Koreshan Historic State Park — Koreshan State Historic Site
Fitz Edward O.
Reviewed Jul. 16, 2019

Close to town with a little history

  We recently stayed at Koreshan Historic State Park because our son and his family moved to the Ostero area and this is very convenient to their house. We had heard of the park and took the chance to drive trough before staying there. The campground is pretty small with a total of 54 sites and only 42 open to RVs with the rest reserved for tent campers. There is one bath house for the entire campground. It is located closer to the front of the camping loop so campers in the sites towards the back will have longer to go. The sites are equipped with electric and water. The sites are narrow and quite close to each other. There is some under story in between but they are so close that it makes little difference. They are sandy sites which I imagine can get quite soft in the dry season. We stayed in July and the rain tends to keep things fairly easy to drive on but it sticks to everything. Be sure to bring leveling blocks for your RV. The sites are very uneven. The park is close to Tamiami Trail so you do hear some traffic noise at night. We stayed in site 28 which is near the back corner of the loop and the traffic noise was minimal. There is a path that runs behind the sites that leads to the bathroom facilities but the trail from our site to that path was overgrown and unusable. This was not the case on all the sites.

    The rest of the park is very nice with a newer picnic pavilion and nature trail along the Ostero River. There are canoes and kayaks to rent with a well maintained boat ramp. The nature trail runs from the picnic area through a large stand of bamboo to the historic site from which that park gets it's name. The Koreshan settlement was founded in the very early 1900s by a religious sect from the Chicago area. Many of the original buildings are still in the park and there are daily tours of the buildings and lots of information about the people who settled here.

   As I mentioned, this park is close to Tamiami Trail at the end of Corkscrew Rd.. You are minutes from grocery stores, hardware stores, restaurants and all kinds of retail shops. The Coconut Point Mall is right down the road. There is a movie theater, restaurants and the typical collection of upscale retailers you would find in a mall. The park's entrance is across an intersection from a good size strip mall with a Publix.

  Overall, we liked this park and found it a very convenient place to stay and hang out with our family. Not exactly "getting away from it all" but that's not why we came.

Site28
Month of VisitAugust
  • Review photo of Koreshan Historic State Park — Koreshan State Historic Site by Fitz Edward O., July 16, 2019
  • Review photo of Koreshan Historic State Park — Koreshan State Historic Site by Fitz Edward O., July 16, 2019
  • Review photo of Koreshan Historic State Park — Koreshan State Historic Site by Fitz Edward O., July 16, 2019
  • Review photo of Koreshan Historic State Park — Koreshan State Historic Site by Fitz Edward O., July 16, 2019
  • The bamboo forest
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  • Lots of tortoise
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