Marathon Cottages and RV Park

This area has been closed and will not take reservations. (Editor's Note 10/24/22 - According to the Marathon management, they are open with no damage from hurricane Ian.)

Read the Nov 13 comment so called , had reservations for Mar 26-31, 2021. which was accepted on 1Aug 20, 2020. They did not call me or send me an e-mail to let me know the will be closed and my stay has been cancelled. had tp rush and find another place. make sure you confirm all your reservations.

Had a great time! Got kicked out due to hurricane evacuation orders. It is a great hidden little campground. No facilities, just a full hook up camping pad with picnic table. They do have free laundry machines by the cabins. They are closing down the camping pads due to construction on base on Jan. 01, 2021 for about a year. They are building new barracks onsite. It is not affecting the campsites, but the construction equipment will be rolling by all day, so they are temporally shutting it down till finished. Also they are building new reservation office so cabins 3 & 4 are now offices for the time being. Looking to head back down next winter when back open.

Stayed 3 nights with my wife, brother and sister-in-law. Great accommodations for the price, although very disappointed the boats that are available for renting were not in the water (new engines being installed). Although units have a roll-away bed, my brother (6'3") and his wife opted to sleep on the sectional couch and found it comfortable. Full size refrig / oven / stove and well equipped cabinets with dishes and utensils. There is a Publix and Winn Dixie about a mile up US1.

My husband and I visited the Marathon Cottages and RV Park, Marathon, FL, a day earlier than our reservation began in November 2015. We were very happy that the MWR liaison, Tom (I think that’s right) was able to accommodate us. The most important change – coming soon – is that this USCG Station is planning to implement an electronic card system. Currently, there is a curfew of 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. You must phone from the front gate to ask that the gate be opened or you will have to find somewhere else for the night. We didn’t know about this when we booked our reservation. The change means that in the future, guests will not be restricted as we were, though it turned out not to be the problem we thought it might be.

Book online at: http://www.uscg.mil/BaseMiamiBeach/mwr/mwrMarathon.asp Skip Key West and stay on Marathon Key, cheaper snorkeling better water, cheaper parasailing, cheaper everything and more to do. Full hook ups and only 4 RV sites makes it nice. Wifi is included in the stay. There is no bathhouse but that is why you have an RV. Rent a boat for almost half the price of Key West and there is clearer water. The police office (that pulled me over) gave me a tip to go to mile marker 61 and cross the street for snorkeling. One week in Key West and have had more fun in Marathon in two days for half the price.

This was our second stay at this RV park. Last summer, construction was going on next door and lots of noise. This year the construction is over and a brand new Hyatt Place resort is in place. Very, very nice resort and an excellent restaurant right on the water. And the Super Boat races were held there on 5 July. We choose and got site 1. This site allows you a great water view and no other RV to look at. Sites 2,3 and 4 are close together but fortunately only one other RV was on site and it was two sites away. If 4 RV's showed up, site one would still be great but the rest would be very tight. Full hook ups. The water and power (50 amps) are at the rear of the site. The sewer connection is several feet in front. And yes the other sites have weird sewer connection locations. The place is extremely secure. You have to call by cell phone to get the main gate open. The duty officer was pleasant and I had no problems getting in. Leaving, the gate opens automatically. Hours of gate operation was 7AM to 10 PM Mon-Thur and 7 AM to 12 PM Fri-Sun. This is a busy coast guard station and the on duty crew sleeps on station. The security for me was a pretty good deal. I am a scuba diver and I could lay my tanks out with gear and not fear anyone taking them. The fence is a barbed wire type and it also made me feel secure. The Hyatt Place next door is a high end resort so I guest that is a good thing too for security. MWR was helpful but for the most part they are invisible. I did inquire about the boat rentals. The current requirement is a Florida Boater card which can be earned over the internet. And a short exam given by the MWR officer. Obviously, with so many RV'ers living out of state, this make renting a boat almost impossible. The boats are $95 per day and hours are 9AM to 4PM and you have to clean them up after each use. Best bet is to go down the street and get a boat rental all day for $100 dollars and use it from dawn to dusk. You are not allowed to launch anything from this station except the on base rental boats. The service members store their boats here but they too must take them off base to launch them. This is a terrific place for walking and biking. There is a walk/bike path all the way to the old 7 mile bridge and you can hike all the way out to Pigeon Key and back. I recommend that you do this late in the afternoon since the summer heat is brutal. AS for Diving, Marathon is equal distance to the best diving in the keys. Key largo is 40 miles east and Key West is 40 Miles west. Diving in Key Largo on the Spiegel Grove is a thrill as well as the several other great wrecks/ Marathon has the Thunderbolt and Busch wrecks. Both are spectacular. And Key West has the Vandenberg. One of the best wreck dives in the USA. And it is unusually quite here at the CGS. I will return again and again.

