Customer Reviews

The Best in Tent Camping: Florida: A Guide for Campers Who Hate Rvs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portab Le Stereos

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a native Floridian who has lived as far south as the FL Keys and as far north as the Pan Handle, I turned critical eye on Johnny Molloy's "The Best in Tenting Camping:Florida". I was delighted to see included some of my favorite destinations as well as places other locals have long prized as remnants of the "real Florida". As an experienced kayak camper I particularly appreciated Mr. Molloy's inclusion of information on paddling opportunities. He has provided new information on put-in destinations as well as coaxed me into my many new trail hiking experiences. I find this book accurate in it's assesements and helpful in it's suggestions. When in Florida, keep your sunscreen, fishing pole and copy of "The Best in Tent Camping: Florida" close at hand.

Thanks Johnny for teaching a local few new tricks!

The person that wrote this book would make a great campground neighbor! He gives a frank review that allow realistic expectations for the prospective camper. Also suggests site #'s that would be less likely to be placed next to a noisy RV. I use this book along with Campers Guide to Florida (2nd Edition), by Mickey Little before I take any camp trip. The Tent Camping book has all the information, but the Campers Guide has campground maps. Makes a great combination!

Planning a trip through FL can lead you through an overwhelming amount of where to stay options. Fortunately,"The Best in Tent Camping Florida" is the perfect guide to help you sift through all your choices and narrow down your search for that perfect place to stay. He has a great rating system for each campground and it is based on beauty, site privacy, spaciousness, quiet, security and cleanliness. He even gives advice on interesting sites worth seeing while you are there. He has really picked out the best of the best Florida has to offer for us "tenters".

I purchased this book thinking the author had information about little known campgounds which actually lived up to the 'no RVs or loud portable radios' hype. Sadly, this was not the case.
It's mainly a list of state parks, which are always replete with both RV's and unwanted noise usually going on until well after quiet time. The few locations I personally know of, which come closer to the author's claims do not appear in this publication. In all fairness, he's right about there being no concrete slabs.

This guide is my camping bible. I live in Orlando, and I like to go car camping often. And, since this is Florida, I often compete with the r.v. folks for limited space. And tent campers often do not dwell peacefully alongside the generators and sheer size of an r.v. This is the only guide I've reached for, time and again, which allows me to stay far from the r.v. behemoths to pitch my little piece of heaven and enjoy a small campfire.

The [limited] campgrounds listed here (more on that in a moment) offer details that enable a camper to choose the best site to pitch the tent and relax. There are also details about the activities of each campground, so campers who own a boat or kayak, bicycles or hiking shoes, can plan activities to begin the moment they claim their site.

All of that said, the guide does have its limitations. For example, there are literally hundreds of campsites in Florida that are not listed here. A Florida camper should not limit herself to this guide--check out websites of the national parks, state parks, and private campgrounds as well. Also, because of constant changes in the natural habitats of Florida (caused by hurricanes, brush fires, etc.), the guide is often a bit late with important information, e.g., a state park that's closed due to damage from a hurricane. If you want to camp in Florida, these are the challenges you'll face. So check the websites of each park before you book your campsite.

It's still the best guide out there. Nonetheless, potential campers in Florida should do their homework to check current conditions.

I use this book as a companion to "Florida State Parks" by Michal Strutin. The State Parks book has very good basic information about all the State parks but this book has the details about size, privacy, view, etc. that is nice to know about each campground. Unfortunately it does not cover all of the State parks. Most of the campgrounds are State parks but a few are State forests and National forests. I didn't find any private campgrounds listed.

The information is a little dated, particularly with regard to electric and water. Our experience is that the several State Park campgrounds we have camped in have water and electric in all sites now. This means there is more intermingling of RVs and tents, but the areas described as tenting areas in this book still hold pretty true even though there will be an occasional RV.

This book give lots of good information about the tent sites, which was the most helpful. I would have liked to have seen more consistency with what information was offered overall for each location.

A bit out of date but is interesting on getting a perspective on where to camp in a more peaceful and natural setting than the typical rv parking space camp sites.

I am new to Florida and with all the different options its good to have a reference to turn to for places to go that someone has already been to. It provides information from the campers view and not the parks.

This book is thorough for what it covers, but be sure to also purchase the Moon Florida Camping book. This book is exactly what it says, the best of tent camping. The Moon Florida book, at 800+ pages, appears to list nearly every campsite in Florida. The two books together cover everything you need to know about Florida camping (I've lived in Florida for 40 years).