Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Cutler Bay, FL

So first ...the lits are privately owned. There is an HOA. Owner of site has authority over site not the staff. So if the staff makes an error with dates of your visit and the owners show up to stay at their site....you will need to pack up. Happened to us. The area is mostly fulltime/permanent traders that have been converted into a trailer house. Laundry room is not air conditioned. The "store/gift shop" is more of a check in and mail/package pick up. Dog friendly but not alot of grassy areas for dogs to play and do there business. 90% of area is like sand seashell material. There is a very small beach area...no dogs allowed. Kids playground is nice. Pool was opened...I did not go into pool area. We took our 2 digs down to Marathon FL to a dog park. Very nice and quiet with nice walking trail. I would not recommend this camp site.

This is a very nice campground which is part of the Miami-Dade County park system.  It is close to the Encore Everglades park (about 4 miles) so we stayed here after we departed.  The campground is divided into pods and each pod has about 15 or so sites.  We were in pod 4 site 20 (420 lol).  We booked this camp with the intent to stay for a month or longer as my husband had an opportunity to Captain boats in Miami.  

The park was very quiet.  Most of the campers were retirees, a few families with kids, but we were there in early January.  The grounds are nicely maintained with lots of places to walk and open space with trees.  They don't allow dogs off-leash and although it is adjacent to the rest of the Larry & Penny park, dogs are not even allowed in the main park, at all.  We did however find a few dog parks within four miles or so which were nice.

They have a very nice pool which was open daily Wed- Sunday 11am - 5pm.  It was raining and rather dreary during our stay so we didn't use the pool.  They have a nice Clubhouse and it looked okay with tables, chairs, books, puzzles, but again very quiet.  Not many activities except for a few and we didn't stay long enough to participate.  After a week, we decided to make moves back home to Lake Tahoe.  It was unseasonably cold, raining so no boat work and not an ideal spot for the dogs.  They don't have WiFi and since we were planning a longer stay, purchased the Starlink system since I work remote during the winter.  Starlink worked great, but costs $500+ to get started and then $120 or so a month.  If you are looking for an affordable long term/monthly stay, it is great.  The rates were $850 a month for full hook-ups.  They had last minute space available, too.  

If you are in the area, check out the Miami Zoo.  We were there when they had the "Zoo Lights" a super fun evening event.  They have other events at the Zoo and lots to do nearby.  You are closer to town than Everglades Encore, but still close to the agricultural area.  I recommend but not as fun or as many activities as some other places.

This site was beautiful and well kept. The gentleman (park ranger?) who greeted everyone and made sure the rules were followed was very nice and answered all of our questions. I appreciated that he was around as it make me feel safer if I were to travel alone. This is a great site for families or groups as the sites are close together so one could reserve 2 and have a lot of room for multiple tents/cars. On the other hand, if you are looking to get away from people, this is not it. The sites are close to each other with little to no barriers/designation lines between them. This is a great site for those testing camping with their dogs or small children. Not too far of a trip, great walking space, and the ranger is great about making sure all dogs are kept on leash. It is near to the Oasis Ranger Station and the Florida Trail, as well as loop road and Shark Valley. The stars were absolutely incredible being so far from major cities. Other than how close the tent sites were, my one big negative is the amount of road noise. The closest campsites are maybe 100 meters from the Tamiami Trail so if you're a light sleeper, it is less than ideal.

I am writing this review to shield anyone who is camping & going through a difficult time in life, because no one deserves to be treated as we were. Unfortunately, I would never stay at this KOA ever again. It makes me very sad & upset to know that such unkind, greedy people run this campground- one of the few KOA’s in all of Florida. My family and I are going through a very rough time due to illness. We come here to be at a family wedding, to forget, to be happy & comfortable. We are big travelers all across the continental United States, and have stayed at nearly every KOA in the entire country. This is the first and hopefully last time I have ever had to write a review to protect people from coming to a campground. If you HAVE to stay here do not stay in spot 89. The KOA workers walk dogs they cannot control, that bark VERY loudly at 8AM. And all throughout the day, dogs walking past and barking. Absolute torture. We were charged for having 2 cats, $10. Never been charged for two cats that don’t leave the camper but, okay. When we got to the site, we discovered that we paid $120 for a spot with an enormous pile of dirt & construction on it. Not being dramatic. But honestly, I really didn’t care about that much. What bothered me was how they treated people. I pride myself on always being kind to people because you don’t know what anyone is going through. What bothered me was a man with facial hair on a golf cart telling me (who owns the camper & paid for the spot) to leave immediately because my sisters rental car was “not registered at the office”. He saw us come in and drove all the way back to the office to look at our registered cars. How bored and and angry at life do you have to be to care about that? Just wow. He tried to charge us money to register my pregnant sister coming to visit us for 2 hours because we “didn’t register her rental car at the office?” I have never experienced anything like that. Turns out there was one nice woman who is shorter and has dark brown hair in a ponytail, she was kind enough to tell us the TRUTH that we just had to park it in a designated spot. LOL. Why wouldn’t you tell someone that in the first place? Because you can get money out of them the first way. How cruel and greedy is that? I will never associate myself with this campground ever again. The nasty looks we received from staff during our stay was laughable. I look forward to sending a very accurate depiction of our lovely stay at the Davie KOA to the KOA Owners Association Board of Directors. I hope you desperately unhappy people can heal yourselves and find true happiness & love in this life.

It was tight getting our 32ft pull behind back to our spot, but folks all came out to offer tips and help us get around. So we actually got parked in fairly short order.

The dog walk area near our site was pretty small and it’s bookended by tent camp sites. My dogs were more interested in the goings on than doing their business and we couldn’t really walk them away from it.

That being said. The location is great! As I mentioned in the title. It’s cozy and friendly and pretty quiet.

The marina is nice. And the beaches were great launch points for kayaks.

I would, and probably will, stay here again.