Florida - March 2012?

pattersonb · 06-20-2011, 08:16 PM

My wife and I would like to spend March 2012 in Southern Florida - preferably in the Keys. We are totally in the dark about searching for good private and/or public campgrounds. The little work we've done on the web to date shows that many campgrounds are already reserved for that time period, and we want to lock something in ASAP. Any comments about good areas, web links, general experiences, etc. would be most appreciated. Thanks!

2nd Question (Merged from 2 Separate Threads)

My wife and two, spoiled dogs are actively looking to book an RV site in Florida - March 2012 right now. We're looking at the Gulf side in the Sarasota/Clearwater/St. Petersburg area - but are also considering further north in the Panama City area. Any input on these areas would be appreciated (e.g. quality of campgrounds, availability of public ocean beaches, crowding, and potential college "spring-breakers"). I'm an old dog who starts circling, looking for a place to lay down about the time that college kids just get started for the night. Thanks!

LionInTheSun · 06-20-2011, 08:42 PM

The state parks are hard to get reservations at. We just spent the weekend at John Pennekamp State Park on Key Largo. Great park with lots to do, they now have sewer hook ups as well. The KOA on Summerland Key is very nice and only 20 miles to Key West. Good luck.

jmduc · 06-20-2011, 09:39 PM

We spend a number of weeks at the KOA on Sugarloaf Key. Check it out on the KOA website. We will go there again. Highly recommend it.

DAISY BOYKIN · 06-20-2011, 09:44 PM

By all means make your reservations now. Every week you wait, it narrows your choice down. Of course the keys are more $$$$ to be in Paradise. Also you should look at the Naples area, all the RV parks there are northern "SNOW BIRDS" in the winter.

08flagvlite · 06-21-2011, 09:32 AM

You can't go wrong with Bahia Honda State park. VERY beautiful, nice beaches, 37 miles from Key West, and if you have a boat, they have their own marina with a store and gas.
Perfect place to camp in the Keys, in my opinion. I'm heading there this Saturday, actually! Randy

sunqueen · 06-21-2011, 10:45 AM

Bahia Honda is an awesome campground but it's very hard to score reservations, especially in season. I have 8 nights reserved for the end of Aug begin Sept that I made last Fall. The best way to get the dates you want is to go online 11 months before and book as soon as the site becomes available for reservation.

We camp there every summer and last year we took a rainy day to hit every RV park between KW and Marathon. We did not go to Leo's in KW, but I will try to check them out the next time I am down there. One of the places that was nice was Knight's Key Campground. The owners let us drive around and check out the facility and they had many types of options from oceanside to basic inland site.

Knights Key Campground - Campground centrally located in Marathon, Florida Keys

I hope this helps. The Keys book up quickly. Some of the places we looked at were real dumps and they charged a fortune. I have heard the KOA is nice. We also fell in love with the campground on Deer Key but they don't allow dogs since the whole key is a wildlife refuge, and our girls go where we go.

**Herk7769** · 06-21-2011, 12:07 PM

Are you retired (or in the) military? Look into camping at Navy Key West. They have two campgrounds (dry camping for the most part) at Trumbo Point and Sigsbee Key).

pattersonb · 06-30-2011, 11:22 AM

My wife and two, spoiled dogs are actively looking to book an RV site in Florida - March 2012 right now. We're looking at the Gulf side in the Sarasota/Clearwater/St. Petersburg area - but are also considering further north in the Panama City area. Any input on these areas would be appreciated (e.g. quality of campgrounds, availability of public ocean beaches, crowding, and potential college "spring-breakers"). I'm an old dog who starts circling, looking for a place to lay down about the time that college kids just get started for the night. Thanks!

