Best Tent Camping near Panama City Beach, FL

Camped here in August of 2019 a quiet campground located about 25 miles from Panama City Beach. Mostly pine forrest nice campsites and a beautiful lake.

I’ve been on a road trip for the past six weeks, mostly tent camping as I go. I stopped by here, after seeing the listing on Dyrt, without a reservation. So lucky for me they had a site available. This is the nicest campground I’ve been to yet, I was so taken with it that I’ve already decided to return some day just to camp. The tent sites are all separated and private, the facilities are clean, and best of all they have access to the most lovely beach! The beach backs onto the preserve so there is no development for miles. It’s a truly unique experience!

I love this camp ground you can camp right on the waterway. It has a lagoon right over the dune from the beach. Areas great for fishing, snorkeling and swimming.most beautiful water ive ever been in and ive been to Hawaii so that says A lot. Right in Panama city beach Florida, our great secret. Has a big bath house and bathrooms paved roads very well kept and not as expensive as most camp grounds.

Awesome area to camp and relax. Campsites are clean and taken care of. Hiking and biking trails within the park. Nice saltwater bay with a white sand beach to relax and snorkel. Good location next to Panama City Beach so you can have city time as well. Fills up quickly.

Not crowded on a week day. State park requires small entry fee or annual pass. Large, interesting jetty rocks protect the end of the beach. Small beach/ snack shop near parking lot, but this beach avoids the touristy feel of other local beaches.

The lower numbered sites are great for viewing water fowl. The higher numbered sites are where the deer visit. The campground map does not show the jetty in front of sites 2 - 15. The location in Panama City Beach is perfect. From the Park gate it is literally a 5 minute drive and you're in the touristy beach area of PCB.

Newly renovated following Hurricane Michael, the camp boasts great shower and laundry facilities, electrical hookups, back in and pull through sites among the quiet of the beach dunes and palmetto swamp... a great natural area minutes from Panama City/Panama City Beach. There’s great opportunities for beachcombing, snorkeling and diving, particularly on the south end of the park on Shell Island, which is accessible by water taxi shuttle during the season. Recent viewing includes the lower mount and traverse rings of gun turrets constructed 1942-43, when the 166th infantry regiment was stationed here to guard Gulf shipping from German U-Boats following the sinking of the Empire Mica.

Awesome stay. We actually tent camped here. Great facilities. Listen to the waves at night. Clean beach. Tons of fun.

Keep in mind, this is a Preserve. Good trails, coastal dunes with lakes, fishing, paddling, beach, cabins, and tent camping including Glamping!

This is the cleanest and nicest campground I have ever been to. The gravel at your tent site is raked like a Zen garden. The bathrooms are pristine, and cleaned daily. There is a coffee shop on site. A tram to take you to the beach. They provide water and electricity to each tent site, which is framed by vegetation and private. The beach is private. There are several long trails and lakes. You can see the stars, and hear the waves from the campground while you sleep. It’s really wonderful.

I stayed 2 nights last winter before it got crowded. cool little camp ground amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy beach town. I was tent camping and had a nice site that backed up to marsh land.

This is one of the nicest capsites I have ever been to. I love the privacy of the pod style tent sites, and the beach is gorgeous.

We tent camped at Henderson Beach in May 2020. The sites were large gravel with firepit, picnic table and full hookups.

They do have a senior discount, so don't forget to ask. No need to mention the beautiful beach, the grounds are well maintained as are the showers. Over all this may be my favorite place in Florida. Shopping and restaurants are literally across the highway, so many things to do. A must for everyone!

Checked in Friday 01/17 and extended my stay from 2 nights to 7 nights. I’m enjoying the solitude. I’m at a tent site, no WIFI. T Mobile is 4 bars.

Topsail is one of my favorite campgrounds. We visit every year. Amenities I love are the free beach tram, the swimming pool, and free WIFI at the camp store. You will see a lot of people riding bikes here and you can rent them if you don't have your own.