Overall not a bad little Coast Guard MWR campground. The $30 rate per day is not bad for the keys. Although Sigsbee is cheaper. Sites are a little narrow for a motorhome with 4 slides. Water and electrical are on the top of a 4 foot cement pillar at the rear of the site. A large oak tree near the rear our our site (RV3) limited how far I could back in. I used almost 40 feet of water hose to reach the water faucet. Our neighbor's sewer connection is almost in our site and is about 6 feet from our patio. They are very strict here. EVERYTHING IS OFF LIMITS TO ANYONE IN THE RV SITES and they mean everything. This morning I walked the dogs, had a poop bag with me, to the RV gate entrance. It's about 400 feet from the RV sites, not near any building or equipment. Within minutes of getting back to our motorhome there was a knock at the door. It was the person from the MWR office telling me the commander here saw me walking our dogs and he was here to tell me NOT to leave the RV sites area again. Wow! I had no idea the road to the gate to get in and out here was OFF LIMITS. Getting in here is not easy either. When making the reservation and reading the reservation package there was NO mention that the RV gate is locked at all times. You are suppose to call ahead to get the gate open. They don't tell you that and don't provide the phone number either. You will not get that number until you get to the locked gate and find it posted on the EXIT gate. OK that's bad enough but when you pull into the entrance there is not enough room to park without you blocking one lane of the Overseas Highway. So while you are trying to find how to gain access you are in a very unsafe condition. I understand the need for security but this procedure needs to be told to you when making a reservation. After getting in here I was told I should have called before getting here. I told the guy I would have but no one told me that. BTW the number to call to open the gate is 305.743.1991. Overall it's OK here, but I get the feeling we are really not welcome here and they just tolerate us RVers. That's fine but We will NOT return here.

We were in site #2 in a travel trailer. Only 4 sites so if you are sandwiched in between two huge class A's like we were then no view and cramped. Great value compared to civilian hotels but not a whole lot cheaper than the state parks (very hard to get into). There is a 10 pm deadline during the week and midnight on Fri & Sat to get back in the gate. You have to call a phone number at the gate each time to get back in so make sure you have your cell phone with you & it is charged! The hosts/caretakers in charge were friendly and helpful. Tiny installation. There was one free washer and dryer in a tiny shed next to the cottages. We found lots of active things to do but found the very busy Rt 1/Overseas Hwy to be annoying. Overall, a good place to stay and use as a base to explore from. I believe they were about to add a tiny store at the caretaker's location near the cottages.

Rick from MWR called in the AM to make sure we were arriving then greeted us at the gate. He gave us the internet code, rules, showed us the laundry and told us about Sombrero Beach 2 miles away, white sand and picnic tables. Good launching point for kayaks. We were in site #1, had a nice view of the water. Very quiet here except for the construction next door 8am-4pm Monday-Friday. We talked to some of the guardsmen but for the most part did not see them much. Only saw the dog from a distance, never by the RV sites. Only RV 4 of the 7 days we were here so using the free laundry was no problem. Internet is OK most of the time, no TV with the antenna. The rate is now $30 per day, a bit high for military, but the location is great if you want to explore the "Keys". The Mile Marker 48 sign is just past the gate - but look for the red & green markers at the gate -easy to spot.

I initially did a review when we arrived on 6 Feb concerning issues with renting the boats. After staying 2 weeks at Marathon, I am posting some updates. When we arrived, we were greeted by one of the MWR folks and given a letter from 2005 that explained the rules; many of them were currently out of date. We hardly ever saw someone from MWR again, unless we hunted them down to ask a question. About half the campers received the internet codes when they arrived and half did not. We had to get it from another camper and passed it on to at least one other camper. I learned from reading reviews on this site about the free laundry, but another camper went into town and paid $4 a load because they didn’t know. The facility has one large-capacity washer and dryer near the cottages and I never had to wait the two times I used them. The washer and dryer each take about 45 minutes to run through their cycles. The best thing we found about this campsite is the location. We towed a trailer, so it was easy for us to get around in our truck. We loved the close location to several State parks, especially Bahia Honda. For those who don’t have a seperate vehicle to get around, it isn’t a great place to stay since there isn’t any recreation available on the station. Our neighbors rode their bikes around, and said when they got tired the local taxi company would haul them and their bicycles back from anywhere in Marathon for $5.00. Yes, the dog Roscoe was allowed to roam. He’s friendly and I’m an animal lover, so I didn’t mind. When I saw him “dumping” in the camping area, I simply let one of the coastguardsmen know and asked them to please have someone police the area. As far as renting one of the boats, we never saw them leave the station. Here is an update we received on current rental policy in an email from Casey Malloy, the regional MWR director: “Required documentation: up until Dec 12, the only requirement to rent a boat was a specified online boat safety class. However, after the inspection the requirement is to attend a AUX (8 hour) boat safety class in person. This is the process we are currently addressing. As to the specific documentation, completion of the class should be signed by the local flotilla training POC. Again, we know that is a strain for our customers and that is why we are going forward to request a change to that requirement based on Florida Law and the lack of available classes. In addition, our plan (nothing is completed) to waive the Auxiliary course to anyone with a qual letter from their OINC certifying them as coxswains for small boats. For cutter men they have to present a Deck Watch Officer or coxswain certification. For both they have to be either assigned and/or no more than 3 years from their last underway assignment.” If you want to rent a boat, I suggest you contact them for the current rental information. Give yourself plenty of time because most of the Coast Guard Auxilary courses are taught over a month-long period. Also, I don’t know if “the local training POC” in this case means the course has to be taught in the Florida Keys so you need to get clarification on this before wasting your time. If anyone has the answer, it would be much appreciated if you posted an update.