Sunshine Holiday RV Resort Thousand Trails Review

by Marc Bennett
Updated: December 14, 2022
4 Comments

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We were headed down from Orlando toward the Florida Keys. Sunshine Holiday RV Resort & Community near Fort Lauderdale, is part of our Thousand Trails network of campgrounds. So we decided to stay here for a week. Read on to learn about the RV park, culture, pros and cons.

Sunshine Holiday RV Resort and Community Location

Sunshine Holiday RV Resort & Community is located in Fort Lauderdale Florida. The RV Park is just a mile and a half west of Interstate 95 on Oakland Park Blvd. This is an urban environment, not a rural campground. Oakland Park Blvd is a significant road, and there are no hills or sharp turns in the area which makes it relatively easy to get to with an RV. One of the bigger challenges for us was spotting the entrance. The sign is small and the entrance is between an auto parts store and an office building.

The area immediately surrounding the park is a mix of commercial and residential. Being a more urban setting, you will have quick access to stores and restaurants. But, you will also have more big city noises, like road noise and occasional sirens.

Though the RV park isn’t in a beautiful part of town, it is actually pretty close to areas that are. Sunshine Holiday RV resort is only about 5 miles to the ocean. That 5 miles could take 25 minutes though. The cost of Fort Lauderdale real estate clearly climbs dramatically in those 5 miles. The RV park feels safe as it has secured gates, though we did receive paperwork at check in strongly recommending locking up our bikes.

Area Attractions

This park is located less than 30 minutes from the ocean. There are many restaurants, shopping and beach opportunities. It is a nice region to visit, especially in the winter months. We were working a lot of hours during our visit. So we didn’t get out much in the area capturing photos.

We stopped by a local Barnes and Noble store, and found some of our books on the shelf. So we offered to sign the copies in inventory for the store. Always fun, and a special bonus for the store, and future book buyer.

Amenities and Activities at Sunshine Holiday

Sunshine Holiday RV Resort offers two small pools, shuffleboard, petanque, and two clubhouses. The resort also has four restrooms, and one laundry/shower building. An uncommon amenity here is that they have curbside trash pick up daily.

They also have a calendar of events to encourage community with residents. Likely related to the focus on seasonal, not short term guests, this RV park had the most lengthy set of rules we have received at check in. We received more than a dozen pages of rules and regulations.

One of the most unique things about our experience at this RV resort is the community. Catering to seasonal guests, Sunshine Holiday RV Resort has attracted primarily French Canadian guests. During our stay, it was far more common to hear guests speaking French than English. Looking at license plates quickly reveals that most RVs are from Canada.

From what we observed, we believe that many of the guests have been coming to this save resort for several years. The existing community seemed very close. This is of course great if you are part of that community. But as a short term guest, you might feel a bit more of an outsider at first. Folks were still fairly welcoming and friendly. Just felt it was worth mentioning.

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Mail / Packages

We were able to ship a package here during our stay. Catering to long term tenants, we imagine they are used to receiving deliveries for guests.

WIFI / Cable

Sunshine Holiday RV Resort does offer WIFI, but encourage long term guests to sign up for cable with local providers. We use our own data with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, so we didn’t try their internet. During our visit, all three carriers had 3 bars of coverage.

RV Sites at Sunshine Holiday RV Resort and Community

Once inside the RV park, internal roads are all paved. Sunshine Holiday RV Resort & Community has a mix of RVs, park-models and more permanent structures. The community is predominantly Manufactured homes. Most of the RVs are consolidated into a separate area, and most had concrete patio areas. There are a total of around 400 sites. Less than one-third are RV sites..

We believe that a very high percentage of the RV sites are seasonal or permanent residents. Many had enclosed patio areas attached to their RV that included outdoor furniture. It was pretty clear that many of the RV guests were there for the season. We estimate that less than 20 of the 130 RV sites were available for shorter term guests.

Most of the RV sites are pull through sites, with back in sites on the perimeter. The roads in the RV area are pretty narrow, but with mostly long term guests, there is not much RV traffic. Sites are among the most narrow we have experienced in our travel. Some RVs had slide outs almost touching with their neighbor. A handful of sites even looked like the slide outs overlapped with the neighbor.

Similarly, power and other hook-ups are not were you might expect them. For example, our power, water and sewer connections were in the middle of our patio area. Normally they would be on the opposite side. Also, the breaker for our power connection was a few sites away, so that made it hard to find. Our first thought was the power on the site was out, but once we found the breaker we were ok.

More detail about RV sites

Though many of the sites had 40’ or larger RVs on them, we are not sure about how many of the sites available for short term guests can handle big rigs. We would not consider this very big rig friendly as the sites are so tight. RV sites are all full hookup, again catering to predominantly long term guests.

There is a welcome center and office at the front of the RV area of the park. There is not much of a check in lane that doesn’t block other traffic. But with mostly seasonal stays, it is likely rare to have multiple RVs checking in at the same time.

PROS

Convenient access to shops and area attractions
Easy access from the highway
Good cell coverage being in a metro area

CONS

Not as much of a ‘getaway’ destination as other more rural parks.
Some city noise being close to larger roads and commercial areas.
One of the tightest sites we have experienced in any of our travels

Rates at Sunshine Holiday RV Resort and Community

We stayed at this park at with no nightly fee because of our Thousand Trails Membership with the Trails Collection upgrade. This resort is one of the Trails Collection offerings. Most sites were seasonal or permanent residents. The focus is on long term visits, and we didn’t get information on nightly or monthly rates during our visit.

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

Summary of our visit to Sunshine Holiday RV Resort

This is a medium sized RV park near Fort Lauderdale. Two thirds of the community is semi-permanent manufactured homes. The RV park section is primarily seasonal and permanent residents. It met our needs during this visit, and seems popular with many return seasonal visitors, but we probably won’t return.

About our stay

We visited this RV resort in early March 2019. The weather was nice with daytime highs in the 80s and night time lows in the 60s. We are thankful that we were able to stay here with no nightly fee thanks to our Thousand Trails campground membership. This RV park isn’t one of our favorite parks. But others might really like this one. Everyone has different tastes. We generally really enjoy the vast majority of Thousand Trails RV parks we stay in.

Contact Information

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

Sunshine Holiday RV Resort and Community

Address: 2802 W Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale FL 33311

Phone: 954-731-1722

Website: https://www.rvonthego.com/florida/sunshine-holiday-ft-lauderdale/

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.