Is this Australia’s best caravan park?

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What are the most important things for RV travelers when they visit a caravan park?

If you’ve just finished three weeks in the dusty Outback with hardly a shower to your name, you’ll be really hoping there's a good flow of hot water in the shower block. You'll also want to check out the laundry facilities if you’re down to your last pair of jocks…

If you have a brood of hyper-active young kids, you'll be checking the availability of a jumping pillow, water park, go karts and plenty of open spaces to burn off some energy.

But if you’re like many people these days, travelling with a large caravan or motorhome, you'll be most keen on a powered site with enough room to back in and spread out once set up.

With this in mind, the two-year-old Rivershore Resort located along the Maroochy River in Diddillibah on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, is scoring well ahead of most of its caravan park rivals.

Whereas many new or revamped ‘holiday’ parks built in recent times tend to cater more for the non-RV crowd, with expensive cabins or glamping tents pushing the traditional caravan sites to the perimeter, Rivershore has gone down the other route with 80 caravan sites and 15 safari ‘glamping’ tents.

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Be choosy with your caravan site

All the sites at Rivershore are flat and grassed, and come with built-in ground mesh that unlike concrete slabs, won’t destroy the grass but still help keep the dirt out of your camper. The standard 10 x 12m sites should easily fit most large rigs and most are ‘drive-through’, if you don’t want to unhitch or just hate reversing a caravan.

On a recent visit we were lucky enough to snag one of the 15 ‘super-sized’ sites towards the rear of the park, which at 22m x 12m was big enough to fit in four of the 8m long motorhomes we were in – let alone one!

Also unusual is that each site is charged a flat rate – in our case $55 a night for two people. You then only pay for the 240V electricity you use – in our case, just $2 (or $1 a night) for using a grand total of 10kWh, mostly through running the motorhome's Dometic Ibis 4 roof-mounted air-conditiioner almost non stop for two days.

Each site also has access to two 240V outlets (and two taps on the bigger sites), so that two families or a group of friends can camp together on one of the bigger sites, plugging in separately, while still being charged the same base nightly rate. Can’t think of a better deal than that!

Other than that, the Rivershore Resort appeals as a modern, well laid out park with sealed internal roads and pathways, modern and spacious amenities blocks (three in total), two large camp kitchens, and family activities including a jumping pillow, mini golf, free bike hire and a heated resort pool with water slides.

You can also back your boat into the river on a private boat ramp with fish cleaning facilities and jetty, while for extra cost you can hire paddle boards, kayaks, and pedal karts.

Other desirable features is a dog-friendly policy (outside peak periods) and a couple of communal fire pits, all-important dump point and a gas bottle refill service.

The Rivershore Resort also has a ripper poolside bar and licensed restaurant (which we can vouch for), including upmarket breakfast, lunch and dinner menu for when you get tired of preparing your own meals. They'll even deliver a meal or morning coffee direct to your caravan door for free, if you really can’t be bothered getting out of your camp chair…

The self-contained ‘five star’ family safari tents close to the river are also a cut above your average caravan park cabin, although you pay a hefty nightly rate (up to $300 or more) for this unique glamping experience.

What's not to like? Being a new park, there's a lack of tall shady trees and as it runs alongside a main road, you could get some traffic noise if you’re camped towards the front of the park. There’s also no shade cloth over the jumping pillow, and no electric hand dryers in the bathroom (just paper towels).

The restaurant doesn’t have too many budget options, and is only open for limited hours at night in off-peak periods. There's also no guarantee you'll get one of the prized super-sized sites, even if you request one when booking.

On the plus side, when we visited recently in the lead up to the busy Easter period, the place was almost deserted, adding to the peace and tranquility as well as there never being a queue for the showers. But even during peak periods when the park fills up, there should still be enough space in and around the sites to avoid feeling boxed in and avoid any neighbourly disputes...