Winter Garden RV Resort Thousand Trails Review

by Marc Bennett
Updated: November 16, 2022
3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links.

Located in lovely Winter Garden, Florida, this RV park is an easy walk to the charming, downtown Winter Garden shops, restaurants, breweries, cafes, supermarkets, right next to a car rental place, and even across the road from an RV dealership. If you’re looking for convenience, this is a great option!

We had a very memorable stay at Winter Garden RV Resort during our first winter visit. There were a few surprises. Some better than others, but all in all, we had a very good stay. And have come back to stay multiple times. Read our review for advice, tips, and more.

Location of Winter Garden RV Resort

Winter Garden RV Resort is, as you might imagine, located in Winter Garden Florida. It is a short drive to the Disney and Universal Studios attractions near Orlando Florida. The park is right off SR50, also known as Colonial Dr. So it is very easy to access with good roads into the area.

The location and surrounding area was actually one of our favorite things about the park. There is most anything you could need within walking distance. Publix grocery store is directly across the street. Autoparts stores, harbor freight, an Enterprise car rental is right next door, plus Giant Recreation World RV dealership (with service, parts and accessories) are also right across the street. The beautifully revitalized downtown Winter Garden is less than a mile away. Downtown Winter Garden is also where you can access a multi-use trail more than 20 miles long for great biking.

Thousand Trails has over 40 RV parks in Florida. Click here to see our post that summarizes them all.

Winter Garden RV Resort Area Attractions

As mentioned above, one of our favorite things about this RV park is where it is located. It is a short drive to Disney and Universal Studios parks. The park is super convenient to stay at, even if you don’t have a separate vehicle with grocery stores, auto parts stores, RV store and more right across the street. There is a lovely downtown Winter Garden area less than a mile away. We walked up through that area virtually every day. We also met up with friends at the many great local restaurants in the area multiple times.

If you like biking, rollerblading or long walks, there is a wonderful 20+ mile long multi-use trail that runs through Winter Garden as well. Interesting trivia… the multi-use trail was actually important in revitalizing the town itself. We also really enjoyed the Lake Apopka wilderness drive. It drives through a wilderness preserve teaming with wildlife including alligators and many species of birds.

Area Attractions Continued

If amusement parks, bike trails, and nature preserves are not your thing, there is still plenty to do and see. The Orlando area is a major tourist hub, so you can find most anything you desire. All within about 30-45 minutes drive.

Another highlight for us while in the area was we did a book signing and meet up. The event was hosted by an amazing coffee shop (that now serves drinks and food in the evenings too). Craft and Common is owned and operated by an RV couple. The food and drinks and service are all fantastic. AND… they have autographed copies of our books for sale there too.

Amenities and Activities

Winter Garden RV Resort has above average amenities for the park size. There are two pools, three shower buildings, and two laundry rooms. The pavillion, lounge, and main office building all hosted events while we were there. Playground equipment, a dog area, and outdoor games like shuffleboard, horseshoes, and petanque were available as well. They have a small fitness room and billiard room too.

There is storage available at this park if you need to leave your RV unattended and don’t want to pay for a regular site.

Mail / Packages

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

WIFI / Cable

The resort does offer wifi throughout the grounds at an additional cost. We use our own data with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, so we didn’t try their internet. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all had 2-3 bars of LTE signal without our booster, so connectivity speeds were good.

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

RV Sites at Winter Garden RV Resort

All the internal roads are paved asphalt surface, but not overly wide. They are fine for driving around, but would get very tight if two RVs met on the road at the same time. Despite relatively narrow roads, the park is mostly big rig friendly and many of RVs at the resort were 40’ in length or larger.

Most of the sites are natural surface, and some offer concrete pads for patios. The park is predominantly seasonal and semi-permanent residents. But most sites are RVs, not permanent structures or park models.

There are about 330 sites in this campground, about 75% of which are RV sites. The majority of those sites would accommodate RVs greater than 40’ in length, but some sites are less than 30 feet in length. There are about 38 pull through sites, but the remaining are all back in. The park has a main entrance/exit and separate side exit, but the side gate is closed and locked at night.

The site spacing was about average for what we have seen in other parks. There is a welcome center/office near the entry with one lane for check ins. There would be room for more, except they have a propane filling station in that area that impedes flow.

Challenges we had at Winter Garden RV Resort

Winter Garden RV Resort is an older park, which has pros and cons. The large trees are great, but some of the infrastructure needs updating. Specifically, the electrical system needs updating. They are aware that it needs updating and are in the process of doing so. But you will notice a big sign when entering that recommends the use of a surge protector. We are glad we had ours. If you want to learn more about what we use, see our Surge Guard Review on our Gear reviews page..

Some sites are 30 amp, some are 30/50, and others are 50 amp only. Our site was a 50 amp only site, but the post was located at the extreme front end of the site which is further than most 50 amp cords would reach.

We had the additional challenge when we arrived because our post didn’t actually have any power at all. Apparently we were the first RVers to stay on the site after they removed a permanent structure. We were very happy that our RV has a great off grid power set up, because we ended up without power at our post for a few days. We had come from a park that had something go wrong with the power on our last day, then arrived at a park with no power.

How they handled it

The park staff were accommodating, and offered to move us to a different site. But the other site might not have fit our RV, and would require us moving again in a day or two. Having the battery capacity on board provided us the option of staying in the better site, and just waiting for them to fix the power. Batteries aren’t just important when out boondocking. It is great to have them for extended travel, while in storage or when campground power goes down.

PROS

Fantastic location for walking to stores, restaurants, bike path, and attractions
Though mostly seasonal, having them mostly in RVs still has RV park feel
Mature trees make it feel more rural than it is

CONS

Electrical system needs updating
Fire station nearby, so not uncommon to hear sirens
A bit muddy in front RV section when heavy rains

Rates at Winter Garden RV Resort Thousand Trails Encore

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. We did meet a number of folks staying here for shorter stays. But the focus is likely 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

This is an average sized Winter Garden RV park near Orlando, predominantly filled with extended stay and seasonal RVers. There are good amenities, an active social calendar. The location is excellent for what we have high value on, and the staff and other guests were all very warm and helpful. We have heard others complain about this park, but we thought it was great.

About Our Stay

We visited this resort in February and March 2019 and again in March 2021. The weather was mostly gorgeous with daytime highs in the 80s and night time lows in the 60s and a few days of rain. We had a great time here and would definitely come back to visit, as we really like the area and easy walking to downtown Winter Garden. We especially like that we can stay here for no nightly fee with our Thousand Trails membership with Trails Collection upgrade. Adding the Trails Collection upgrade to our membership bumped our number of available RV parks in Florida from 3, to over 40.

Contact Information / How to Book

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

Winter Garden RV Resort
13905 W Colonial Drive
Winter Garden FL 34787

Phone: 407-656-1415
Website: https://www.rvonthego.com/florida/winter-garden-rv-resort

Note: If you are a member of Thousand Trails, with the Trails Collection add-on, you can make a reservation at Winter Garden RV Resort and stay at no nightly fee (for up to 2 weeks) by booking online or by calling member services.

Want to learn more about how we stay here at no nightly fee? Read all about Thousand Trails camping memberships in our many articles, here.

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.