Where to winter in Arizona? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Stan and Trudi · RV-Dreams Community Member

Where to winter in Arizona?

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

That is not a simple question, where to snowbird in Arizona. My advise is not to stay still your first winter and try different places, maybe two weeks each. Even in Yuma you have a choice of a campground, boondocking in the desert, or renting a spot on someone's Foothills area lot, so even that is not simple. Do you want good restaurants and stores? Do you want a lot of activities? Are you just looking for cheap and warm? Are you going to be exploring? Golf important? Fishing important? 4-wheeling important? What else is important?
The differences between snowbirding in Yuma, Tucson, Mesa, Surprise, Salome, Benson, Casa Grande, Quartzsite, Lake Havasu City, etc., are quite real. Just saying "Arizona" is wide open, that just means more of a desert experience with mostly warm days but it can still freeze (it did this winter), it can be windy, it can even rain or snow.
We just spent a month in Apache Junction, which borders Mesa.
There are pet friendly places everywhere.

-- Edited by bjoyce at 18:40, 2007-03-19

Ewings · RV-Dreams Community Member

We loved the Arizona winters. We currently own a park model in Casa Grande. We liked Casa Grande since it was a nice bedroom community with a great small town feel. It allowed us to still be closed to a big city with out having to live in a big city.

I agree with bjoyce, find a park where you can rent for a month or so and see how you like the area. We are currently doing some heavy traveling in our Motorhome. We rent our place out until we are ready to sell it or return to the area. We loved the area so much we might sell the park model and build a house when we are done traveling.

Check out the web site for Palm Creek RV park. That is where our place is and a visit to the area will help you make the right choice. ps, they love pets!!

mcw50 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We also are wintering in Casa Grande (Palm Creek) and love it......but, bjoyce brought up all the right questions and ideas....there are many, many things to think about...not everyone has the same ideas of "great place to stay." The first two winters we were retired, we made a circle tour of parks in various parts of Florida, Texas and Arizona and stayed only two to four weeks in a place - including Quartzsite! Many places in "snowbird territory" will not take reservations for less than a month or longer, so you may have to take some chances and move around a bit...but that's part of the adventure and lets you check out all the various kinds of places and learn what is important to you. Happy travels!!

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hello all,
Since this is our first winter in Az. and our first yr at full timing we started out leaving New Mexico in Oct. Spent the first few wks in Colmbus, N.M. at Pancho Villia state Pk, from then we went to a pk on the Co. River for a month and half, called River Breeze,with not much to do there and you will have to go to Blythe, Ca. for groceries, now Quartzsite was close by and it was a fun place to visit... then on to Tucson ....awe yes its a great place...we stayed at the very friendly people-dog friendly pk called "Desert Trails" a nice pk with lots of wildlife and spent a month there...then we went to Mission View, nice pk and clubhouse, with dog area then to.... Beaudry's Rv Resort (which has a large dog area) I just cannot say enough about this place.

So you will have to ck the internet. We LOVE this place and have already made reservations for next Dec. to March here. Love the Tucson area as there is so much to do if one wants to do things. Pima Air and Space Museum is a must along with the "bone Yard" storage for hundreds of planes. The town of Bisbee is interesting along with many things to do while you are in Tucson and we cannot possibly cover all within the winter months so will return as a snowbird. I would highly recommend you getting reservations in early because these places are full for sure after Dec. Also we chose to stay at least a month at each pk as it is cheaper than moving around wk after wk.
We will head our way back to the mountains of New Mexico for some of the summer months.
Feel free to email me with any questions.
southwestjudy & Bob & 2blackdogs

Stan and Trudi · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thanks for the ideas, we don't golf, or 4 wheel. We would like a place that has an area so we can exercise our dog, and we would like a pool to exercise ourselves weather permiting of course. I think moving around some would be a good idea the first winter. Thanks again.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

If forgot to also say that there are areas of southern California that you can also think about. The Coachella Valley area of Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Indio is popular. Since you say golf isn't important than Hemet is probably not much choice. Borrego Springs is becoming popular. Greater San Diego area has choices. I take it Arizona is the snowbird choice because it is a shorter trip than southern Texas or Florida?
Swimming pools mean campgrounds, so boondocking and staying on someone's lot in Yuma are out. Pools are very popular with snowbirds, so they are in about every campground.
Sometimes the true "snowbird" campgrounds won't take weekly renters in season, but there is some place close by that will. In Yuma I know you can rent short term at Fortuna de Oro, and it has about everything you want. In Mesa Valle de Oro and Mesa Regal take short term renters. There are places around Quartzsite, Salome, Ehrenberg, and Brenda area that you be able to get into in December and in February, but January is high season due to Quartzsite shows.

JackieandTony · RV-Dreams Family Member

Wow so many different options.
We have just spent the winter in Texas - predominantly the Rio Grande Valley.. and we're not too sure that we would go there again. Now Hill Country, different story - it's gorgeous.

Arizona: We have just spent a few days at Butterfield RV Resort in Benson (just 25 miles out of Tucson) - it's a wonderful park and as a bonus it has an Observatory. There were many snowbirds there who have just spent the entire winter and they loved it. Very, very clean, neat and well laid out with plenty of activities and very pet friendly.
We are currently at the Adventure Bound RV Resort - used to be called Cactus Country RV Resort. It is in Tucson, very close to the I-10, not THAT close that you can hear any traffic noise. They have a wonderful program for the snowbirds and it's also a super duper park. They have a huge dog run where you can play with your dogs outdoors.
Just depends what you're looking for. Tucson has tons to see and do with National Parks right on your doorstep ... so Benson or Tucson would be on the top of our list.