Markham Park RV Rental — Sunrise, FL

I run Fireside RV Rental out of West Palm Beach, and I’ll be straight with you: Markham Park is a bit of a haul for me. It’s down in Sunrise, in Broward County, off I-75 near Weston — figure about 45 minutes south of my home base depending on how I-95 and the Turnpike are behaving that day. I still deliver there, and I do it gladly, because Markham is one of the few honest-to-goodness RV campgrounds left in Broward. Most folks who call me about it have already figured that out. Here’s everything I walk people through before I tow a rig down to that side of the county.

Why Markham Park is worth the drive south

Markham is about 660 acres sitting right on the eastern edge of the Everglades. That location is the whole point. You’re minutes from the I-75 corridor and Sawgrass Mills, so you’ve got every restaurant and big-box store you could want, and yet you can walk to a boat ramp that drops you into the water conservation areas where the real Everglades begins. I’ve delivered to plenty of South Florida parks, and very few give you that split personality — civilization on one side, sawgrass and gators on the other. For a Broward base camp, or for folks flying into Fort Lauderdale who don’t want to drive all the way up to me, it’s hard to beat.

The campground and the hookups

This is the part that matters most for a rental, and it’s good news: Markham has a real campground with RV sites and full hookups. That means I can set you up with water, electric, and sewer at the pad, so you’re not babying a fresh-water tank or hunting for a dump station mid-trip. When you book, ask the park which loop and site number you’ve got, and pass it to me. I want to know whether it’s a pull-through or a back-in, how long the pad is, and whether there are low oak limbs over it — Markham is a wooded park, which is wonderful for shade and miserable for a tall trailer roof if nobody checked the clearance. Give me the site number and I’ll size the rig to fit it instead of guessing.

How delivery actually works

Here’s my honest pitch for a delivered rental versus driving one yourself: you fly or drive in, and the RV is already at your Markham site, leveled, hooked up, and cold inside when you arrive. No towing a 30-foot trailer down I-75, no backing into a wooded site with a line of cars behind you, no fighting the dump station on your last morning. I bring it in, set it up, walk you through everything, and come back at the end to break it down and tow it home. Because Markham is 45 minutes south of me, I ask for your dates a little earlier than I would for a Palm Beach County park — that drive is part of my day, and the calendar fills up. The earlier you lock in, the easier it is for me to get you the rig you actually want instead of whatever’s left.

What to actually do once you’re set up

Markham earns its keep on the activity menu. The mountain-bike trail system is genuinely well known — people drive in from all over to ride it, so if you’ve got bikes, bring them. There’s a target and shooting range, a model-airplane field that’s fun to watch even if you don’t fly, and a swimming and splash area that has saved more than one hot afternoon for families I’ve rented to. The one I always point out, though, is the Fox Observatory. Public astronomy nights out on the Everglades edge give you genuinely dark skies — a rarity this far into built-up South Florida. Step out of the rig after one of those nights and the stars are a real payoff. The boat ramp puts you straight into the conservation-area water for fishing and paddling, and you’re a short hop from day trips deeper into the Everglades.

South Florida RV tips I give every renter

South Florida is its own animal, and Markham’s Everglades-edge location leans into all of it — the good and the buggy. A few things I tell everyone before I pull away:

• Run the air conditioning and just leave it running. The heat and humidity here are no joke, and a closed-up RV turns into an oven fast. Electricity is on the full-hookup pad — use it.
• From May through October, expect afternoon thunderstorms rolling off the Everglades almost daily. They’re loud and they’re brief. Plan your biking, paddling, and observatory nights around the morning and evening, not 3 p.m.
• At dusk, the no-see-ums and mosquitoes come out, and being on the Everglades edge makes Markham worse than most. Close the screens before sundown, keep repellent by the door, and don’t leave the lights on with the screen door open.
• November through April is the sweet spot — lower humidity, fewer bugs, and the kind of weather people fly down here for. It’s also my busiest stretch, so book early.
• Hurricane season runs June through November. Keep an eye on the forecast, and know that if a serious storm is tracking in, we’ll talk through changing your dates. Nobody’s riding out a hurricane in a rented trailer.
• Give me your exact site number and any clearance or length limits before I load up — it’s the single best thing you can do to make delivery day smooth.

If Markham sounds like your kind of base camp, take a look at the rigs I keep ready and let’s get your dates on the calendar — you can browse the fleet here in the Palm Beaches. And if you’re still deciding where to point the trip, my guide to the area’s campgrounds and RV parks lays out how Markham stacks up against the spots closer to home. Either way, I’m happy to make the drive south — Markham’s worth it.