12 Amazing Campgrounds on the Beach in Florida
Florida beaches draw millions of people to their soft sand and warm waters by day. By night, camping draws thousands to the tranquil views and promise of peaceful sleep close to nature. The contrast from tourist attraction to quiet campgrounds on the beach is as vivid as day and night. Though the hot summer months see much less usage at the beachfront campgrounds, the cooler period between October and May requires reservations several months in advance. Florida’s many miles of coastline and many state parks with campgrounds mean many opportunities for beach camping in Florida.
FLORIDA HAS RECENTLY EXPERIENCED CATASTROPHIC BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IN LATE SEPTEMBER AND EARLY OCTOBER. Large parts of Florida have devastating damage with many businesses closed. The exceptions, as of mid-October 2024, are Southeast Florida and the Panhandle. If you plan to visit Florida, PLEASE do so with caution and check in with businesses you intend to support. Additionally, please DO NOT VISIT the most devastated areas until they are reopened and able to handle tourists and visitors. Wander Florida is fully reader-supported. For that reason, this article may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. This revenue helps keep Wander Florida free and updated. I only recommend products or services that I would use myself. Read the full disclosure here.
In this post, I’ve compiled the 12 best places for beach camping in Florida. With magnificent views, excellent amenities, and amazing locations, camping at these beachfront campgrounds provides tent and RV campers with unique memories and unparalleled peace.
Of course, before you head out camping, you need supplies, right? Like waterproof tents. Or camp stoves if you don’t want to cook over an open fire. How about solar chargers, air mattresses, and toiletry bags. I’m amazed every year at all the new gadgets and neat stuff available for camping. Even primitive camping doesn’t have to be difficult or uncomfortable (and we do it a lot on primitive islands with no running water or electricity).
Grayton State Park
Grayton Beach State Park
357 Main Park Road – Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459
Tucked away within the confines of Grayton Beach, a town on the Gulf of Mexico, Grayton Beach State Park spans over 2,000 acres. On Florida’s panhandle, the park fronts the Gulf of Mexico on its southern border with 1 mile of sugar sand beach. It has been a state park since 1968. Dr. Beach named Grayton Beach the best beach in the United States in 2020.
Grayton Beach offers visitors a look at old and natural Florida in thirteen distinct ecosystems which include tidal marsh, beach dune, and scrubby flatwoods. Besides the beach, the park’s popular amenities include many hiking and biking trails and Western Lake, a brackish lake popular for boating, fishing, and canoeing. Along the beach, fishing, swimming, and sunbathing are among the favorite activities. Large sand dunes line the edges of the beach, sometimes burying slash pine and magnolia trees. The dunes are homes to endangered animals and are off-limits to human foot traffic. In the summer, the beach also becomes a nesting site for various marine turtle species.
St. Andrews State Park
St. Andrews State Park
4607 State Park Lane – Panama City Beach, Florida 32408
St. Andrews State Park in the Florida panhandle offers 176 campsites in two campgrounds. The campgrounds, though near the Grand Lagoon, are not beachfront, rather surrounded by pine woodlands. Each site provides electricity, water, a fire ring, picnic table, and access to everything the park offers, including five bathrooms with hot showers. Campsites accommodate RVs to 45 feet and allow pets.
One and a half miles of sugar-sand beach and over 1200 acres entice water enthusiasts to enjoy both the inshore and Gulf of Mexico waters surrounding the park. Divided by Gulf-Bay Pass, half of St. Andrews contains all the park buildings, campgrounds, roads, and historic sites. The other half of the park, known as Shell Island, is accessible via boat tours or on your private vessel. It shows off how Florida would have looked when only Native Americans visited these barrier islands to gather shellfish.
After the Pass was dredged in the 1930s, St. Andrews served as a military reservation. Two 150 mm guns were built among the dunes during World War II. One of the gun mounts still exists, protected from the elements by a pavilion. Besides this military history, visitors can also learn about the turpentine stills used in the area during the turpentine still era. If history isn’t your things, enjoy water activities such as swimming or kayaking, or go fishing from one of the two fishing piers.
T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park
St. Joseph Peninsula State Park
8899 Cape San Blas Road – Port St. Joe, Florida 32456
On Florida’s panhandle, Native Americans first inhabited the area known as St. Joseph Peninsula State Park for hundreds (or even thousands) of years before European contact. Spanish conquistadores named the area St. Joseph Bay in the 1500s. Though settlers from Apalachicola tried to start a successful port here in 1839, an outbreak of yellow fever put an end to the town just a few short years later. The peninsula became privately owned by the Stone family, then was sold to the state of Florida in 1940 and became a state park in 1967.
