instead of wide sandy beaches, they offer clear water, reefs, and island-style shorelines that are perfect for snorkeling, boating, and soaking in the laid-back Keys atmosphere.

The clear, turquoise water is breathtaking! And when you want to have a more beach-like experience, you can head over to a few of the sandy beaches like at Bahia Honda State Park. It was right across the road from Sunshine Key RV Resort! It cost us $9 for the DAY to enjoy the beach and water. It was so fun and convenient to hop over there for a few hours and be able to go back to the RV to refresh, eat, or replenish.

9.What we wished we would have done!

Now here are a few things we wish we would have done and will definitely do next time.

Take a charter for a sandbar trip. Once we saw how great our resort was at Sunshine Key, we just didn't want to leave, lol. AND, we have two pups and didn't feel comfortable leaving them for 6+ hours so we tabled it, but will definitely do it next time just to experience it.

One day we happened upon a fresh fish market with lobster. They have a sign by the road "Lobster for $9.99 a pound". We got two big tails and some scallops and cooked dinner one night and we really regret not going back to that market and stocking up at that amazing price. I mean look at how great they were for $11 - https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FKWWnp5RN/

We also wished we would have experienced fishing for them.

The last two things is we will play a round of golf at Key West Country Club. Sunshine Key RV Resort had a coupon for a $50 round. We just didn't feel like we had half a day to do this once we saw the course.

And finally, WE WOULD HAVE STAYED LONGER! :)

10.Budgeting: This is a bucket list trip. Nice hotel rooms here go for $500+ a night. So expect to pay a bit more for this RV trip than others if you want a luxury experience. We actually spent way less than we thought because we expected to dine out more and do a charter. It seemed like we dined out for one big meal a day and then felt full! Or we had one big meal a day at the RV (like the lobster and scallop night). We made breakfast at our RV, because we work from home about 6-9am each morning so we did miss all the great breakfast places which also saved us the cost of that meal out as well. I mean a couple nights we were still so full that we ate a slice of Key Lime pie for dinner :) If you plan to eat in Key West, everything is a bit pricier than normal so plan for that. Our day we went to Key West was the most costly day of our 10 day trip... but the food was good! lol

Upgrades that are worth it: Waterfront Elite Sites! We spent so much time at our RV Resort because they were so incredible so having an upgraded, waterfront site really impacts your experience at the park. If youd like to know which sites at each of these resorts we liked the most, drop us a comment here!

Have questions about RVing the Florida Keys? Leave a comment below and follow us on social for more itineraries, resort reviews, and real-life RV travel tips.

See you on the road, friend,

Randi and Darold Gleason

@ReelRVWives