Best Glamping near Ochopee, FL

We camp Koreshan because it is literally less than 10 minutes from our house. We can set up camp and stay throughput the week even if the kids have school. It’s hard to book a weekend at any Florida campground in season so plan ahead if you want a Florida State park. This campground has short trails to hike through beautiful bamboo forests. A ramp for putting in your kayaks or SUPs as well as kayak rental. Locations to fish the river. You are a 20 minute drive to the beach from here. Very centrally located to shopping and farmers markets. Koreshan has a farmers market there at the park I believe on Sundays. The campsites have a fire pit and wood is sold at the entrance. It is a historic site of the early settlers of the area from the late 1800’s so there are historical buildings on site to tour. It is a pet friendly campground. The only reason I give this campground 4* rather than 5 is because of the road noise from Hwy 41 that it is off. It’s quite peaceful until you get a motorcycle racing up and down the highway at 2am. They do have specific sites if you wish to camp in hammocks. If you google the campground you should be able to find out which sites those are.

We were so glad to find this place on The Dyrt. Once you check in, there is someone there to guide you to your site. You cannot reserve sites, you just request the amps needed for your rig. There are tent sites, cabins, and Chickee huts to rent as well. We were guided to a pull thru site. This was a first for us and we were thrilled. Our site was directly across from the bath house. We had no trouble leveling our trailer and getting set up. Fire pits are at every site and fires are encouraged. If you did not bring wood, there is some for sale. The bath house was adequate. It could be cleaner, but it is camping. The sites include water and electric. You are not able to pick up antennae TV unless you have high quality tall antennae. Radio stations came in just fine. At the front of the park is a little store with SkunkApe gear and an animal exhibit with gators, pythons and chickens. Skunkape is the equivalent of Sasquatch. Apparently, there is a legend of sitings in the Everglades. Kayak and canoe rentals are available as well as a swamp buggy ride. We brought our own kayaks and were told where to enjoy them. This campground is 15 minutes from Everglade City and 25 minutes from Collier-Seminole State Park.

I gave this campground 5 stars because it feels so different than the rest of the Campgrounds available in Big Cypress Reserve and Everglades National Park. 

Trail Lakes is a proper campground which is staffed and gated just off of Hwy 41 (Alligator Alley) on the west side in Ochopee. It's open all year long. 

For me, visiting in the off season, it felt nice to have the structure of the campground. Most of the other campgrounds I visited along 41 between Naples and Miami were completely empty of people, but full of signs warning campers of Panthers and alligators - and even bears. I had no idea Florida had bears. I didn't want to camp alone, so I loved that this campground had staff and a few other guests who might notice f I got eaten.

The campground is open all year long, and has a small store in the camp office. 

The campground is built in several loops around a couple of lakes and has space for RV's and tents. If also offers cabins and some screened in open air huts (which I didn't stay in but they looked really cool). You could buy ice and firewood, as well as rent kayaks if you dared to boat through alligator swamps.

There's not much in Ochopee, so stock up when you leave Miaimi or Naples (depending which way you drive). There are a few things available at the campground store.  There is a mini post office in Ochopee which is worth stopping for a photo opp. The airboat tours which are everywhere along the highway here are definitely worth it. 

You can get their latest pricing for all their sites and cabins at www.evergladescamping.net

Stayed here a night in February 2021. State parks aren’t yet allowing tents due to Covid. We camp in our truck so don’t fit the definition of “self contained” or tenters, so this spot was great. Water and electric or primitive sites available. There were some great cabins/huts that looked great, too. Hosts are welcoming and helpful. Firewood, ice and some supplies available on site. The sites were spacious and had room to spread out and not be on top of your neighbors. Picnic table and fire rings at each site. It was a full moon the night we stayed and the stars were still incredibly bright as there is very little light pollution. Sunset was beautiful. Some mosquitos at dusk, but not bad at all. (It was February- sure June would be different...) Plenty of trees for shade and hammocks. Two showers in both the men’s and women’s bathrooms. Showers were hot with good water pressure. Shower drains could have been better as the floors were wet throughout the whole bathhouse, unfortunately. (Only reason it’s not a 5-star review.) One bar service on Verizon, but typical for me in the area. We only stayed a night so didn’t take full advantage of kayaks and boats, but there is a lot to do. Campers have free admission to the Snake Ape and reptile exhibits- snake lovers will enjoy the snakes including one of the largest captive pythons in the world. We held a baby alligator and saw the adults up close. The caretaker was refreshingly knowledgeable and caring. Overall, a quick stop for us but we enjoyed it and would stay here again.

The campground located inside the historical state park has a total of 54 sites, 39 are RV or tent, 3 only RV, and 12 Tent only. There is a bath house on the inside loop of the sites, it has hot showers and flush toilets. Each site has electrical hookup, with picnic tables, fire pit, and utility pole. Each site has good foliage and privacy from other sites. The park has water fountains and water faucets for portable water. Each site has a gravel drive and sandy/grassy area for tents, no tent pads. It is also pet friendly. Two sites I have stayed at are 020 and 009, both are large sites with lots of privacy from neighbors. From October-April it is fairly busy, and availability is scarce, so planning a head is usually necessary to get the site you want. It is $26 a night with a $6.70 nonrefundable reservation fee, reservation is on the park website.

This state park is part of a Historical Settlement of a religious group that built this particular settlement in 1893, there are lots of buildings still preserved and available for you to walk through. A couple short and nice trails, some along the Estero river. Kayaking and fishing are also permitted.

We stayed at Koreshan in site 38 for one night. It is definitely not as nice as other FL state parks we’ve been spoiled by... Sites are ok, a little smaller than we’ve had at other campgrounds and there’s some vegetation between sites. The trails aren’t very exciting at the park, although we did walk through the settlement later in the day (when no one else was around) and we got to see a gopher tortoise nesting. Our neighbors were the loudest we’d had at any park (watching an action movie outside), but the campground was quiet after quiet hours. Again - we have been spoiled by other FL state park campgrounds. Ok place to stay, but if you have a choice for another state park, I’d probably recommend staying elsewhere.

  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.