blake2727 · 06-30-2011, 12:10 PM

We just got back last week from a two week trip down that way. We stayed in Destin. I would recomend Destin over Panama City as Destin is more of a family vacation destination and Panama City is all of the spring breakers. Destin has several options on campgrounds. If you want the quiet layed back campground that is a little bit out of town (10 minutes from the main strip) then check into Topsail Hill State Park. I hear its great but I have not been, as we like to be a little closer to the action. Topsail does have its own beach inside the state park. Camping on the gulf is a privately owned campground that acctually has beach front lots. Its also a little bit closer to the action than topsail but its very expensive for a campground (about 100 bucks a night). Keep coming back toward Destin and you will find two more that are minutes away from the action and about a block away from the public beach. They are both on the same street and we chose to stay at one of these. We stayed at Geronimo RV Resort. Its a newer park and the trees are not full grown yet so be prepared for the ac to run non stop. It is very quiet and very well maintained and all pads are concrete and the grass looks like a golf course. It also had a pretty reasonable price. The other one is on the same street and has a little more shade. I cant remember the name of it but we drove by it several times and it looked very nice and was gated. The prices were about the same as Geronimo but they wanted all of the money when you made your reservation and Geronimo didnt need anything until we showed up. If you don't need a full hookup then their is one more that is in the center of Destin and has its own beach but its only water and electric. It is called Henderson Beach State Park. I hope this may have helped a little bit. The private owned parks can be booked within a few months of arrival, the state parks (topsail for sure) have to be reserved sometimes up to a year in advance to get a spot.

bend302 · 06-30-2011, 03:46 PM

We love Topsail Hill Reserve State Park. It's the nicest Fla State Park we have seen. It has FULL hookups unlike most other Fla parks. It is about 12 miles from the center of Destin although we consider that a plus...

Very shady, a tram to the beach every 2 hours and quiet. March is a great time to be there as well.

We do not like the Panama City Beach area as well as it is often crowded with Spring Break traffic at that time of the year.

Bill

kbrown1075 · 06-30-2011, 05:13 PM

We love Topsail. We will be leaving in 8 days for a week of my feet in the water and my ***** in the sand! This will be our 3rd summer vaction to Topsail. We went last year for Thanksgiving, no swimming but great hiking on the trails. We book 11 months ahead (can't book any earlier). Fills up fast in the summer. There were many spots the week of Thanksgiving but filled up Wed through Friday and then the weekend emptied out.

brad gruss · 07-02-2011, 01:50 PM

Lived in Niceville/Destin about 10 years ago. If you want wonderful fresh steamed shrimp and other seafood treats try the "Old Bay Steamer" great food, family atmosphere.

bill and theresa · 07-02-2011, 04:33 PM

if you are military or retired or govt employee Eglin AFB has a great campground with full hook up and about $25 per night, with wireless. they also have another on the water ,water and electric only. We were there in January.

Tom A. · 07-16-2011, 12:28 PM

We too love Topsail...Blue water and white sand beaches.

Tom A. · 07-16-2011, 12:36 PM

We stayed at Blue Water Key for two weeks in May and it was absolutely beautiful
http://www.bluewaterkey.com It's about 14 miles north of Key West

oldprof1 · 07-22-2011, 08:28 PM

Destin is fine but the weather can be cool in that area Otherwise Destin is good. If you are looking for peace and quiet try the Florida panhandle. About half way between Apalachacola and Port St. Joe is Cape Sanblas. Twenty miles of deserted beach, 400 feet wide. There is a campground (state park) at the end of the road. I can't remember the name since we rented a house there in 2005 but it was great. Spring break happened while we were there. About 10 spring breakers was all that showed up at the most. Why so few? It was 30 miles to the nearest gas station, food store and restaurant. There is now a gas station about 5 miles away.

Naples is where we stayed last year in Morgan Resorts beside the Bovard Medical centre. Bike path great pool close to Naples and Marco Island. Weather Jan, Feb, March was excellent, so good we booked Dec to Feb this year. If you haven't guessed we are Canadian snow birds looking forward to this winter

sherdep · 07-22-2011, 08:41 PM

you can use reserveamaerica.com if you are looking for a state park.

Knights key campground - is a nice campground - have stayed there before - it was going to be turned into condo's before the bubble crashed.

Long Point Park in Melbourne (Sebastian Inlet) is a Brevard county run park and is very nice - right off the intercoastal.

If you want clear water - try Fort Desoto - they usually only allow reservations upto 6 months in advanced - you can look up there site and see what they have available to reserve online.

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