St. Joseph offers visitors 9.5 miles of beach for swimming and sunbathing. Part of Florida’s award-winning state park system, this park has been recognized as one of the best state parks in the country and one of the nation’s best beaches.
Day users enjoy the beaches, picnicking, hiking, swimming, snorkeling, fishing, and boating. Campers have their choice of 119 campsites in two campgrounds. The campsites offer fire rings, grills, electricity, water, and access to bathrooms with hot showers. Though neither campground is a beachfront campground, they are both a short walk along the boardwalk from the beach. Despite no direct beach camping on St. Joseph, the campsites have beautiful views of natural Florida wilderness including slash pine forests, palmetto undergrowth, and grassy marshes.
Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park
Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park
1900 E. Gulf Beach Drive – St. George Island, Florida 32328
If you’re noticing a trend where you can go beach camping in Florida, it’s for good reason. Florida State Parks is the only state park system to have been awarded the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence three times. The 175+ state parks in the system are some of the best in the nation, and St. George Island on the panhandle is no exception. The park’s nine miles of pristine beach are considered some of the finest in the country – Dr. Beach named it #4 in 2022 – and a fun beach for families to enjoy. Of these nine miles, four are along the main road while the other five miles are considered sensitive, protected areas and are accessible only by foot.
The campground at St. George, like others on the panhandle, is not on the beach. Many of the campgrounds along the Gulf Coast are not, in fact, beachfront campgrounds because turtles and birds frequently use the Gulf beaches for nesting.
The St. George campsites feature grills, electricity, water, and hot showers in centrally located bathrooms. Pine scrub surrounds each site and offers a great deal of privacy. Though not beachfront, the campground is located across the main road from the beach, so is easy to access.
Cayo Costa State Park
Cayo Costa State Park
4 nautical miles west of Pine Island – Lee County, Florida
Cayo Costa is unique on this list among other campgrounds on the beach in Florida because it is accessible only by boat or ferry. The 2,426-acre park encompasses an entire island in southwest Florida near Charlotte Harbor. With nine miles of pristine beach and acres upon acres of oak hammock, pine woodlands, and mangrove marshes, Cayo Costa delights nature enthusiasts in search of a quieter, less crowded Florida oasis.
Visitors to the island enjoy swimming, shelling, surf fishing, and sunbathing on the beach, fishing in the inshore waters on the bay side of the island, hiking miles of nature trails, bird watching, and wildlife viewing. Two of the nature trails lead to interesting historic finds, including a cemetery and the remains of a quarantine dock.
Cayo Costa has a long and rich history. Like many of Florida’s barrier islands, Native Americans called Calusa lived and fished in and around Charlotte Harbor, including on Cayo Costa. The Calusa were one of the Florida tribes which left behind shell mounds. In the 1700 and 1800s, Spanish explorers and fishermen used the island, naming it Cayo Costa (“key on the coast”) and La Costa Island (“Coast Island”). Fishermen from Cuba established fishing rancheros where they fished, then smoked their catches and exported them, mostly to Cuba. The late 1800s saw the addition of a quarantine dock, where ships coming into the harbor stopped and raised a yellow flag. A doctor would then check the crew for diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. By the 1900s, 20 families lived on the island and had established a post office, grocery store, and school.
Overnight visitors to the beachfront campground should expect primitive conditions. There is no water or electric service to any of the 30 campsites or the 12 cabins. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring as well as the exquisite privacy and beauty found only on an uninhabited island. If you plan to use the ferry, make sure you make reservations beforehand. You will also want to arrive before 4 PM to catch the tram that will take you to the campground. If you miss the tram, plan to haul your gear about a mile across the island from the ferry dock to the campsites.
Fort De Soto Park
Fort de Soto County Park
3500 Pinellas Bayway South – Tierra Verde, Florida 33715
Fort De Soto Park comprises five islands. Counting the land and surrounding waters, the park is over 1,000 acres in size and is at the entrance to Tampa Bay. The campground, though not on the beach, offers many waterfront campsites. All sites provide campers with electricity, water, a grill, and a fire ring. Each of the three sections of the campground has bathrooms with hot showers. One campground is restricted to just tents and pop-ups while one campground allows dogs. Two playgrounds entertain kids when they aren’t out enjoying everything else the park offers. The waterfront sites give campers stunning sunset views across the flats and islands that make up this part of Florida. Primitive camping is also available on Shell Key. Campers who wish to camp there must get a permit and can only reach Shell Key by kayak or canoe.
Fort De Soto offers visitors seven miles of coastline, three of which are beach. Visitors have many activities they can take part in, such as cycling the many miles of hard path; hiking across three original trails, fishing from the piers, from the surf, or from the shore; kayaking or canoeing; exploring the history of the main island; and taking a ferry to nearby Egmont Key, which is only accessible by private boat or ferry.
