Florida State Parks have been recognized as the best in the nation four times, a record no other state has achieved, so it’s not easy picking the best Florida State parks from 175 terrific places.
For both pleasure and for reporting purposes, we’ve hiked, camped, cabined, kayaked, bicycled and enjoyed the vast majority of Florida State Parks. Honestly, not one park disappoints us. Each has been preserved because it is a special place.
We wanted to identify parks where there’s something extra special, with a variety of activities and from every region of Florida. These are parks we think are worth including in your Florida bucket list.
We list them here in no particular order.
Silver Springs State Park, North Central
Ocala, FL — Florida has a lot of state parks built around springs and they are all terrific, but Silver Springs State Park is the best of all.
It starts with the remarkable spring, which was Florida’s original tourist attraction where glass-bottom boat trips originated 140 years ago.
Those glass-bottom boat tours are still marvelous, the electric boats gliding quietly around the spring allowing you to peer into a deep, clear waters filled with fish.
Kayakers won’t find a waterway with more varied or easy to see wildlife, from wild monkeys to manatees to alligators to otters to a vast variety of birds. And the scenery along the river is just as great.
The park also has some of best cabins in the state park system and a beautiful shaded campground. There are good hiking trails too. (Note: The one thing Silver Springs lacks is swimming.)
Nearby is the vast Ocala National Forest with other springs to kayak, trails to hike and several springs where you can swim.
Read more: Silver Springs State Park
Google Maps: 5656 E Silver Springs Blvd, Silver Springs, FL 34488
Myakka River State Park, Southwest
Sarasota, FL — At this park east of Sarasota, you can spend many days and not run out of things to do. Kayaking on the Myakka River is excellent with some of the biggest alligators I’ve seen, and in huge numbers.
Even better to me were the birds we saw along the way, including my favorite, those roseate spoonbills who manage to look both goofy and elegant at the same time.
Myakka would be a great park even without the kayaking. There are miles of excellent hiking and biking trails, three outstanding campgrounds and historic palm-tree log cabins built during the Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The CCC buildings in the park aren’t the only cool history. Early resident, the wealthy socialite Bertha Palmer, had a ranch here, and you can hike past its site and even see a few broken pottery shards and other evidence of past history.
Read more: Myakka River State Park
Google Maps: 13208 State Rd 72, Sarasota, FL 34241
Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Southeast
Hobe Sound, FL — With its proximity to the populous southeast Florida coast, Jonathan Dickinson State Park is a godsend for urban residents. It’s vast and wild with something for everyone. It stretches out along the northern shore of the Loxahatchee River, one of Florida’s two nationally designated Wild & Scenic Rivers. It’s no surprise, then, that it offers outstanding kayaking.
The park has a small sandy beach, so there is even swimming.
Hikers can head into woods on trails that are many miles long, and there’s a popular network of mountain-biking trails. In the winter, a concessionaire offers horseback riding on wooded trails.
Like the best of Florida’s state parks, there is both camping and cabins.
Jonathan Dickinson also has some very cool history, too.
A scenic riverboat tour takes visitors to the historic site where “the Wild Man of the Loxahatchee” lived – a fascinating story of an early settler who set up an attraction in the wilds along the river.
The park was home during World War II of Camp Murphy, a top-secret radar training school. A few buildings remain and a historical marker.
Read more: Jonathan Dickinson State Park
Google Maps: 16450 SE Federal Hwy, Hobe Sound, FL 33455
Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys
Big Pine Key, FL — The Florida Keys have some excellent state parks, but Bahia Honda has a few things that make it exceptional. The beachfront Sandspur Campground is probably the best tent campground in the Keys.
Bahia Honda State Park has other campgrounds and even cabins. The problem is both cabins and campgrounds are so popular that you have to make a whole project out of acquiring reservations.
Even as a day tripper, though, Bahia Honda is worth a visit. Calusa Beach is a gorgeous crescent-shaped, white-sand beach with clear turquoise water where snorkelers see wonderful sea life. Kayaking over this clear water is a joy. And we love admiring the old saddleback Bahia Honda Bridge, the centerpiece of this park, the most difficult bridge built by Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad in the early part of the 20th Century.
Read more: Bahia Honda State Park
Google Maps: 36850 Overseas Hwy, Big Pine Key, FL 33043
Grayton Beach State Park, Panhandle
Grayton Beach, FL — There are many fabulous beaches on Florida’s Emerald Coast, not to mention an impressive grouping of beachfront state parks that rival any in the state, making a “best” selection in the Panhandle a real challenge.
The variety of recreation opportunities at Grayton Beach puts it over the top. It doesn’t hurt that Grayton Beach, year after year, ranks among the top ten beaches in America.
