Suni Sands RV Resort Yuma, AZ Thousand Trails Encore Review

by Marc Bennett
Updated: December 11, 2022
3 Comments

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We stayed at Suni Sands RV Resort in Yuma, AZ for two days in January to break up two weeks of boondocking in the Arizona and extreme southern California deserts, with the Xscapers group. Although our stay was short and sweet, we managed to scout the place out and snap some photos to share our experience of this RV park here with you. Suni Sands is part of the Thousand Trails “Trails Collection” which allows you to stay for free as part of your membership. Read on to learn more about Suni Sands RV Resort, campsites and amenities – including the pros and cons.

Location of Suni Sands RV Resort

Suni Sands RV Resort is located in Yuma, Arizona. Yuma is an extremely popular winter destination for RVers and snowbirds. In fact, there are seven Encore Network RV Resorts in Yuma, plus many more RV resorts owned by other companies. Suni Sands is a short drive from Interstate 8.

It is basically right across the street from Yuma International Airport which is also a US Marine Corps air station. Interestingly, this is one of very few combined airports in the country. The air traffic noise was not excessive at all considering the proximity. The RV Resort is also walking distance to Walmart. In fact, you would be able to bring your shopping cart back to the resort and the staff collects them and returns them to Walmart for you. That is a pretty great service.

Area Attractions

As mentioned above, Yuma is a very popular city for snowbirds looking for a nice warm place to stay in the winter. Yuma is a large enough city to have just about any city amenities you could need. For a more adventurous and outdoor experience,

it is also close to the Imperial Sand Dunes just across the border into California. It’s also very convenient if you want to make a quick and easy trip across the border into Los Algodones, Mexico, so bring your passport with you.

Los Algodones is very popular for medical tourism, especially dental and vision care. Others also fill their prescriptions for medication as the prices are so low. We wrote a detailed blog post here about the day we went to Mexico for dental. As we only had a short stay, I didn’t get a chance to explore the area for bicycling options.

Amenities and Activities at Suni Sands RV Resort

The resort actually has a nice pool and hot tub area, and a covered shuffleboard area seems like it would be great for hot days. There is a large open room for get togethers and two laundry rooms. Laundry rooms need to use special cards available at the resort to operate them. Other amenities include a computer room, a golf cage, and propane filling.

We also happened to arrive on the day they were doing an ice cream social so everyone was walking around with their free ice cream cones, which seemed to bring a lot of smiles. The main clubhouse had some really great murals on the walls of camping adventures that were pretty special and had historical significance for the property. The murals were created by some regular guests from the early days of the resort when it was privately owned, and now the artwork has made its way into Thousand Trails corporate materials. They have become important protected artwork for the company.

Mail / Packages

This park has many seasonal residents so they do allow mail and package delivery. Their address is 1960 E 32nd Street, Yuma AZ 85365.

WIFI / Cable

We use our own data with Verizon AT&T and T-Mobile. It seemed that the speeds were a little slow considering we were in the city, but we were still able to work just fine with 1-2 bars of LTE on our cellular devices, though we do have a cellular booster as well.

Learn how we camp for (almost) free with our Thousand Trails membership

RV Sites at Suni Sands RV Resort

This is a medium sized snowbird parks with approximately 300 sites. Suni Sands RV resort is primarily a 55+ community with semi-permanent park model units encompassing about 80% of the park. There are about 15 pull through sites, but most RV sites are back in and are not deep sites. Therefore most sites can’t easily accommodate large RVs. The pull through sites were all full when we stayed here and were needed for larger RVs. Because of this, the staff asked us park our motorhome diagonally taking up two of the shorter back in sites. This resulted in providing us with a large space, being two small sites. All internal roads are paved, and the sites are gravel with concrete patios.

The pull through area is all gravel. I believe all RV sites are 30 amp power full hook-up. Sites are all pretty level, but we did need to use leveling blocks in ours because of the odd angle we parked at. Some of the pull through sites might be difficult to actually pull through. Because if you have trailer longer than 40’ long, some palm trees planted near the ends could make the corners a bit tight. This is especially true because some of the roads are fairly narrow. Speaking of length, only the pull through sites would be able to comfortably accommodate RVs longer than 40’.

PROS

Super friendly staff and nice community feel to the park
Convenient for store and shopping being in the middle of town
Nice pool area

CONS

Not many RV sites as most of the park are permanent park models
Air traffic noise, though it isn’t as loud as expected considering proximity to airport
A little tight and limiting for big rigs

Rates at Suni Sands RV Resort

We didn’t see what the rates are for the few sites available to the public. Being Thousand Trails members with an upgraded membership, we did not pay a nightly fee to stay here.

Learn how we camp for (almost) free with our Thousand Trails membership

Summary

This is a relatively simple RV park, geared mostly toward 55+ snowbirds who stay for the season. It seemed to be very well maintained and has fantastically friendly and welcoming staff and residents. Many of the residents have been coming here for over 10 years, which creates a nice neighborhood, community feel.

About our stay

We visited for just two nights in January 2018 to break up two weeks of boondocking in Quartzsite, AZ and Winterhaven, CA. We loved having hook-ups, laundry and a clean and welcoming environment to break up our time in the dusty desert.

The weather could not have been better. The daytime temperatures were in the 70s, and nighttime temps in the 50s, with nearly full sun every day. We would come stay here again, but might also consider one of the seven other Encore resorts in the area as well, especially since we can stay at any of them with no nightly fee thanks to our Thousand Trails membership and Trails Collection upgrade.

It is part of our upgraded Thousand Trails membership – you can learn more about how this membership saves us thousands every year HERE.

Contact Information

To find out more or to make a reservation, contact:

Suni Sands RV Resort

Address: 1960 E 32nd Street, Yuma AZ 85365.

Phone: (928) 726-5941

Website: Suni Sands RV Resort

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any RV park, campground, or RV resort, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.