Thinking about doing a few nights in Fort Desoto Park in Florida in Nov. Looking for advice and recomendations.

Beautiful place. Make reservations ASAP as it is extremely popular.

I live about 25 miles from the Park and we visit about twice a year. Is is a great park but there are lots of low hanging trees and the roads are very narrow. According to which site you have, getting into your spot can be a challenge if you have a large rig.That being said, I see a lot of big rigs in the park. Burch

Hard to get reservations, but well worth the effort. Last time we looked at the website, there was a place to see the camp sites and determine in which you can fit.

Great park - sites easier to come by during the week. If you have a pet, you are restricted to one particular loop so keep this in mind when searching sites. Their website is excellent - shows pictures of the sites and gives size. We found most sites were quite large.There are great paved trails for bicycling so if you have bikes be sure to bring them along. The beach is about 2 or 3 miles from the c.g. (going from memory) but is really nice.

You can reserve six months out (seven months if Pinellas County resident) and it keeps getting more popular. Some sites now are held back, available weekly on Fridays for the week ahead. The park is set on a batch of islands. Some sites have beautiful water and sunset views (you have your own, personal "millionaire's view," though sometimes folks stroll past or kids may play between your camp chairs and the water). There are sea walls, not sandy beaches, in the camping section so you can't swim from the campsites but the park beach is gorgeous. You can, however, launch small craft like a kayak from your site I believe. Sites have grills but not fire pits. You can rent a portable fire pit tub from the little store. The sites are sandy, so a plastic RV rug or door mat helps hold down the tracking in.Be sure to tour the fort and small museum nearby - interesting history. There's a ferry to Egmont Key off shore (keep meaning to do that) and a dog park. The best time to go is midweek and not on weekends or during holidays when younger locals use the park. We've had noisy partying groups next to us during those times, and also been stuck in long lines of cars approaching the beach (you don't pay extra as a camper but when you turn right out of the CG you can encounter a backup of day trippers paying during heavy demand times).

Fort Desoto Park - Tampa Bay in Nov - good/bad/ugly?

19 Replies

JoeTampa
Explorer
Mar 29, 2016
Tripalot wrote:
jspringator wrote:
For some reason I was under the impression that out of county residents had to appear personally for reservations. Does anybody know whether or not that is true? I had written that place off.

I don't think this is true unless the rules have changed in the past couple of years.

Not true. We have stayed there after reserving online. We are not County residents.
garmp
Explorer II
Mar 29, 2016
Thanks a bunch Mich.
Txsurfer
Explorer
Mar 29, 2016
Thanks everyone - going to try an nail a few days in NOV.
Tripalot
Explorer
Mar 29, 2016
jspringator wrote:
For some reason I was under the impression that out of county residents had to appear personally for reservations. Does anybody know whether or not that is true? I had written that place off.

I don't think this is true unless the rules have changed in the past couple of years.
NoVa_RT
Explorer
Mar 28, 2016
Was there in September 2014 - great park. North Beach was fantastic - warm water & lots of soft white sand. It's a bit farther away than East Beach. No additional charge for the rest of the park for those staying at the campground.
loggenrock
Explorer
Mar 28, 2016
txsurfer - we stayed at Fort DeSoto around Veteran's Day in November (your question...) about 4 years ago. Weather was very nice (considering we had gotten snowed in headed south in the Shenandoah's of VA!). We were in the dog loop. Very nice park - would stay there again. ST
Mich_F
Explorer
Mar 28, 2016
garmp1 wrote:

I can't find a site that gives me info as to what fits or not, nor anything visual. Is there a link?

thanks

If you go to the link and click on reserve by site, then click on a section, then click on a specific site (yeah it sounds like a lot of clicking :B) it will give a picture and description(size) of each site.
Mich_F
Explorer
Mar 28, 2016
jspringator wrote:
For some reason I was under the impression that out of county residents had to appear personally for reservations. Does anybody know whether or not that is true? I had written that place off.

I believe that was true in the past. You can for some time now reserve a site on line. As noted earlier county residents can reserve further out than non county residents.
I don't believe it has been mentioned yet but RVs bigger than something like a pop up camper are restricted from section one (sites 1 thru 85) due to even lower tree branches and such.
Tachdriver
Explorer
Mar 28, 2016
jspringator wrote:
For some reason I was under the impression that out of county residents had to appear personally for reservations. Does anybody know whether or not that is true? I had written that place off.

No, you can make them here at the link from out of town.

Ft. Desoto Campground Reservations
riven1950
Explorer
Mar 28, 2016
We were there for 6 days this month. Nice place. Good for kayaking.website is www.pinellascounty.org/park/camping.htm

You can see sites and reserve online