Best Cabin Camping near Malabar, FL

If you love camping, wildlife, and stargazing but still want the convenience of amenities (i.e electricity, running water, bathroom, shower) then this is the place for you.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is part of IDA International Dark-Sky Places. The park has little light pollution and also a stargazing pad where you can also camp on.

The campgrounds aren't large but the campsites are good for tents and RVs. The one site we stayed at had water and electric hook-ups and a firepit. We were close to very clean restroom area that also had showers, washer and dryer. They do have primitive campsites for the more rustic individuals. The campgrounds are about 45 minutes from town, but the ranger station sells ice for $2.50 and firewood purchase is by honor system. We also saw other campers with their dogs so pet-friendly as well.

Lots of hiking trails and so much wildlife. We saw deer grazing near our campsite!

Make sure to bring lots of mosquito repellent, especially in the summer months. Otherwise you'll get bit...a lot! But it is Florida after all.

General: Small family-run KOA campground (33 sites) located 1.5 miles north of Fort Pierce on Highway One. All sites are FHU with a combination of regular, premium, and extra-large sites. There is also a tent site area. 

Site Quality: All sites are level and gravel with a fire pit and a brick patio area with a picnic table. Typical RV park layout with minimal to no privacy separating sites.

Bathhouse: Two unisex all-in-ones that were clean and air-conditioned. The shower had immediate hot water and good water pressure. 

Activities/Amenities: There is a small playground and pet area plus a clean spacious laundry area. It is close to town. There is a manatee center and Navy Seal Museum (but we didn’t explore either one) close by in addition to shops and restaurants in Fort Pierce. I was able to enjoy a 3-mile run to town and back on sidewalks. 

This campground was more expensive than we usually like to spend but it was a convenient location for us to have dinner with a family friend. We arrived after the office was closed so did not have any interaction with staff but our check-in paperwork was readily available. We appreciate that we were tucked in at the rear of the property which lessened the road noise (and we didn’t have neighbors on either side of us). I would rate this three stars for our purposes but as it was well-kept and for others may suit their needs, it merits four stars in general.

Our visit was relaxing and enjoyable. We visited in July and the shade from all the trees around our site helped keep the heat tolerable. The camp site’s aren’t dispersed and a little close together but we didn’t have any immediate neighbors around us so it was perfect. We stayed on site 008 and it was spacious enough for our large cabin tent, picnic table, additional table, dog pool, chairs, etc. Our site is conveniently close to the bathrooms. I liked that there is only one main dumpster and it’s kept a distance from the camp sites. I think this helped keep any raccoons that may have been around away from the campers. AMAZING star gazing location.

Expect a long travel to this remote site.   It’s a couple miles of reasonably decent dirt roads to get there, after several miles of remote highways. The only designated dark sky site in Florida.   It does not disappoint for night sky viewing.   If you’re camping here, please be courteous and keep your outdoor lights to a minimum.  The night sky’s are just breathtaking.   Check www.spotthestation.nasa.gov to see if you’ll get a glimpse of the space station while your there.   Hiking/biking trails are plentiful.   Be aware that there’s a LOT of loose sand.   So even on a mountain bike you’ll have to walk now and then.   Great birding.  Crested cara cara are frequent as are flocks of turkey strolling through the campsites.   Be sure to head out the road you came in back to the first turn and take the trail to the left (as you’re leaving).   There’s a gator hole just 1/4 mile down the trail.  Nature trail is a nice hammock view.  No pets on that particular trail.   

There are 2 camp loops only the first camp loop has a bath house, which is very nice.   The equestrian camp has porta potties.  Many of those folks drive over to the bathhouse.  Even the bathhouse has outdoor red lights.

So much potential. Pool, food, games, billiards, pizza, a store, golf cart rentals, big spaces, dog-friendly, premium spaces with beautiful pads and fire pits, brick fire pits or even grills. Lots of space and 3 free wireless devices for your stay.

Cabanas at the pool are stupid expensive, ($350 a day as of this writing). They sat empty for our entire 11 day stay. In our talks with other campers, no one has ever seen one in use except as a consolation to an upset camper. So technically never rented.

Lots of rules; some good and some bad. However, seemingly none are actually enforced. This leads to dogs off-leash running around (their camp site and yours). No clear paths to get across the back sides of the park, which leads to campers routinely cutting through your site to get from point A to point B.

The first 5 days of our stay were quiet. After that, the park started filling up and you could see the place slip into free-form mode.

The Wi-Fi was great when it worked, and you were almost always connected. BUT, dozens of times a day the internet just froze. Devices would bounce on and off the WiFi dozens of times in minutes, prompting you to confirm terms of service every-single-time. It got old and we bailed on the WiFi by day 4. Although there was a 24/7 support number for the WiFi, it was worthless. The hosting company (AccessParks) really couldn’t have cared less if the WiFi ever worked and it showed, but only after two waits on hold for 1.5+ hours each time.

The views were beautiful, and the golf carts are in great shape and well maintained. Water pressure was wonderful, and the sewer hookups on all available sewer sites were very well maintained and at the correct height for any camper, they are flush with the concrete pad on every site.

The pizza at the shop was very good, and the little store has some great gems. But the Tiki bar has ridiculously weird limited hours, and neither the food nor the bar are anywhere near the pool and game areas. No restaurant choices in the park for sit down dining.

The soda machines on the premises are supposed to be connected, allowing for credit card or Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay options. Similarly, the laundry facilities are setup for digital payments. BUT, and it’s a big but, even the machines seem to suffer from the internet oddities of this location. Most work once in a while, but really just spin the little orb and time-out before saying something went wrong, try again later. So even the on-prem machines can’t connect to the internet….hmmm.

The dog parks are nice, but not policed at all. Lots of un-cleaned dog poop that we ended up picking up. People parking in them for hours using them as their own fenced yard.

This facility has so much that could go right, but just needs some more interaction from management to make it great.

We would come back, but hope that these things could be addressed.

We first stumbled upon Kissimmee Prairie because we wanted to camp someplace where we could see really stunning stars at night and boy were we surprised. Having been here multiple times since, we are never disappointed with the starry views. We stayed in the equestrian campgrounds twice. The equestrian sites have hook ups similar to the regular campground sites and there is also primitive camping as well as sites for astronomy. There are miles of trails going through the beautiful prairie landscapes and we saw a lot of wildlife as well. We've seen wild turkeys, deer, and even heard wild boars at night going through the campground. The equestrian sites are shaded by large lovely trees. There are no showers here but you can drive over to the regular campsites and use their shower. There is only a composting toilet. Each site has hookups and a fire ring and picnic table.

Please note that this campground is very far from the closest stores. You can buy firewood from the camp office but it is definitely worth the drive.