Review Golden Village Palms RV Resort: This Ain’t Your Grandparents’ RV Park

White haired senior citizens gingerly walking through the grounds, hands clasped tight to the arms of their walkers. Leaves gathering on empty tennis courts as their sagged nets sway in the breeze. You might see those things at other rv parks. But you won’t see them at Golden Village Palms RV Resort.

Disclosure: My stay at Golden Village Palms RV Resort was provided courtesy of Visit San Jacinto Valley for the #VisitSJV Blogger Press Trip.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Golden Village Palms RV Resort

That’s right, RV resort in the San Jacinto Valley. Golden Village Palms RV Resort is a resort, not an RV park. And general manager, Michael Carle, won’t let you forget it.

As one of the top rated rv park in the US by Good Sam Camping, Golden Village Palms RV Resort is “a cruiseship on land.”

Golden Village Palms RV Resort offers countless activities and events such as bingo, line dancing, and volleyball.

And if you’re a shuffleboard fan, you’re love their indoor shuffleboard court.

And for the more adventurous, there’s Zumba, belly dancing, and water aerobics.

What do you do when tennis elbow leaves you feeling 0 love? You take up pickle ball.

Pickle ball is played with paddles and a whiffle ball and despite the name, can be a friendly yet competitive game.

Once I got the hang of the game, it was a lot of fun. Stay tuned for a separate blog post about my experiences playing pickle ball.

Resort amenities include a spacious laundry room with 36 front loading washers and dryers.

Golden Village Palms RV Resorts also offers a concert series open to the public featuring tribute bands such as The Bee Gees, Shania Twain & Tim McGraw, Jimmy Buffet, ABBAFAB, and Fortunate Son.

There’s even daily Happy Hour and a beer cart!

What’s a beer cart? Picture a golf cart loaded up with a keg driving through the resort playing music similar to an ice cream truck, mature adults running down the street waving their dollars high in the air. Sadly the beer cart wasn’t running during our stay. 🙁

There’s plenty to see and do outside of the resort such as outdoor activities and unique museums. You can find all the details in my post Frugal Travel Secrets and Hidden Gems of the San Jacinto Valley.

Adults Only

No you don’t need to have an AARP membership to stay at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. But you do have to be at least 18 years old.

That’s because the guests want to be able to cut loose and enjoy themselves without having to be grandma or grandpa all the time.

Bring Your RV or Not

When I was told I would be staying at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort I thought to myself, “Uh, okay. I’m not bringing my toy hauler. Maybe I’m staying in someone’s RV?”

But at Golden Village Palms RV Resort, you can either bring your RV and hook up to one of 1,019 sites. Each site offers concrete patios and complete hookups for water, electricity, cable TV, sewage, and Wi-Fi. Some spots can accommodate RVs up to 70 feet. Phone service is available for extended stay guests.

Or you can stay in one of the resort cottages (where I stayed during my visit) or a two-bedroom VIP condo.

Resort Cottage

You get all the amenities of home combined with the luxuries of a resort hotel when you stay in a resort cottage at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort.

The 400-square-foot (California RV Code requires that park models not exceed 400 square feet) cottages offer:

• One bedroom with queen bed
• Full kitchen
• Full Bath
• Dining Room
• Patio
• BBQ
• TV in living room and bedroom
• DVD player
• Vaulted ceilings

You can rent a cottage for:

• $160 a night
• $880 a week
• $2,400 a month plus electric (April to December)
• $3,200 a month plus electric (January to March)

The cottages are a great option for family and friends visiting extended stay RV guests. Two can sleep comfortably on the queen sized bed in the bedroom. And there’s a sofa bed in the living room.

Living Room

There was a two person sofa bed and a suede recliner in the living room. The recliner was dangerously comfortable. You take a seat and the next thing you know, you’re out like a light.

Kitchen

Although we ate out, you can save money cooking in the cottage’s full kitchen.

You’ll find a complete set of dishes, silverware, baking and cooking pots and pans. There’s even a toaster, tea kettle, and coffee maker. The only thing you have to buy is the food and spices.

Here’s a complete list of what you’ll find in each Golden Village Palms RV Resort cottage.

Dining Room

I used the dining table as a desk. Plus it was right across from the living room TV. Since we cancelled cable over the summer I needed to get my fix of bad reality TV.

Bathroom

The bathrooms are smaller than a hotel bathroom.

But there’s no wasted space. The bathroom includes a built-in linen closet with extra towels, soap, and toilet paper.

Although the tub and shower are narrow, I appreciated having the option to shower or take a bath. Many hotel bathrooms only provide a shower. And after a long day walking around a city, sometimes you want to soak in the tub.

Bedroom

There was a flat-screen TV, digital alarm clock, and lots of cabinets in the bedroom.

I loved all the natural light from the two narrow side windows and the larger window directly behind the bed.

And the bed. So comfortable! It was like a Westin Heavenly Bed and a Hyatt Grand Bed had a baby and the result was the bed at the cottages at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. I could have lounged in that bed all day, it was that cozy.

Outdoor Patio

The living space extends outdoors with a backyard patio and BBQ. It gets really hot in Hemet during the summer so the BBQ is a necessity.

Front Porch

The front porch encourages a sense of community and lets you get to know the other cottage guests without being thrown into an awkward situation.

Eco Cottage and Cottages for Sale

The cottages are also a great introduction for someone who’s wants to try living in a tiny house. You can rent a cottage at Golden Village Palms RV Resort while keeping your existing home.

Tiny House Living Room and Kitchen

When buying a cottage, you can customize the design to reflect your personality.

Tiny House Bathroom

Bathrooms in a tiny home can be designed to fit your needs.

The owner of this tiny house wanted more living area so she went with a smaller bathroom with only a shower.

Tiny House Bedroom

This tiny house was designed to fit a queen bed. A king bed will fit, but you won’t have as much room to walk around the bed.

But…

Isn’t there always a but?

The Wi-Fi. Oh (big sigh) the Wi-Fi. It’s there and it’s fast, but you’re limited. Talk about throttling! You get 75 MB of data a day for free. And this is calculated on a 24 hour clock.

So basically, a couple of websites and boom! The hammer drops and it’s time to pay up.

You pay $4.95 a day for additional data over the free 75 MB allowance. Which can add up if you’re staying awhile.

Let’s assume you’re staying for a week, being able to tweet, surf the net, play on Facebook, or should I say it…work, will cost you $34.65. Which isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things. But every little extra charge adds up. And it’s not that fast and can get bogged down.

Now if you’re staying for an extended period of time, like a month, you’ll pay $148.50. Yikes!

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked staying at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort, but I love my techie toys and I NEED my internet.

Conclusion

Golden Village Palms RV Resort is unlike any other RV experience. It’s perfect for someone who wants to vacation their way: having the creature comforts of home with the luxury and amenities of a hotel resort, whether you stay in your RV or rent a cottage.

The cottages at Golden Village Palms RV Resort is a great introduction to the tiny home movement. Because many tiny houses are the same size as the cottages, you can rent a cottage for several months to see if a tiny home is right for you.

From a pickle ball tournament to learning how to play shuffleboard to singing with the Bee Gees, a stay at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort is like the movie, “Cocoon,” in real life.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. But staying at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort was a pleasant surprise and entirely nothing like I had expected. And it’ll surprise and please you.

What are your favorite RV resorts?

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