Welcome to The Villages
We met Chris and Scott at an RV show and they invited us to stay in their driveway in Florida. They actually have two golf carts and they let us borrow one. They trusted us with it and we just followed them everywhere because this place is way too big to figure out on our own. You drive the golf cart on real roads and you even go over the highway on a special bridge. Over 140,000 residents live here. Normal road rules apply here and Scott is a retired police officer so we really had to be on our best behavior. Bob was driving way too fast around the corners and I thought I was going to fall out of the cart.
Rec Centers and Endless Activities
There are over 90 different rec centers here and they all have a specific theme. We saw one that looked like an old cabin at a lake. We also went to the Eisenhower rec center and it had military themes with all branches of the military except the Space Force. The residents donated all the historical items inside.
Here are some crazy facts about this place:
It costs 200 a month to use all the amenities
You get free golf on the nine hole courses
There are over 100 miles of golf cart paths
They have 90 different golf courses
You get a daily newspaper telling you about all the events
We watched people playing water volleyball and it looked so fun. They also have clubs for racing remote control cars and boats. It is literally like a college campus for older adults. You never run out of things to do.
Debunking Myths and Town Squares
A lot of people think this place is just for older people who are boring but that is a complete myth. People are out having fun and they have a really young mindset. We heard rumors about pineapples and loofahs on golf carts meaning you want a certain kind of relationship. The locals told us the loofah thing is completely fake and it is just an urban legend. Some people just hang them on their carts as a joke now.
We drove to the town squares and they are amazing. We visited Lake Sumter Landing and Spanish Springs and Brownwood Paddock Square. People dance and listen to live music at the town squares. They told us City Fire is the meat market where all the singles go to mingle. The whole place feels like a giant party but everything shuts down completely at 9 PM sharp. The golf carts all just pack up and go home.
Alligators and Van Life Upgrades
We were driving around and we actually saw an alligator swimming in the water. They are everywhere down here and you just have to watch out. We also stopped at the farmers market on Saturday morning. We bought some spicy food and it was so good.
We slept in our van in the driveway and we slept great. We upgraded our bed to a Brooklyn Bedding RV mattress six months ago and it is the best upgrade we have ever made. It expands right out of a box and makes van life so much better since our bed is also our living room. You can only park an RV in a driveway for a few days here but they do have storage lots if you live here full time.
Hitting the Road Again
We finally left the Chitty Chatty neighborhood and hit the road again. We had the absolute best time and we would definitely come back here to visit. The community is so welcoming and there is always a group to hang out with if you have a specific hobby. We were driving away and we realized our skylight was stuck open. We had to pull over to fix it because I did not know the right technique to close it.