The Tocobaga Indians used the islands of the park, particularly Mullet Key, for approximately 400 years. They left behind shell mounds throughout the Tampa Bay area, including the islands of Fort De Soto Park. The islands, however, are better known as the site of Fort De Soto, completed in 1900. The Army Engineers aboard the schooner Phoenix surveyed Egmont and Mullet Keys as early as 1849 and decided the islands were a good place for a fort. With the Civil War and then use as a quarantine station until 1899, construction of the fort was delayed. Though the fort saw no action, at one time 125 soldiers were stationed there. Three hurricanes battered the islands, destroying many of the wooden buildings, and in 1938, the fort was sold to Pinellas County. Visitors today can see the original battery, which was unique in its construction, a museum with many artifacts found on Mullet Key, and the foundations of most of the 29 original buildings.
Bahia Honda State Park
Bahia Honda State Park
36850 Overseas Highway – Big Pine Key, Florida 33043
Bahia Honda State Park offers camping directly on the beach at each of its three campgrounds. Sites range from graveled ones best suited for RVs to small sites beneath low-branched trees where only tents can be pitched. No matter which kind of camping you choose, Bahia Honda is widely considered one of the best campgrounds in Florida. If you’re camping with teenagers and need a really great place to wow them, this is the place to go.
One of the southernmost state parks in Florida, Bahia Honda became a tourist destination when Henry Flagler’s railroad came to the Florida Keys in the early 1900s. Trains passing through the area often stopped on the island to allow passengers to enjoy the beaches and sea breeze. It became a public park in 1938 and a state park in 1961.
Bahia Honda offers many amenities to day visitors and campers. Award-winning beaches lure visitors by day to their warm waters. Besides swimming and sunbathing, beach goers can rent kayaks, take snorkeling tours to nearby Looe Key, cycle the 3.5 miles of park roads, fish for tarpon and other saltwater fish near the historic bridge, or hike and bird watch along the nature trails. Boat owners can even spend the night in the park’s marina. Those who spend the night camping have access to all these amenities as well as bathrooms with hot water, free Wi-Fi at the concession area, grills and water at the campsites, and electricity at most of the campsites.
Long Key State Park
Long Key State Park
67400 Overseas Highway – Long Key, Florida 33001
Direct ocean breezes wash through your tent, the cooling wind a stark contrast to the day’s sun. This close to the ocean, humidity clings to the inside of the tent as fat drops of water. Everything becomes damp, but it feels great snuggled under a sheet or two, sun-kissed skin stinging from a day exploring Long Key. A hundred years ago, the best salt water anglers and the rich and famous spent nights and days like this at Henry Flagler’s Long Key Fish Camp. The Fish Camp, a luxury stop along Flagler’s railroad line, was destroyed in 1935 by the Labor Day Hurricane and never rebuilt.
Today, visitors to the island fish and snorkel in the aquamarine waters around the island, hike one of the nature trails, kayak the bay or ocean waters, birdwatch, or swim in the warm waters. All 60 campsites provide oceanfront locations and stunning views of the sunrise. They also have electricity, water, fire rings, picnic tables, access to hot showers in the bathrooms, and allow dogs. Long Key State Park elevates beach camping to new heights with its amazing location, one of the few truly beachfront campgrounds in Florida.
Sebastian Inlet State Park
Sebastian Inlet State Park
9700 South Highway A1A – Melbourne Beach, Florida 32951
Another history-filled park, Sebastian Inlet is a favorite with surfers and anglers. The park’s key feature, the man-made inlet which splits the barrier island in half, connects the Atlantic Ocean with the biodiversity of the Indian River Lagoon. Two museums within the park tell the stories of the area. The McLarty Treasure Museum houses exhibits about the 1715 Treasure Fleet, a fleet of Spanish ships that was nearly destroyed by a hurricane. Eleven ships went down with approximately 1,000 men perishing in the storm. The Sebastian Fishing Museum celebrates the rich history of the fishing industry in and around Sebastian Inlet.
Besides the museums and fishing off the inlet’s jetties, visitors to the park enjoy swimming, snorkeling, shelling, kayaking, hiking, and cycling. The campground occupies a section of the park along the Indian River Lagoon. A nearby boat ramp provides easy access to the lagoon for kayakers, canoers, and boaters. The beaches are located a short drive away across the main road through the park.