You cant drive to the beach boardwalk and it's about .7 miles from the tent sites. We actually love this because Topsail beach is pristine and clean. The free tram runs every 30 minutes until 7:30 pm daily

tent sites are very clean and the bathhouse is scrubbed daily at 6 am. This place is one of the best if you don't mind the short walk/ride to the beach.

They have showers and laundry and Place to get books to read!! Perfect for RV and tent camping. Like 27 thru 33 have views of the Bay!! They have electric and water hook ups for rv and tents!! Lots of trees great place and really close to the bay and easy to get to the beach!!

We stayed in site 35 at the end of December. Site was level and had privacy from the neighboring sites, with electric, water and sewer hookups! Easy walk to Western Lake - some sites even back up to the lake. Longer walk to the beach/gulf, but we found the walk to be beautiful and saw quite a few birds along the way. No pets allowed on the beach - if you have a dog, ask the rangers for the brochure listing dog beaches in FL. We drove to Panama City Beach to go to the dog beach at Pier Park, which was a nice alternative. We did the Barrier Dunes Nature Trail - note that this is listed as a loop, but when we were there, it wasn’t a loop and most people we passed on the trail weren’t wearing masks. In its current state, there weren’t any gulf views from this trail. The campground was VERY quiet the whole time we were there.

St Joseph Peninsula State Park on Cape San Blas is a great spot. We tent camped for 4 days and loved it! Bathhouse is air conditioned, sites are large and most have ample shade. Easy walk to the beach and the bay is also close for paddling and fishing! Wonderful very secluded beach and shells galore!

Far yet close…that’s the first thing that comes to mind. Far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the beach areas but close enough to enjoy them just the same. Do yourself a favor and give this place a try if you are in the Panama City beach/bay county/Walton county area. Quiet, serene, easy to get to if you don’t mind dirt roads that are amazingly maintained for a state forest campground! Site 10 was fabulous and all sites have 50/30 amp hookup and water. Dump station nearby and a hood bathhouse area with showers. You have a pond with a fishing dock and a camp host in site 1. I can’t say enough good things about this little gem just 15 miles north of PCB. Off hwy 79 it’s a short drive off interstate 10 exit 112. My wife, 12 yr old and mini Aussie are having a blast, so much so maybe I need to just keep this a secret??!!! Haha happy camping!

So, we are usually tent campers but on this night we decided to try a cabin rental and we were SO happy with the decision. The tent sites had little shade and I think it would have been very hot in the summer sun! The campsites looked to be pretty private which was nice to note. The beach was wonderful- a very enjoyable place to spend time :)

The tent campsites are clean, have water and electricity. The restrooms/showers are very clean and kept up also handicapped accessible. There is a tram that brings you to and from the beach. There is a swimming pool and games to keep you busy. Staff is very friendly and helpful.

Great spot! Cool shorter hiking trails to take you to lakes or the gulf, or as we call it Lake Florida now. For hammock campers the tent camping spots are okay for hammock camping. I made due but I was in spot 21 and there are no trees accessible enough to hang a hammock up how you would want, BUT they had a couple 4x4s in the ground so I used one of those and a tree, everything went up properly. It was windy, rainy and around 30° and I was extremely comfortable.

Fire pits are great, it looks like all spots have a picnic table.

All in all great spot. I’ll be back soon!

We were at one of the few 'tent' campsites in the park. Our site was back off the road in the brush - very private even with a trail just on the other side of the bushes. Either ride your bike or take the tram the mile to the boardwalk and beach. Clean showers, friendly staff at the camp store.

The trails are all well maintained and beautiful. They have paved and non-paved sections. There is a ton of biking in the park. I’ve seen a rabbit, hungry squirrels, and deer. The facilities are pretty nice. They have toilets, showers, and laundry really close to the rv and tent sites. They also have trams. The people that work there and the people that visit are normally really nice.

My daughter and I stayed one night in our Dodge Ram Promaster. The bathhouses were busy so we walked over to the tent camping area and used their bathhouses. From our spot it was actually a closer walk. They said it was a short walk to the beach but it took us 20 minutes. We rode the tram back because it was such a long walk. It would have better to ride a bike there, which was what most people did. Overall a nice park with cozy lots.