Green Swamp — Hampton Tract, near Lakeland, Florida, is a free camping area that offers a rustic experience for those looking to escape into nature. With spacious sites featuring picnic tables and fire pits, it’s a great place to unwind and enjoy the outdoors.

The campground is surrounded by beautiful wooded areas, providing plenty of shade and a peaceful atmosphere. Visitors have noted that it’s generally quiet, making it ideal for primitive camping. However, be prepared for some challenges, like uneven ground and limited restroom facilities. As one camper mentioned, “It was pretty quiet even though it was New Year's,” highlighting the tranquil vibe.

For outdoor enthusiasts, there are numerous trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding nearby, allowing you to explore the stunning natural landscape. Just keep in mind that the access road can be bumpy, so take it slow to avoid any surprises. 

While some campers have mentioned the presence of trash and the occasional noisy neighbor, many appreciate the opportunity to camp for free in such a scenic location. If you’re looking for a back-to-basics camping experience with a chance to connect with nature, Green Swamp — Hampton Tract is worth considering.

Green Swamp — Hampton Tract

Join the fun near Polk City. With tons of outdoor activities and scenic camping, this is an excellent vacation spot for all kinds of travelers. Polk City is an adventure-filled destination for those who love the outdoorsy camper lifestyle. But it's also great for those who prefer to spend time near the city, exploring and sightseeing. Find the best campgrounds near Polk City, plus reviews and photos from other campers like you.

Polk City

The Best Camping Near Polk City, Florida

My wife and I visited our friends from Maine that camped at this campsite for a week for free. Very nice area for hiking / biking / geocaching. There is a restroom and non-portable water and its has firerings here. make a reservation on line. You will receive a gate lock combination with your confirmation email. Our friends want to come back again this winter, they had such a good time here!!

free camping

stayed for a weekend, used our generator and 50 gallons of water. good r&amp;r weekend.

ok spot for primitive camping 

Stayed here two nights in the middle of January 2019. Free campsite maintained by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. To camp, you need to obtain a permit ahead of time on the website. https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/hampton-tract . You get your approval almost immediately. You need that because it will have your gate code. Without the code, you cannot get back to the campground. The road leading in is gravel, sand and dirt, but we have no trouble at all. The gate is locked with several combination padlocks. The permit will tell you which lock to use and give you the combination to open it. The campground is about a mile from the gate on the left. 

We were the only campers there both nights we stayed. A few hunters/walkers were there in the morning of our second day, but they didn’t bother us. It was incredibly quiet and there are no lights in the campground, so it was nice and dark too. We had 2-3 bars of AT&amp;T and Verizon, but the internet was almost unusable most of time we were there. There would be small pieces of time that it could be used, then other times it was horribly slow or non-existent. We had to cut our stay short because of that since I work from the road. The downside to this campground is there is no hookups, no potable water on-site, no dump on-site and no dumpsters. The campground is very wooded which is normally great, but we have solar for our electricity and there were probably only 1-2 areas we could get any use out of it. One was right by the pit toilet which is where we setup. There are not really designated spots, but some areas have outdoor grills. We had no trouble leveling and the entire campground seemed level. There were several spigots, but all were non-potable water and there was a trough for water for horses. 

There are lots of walking, biking, equestrian trails in the area. There are maps at the entrance. We road our bikes down to the lakes and that was about a 3-mile bike ride from the campground. There was also a nice trail we walked right by the campground. We saw beautiful trees, a gator, lots of birds and a deer while walking one early evening.

We didn’t need to go into town at all, but Lakeland was not too far, and I assume you could get whatever you need there. Overall, we would not stay here again due to the internet issues. If you don’t need to worry about connectivity, this is a great free spot.

Free Florida camping

Very quiet unless someone isn’t following the rule of generator shut off at 8 other than that highly recommend 

Tent camping

This camping area is nice and quiet. It is similar to the other Green Swamp sites, level campsites and plenty of space. Now, the experience I had was ruined by a neighbor who ran his generator until at least 11pm and the other neighbor who constantly talked on his cell phone loudly for 3-4 hours on and off.  Otherwise, the site was more or less full with RVs and horse campers. The site itself is fine, but maybe think about visiting when it’s not so busy.

Great except for noisy neighbors 

Free. Fire pits, picnic tables, pit toilet and non-potable water. Nice shade. Not crowded at all during the week. Weekends can get pretty full.  Manged by the south FL water district.  Reserve on their website and if approved get an email with the gate code.  Access road is hard packed sand, about a mile long.  Filled with monster potholes.  Drive slow all will be just fine. 

Great free spot in the Green Swamp wilderness preserve 

First you have to make an account on their website and make a reservation for the night. You’ll get an email that says what the gate code is and which lock to put the code into. The place is beautiful, picnic tables, fire pits, non-potable water and bathrooms. Although, the bathrooms are not pretty and in the email it said fires are not permitted right now in May. Also there are a lot of sites with people that look like they’ve made the campsite into their property, the only issue is the loud radio and generators left on overnight. 

For being free it was amazing

Like other reviews mention, the pot holes entering the campgrounds are bad. But that’s by far not the worst part about it. For starters, there are people “camping” who clearly live there. I’m talkin’ backwoods hoarder hang out, party of five. Pretty sure one of the neighbors we met was on meth but that’s a bit presumptuous, i know...but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...

Anywho! The campgrounds are clearly not maintained by the amount of trash left behind from previous (and current) campers. Full on broken tents, shoes, food, you name it and it’s there...and it’s gross. On top of the trash, the amount of deer flies in that place was absolutely unbearable. Even after slathering myself in bug repellant, the guys out there were seriously ruthless - swarming and biting constantly. And the lake down at the end of the road that we were so looking forward to visiting was so populated with them that we could barely even roll our windows down to take a picture much less get OUT of the truck to actually enjoy the scenery.

The thought of staying one more night legit made my skin crawl so we packed up just before sunset on our second night there and headed back home. We were supposed to stay the entire weekend but filthy campgrounds, crazy neighbors and even crazier deer flies are not our favs so...nope!

0 out of 10 would not recommend, even despite it being free. Just don’t. 

Left early 

We enjoyed our 3 night stay! Spacious sites. It was pretty quiet even though it was New years. There was a few downside. Lots of big roots for setting up a tent. No privacy between sites. One toilet. So bring your own. Over all we will go back if we want to primitive camp, its free!!

Photos of Green Swamp — Hampton Tract

Real photos from real campers