Gamble Rogers Memorial Recreation Area
Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach
3100 S. Oceanshore Boulevard – Flagler Beach, Florida 32136
One of the most popular campgrounds on the beach in Florida, Gamble Rogers covers 145 acres and is named after folk singer, Gamble Rogers. Born near Orlando, Gamble Rogers rose to stardom in the folk and country music industry in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1991, while camping at Flagler Beach, he attempted to rescue a drowning man after the man’s daughter asked him for help. Using an air mattress, Rogers attempted to save the man, but both men perished in the rough surf. The park was renamed in Rogers’ honor, and he was posthumously awarded the Kiwanis Award for bravery and the Carnegie Award for heroism.
The campground’s 68 sites are split between beachfront camping sites and riverfront sites. Many of the beachfront sites offer amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and sunrise skies, while the riverfront sites give campers stunning sunsets. Electricity and water are found at the sites, and some are handicap accessible as well. Pets are allowed in the park but are prohibited on the beach. Visitors to the park experience coquina sand beaches, kayaking, hiking, picnicking, and swimming.
Anastasia State Park
Anastasia State Park
300 Anastasia Park Road – St. Augustine, Florida 32080
Anastasia State Park stretches across four miles of pristine beaches where visitors can sunbathe, find shells, and discover Florida’s unique flora and fauna. While some of the beach is suitable for swimming, quite a bit of it is considered too dangerous and no swimming is allowed as there are no lifeguards on duty. However, the inner side of the island, known as Salt Run, offers visitors quiet waters on which to kayak, windsurf, and fish.
Formed by the action of the Atlantic moving sand along the NE Florida coast, Anastasia Island has been added on to by nature, even as recently as 1964 when Hurricane Dora deposited more sand between Conch and Anastasia Islands, linking the two into what is now known only as Anastasia. Florida history abounds in this park in the coquina quarry as well. The quarry dates back several hundred years to the time when Castillo San Marcos was constructed in nearby St. Augustine. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The campgrounds on Anastasia, though not on the beach, are in a maritime hammock. Hammocks stand higher than the surrounding area, usually heavily treed with oaks, palms, and pines. The maritime hammock at Anastasia provides large shade oaks over the campsites, a lovely respite from Florida’s sun. Campsites include electricity, water, fire rings, and picnic tables. Several bathrooms with hot showers service the 139 sites.
Fort Clinch State Park
Fort Clinch State Park
2601 Atlantic Avenue – Fernandina Beach, Florida 32034
The last beachfront campground on this list is another state park, Fort Clinch State Park near Jacksonville in NE Florida. Fort Clinch sits on over 1400 acres and is on the barrier island, Amelia Island. The park has three miles of beaches and offers several family-friendly activities, such as shore fishing, swimming, shelling, sunbathing, wildlife viewing, and shark tooth hunting. Fort Clinch also hosts several reenactments throughout the year, including a Civil War reenactment, Spanish-American War Living History Weekends, and the popular First Weekend Union Garrison which enables visitors to experience life at the fort as it was in 1864.
Construction began on Fort Clinch in 1847 with the fort designed as an irregular pentagon capable of housing 500 soldiers and 78 pieces of artillery. The fort fell into Confederate hands in 1861 when Florida seceded from the Union. The Confederate army did not continue construction, rather building batteries in nearby Fernandina Beach. Union forces took back the fort in 1862 and worked tirelessly to complete its construction. Unfortunately, it was never completed though it was used during the Spanish-American War starting in 1898. The state of Florida purchased the property in 1935, and the Civilian Conservation Corps repaired the fort and constructed things such as the visitor center and roads during the 1940s.
Campers in Fort Clinch can choose from 69 campsites in two campgrounds. One beachfront campground overlooks Cumberland Sound and offers a few beachfront camping sites which are restricted to RVs and trailers only (no tents). The other campground overlooks a wooded hammock along the Amelia River. Both campgrounds have electric and water, picnic tables, grills, and hot showers. Those who spend the night at one of the Fort Clinch campgrounds can, of course, enjoy all the activities the park offers day visitors, including kayaking/canoeing, the beach, and miles of trails for cycling and hiking.
More Information for Camping on the Beach
Campgrounds on the beach in Florida, though plentiful, are most often found within state or county parks. Though not all the beach camping in Florida is actual beachfront camping, all these parks provide stunning beach locations with access available to those who stay for a unique overnight experience. If you decide to try Florida beach camping at one of these beachfront campgrounds, make your reservations well in advance (8-9 months) as sites sell out fast, especially during the cooler winter months.
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I was looking at the picture of fort de Soto for a long time. It just takes me to some happy times even though I haven’t been to this part of the world. The camperfroynds are awesome.
Thanks for sharing! So happy it brought back great memories.
Ohh I had no idea you were able to camp around there. Great info!
Yes! Florida has tons of great camping spots.