Grayton Beach State Park sprawls nearly 2,000 acres and offers beautiful beaches, fishing and four miles of trails through a coastal forest.
Paddle through the unique chain of “dune lakes” tucked behind the dunes, and if you’ve never visited the picturesque oceanfront communities of Watercolor or Seaside, then this would be your chance. They’re next door.
Ride your bicycle on multi-use coastal trails and unpaved forest roads and trails in the adjacent 15,000-acre Point Washington State Forest.
Besides a campground with 60 sites, this park also offers 30 two-bedroom cabin rentals near the beach in a restricted section of the park.
Read more: Grayton Beach
Google Maps: 357 Main Park Rd, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459
Three Rivers State Park, Northwest
Sneads, FL — Three Rivers may be the best Florida state park you’ve never heard about, a truly hidden gem at the Florida-Georgia-Alabama line and the junction of three significant rivers — the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers join here to form a lake that flows over a dam, forming the Apalachicola River.
It’s really hard to imagine you’re even in Florida anymore. In fall, the trees around Lake Seminole show their colors. Even the time zone changes from one side of the park to the other, depending on which tower your cell phone taps into.
The fishing, as you might expect, is fabulous. Visitors can enjoy camping, seven miles of paved and unpaved bicycle trails and five miles of nature trails through the park’s rolling hills and upland pine forests. Canoe and kayaks are welcome on the lake and up both rivers, as are small boats.
Read more: Three Rivers State Park
Google Maps: 7908 Three Rivers Park Rd, Sneads, FL 32460
Anastasia State Park, Northeast
St. Augustine, FL — This vast park on St. Augustine’s barrier island has four miles of wide-open pristine beaches to welcome visitors.
The beach parking lot is large, allowing you to park away from the crowds
Take a hike on the boardwalk through the dunes to the beach. You can bicycle on the beach, paddle a kayak on the park’s inshore pond and sail.
Anastasia has 139 campsites for RVs and tents in hammock forest, set back from blowing sand and salt spray but within easy bicycling or walking distance from the beach.
Learn more: Anastasia State Park
Google Maps: Anastasia State Park, 300 Anastasia Park Rd, St. Augustine, FL 32080
Lake Kissimmee State Park, South Central
Lake Wales, FL — Lake Kissimmee State Park is in cow country. Oh, yeah, it also has a lake and paddle trails, trails for hiking and biking and a quiet, shady campground where you may see sandhill cranes, bald eagles, wild turkeys, deer and maybe even a bobcat.
It’s hard to pick a main attraction at this family-friendly park, but if we were to choose one, it would be the living history experience of early Florida “cow hunters” in the park’s 1876-era cow camp.
The park has plenty of open space, lots of trails for people and horses, and three lakes for open paddling.
And it’s in a remote area, allowing campers to spread out and enjoy the night sky without interference from ambient light. For reservations, call 800-326-3521.
Read more: Lake Kissimmee State Park
Google Maps: Lake Kissimmee State Park, 14248 Camp Mack Rd., Lake Wales FL 33898
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, North Central
Micanopy, FL — Paynes Prairie, located just outside Gainesville, is a vast Everglades-like savannah that is a great place for hiking, biking, camping and particularly for wildlife viewing.
This isn’t your usual Florida wildlife, however. You have a chance of spotting wild horses — descendants of those brought to Florida by the Spanish. You also might see wild bison. Ten bison from Oklahoma were introduced here in 1975 because the bison’s range once extended this far south. Today, there’s a herd of 50 to 70.
But the wildlife goes beyond these two unusual species. Your likely to see a heap of gators in the marsh area at the start of the La Chua Trail, near the Alachua Sink, a natural sinkhole. The park also attracts lots of migrating birds, including large flocks of sandhill cranes some years.
As if that weren’t enough, this vast park (21,000 acres with no roads across it) has great hiking trails, a shady campground and a terrific paved bike trail along its northern border.
Read more: Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.
Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, Florida Keys
Key West, FL — If you’ve visited Key West, there’s a good chance you missed Fort Zach. With all the activity around Duval Street and the seaport, most people don’t even drive by this state park, tucked behind the Truman Annex area with only a small sign marking its existence.
It’s worth discovering because it offers two special things: the best beach and snorkeling in Key West, where the clear waters of the Atlantic meet the Gulf, and the beautiful Civil War fort, which has the largest collection of Civil War armaments in the United States – amazing cannons, even if you’re not into cannons.
The park is also a bargain in Key West. For a $6 admission, you get parking and you are allowed to return with your receipt at the end of the day to watch the sunset from its rocky shores as all the boats cruising at sunset float by.
Read more: Zachary Taylor Historic State Park
Resources for discovering the best Florida state parks
- The Florida State Parks website.
- Florida Rambler archive of articles about Florida State Parks
- Florida State Parks Foundation
