Florida Family Fun Campgrounds

[pattie1tom]

Hello All

We live in Sarasota county Florida and try to get out in the rv at least every other week. Due to work schedules, it is almost always leave Friday after work and return Sunday. We try to stay within a 2-hour drive.

Some of our favorite places that are family friendly are:

1) Ft Desoto State Park, St Pete: The campground is on the bay and most sites are on the water. There are several awesome beaches within a mile bike ride and the fishing is great. Plus the campground has several playgrounds for kids.

2) Riverside RV Resort, Port Charlotte: This park, though booked solid in the winter, has plenty for kids to do. Weekends have candy bar bingo, karaoke, pool games, arts&crafts, they have two fishing piers, plenty of space in the summer for kids to run around and have fun

3) Oscar Shear State Park, Nokomis: Great state park. One of the few that has swimming. It has fishing, and is located next to the Venice-Sarasota Rails to Trails bike path. It also has great hiking and a perfect place to nature watch with birds, bobcats, etc.

4) Sun&Fun, Sarasota: Though this tends to still be heavily occupied with retiree's, it does have a very large swimming pool and water slide. It has movies by pool side at night. Fishing in two of the ponds as well as plenty of space for biking. It has mini-golf, game room, etc.

And of course, Ft Wildreness Campground, Disney. What more can you say, it's Disney and as a Florida resident you can get some good deals.

Let me know what your favorites are.

Anyone in the Southwest Florida area with kids want to meet up one weekend?

Cheers

Tom

[wolfe10]

Tom,

Last week we stayed in a Corp of Engineers Park at the Franklin Lock, just east of Ft Myers. We were on our sailboat (they have 8 slips) as well as a CG!

The kids can watch boats locking through, go fishing, etc. It is a small park and I suspect stays pretty booked.

http://www.reserveamerica.com/campgroundDetails.do?subTabIndex=0&&contractCode=nrso&parkCode=wfrn

Brett

[MCool]

Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, FL is a great place to camp! Kids love it.

River Ranch Resort is also great just east of Lake Wales on 60. The kids in our camping group ranked this better than Ft. Wilderness for them. The rodeo is fun. There is also clay shooting, golf (not so great 9 hole golf course), fishing, horseback riding, airboat rides, swamp buggy tours, saloon with family hours and more. Lots of places to ride bikes etc. The resort has a rental program for sites to rent. Don't confuse it with the River Ranch hunting camps.

We also like CB Smith park in Ft. Lauderdale. It has a large waterpark for kids. It may sound strange going to Ft. Lauderdale to camp, but this is a great park.

[ptjeff04]

Been to River Ranch and of course Ft Wilderness each about 20+ times. Destin at Camp on the Gulf a few. River Ranch is our kids favorite. Every Saturday night there is a rodeo, as well as skeet shooting, air boat rides, fishing, tennis, game room, BBQ, occasional hay rides, horseback rides, petting zoo and other things.

[hermanmullins]

pattie1tom and ptjiff04,

I applauded both of you for introducing your children to this wonderful country and to Rving. Sounds like you'll have as mush fun as the Kids.

Keep up the great parenting.

Herman

[twinomadic]

Hello,

We have just bought a brand new RV and will be full timing with our 4.5 year old twins. We know nothing about RV's!!

We are staying in the Sarasota area from January 13th to April 10th. Would love to meet other RV families.

Thanks,

Jill

[kaypsmith]

Here is one to add to your list of Florida parks with things to do. February is a good month to visit because there is a battle enactment that takes place that month, actors come from all over the US to participate, and they bring real weapons to use and exhibit. Of course no real bullets or cannon balls are fired, but most make their own authentic black powder.

https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/olustee-battlefield-historic-state-park

The park is less than fifteen miles from both I-10 and I-75 near Lake City. There is a campground on the park premises, but also several individual CG's near by.

[wildebill308]

Someone must be bored, reading old post. This was Posted December 28, 2015.

But good information.

Bill

[jleamont]

5 hours ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

Someone must be bored, reading old post. This was Posted December 28, 2015.

But good information.

Bill

Yeah, but at least he has his coach information listed 

[wolfe10]

Must REALLY be "inside weather across the country". 

Which is a precursor to really bored.

Which is a precursor to "time out".

Let's all hope the sun comes out!

[wildebill308]

Brett it has been down to 20* last couple of days with wind chills near 5* I am not doing much outside. On the other hand the last average freeze is 3/13 and it is supposed to be 75 Friday and Saturday.

Bill

[manholt]

Bill, maybe where your at, but Brett and I are stuck in 68/69 and Thunder Storms!  Joe is still frozen! 

That aside, let's leave this site alone, for Kay and others to find fun things in FL., with kids!   The next response may be in 2023! 

[kaypsmith]

10 hours ago, manholt said:

That aside, let's leave this site alone, for Kay and others to find fun things in FL., with kids!   The next response may be in 2023! 

https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/ichetucknee-springs-state-park

If you have never tubed down the Ichetucknee river, you have missed a lot, it's also one of most famous diving excursions in the state. And it ain't (isn't) 2023 yet.