Across the road from the South Bay pads, anglers are already backing bass boats off their trailers at the boat ramp, with the levee behind them and open lake water beyond it. A Lake Okeechobee bass week starts with a coffee carried up to the crest, and by the time the kids are up the first boats are small shapes out on the lake. The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail follows the crest in both directions, so whoever isn't fishing has the whole lake beside them on a walk or a bike ride.
The motorhome makes the run west across the county once, backs onto its pad at South Bay RV Campground on the lake's southeast corner, and stays put while the days go to the ramp, the trail and the water. It earns its keep in the afternoons, when everyone comes in off the levee to air conditioning, a real kitchen and enough beds that nobody ends up on the dinette.
South Bay and Pahokee on the Okeechobee levee
Most days settle into the same easy shape. Fishing starts early from the ramp or along the levee, the hot middle of the day goes to the rig and a nap, and the trail comes back into play once the light goes long over the water.
Pahokee Marina and Campground, farther up the east shore, is the second pad on the lake, with a marina of its own and a different stretch of shoreline to fish. It's the fallback when South Bay is full and an easy move for the back half of the week. Rolling out of the city late, you can sleep the first night at Juno Ocean Walk or Del Raton on the coast and head west in the morning.
Lock the site at South Bay or Pahokee before you choose the motorhome. Get the site's length from the campground itself, because that number decides how long a rig fits the pad, and in winter and early spring, the peak months on the lake, the good sites go early.
A day off the water belongs to Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, an easy outing from the lake or the coast. The drive-through winds through seven habitats, and the giraffe, zebra and rhino herds come right up beside the car window.
Juno Ocean Walk and Del Raton on the Palm Beach coast
When the snowbirds come south, the RV week moves to the coast. Juno Ocean Walk RV Resort at the north end of Palm Beach County and Del Raton RV Park in Delray Beach at the south end are the parks close to the city for a parked winter stay, the rig settled in for weeks while the days go to the beaches and the towns along the Atlantic.
Snowbirds fill both parks through the winter, many of them for the whole season, so the pad is the first booking on the coast as well. Ask each park for its site length and hookups before you settle on a motorhome. If the site comes back short or it's just the two of you, a smaller rig suits the nights at Jonathan Dickinson State Park on the Loxahatchee, John Prince Park on Lake Osborne and the state parks farther down the coast, all on the West Palm Beach campervan page.
North of the county line, the Treasure Coast has its own RV weeks out of Stuart and Port St. Lucie.
