4 Florida Campsites Travelers May Want To Avoid

Whether you're a snowbird flying south for the winter, or a local looking for a quick weekend getaway in nature, Florida has over 900 campgrounds and RV parks to choose from, with over 100,000 campsites between them — and that's not even counting dispersed camping and the spots you'll find wild camping on the Florida Trail. The offerings vary from hike-in tent camping, to luxurious stays that are theme park-adjacent — whatever your taste, there are wonderful options. That said, there are also those unfortunate camping spots that might make you wonder if you've backed your Airstream trailer into the ninth circle of hell.

The thing is, you can't always tell by looking at pictures. Some of the worst campsites are found right beside perfectly lovely attractions, or in beautiful natural settings. Sometimes it's nature making a spot unbearable, but often it's the human factor. To find the worst of the worst, we've combed through Reddit, Tripadvisor, Yelp, Facebook, YouTube, and other forum and review sites looking for juicy horror stories. Then we dug around to make sure the experiences described weren't one-time outliers, but representative of what you might expect to experience should you wander into them yourself. 

By all means, put the dazzling, one-of-a-kind Florida Caverns State Park, just over an hour from Tallahassee, on your bucket list, especially for the unique flashlight cavern tour. Think twice, however, about booking a campsite in spring or summer, when the mosquitoes are nothing short of epic. The park has swamplands, some even close to the campsite, contributing to the mosquito problem. One Tripadvisor camper reported being unable to get out of their vehicle because of the thousands of mosquitoes blanketing it on arrival. Another Tripadvisor reviewer wrote that even when doused with bug repellent "the mosquitos were like attacking bees." 

Florida's Collier-Seminole State Park offers an authentic, under-the-radar Everglades experience less than half an hour from Naples, but you may want to think twice about camping there from May to November. The park packs 'em in like sardines. One Tripadvisor camper wrote, "We felt like rats or chickens in a cage." Another Tripadvisor reviewer described arriving to find "no clear definition to the campsites, and absolutely no privacy. We stayed in our car with our mouths hung open in shock." Understandably, they turned around and drove away. Save yourself the wasted time and spend the day kayaking here, but camp at a nearby resort RV park, or the peaceful Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest 75 miles away.

According to reviews, Peace River Campground 87 miles south of Tampa might be one of the worst-named campgrounds ever. If you innocently take its name at face value, you'll expect an idyllic weekend getaway immersed in nature. But what you'll really get is a campground that caters to ATV enthusiasts. So if you like to rip the trails in a side-by-side, this will be a favorite, but if you came expecting peace, well, the joke's on you. "Would not recommend this campground unless you have an ATV and don't mind constant noise, reckless driving, and no safety measures," one Google reviewer wrote.

The 1,500-mile Florida Trail may be one of the most beautiful hikes in America, but it's also home to one truly miserable primitive campsite: Bradwell Island. Florida Hikes! calls the 12.3-mile section of the trail, which traverses the Bradwell Bay Wilderness in the Apalachicola National Forest, "Florida's roughest, wildest day hike." But thru-hikers who need to spend the night here have to seek out this deep, dark swamp's only dry spots: the islands that appear during dry season. One AllTrails reviewer writes "... you'll be chest deep in blackwater in a hot-as-hell ancient swamp, with gators, snakes, spiders, and clouds of yellowflies." Needless to say, few choose to spend the night in such a spooky, swampy place.