Emerad Beach RV Park in Navarre, Florida offers waterfront sites, private beach, pool, and so much more. This was our first experience planting in an RV Park and will certainly return.
Pros:
Private Beach and Pier
The park offers a white sandy beach on the Santa Rosa Sound which is perfect for those who would rather avoid crowds, lugging coolers, chairs, and toys from a crowded parking lot to the beach. While not quite the same as gazing into the vast Gulf, it allowed us to better balance the production associated with big beach days vs small beach days. We also loved venturing out on the pier at sunset and taking in the fresh salty air!
Clean facilities
During our visit we had another small family join in the camper. Of note, the max at the park was 6 per site. While our Roo sleeps plenty, the opportunity for us all to shower and use the facilities outside of the camper were a huge plus. The shower house was locked with a code and cleaned regularly throughout the day.
Full Hookups + Internet
The ability to fully hookup and not concern yourself with tank capacities while parked for a week was fantastic. Having internet that can handle Zoom calls and working from within the camper during the day is even better. While the speeds slowed to a crawl in the evenings as undoubtedly loads of kids hooked up their phones and tablets to the network, daytime hours had plenty of bandwidth to work remote.
Cons:
Lack of Shade
Very little of this facility has shade to cover your rig. In our case, our hybrids 15k BTU AC unit struggled during the daytime to keep up with the direct sunlight and high temps. High winds near the beach also prohibited us from utilizing the awning as much as we would have liked. Neighboring trailers without tent ends indicated they were nice and cool inside which leads us to believe some Popup Gizmos would have done wonders.
Power Consumption
This may have been site specific, but the power pole often tripped our surge protector. The issue was new to us and also did not re-occur at other sites we visited in 2020. I am still unsure if it was the power pole or immense amount of energy required to run the camper in the Florida heat. Either way I had to reset our surge guard several times throughout the week.
A bit too close to neighbors
As an entrepreneurial individual I understand working to maximize revenue. For this park, I think a couple pads less per row would have been far more advantageous and allowed them to command higher prices. We barely had enough space to fit our chairs and relax in the evenings. Every evening was marked with a ritual of re-packing the truck to keep our area tidy.