One of our bucket list classic American destinations has always been Key West in Florida. Bluewater Key RV Resort was the perfect place to stay!
It’s just so much further away than most people realize, as it’s 4 hours from Miami (without traffic!), so it’s worth it to spend a little extra time down there when you’re driving and pulling an Airstream behind you.
Granted, the drive is pretty fabulous, as you’ll pass through all of the other keys and over 42 different bridges before finally reaching the southernmost city in the United States.
Bluewater Key RV Resort
We stayed at the Bluewater Key RV Resort, which is located about 10 miles outside of Key West proper.
For all the hype and positive reviews you’ll read about this place online, I have to say it lived up to its reputation. It was simply fabulous.
So many of the other available RV resorts in Key West seem to cram as many campers as they can into small areas for not much less money that it made sense to us to make this splurge.
You’ll be among multi-million dollar Class A rigs and if you win the lottery, can purchase your own site to the tune of $1 million plus.
(Check out these photos from other luxury RV resorts located across the country.)
We had our own tiki hut on lot #71, which is on the bay side, directly on the water. If we had a boat, we could have pulled it right on up to our dock, as did several of our neighbors.
Our hut came with a newly renovated kitchen and living area, with wind screens to block the sometimes overly windy ocean breezes.
Being right on the water was amazing. We swam and paddleboarded right off our dock, and the water was absolutely crystal clear. The water is super shallow (i.e. 2-3 feet deep) in Saddlebunch Bay, so there’s not a lot of boat traffic and it’s nice and quiet.
We found plenty of time to relax and just enjoy the view of Saddlebunch Bay.
One of the best things about RV parks we’ve found is how friendly people are. Within 30 minutes of us having set up camp, we had two sets of neighbors come over to chat.
We got lots of great recommendations from them for where to go in the area, one being the infamous Square Grouper restaurant, which did turn out to be delicious.
For those not in the know, including us up until we were enlightened by our neighbor, a square grouper is the name reportedly given by members of the US Coast Guard to bales of marijuana thrown overboard or out of airplanes. Hence, the locals would often say they were going square grouper fishing.
We were even greeted by a local iguana.
If you’re into fishing, the dock had an underwater light and there was just a ridiculous amount of fish swimming by the light. It kind of makes you second guess swimming in the day time! Forget waterboarding, anyone with ichthyophobia (i.e. fear of fish) could easily be tortured here!
Saddlebunch Keys and Other Keys in the Area
One day we decided to explore some of the other areas immediately surrounding Bluewater Key RV Resort.
Not all of the Florida Keys have recovered entirely from Hurricane Irma, as we saw many dead and sad fifth wheels and travel trailers just hanging out on the side of the road.
In fact, several campgrounds were completely wiped out by hurricane Irma and have yet to reopen (e.g., KOA). So if you’re looking for a campground in Key West, there’s more competition than usual since there are fewer campsites available.
I’m sure it will recover and be even better than before, but as of April 2018, some campgrounds remain closed.
Final Thoughts on Bluewater Key RV Resort
We loved our stay at the Bluewater Key RV resort and would love to come back. Check out the resort’s webpage here!
