Florida State Parks Camping

Florida's 140-plus State Parks feature diverse arrays of topography, wildlife, activities, and outdoor adventures. There are waterfall parks, sand pine forest parks, beach parks, and wildlife parks, most of which permit--even encourage--overnight camping. The options are dizzying, and the choices can be overwhelming to those unfamiliar with the area. Many online reference tools only add to the confusion, since they only list park hours, and camping fees.

Free, Intelligent Guide to Florida's National Parks

Enter a handy, free, government website for Florida state parks. Sponsored by Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, www.floridastateparks.com is a very useful tool for finding the perfect park. This website is full of photographs of the different parks, and features excellent individual thumbnail descriptions. They also list those which are pet-friendly, and have a sort feature based on activities.

Once you know which Florida State Park you want to visit, you can then go directly to the national state parks reservation site, www.reserveamerica.com. Reserve America also has a toll free phone line, 1-800-326-3521, with operators to serve callers seven days a week from 8:00 am to 8:00 p.m., eastern time. Camping reservations for Florida's State Parks may be made as close as two days prior to arrival, and as far in advance as eleven months.

Although many of Florida's State Parks feature guided tours, some visitors want more than a generic, one-fits-all tour can provide. These visitors may contact the State of Florida's Nature and Heritage Tourism Center, at 386-397-4461. The Center provides very detailed information about outdoor tours in multiple areas, as well as tips on equipment and other outfitting.