Resorts or "In the Sticks"?

[Roll With The Changes]

If I can find rural spots with full hookups and good cell and data service, I'd opt for locations like that over a resort.

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Connectivity is definitely an issue here. I only know enough about it to get myself in trouble, but if you had a good enough internet connection could you use VOIP and live without cell service?

[Roll With The Changes]

Maybe a little more about the thought process...

In our travels we have learned more about our own wants and needs:

1. Most campgrounds feel too cramped for us. Having a ten foot front yard looking into the neighbor's kitchen wind and watching tv with the just feels like living in a townhouse to us.

2. Our dog is the last child in the empty nest... and she's just like a toddler. She has been the queen of her castle for 6 years and now we're asking her to stay on a leash. She's not happy about it.

3. Laundry. I think we've done pretty well setting up our 5th for full timing, but you just can't wash the queen size bedding very well in the compact washer/dryer.

All of these can easily be overcome, but it's all about living the life you want to live. If we can help others of the same mindset, it seems like a win for everybody.

[Overtaxed]

So my question is: Do people prefer the resort type campgrounds, or would people be interested in a rural setting, well away from the neighbors?

Sign me up for "rural, can't see neighbors" please! 100X over in fact.

One thing to consider though, your location might not attract a lot of people like me and my wife. Our activities when we camp are almost all outdoors, hiking, motorcycles, mountain/rock climbing, etc. Unfortunately, most of FL doesn't have a lot of this, it's a more social scene for a lot of FL and revolves more around neighbors and friends. There's a LOT of outdoors in FL (used to live there, Palm Beach area), but most of it isn't all that interesting for my wife and I. That said, I'm sure there are people like us who love to fish, and, my goodness, does FL have FISH.

I'd pay roughly double what I pay today (50-100/night) to have a 1 acre site where I couldn't see anyone else.

[MoonShadow_1911]

Connectivity is definitely an issue here. I only know enough about it to get myself in trouble, but if you had a good enough internet connection could you use VOIP and live without cell service?

Hehehe... I was a network engineer in a previous life...

Yes, it's possible. It would be best to have a minimum of 50 mbps down and at least 6 up. That gives you room in the "pipe" for video conferencing, VoIP, video streaming (like Sling, YouTube, or Amazon Prime Video), music streaming (like Pandora), and general web browsing, email, and the like.

Keep in mind that would be for one site, multiply that by the number of sites you will have, including yours, and you can see it would get expensive quite fast. The other thing you would have to do is provide a solid network backbone there in the park, that means enterprise hardware, which costs money. You would also want to make sure that it's not just an open network that anyone within range can use, so you would need to secure it as well. Also, if you are conducting financial transactions via this internet provider, you will need to segregate that network from the other network. You also might want to have your own, segregated network for your private access.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. If you are interested in diving deeper into this, PM me your contact information and we can talk further.

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[geotex1]

While we now prefer camping in the comfort of our 5er, we do prefer to be as close to nature as possible. We like small private owner sites like you are contemplating. They are quite common throughout the South, and we have camped for an entire month with 50amp, potable, and sewer, gorgeous pond view with dock - 4 sites around the 2 acre pond with level, compacted gravel RV pads and great shade - for the price of 1 week at the RV parking lot resort 3 miles away.

[Roll With The Changes]

Thanks for all great input. I know what we like and need and it's interesting to hear what others are looking for. It seems like since the world has gone crazy in the last couple years, it is getting harder to find a place to set up a temporary home. That's why we bought this place. Maybe we can add a few sites to the total and make the RV life a little better for someone.

[Roll With The Changes]

Hehehe... I was a network engineer in a previous life...

Yes, it's possible. It would be best to have a minimum of 50 mbps down and at least 6 up.

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Not gonna happen here 🤣

Best I can hope for is to get the attention of the cell providers and convince them to build a tower here. The lot rent could be that I can get what I need from the base of the tower.... if you're gonna dream, dream big, right?

[Steven@147]

I'm wondering how many have similar preferences for campsites as DW and I have. We ended up with a beautiful piece of wooded land in north Florida where we will spend our winters. We hate to see this property sitting vacant during the summer, so we're considering adding a few more sites.

So my question is: Do people prefer the resort type campgrounds, or would people be interested in a rural setting, well away from the neighbors? Our vision is to build a few sites that are basically an acre in size and hundreds of feet apart. They would all be full hook-up sites with probably a wood patio deck to park against and a fenced dog run on each site. We would have full size laundry on site and wifi internet available.

This is the kind of place we would like to live and we are curious if others are interested in something like this and would it be passing through, or would people like a monthly rate?

This sounds like a good idea we would like for a couple months stay, if just passing through, take a couple days off from traveling. Just to stretch out relax with the peace and quiet but with full hook ups, that's what we look for with Harvest Hosts at lease power. As far as on-line connectivity, we hardly ever use WiFi from a park. We have our AT&T cell hot spots and Verizon Visble hot spot, of course we have to have decent signals.
As far as your land, well, it enables you to have some income from it to keep up with the costs or make the land pay for itself and still provide what you are looking for and provide for a few other people. Putting in the infrastructure and complying with local codes to support it, I hope would not be a headache for you.

[fmartinmn]

@Roll With The Changes
I love your idea. As for us, we prefer solitude over tons of amenities. We do use very nice RV parks as we travel but don't take advantage of their offerings. We travel as tourists and are out and about most days. When we are in the park, we are relaxing and enjoying the peace & quiet. Keep us posted, sounds like something we would be interested in.

[Rob+Kath]

but it's all about living the life you want to live. If we can help others of the same mindset, it seems like a win for everybody.

Interesting that we have had some similar thoughts. As we move into retirement (over the next couple of years) we have been searching for a piece of land (10 to 30 ac). The idea is to have an intermittent home for our RV, and then eventually build a permanent home.

I am curious how you might work this out. We don't want to make a public RV park or campground, just a few private spaces available. Maybe a kind of Harvest Host thing or invitation only??? It would not be a money thing, it might even be free ??? Who knows at this point. It's all about the location. For all I know, no one would want to stay where we find land, so the whole issue might be moot. At this point it's part wishful thinking and part early planning.

This would be an interesting item for it's own forum topic. Please keep us informed as to where this takes you.

Rob.