Today we got a new neighbor in our Florida campground. It’s a nice guy who has been Full Time RVing for 20 years. Now he rides in style in his pimped out “Gypsy Hilton”. He knows a thing or two about being “Hot”.

We were talking for a while and he said: “You guys have to be the hottest couple in the campground!” I thought that was a nice compliment until he went on to educate me that it’s because I parked the RV with my awnings facing west in the hot Florida sun pounding directly on us, thus making us the “Hottest Couple in the Campground”! What you want to do is face east so in the afternoon you can go outside with the sun being blocked by the RV and the awning out so you can enjoy your time in the shade.

This got me to thinking about what we look for in a campsite. We don’t take it lightly, we have driven around an RV Park for hours looking for the “Perfect Site”. Surprisingly most of the time we’ve been able to land some of the best spots in the parks. Here’s a list of just a few things we consider when we are picking a campsite.

Cell Phone Service

This is one of the most important factors for us since we work full time in the RV. We have a Verizon Jetpack that allows us to have internet anywhere there is Verizon service. We went with Verizon because they have the largest coverage in the country with AT&T at a close second. We also have our phones with AT&T and have the capability to use them like a hot spot if we are ever in an area without Verizon but we’ve only had to do this once and found that the speed isn’t as fast as the Jetpack. A few campgrounds we’ve stayed at have had anywhere from zero services to full bars depending on the site you choose.

View

We chose this lifestyle for a variety of reasons and one of them is to life and work in extremely scenic locations. Think about it, if you work 8-12 hours a day 5-6 days a week that’s a huge chunk of your life. Wouldn’t you want to spend that time overlooking a forest, a lake, a river, etc? As I’m writing this I’m looking out of my office looking at a pond!

Amenities

Some parks have really cool amenities. If we think we’re going to use them often we choose to be closer to them because it’s human nature that if we’re further away or have to drive to them we will use and enjoy them often. Conversely, if you prefer solitude you may want to get away from the foot traffic and noise of these popular activities.

Hookups

This recently has become something that is critical for us. We upgraded from a Class C Sunseeker to a Road Warrior. The Sunseeker was small space living and to give you a comparison of the needs we went from 1 ac unit to 3! We NEED 50amp in the Road Warrior if the weather is going to be hot to run multiple AC units.

Proximity to Neighbors

We love the RV community, it seems everybody is welcoming, trustworthy and entertaining. However, that doesn’t mean we want to be right on top of them. We realize sometimes this is unavoidable depending on where you go and what time of year it is. Once we camped in Vegas right next to two Casinos and it was more like a glorified parking lot than a tranquil experience. We had a great time because we didn’t expect to be out in the woods with a campfire, we enjoyed camping in such a big city. However most of the time we prefer being away from people where we can live in peace and quiet.

What’s your list? What makes you happy? Compile a list and pull it out when you get to a new campground.