Stock Island's waterfront rows put palms over the tiki huts, the water a few steps past the awning, and an iguana staring at you from the next pad. It's the last island before Key West. The air conditioner hums in the rig while the days happen in Old Town, with bikes or the car to Duval Street, an afternoon on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor, and the ride back to the pad when the sun drops across the basin. Snowbirds come down for weeks at a stretch in winter, and Florida families make it a long-weekend habit.
Boyd's Key West Campground has the waterfront rows, palms over the sites and the water right behind the rigs, about 4 miles from Duval Street. Its RV sites have full hookups, 30 and 50 amp with water, sewer and cable.
Leo's Campground, the closest campground to Key West, is the one with the mural of 146 faces. Its back-in gravel sites have full hookups for self-contained RVs up to 42 feet, which clears a family Class C with room to spare.
Summer here means heat, humidity and hurricane season, and that's when the 50-amp pad matters most, keeping the rig cool through the worst of the afternoon. Winter is the busy season, when the Stock Island sites fill first, so reserve the pad before you choose the rig.
Without a move to plan, the days fall into a rhythm: bikes into town in the morning before the heat builds, back to the pad for the middle of the day, and out again once it cools off. Nobody has to unhook, pull the slides in or find room for a rig in Old Town, and that's the reason to bring one this far down the road.
Fiesta Key, Sunshine Key and Bluewater Key on the Overseas Highway
The drive down is a chain of islands strung on one road, and the private resorts along it turn it into a couple of easy nights instead of one long haul. A night in Homestead and Florida City puts you at the top of the highway with the whole day ahead. The reef at John Pennekamp in Key Largo and the beaches at Bahia Honda are the state parks everyone asks about, and couples or anyone traveling smaller will find them on the Keys campervan page.
Fiesta Key RV Resort is the first private island pad on the way down, 28 acres on its own island at Long Key with a marina and sites looking out over the Gulf. Weekend reservations there are for two nights, so build the first weekend of the trip around it.
Past Long Key, Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon is the state park night on this stretch, and Sunshine Key RV Resort on Ohio Key is the next private stop on the way to the Lower Keys. Ask each one about site length before you count on it for a bigger rig.
Bluewater Key RV Resort in the Lower Keys is the last of the island resorts before Stock Island, and no two of its sites are alike. Some sit at the water's edge and some come with their own tiki hut, so ask for the one you want when you book.
Ask each stop on the way down what hookups its site has, and treat any night without sewer as a dry one. The tanks can run down on the drive, because the sewer connection at Boyd's or Leo's empties them once the rig is parked for the week.