REVIEW Gulf View RV (Encore) Punta Gorda, Florida

We booked here for two weeks. This was our second two week booking with Thousand Trails so it was free for us with our Florida (South East) zone pass. Normally this is not a resort that is included but we have six extra Florida resorts over and above the three included with the pass and therefore it was free. Also normally with a zone pass we would get about 20% off this resort as it is an Encore resort if we weren't booked in as part of our first 30 days are free.

Gulf View is located at 10205 Burnst Store Rd in Punta Gorda. It is near everything you could possibly need.

VALUE 5/5 for us as it was free. It would be $3 for us after our free 30 days. Regular rates here are between $50-$60 I believe which is expensive in my books and the rating would be a lot lower if full fees were paid.

SITE QUALITY 4/5 We were in site 40 and it was fairly level. It had a cement pad for the picnic table but we parked on grass. There was a huge rainstorm our first night here and the road in front of us flooded but the site stayed basically dry. It did get a bit mucky where we parked the truck. We were fairly close to the seasonal mobile home beside us, and their large air conditioner facing but we still felt we had enough room. More room then some RV parks we have been crammed into in the past.

FACILITY FUN 3/5 There was a nice heated pool here with extra pool noodles and floats for people to use. Lots of lounge chairs/seating and sun umbrellas at the pool. Activities included shuffleboards, bocce ball, community fire pit, boat launch and a meeting/activity building. There wasn't a playground and the hot tub was adult only. There were no children's activities for the Easter holiday so I felt this wasn't very family friendly. The girls were however allowed to ride their electric jeep around as well as their bikes.

NATURAL SURROUNDINGS 3/5 The site were about average and had some grass around the lot. There were mature trees throughout the park. The river running behind the campground was a wonderful place to watch the sun set or go fishing or have a kayak ride. There was a large grass area near the meeting/activity building with large trees and a very peaceful setting along the river. My girls liked to ride their bikes here to play bocce ball and hang out.

BATHROOMS ??? Can you believe I forgot to go in them? We were out and about so much. My husband did say that he felt they were quite clean.

STAFF 4/5 We hardly spoke with the staff at all but when we did they were very friendly and helpful. We ended up leaving a few days early and they were very accommodating in returning our days to us that we left without using.

LOCATION 4/5 This location is very close to the town of Punta Gorda as well as being 10- 15 minutes away from the town of Port Charlotte. It was also fairly close to North Fort Myers and it was an easy area for all our various beach day trips we took while here. 

OVERALL 4/5 Being a Thousand Trails member and staying for free boosted this rating. If we had to pay $50 plus a night my rating would be lower. Although this place isn't on the beach it was close enough to take numerous day trips to various beaches and nature filled hiking areas like Peace River Wildlife Center and Charlotte Harbor Environment Centre. I really liked that the pool had noodles and floats for everyone to use. A playground and allowing kids in the hot tub would bring this rating up too. Overall we were happy with our stay at this park and would stay here again.

Our site #40 beside a mobile with room between

map of park

Shuffle boards? in excellent condition 

Heated pool and hot tub

The activity building, community firepit and bocce ball court in
the back ground. All along the river in a beautiful natural setting.

The river, dock and community fire pit

REVIEW Peace River RV Campground Resort- Thousand Trails, Wauchula, Florida

Peace River RV Campground Resort was our first time staying in a Thousand Trails park with our new zone pass membership... and we LOVED it!

Location: 2555 River Rd, Wauchula, Florida. You can get actual directions here.

Value 5/5
For us we give the value a 5 as we stayed here for FREE with our new membership. In the future our cost will only be $3 a night which is still awesome! (see how much we saved in camping fees HERE when we bought our membership) Sites here are normally around $35 a night to start I believe.

Site Quality 4/5
Our site was a bit muddy in a small area under the very back of our camper so it didn't bother or effect us at all. It had been covered with some straw before we arrived and even after it rained again the muddiness did not get any worse. Our site was grass but very flat and level. It had water and 30 amp at site. We had no sewer on our site but we didn't care because we were on the river. The sewer sites are generally taken all the time and are given away by a lottery system. We found this a bit odd but it seemed to work well for the park and many people would give up their river sites to go get a sewer site when one came available. No internet at the site. Internet could be used at the Rec Hall and by the pool area or it could be purchased. Fire pits at all the sites but picnic tables only at some sites. We were told if we want a table, pick a site that already has one. Seems to me like everyone should just get a table. Our site was very large and spacious and we had just enough room to put out the awning beside the palm tree pictured. There was still about 10 feet behind the camper before the river as well, where our fire pit area was.

Facility Fun 4/5
The heated pool was warm enough that even I could get in it and the kids made use of it almost daily, and a hot tub. There was an older wooden playground with slide, climbing apparatus and swings. We never saw more then one or two other kids on it with us while we were there. There was an older looking mini putt area and a few walking trails around the park. Fishing also was permitted. We watched many kayaks and boaters go by on the river behind our site. The girls were allowed to ride their motorized Jeep and did a lot of bike riding around the park. Bonus here is we got to spend time with a lot of other fulltime families here so there were always lots of kids around. There were pickle board courts, horse shoes and billiards / games room as well as a library. Lots to keep you entertained. They also had weekly activities planned.

