Looking for the best of Florida

[Bhkh226]

Hey there fellow Streamers,
I just wanted to get everyone's BEST Florida experience. We live here right in the middle of the state, and we kinda need to stay close to home for the time being. So we want to explore Florida as best we can. So where have you been?? What did you see?? We LOVED St. Augustine, Anastasia state park is beautiful place.
Have a GREAT week!!

[SeaLevel]

Try Blue Springs State Park. It's not too far from you, and it's a nice park with some easy trails for seeing wildlife. It's a manatee refuge.

[Paul Dobbin]

Kind of depends on what you like to do and see, we're all different.
Our big requirement in going anywhere is have a nice place to park our "Roadhouse" while we see the local sights. We lived in Florida for 30 almost 30 years after we started RVing, and have seen it all. Our campground choices are #1 Fort Wilderness @ Disney World. Often we'd go there for 3 or 4 days and never enter the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. As guests you may use all their transportation an facilities. We'd take our bike and ride them or rent the sail boat, or motor boat, ride horses, see the light show on Bay Lake, canoe, hike or just going dining in the hotels during the daytime when they were empty.
The campground is wonderful and has plenty of thing to do, all first class.
#2 Fort DeSoto off the gulf coast at St. Petersburg. Located on the Bayway leading to Ft. DeSoto and the best beaches in the world. It's private and remote, but a very good example of un-improved old Florida. Hard to get reservations, but reasonably priced.
Neither one of these campgrounds gives you much exposure to your neighbors like most campgrounds where they park us like in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Both have a lot of vegetation between the sites.

[jayseejay]

Fort Clinch State Park, NE-most corner of FL, and the beautiful beaches and historic town of Fernandina around it. Joe

[moosetags]

We would encourage you to come and see Florida's other Time Zone. The coastal area between Panama City and Pensacola has beautiful white sand beaches and is less crowded than the Peninsular. Only about 5% of Florida's population lives in the Central Time Zone. Grayton Beach State Park is one of the best. It is nestled between the Gulf of Mexico and Western Lake, which is one of the area's Coastal Dune Lakes. Coastal Dune Lakes are a unique geographical feature found only in the Florida Panhandle, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, and Oregon.

The Florida Panhandle boasts a number of interesting towns well worth exploring.

Brian

[trumpetguy]

Agree. Check out Grayton Beach, Henderson Beach, Topsail (Canopener rally)., Fort Pickens, to name a few.

[FCStreamer]

Westgate River Ranch. Best RC resort I've seen in Florida. By far. You'll want to stay in phases 3 or 4 if you like shade, phase 5 if you like sun and the water.

http://www.ourflyingcloud.com/2016/0...ver-ranch.html

[Mollysdad]

Destin/Ft. Walton beach. The Keys. Silver Springs. Sarasota.
What do you like to do? Tour, see history? See wildlife? Get away?
Visit museums?

[Jarrod White]

I have a goal to stay at every Florida state park with a campground. I'm about 3/4 of the way there and really have never been disappointed although some are better than others. All of the state parks in the Keys are great as are all of the beach area parks in the panhandle (Big Lagoon is probably just good as opposed to great). I would probably pick Curry Hammock in Keys and St Joseph in panhandle as my favorites but it is close with Grayton Beach and Topsail in Panhandle. I like Gamble Rogers on Atlantic and Silver Springs, Rainbow Springs, and O'Lena standout in the center of the state. Stephen Foster is special in the north central area. Hillsbourgh River is a solid park near Tampa and Oscar Shearer and Collier Seminole are good choices on the lower west coast. Ft Clinch, Anastasia and Sebastian Inlet get good reviews and are on my list to check out.
Ft Pickens is a nice federal Campground with beach access in Panhandle.
Ft Desoto (Pinelles county) is outstanding and overall one of my favorites. I also like Turkey Lake (city park) in Orlando and Larry and Penny Thompson in Miami. I've heard good things about Jetty Park and Turtle Beach city campgrounds but haven't had a chance to stay at either yet.
There are many more great private park options and I look forward to hearing about some new suggestions to explore.

[paddle whisp]

Chassahowitzka river campground is my favorite so far. Also loved rainbow springs state park

[B00merang]

Split the difference between Moosetag and Jay-seeing-himself....in other words the Big Bend area....the last undeveloped stretch of Florida. Heading east from beautiful St. Andrews Park and the inlet/jetties head to St. Joe Peninsular State Park with its two in-park campgrounds. Next stop should be Apalachicola and St. George Island SP....although the latter's campground is not on/very near the beach. Further east you have Alligator Point, then St. Marks NWR (closest campground is a fish camp in St. Marks), and then further south Steinhatchee etc, ending up in beautiful Cedar Key. You will not be sorry. Safe travels. jon

[candyk]

I live in Tampa area and mostly do state parks. Last year I bought my passport. They are selling them again., Online I think. Anyway it's fun to try to see them all and get your passport stamped. We use a telescope and love Paynes prairie preserve, a certified dark sky park with astronomy pads. Also enjoy little manatee river. Alafia river has miles of bicycle trails and kayaking. Ocala natl. Forest has nice sites, but no electric at federal areas. Juniper springs. Summer cool off time! Follow the springs.

[london1201]

we absolutely LOVE Topsail at Santa Rosa Beach

[SilverSinbad]

Any suggestions for campgrounds in the Tampa area?

[mojo]

Since I no longer live in Florida I guess I can reveal one of my favorite secret spots. It's the Silver Lake Recreation Area on the Withlacoochee River. The park is shaded with big oaks and has W/E hookups. It faces a large lake in the middle of the Withlacoochee River and you can paddle up or down river. It's also just off the Withlacoochee State Bike Trail which is paved and travels along the river through several towns for 46 miles. I've never seen it full, but that was few years ago. Only drawback is it is next to I-75 so there is some traffic noise, but you can't see the highway.

[SeaLevel]

Originally Posted by mojo

Since I no longer live in Florida I guess I can reveal one of my favorite secret spots.

We won't ban you for that, as long as you also share one of your favorite secret spots in Colorado.

[AirMiles]

I have been to many of the Florida State Parks mentioned and agree with the recommendations made. The only Florida State Park that I would not return to is Lake Manatee State Park because the sound of drag race cars screaming down the track every minute bothered me - an avid racing fan!

[GammaDog]

For camping, we like the Panhandle and the Keys. Someone above mentioned Ft. Clinch. I'd second that... especially the section near the fort and the water... but there is zero shade there so I'd not suggest a summer visit unless your favorite oven setting is "broil".

For something nobody has mentioned, we sometime day camp. My avatar pic was taken at Avalon State Park near Ft. Pierce. They have two RV spots that back to the beach. $2 per day parking fee. Get there when they open (8:00 am) if you want an RV spot "in season". I can't think of a better way to enjoy a Florida beach than to bring your home.

Don't forget county parks, too. Brevard has some (Jetty and Long Point include full campgrounds). There may be some with spots for RVs near the beach like Avalon has.

[driftwood]

just passing thru ...

[GatorDave]

Hillsboro River. SP