Fontainebleau State Park

This campground was great. My family had such a great time. Our site was stellar! Shady and private, facing the woods. We all rode our bikes to the Mandeville trailhead Saturday morning. The kids played at the splash pad and we walked around the market.
When we came back we went to the splash pad at the park. Very nice (little shade) then headed to the beach. It did stink. I knew that going in though. A lot of people were playing in the water. We rode our bikes a lot and the kids played at both parks. So far we haven’t hiked yet- but I have before and I know it’s a great hike.
The bathrooms are great! Clean!! And the shower is nice also.

The WiFi is good too.

I noticed a lot of the sites are in direct sun. I’m very pleased with the site I chose. 😊

I stayed 12 days at Fontainebleau State Park in what is considered the North campground, which by my luck happened to be the better campground. It is a bicyclist’s paradise thanks to the wonderful bike path that you can enter just one mile from the campground. This bike path runs through multiple towns and connects you to downtown Mandeville safely. The downtown area is a must to explore and there is a great snowball stand on the path halfway between downtown and the campground.

This campground is very popular on the weekends but rather empty during the week.

Pros and Cons of campground:
PROS
- Level Concrete Sites (North Campground)
- Well maintained bathrooms/showers
- Lots of shade (North Campground)
- Plenty of space between sites
- Quiet

CONS
- Major flooding between sites where your picnic table is
- It seems there are some people secretly living in the woods and in their cars in the tent area and although the park does a great job of cleaning up the bathrooms, the people who seem to be living in the park make a real mess of the bathrooms during the week when the park is less crowded

Cell Service/Internet
I use T-Mobile Home Internet to work remotely and I had 2 out of 5 bars and was able to do video-conferences, stream videos, and make calls with no problem. I did not attempt to use the public wifi.

Be warned- After heavy rains the unimproved sites 86-98 will be inundated with water. It had rained two days before we arrived on March 24, 2022. Every site from 86 to 98 had standing pools of water. The back-in sites had nowhere to pitch a tent except on the asphalt. At the pull through sites, the flat wooded areas behind the asphalt were unusable but the area between the drive and the road was. At our site, #91, the flat area with the picnic table and firepit was a standing pool of water. We moved them both to the higher but uneven ground to the side of the asphalt pad. By the end of our stay five days later, the standing water was gone but it was still a bit muddy. With that warning in mind, these sites are the best options in the park if you are looking for privacy and the feeling of camping in nature. Our teardrop fit nicely on the asphalt pad and we enjoyed walking to the lake, sugar mill ruins and along the nature trail. Unfortunately, the Alligator Marsh Boardwalk was closed due to extensive hurricane damage.
The closest bathrooms were in good shape and kept clean. Plenty of hot water in the showers. The level of cleanliness was especially impressive when a tidal wave of group campers flooded the park over the weekend.
There is so much to do at the park and surrounding area that we never had the chance to cross the lake to New Orleans. We completely enjoyed our stay at the park and will come back again if the weather is right.

Huge open spaces - easy walk to the lake. Nice area to bike in and there is access to the Tammany Trace bike trial which was very nice ! Plenty of large sites many with woods in the background. Got very busy over the weekend but that is to be expected. Play areas for the kids where loud but everything quickly got quite again around 10pm. All of the sites we noted had level paved areas with grass and sturdy picnic tables. All had a fire ring and separate grill which we used many times.

This is a big state park, the sites a well spread out and flat. It is big rig friendly and easy to get to. Has plenty of dumpsters and 3 sewer dump stations. We didn’t use any of the other facilities so I can’t speak to those. It was hit hard by hurricane Ida and they are working at getting it cleaned up and repaired. Beautiful old live oak trees, walking trails, beach area and fishing pier.

My family and I really enjoyed our time here. Stayed in 142. The live oak trees are beautiful. Beach area is nice and offers some amazing sunset views on the north side. The bathrooms/showers in the old south campground need some TLC. There are trails inside the park that we did not have time to explore. There is also a trail called Tammney Trace. You can either bike or hike. We rented bikes from Brooks Co op in old Mandeville, which is two miles from the park. Customer service at the park was great! We had to leave a day early because tropical storm Claudette was coming. We look forward to returning to the north shore!

It has pull in sites, however I think sites 129, 131, 142, and 143 would be the best sites for parking because they seem the driest. I would NOT park in site 112 due to a looming tree. Walking trails attention private streets to walk or ride your bike on and the private beach is a short stroll and very nice. There is also a new playground and sprinkle park for the kiddos.