Natural Surroundings 4.5/5
This park felt very natural. The only area I would not have liked being would have been in one of the middle open field sites. The sewer sites near the entrance of the park were mainly in a treed area, and down by the river had many full grown trees and the wonderful river. There were a few trails around the outskirts of the park to walk on or bike ride.

Bathrooms 4/5
The only bathrooms that we went in were the ones by the pool and laundry area. There were two toilets and two showers/changing rooms in the ladies bathrooms. They were very clean and modern.

Staff 3/5
I found the staff to be on the grumpy side. The person who signed us in was very blunt and rushed through everything and then when I had a question he looked at me puzzled like, why didn't I just agree quickly and leave. Perhaps he was just having a bad day. Other people we talked to had horror stories about one staff. We generally just stayed away from the office area and didn't have to deal with the staff very much at all.

Location 3/5
This location is a bit out of the way with not too much around it. There is a Walmart in Wauchula about 10 mins away (which allows over night RV Parking when we were there). There are a few small local places around like the Hardee County Wildlife refuge, Pioneer Village and Heritage Museum. I'm sure there is more around but our kids were having so much fun with all the other families that we didn't venture out much from here. Beaches are about an hour 1/2 away. On my next visit I'd like to go to Solomons castle (30 mins away) and see the Herrmans Royal Lippizan Stallions practice (40 mins away).

Overall 4/5
We loved our time here at Peace River. I think more so because we had a river site. It was spacious and beautiful! I liked a lot of the treed sites too but my opinion of this park would have been less if we were stuck in the open field area. However where we were in site P80 we were extremely happy. We loved the size of the site and the river location. We loved that so many other full time families were here. The only thing we would have liked to have seen changed would be picnic tables at every site and a newer playground. Laundry was available and cost $1.75 and $1.50 I think to wash and dry.

Campground map. The blacked out areas we were told not to park
in as the ground was still soggy from a recent flood.

Weekly activities

We hung our hammock by the river and
enjoyed many a relaxing afternoon

Mini golf area

The wooden payground

Our campfire pit with grill near the river at the back of our site

Ice cream truck came around on Saturdays

Riding the trails on the outskirts of the park

Our first Thousand Trails...Peace River, Florida

As soon as we parked I knew we made the right choice to buy a Thousand Trails (TT) membership. Mind you this is our first time at a TT property but we loved our site. We also love how much money we just saved ourselves...see HERE.

When we first pulled in and were told there were no sewer sites and that they use a lottery system to divvy out the sewer sites we thought it was kind of odd. We weren't impressed. Sites at the TT resorts are first come first served so you drive around and pick the site you want and generally all the sewer sites are always taken here apparently. Others have said this is not the case in other TT resorts.

We drove to the dump station and dumped and then proceeded to find a site. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and I was so surprised to find a waterfront site! It was a bit mucky from recent rains and the muddy spot had some straw covering it to help with the mudd. We were able to park with most of the muck under the trailer so it didn't bother us at all. I mean how could it bother you with a view like this?

We loved the site so much that we didn't care that we had no sewer (we did have water and electric). We are used to boondocking and stretching out our tanks capacities so it wasn't a big deal for us. Plus Peace River has a honey wagon service. They dump once for free and you can pay for a second dump if you need to or you can agree to switch your hot water heater to propane instead of using their electricity and they will let you dump again for free.

Bonus number one: Staying here with our new Thousand Trails membership for two weeks was free.

Bonus number two: SO many full time families stay here too! The girls were so happy to meet friends again from the Rally and to meet so many more new friends.

There were many afternoons at the pool.

There was puddle jumping fun after the rain.

There was bike riding and exploring with their ride on Jeep.

There was even some remote control fun!

There was painting and playing and dress up.

And don't forget the milk bubbles.

There were campfires and smores.

 Meals with friends...

Even outdoor movie nights.

Cade tried to put in a new splash pad one night but it didn't work out so well.

They ran out of wood in the office so we went out and bought a truck full of wood. As we were loading the wood into the truck we found this beautiful corn snake hiding.

We split some of the wood with some friends but had way more wood then we needed still. The kids all had fun driving around the campground selling wood. They delivered and stacked and were over joyed when they received a tip.

I almost forgot about the dance parties...

And lizard catching.

Raya made me a beautiful birthday cake too as I celebrated my 29th birthday again ;)

So as you can see we had so much fun here that we barely ventured out of the campground at all. The two weeks flew by and having so many friends near by was amazing! We did spend an afternoon at a wildlife preserve which I'll post about next.

So with our first Thousand Trails experience under our belts we are extremely happy with not only the money savings but also with the ability to meet so many other families while travelling.

Do you travel full time? Have you heard of Fulltime Families? Go ahead and check them out! We love having access to this wonderful group of like minded travelling families and meeting up a long the road is so much fun!