Ever since I found out that singer Jimmy Buffett is putting his brand on RV campgrounds, I have been curious. We finally got to stay at a Camp Margaritaville in Crystal Beach, Texas. What’s the experience like to waste away in Margaritaville?

Staying at Margaritaville

The Margaritaville brand has been expanding since the song took hold in 1977. Under the Margaritaville Holdings umbrella there are now hotels, vacation rentals, a timeshare, cruise ship and even RV resorts. I have been a long-time fan of Jimmy Buffett’s music particularly because of the lifestyle they portray but the singer my be the son of a son of a sailor, but he is not living on island time. His company has been very busy utilizing the brand to expand rather rapidly into resorts of all sorts.

The premise is that you get an upscale stay that offers an an opportunity to relax on island time. So how accurate is that picture?

Camp Margaritaville Crystal Beach

Camp Margaritaville Crystal Beach is a located right on the beach on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas. The resort offers RV spaces and cabin rentals, as well as a variety of amenities and activities for guests to enjoy.

I think the idea of a resort is that you never have to leave and that fits here. Even though the resort is really, really new it already has a restaurant, a bar and a fitness room.

More importantly there is a volleyball field and a concert venue. Naturally there’s the biggest swimming pool I think I’ve ever seen as well as four very large clover-shaped hot tubs.

And, yes, the swimming pool has a swim-up bar. Which is where I spent most of my time the first day, quite frankly. I got to meet a few other RVers while I was there including our bartender and her husband who were the picture of Margaritaville - friendly, knowledgeable and prompt with the next boat drink.

As if the swim-up bar wasn’t outstanding enough, they made it more so with their joyful and friendly service.

Of course Jimmy Buffett’s songs are playing and there are huge TVs over the bar so you can watch sports and such. The water is nice and the hot tubs aren’t so hot that you want to add onions and carrots to make barometer soup.

Let’s eat

Initially I wanted to eat a cheeseburger in paradise but they had a better idea.

We happened to be there on a Wednesday and we head through the coconut telegraph that the Fins bar has a package where, for $25, you get this continual round of samples from the menu that they serve. That includes both the food and drink menus, surprisingly. They call this a Feeding Frenzy.

There is a lot of value here because there is a lot of food and you sit in large tables with others. We found people in the elevator up to this third-floor bar that we really enjoyed spending time with and so they completed our table.

I’m not generally a fan of appetizers for dinner but this worked out great, I walked away stuffed and slightly tipsy thanks to the drink samplers that are part of this (maybe that had to do with the fact that I kept getting more boat drinks in my blender cup as well).

I not only earned my license to chill, I think I got bonus points. I was truly god’s own drunk.

With as much as I ate and drank, I may have been at an RV resort but I treated my body like a tent.

Conclusions

Overall we enjoyed the experience at Camp Margaritaville in Crystal Beach. Being new it’s spotless with everything working perfectly. There are no trees hanging over you and each site has a picnic table and fire pit. Many of the sites also have dog runs in them and I believe they’re all full hook-up sites as well.

I suspect that this place gets incredibly crowded during long weekends and such and they advertise daytime access to the pool. We were there at a time when there weren’t a lot of people sharing the experience which was good. But I suspect the locals are smarter than I am when it comes to weather as our first day was really pleasant but the second and third days we were more sheltered in the camper because the weather was not in a good mood.

Perhaps if it listened to Jimmy Buffett’s music it might have been happier. I was trying to reason with the hurricane season.

I’m not so sure I’d go back as I’m not much of a resort camper kind of person, but I’m glad I went. It did give me a stretch to spend on island time. But if I did go back I would take the weather with me because what was provided was almost an apocalypso.

It’s Five O’Clock

One of the songs I love is the collaboration between Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson, It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere. If you got to Margaritaville in Las Vegas they play the song at 5 and make a giant deal with a girl popping out of a fake volcano and so much more.

This is the third Margaritaville property I’ve been to where they don’t even bother playing the song at 5 O’Clock. As a fan of the song and Jimmy Buffett, this is a big bummer to me and also a missed opportunity. There’s already a music system and TVs, would seem like an opportunity to really make a big deal as they do in Vegas. Oh well.

Amenities

Some of those amenities and activities available at Camp Margaritaville Crystal Beach include:

• Beach access

• Enormous swimming pool

• Swim-up bar

• Hot tub

• Volleyball court

• Concert venue

• Playground

• Picnic area

• Bounce pillow

As for RV sites theirs are new featuring concrete pads surrounded by grass. Everything from the RV side worked great since it was all new. Each site also features a newer palm tree, of course.

In addition to the on-site amenities, the resort is also located near several local attractions, including the Bolivar Lighthouse, Galveston Island, and the historic Strand District in downtown Galveston.

Overall, Camp Margaritaville Crystal Beach is a great option for anyone looking for a fun and relaxing beachside vacation in Texas.

Did you catch all the references to songs by Jimmy Buffett in this article?