Henderson Beach State Park

The sites at this campground are the most private I have ever seen. We could not even see any neighbors from our site #18. The site was a long pull-through with more than enough space for our 43 ft. toy hauler and we even had room for the rear patio. There is a very nice walking path to the beach, and every evening we enjoyed gorgeous sunsets. The location is perfect for visiting Destin. Verizon and AT&T had pretty weak signals, but T-Mobile worked great.

Wish I would have stayed longer, way longer, but the sites were booked out. I had a great site by the bath house, there is a fairly short but very clean trail to the beach. A little bit of woods and then a boardwalk over the dunes. The beach was damn perfect. No shirt and barefoot in December was nice. I did drink on the beach of course with no issues. I wanted to bring my dog(pets not allowed on beach) I should have I didn't see any officials of any kind. Park was good, smaller loops right across from a bunch of shops and a very cheap and huge ABC store. Bath houses were good clean and worked properly. Staff was friendly as well as others I met there. Great stay but there is ton of construction all over the road that parallels the campground and is very noisy but I didn't care. Wifi worked good as well.

Beautiful state park, nice site privacy due to vegetation (some the best we have seen), nice paved trails and raised walk leading to the beach. The beach front is 1.5 miles wide; we walked to a local restaurant via the beach during our stay. There was some road/area noise (concert) during our stay, even given the distance the campground area is from the road, we found that surprising—but we still enjoyed our stay. The angle of the site that we stayed in, compared to the road, and the dense vegetation on the interior road limited our swing room when backing into the site (possible, but it took a little time); many of the other sites would be easier to back-into (i.e., better site angled, compared to the road, and there are also some very large pull-thru sites). The larger pull through sites can easily handle big rigs. An oasis in a congested area.

I absolutely loved this campground. We were here for a week in Mid-February and really enjoyed it.

The sites are electric and water only. Dump station available. They sites are gravel and very private with foliage hiding most neighbors and some pull through a hide the road as well. There is laundry and clean bathrooms with showers. The overall park was very clean and well maintained.

The campground is relatively close to a major road. During our stay there was construction going on and there was quite a bit of noise from that. There were nights that were less noisy and all you could hear was the ocean. I still loved it here.

I have to admit after reading the last review I was concerned about rats. I inquired at the ranger station when we checked in and was informed that they have had a problem. Our entire stay we never saw one once and we walked a lot throughout the camping loops, on the path through the woods and to the beach. We walked at various times of day and also at night as we have dogs. This is a good place to walk the dogs, except the beach.
We sat outside and enjoyed our site and did not see any either, which was a huge relief to me!
The sites are spacious and well laid out. In our loop there was a mix of backin and pull throughs. We had the shortest pull through but we fit fine with our 35'. There were a few that were quite large and would fit the longest rig. Nice spacing and foliage between sites so they felt quite private.
The traffic outside the park was very busy, but we did not notice too much road noise except the occasional siren. The sight seeing helicopters flew over numerous times a day, the military jets on some days, but not every day. Overall we were not overwhelmed with noise and found it an enjoyable park. We enjoyed the beach each day and found it not crowded at all. Further down at the day access it was more populated but the section near the campground was not busy.
We enjoyed our stay and would stay again if in the area. Book ahead and as soon as someone left, the site was filled by that evening.

We spent a total of 14 days here and although we liked the proximity to Destin and the beach, we will not be returning.

After a few days, we began to notice rats in the vegetation between our campsite and the next site. We brought the issue to the attention of the park ranger who thanked us but said there was nothing that could be done. He said it was likely the result of local construction where the soil has been dug up, and the rats had to move on and find a new home. Being from the Chicago area, we are not new to rat issues, but think rats are mostly an inner city problem.

Upon cleaning up and getting ready to move to our next campground, we discovered the rats found their way into our Weber Q grill. This is gross and disgusting.

Also, if you don’t like roadnoise, this may not be the park for you. The campground is just off the main road, and when sitting outside there is constant roadnoise.

Lastly, the bathrooms and showers are cleaned daily starting at 9:00 am. Since there are no sewer connections here, we use the bathrooms/showers. The timing of the cleaning is not ideal for most.

Other than these issues, we enjoyed our stay. Campsites are spacious, restrooms are clean, and the beach is beautiful.

We were in town for a wedding and found this campgrounds to be conveniently close to the venue. The weather is extremely cold for even this Northern Florida City but the warm of the beach nearby and the quiet peaceful camping sites proved to be the perfect fit for us. Are Verizon service was very good and if there was anything that could be improved it would be to have the ability to have sewer hookup at the sites.
We were allowed to check in a little early as soon as our site was free of its earlier tenants. The staff was very friendly and accommodating and would get a 5 +.

We were amazed at our stay. The park was well planned with space and shrubbery in between sites so you had plenty of privacy. All the spots were back in with gravel that appeared very level. You had a picnic table and a double clothesline. The bathrooms were clean and not to far to walk from our site. The boardwalk down to the beach was about a 1/4 mile walk but not unreasonable. The beach was perfect with the boardwalk leading you over protected white sand dunes that gave you a glimpse of what the beach looked like before developers. Also, there is a super Walmart right across the street from the park entrance! And a bunch of other amenities! Convenience and location!! The only thing that might bother some is the area is close to an Air Force Base so you do get a lot of jets, helicopters, and the occasional bombing noise in the background.We had great time our whole stay..... However upon our checkout day we ran a little late checking out by 3 minutes. Mind you we have a 1 year old, a 2 year old, and I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and very sick feeling so we were running a bit slower. But almost hooked up and ready to pull out when the volunteer camp host and his wife drive up and jump out of there golf cart. He was tapping his wrist and begins to ask why aren't we gone yet! It was 1:03PM and checkout was 1pm! When I said, yes I know we were almost finished, he began to berate me for not planning better! They then parked at the entrance to our site and watched us as we proceeded to finish. Which just made me mad that we were being treated so rudely and I proceeded to have words with the man and his wife at the poor customer service and the lack of grace for families with young children! His wife then said she raised 4 and always planned better!! The camp host said "I am calling the Rangers" since we were over our time limit and I said GOOD because I wanted the rangers to see how we were being treated! In the end the Ranger came about 10 minutes later and apologized for the behavior of the camp host stating that they are all volunteers and sometimes they don't know what type of personality they are getting. He had no issue with us being a few minutes late pulling out and was very nice and relaxed. His name was Evan Waters and he was very kind and professional stating they don't want people to be stressed out when they come to stay and the Camp Host was in the wrong. When we left the Supervisor of the Rangers called and stated that he talked with his Ranger about what happened and the Camp Hosts were no longer Camp Hosts and he apologized for how badly they treated us. He said in the future there will be more training of Camp Hosts to make sure they are in line with the Park philosophy. As long as they pick appropriate Camp Hosts this park is amazing!