Long Pine Key Campground

Good spot to stay to see Everglades! Nice privacy in the spots, the only bummer is no hookups. There’s a dump station right at the entrance. Everyone abided the generator 8 to 8 rule and there were quite a few running during appropriate hours so we didn’t feel bad making noise. But after 8 it was so nice and peaceful.

Book early! Spots fill up quick, especially on the weekends.

This was a great place to stay. The sites were nice and large. The campground was quiet. The staff were nice. The solar showers were great on sunny days, not on cloudy days. The restrooms were clean and access to the national park was....well, you're in the national park. There was a movie playing Friday night at an amphitheater in the campground. There were campfire rings. No hook ups, but for two nights, can't say you need them. Especially in February. The one thing I do have to say is that when you are group camping and need two sites for your family or friends, book them across from each other. It will be closer than the side by side sites. I spent a good bit of time running back and forth for items needed at the other campsite. I would love to stay here again.

Paid $25 nightly for 2 nights, although we called after and got a 10% discount for being national park card holders. No hookups (dry camping). They allow generators and they have a dump station (which we used on the way out).

The campground is a large oval loop with crossing roads. Wide paved roads and easy to move around. The sites have smaller paved parking pads and the instructions state that you have to park on the asphalt, but almost none of the sites (including us) parked on the asphalt since they're kinda short for larger rigs. We parked parallel with the road with plenty of room to spare in our site.

Technically this is part of the national park but it's operated by a third-party. You stop at a little window at the front to check in and it can get backed up. We entered and left a few times and there was always a line of cars waiting to enter or check in. So be prepared for some time to enter if there isn't room to go around.

Very quiet at night. Nestled in tall trees with a beautiful lake next to the campground. It's not a long drive down to the end of the road to the Flamingo campground and there are trails along the way. But it's a much longer drive up to the northern Shark Valley visitor center (which was our favorite section of the national park) so make sure you plan your Everglades trip beforehand.

It's not a long drive over to Biscayne National Park if you want to do that as well.

Pleasantly surprised that our site had pretty decent cell coverage from AT&T and Verizon.

This campground is in the Everglades National Park but is managed by a third-party. That was good for us because we were able to stay here during the government shutdown. We stayed for 8 nights at the beginning of January 2019.

First, the website shows that sites are first-come, first-serve except for a limited number of sites that can be reserved. I called and was told reservations were not accepted so we took our chances on getting a spot. When we arrived, the agent stated that there were only 3 spots available for the 3 nights we were going to originally stay (we weren’t sure about connectivity). Needless to say, that was incorrect, there were tons of spots available for the timeframe we were there. Anyway, we also found out that they do take reservations somewhere on-line, but I couldn’t find the website for it. We stayed three nights in spot #5. It was a good spot, but our solar was struggling because it was in shade most of the afternoon. We decided to stay a few extra days to explore more. Connectivity was not an issue – Verizon has 3-4 bars without booster. AT&T has no service though. With our booster, we were able to get about 1-2 bars of AT&T and thankfully one of our phones as Wi-Fi call capability, so we were able to make and receive calls. Keep that in mind if you are AT&T only. The campground Flamingo about 40 miles from this campground does have AT&T connectivity, but we didn’t explore the campground to see how it compared.

When we decided to stay longer, we were told we had to move because someone reserved spot #5. That was fine because we wanted to move spots for better solar anyway. The agent said she couldn’t look up which spots were available for the timeframe we wanted, but we could drive around and find a few spots we wanted and then she could look it up. That seemed weird, but we did that. We found that spot #66 had great access to solar in the mid-late afternoon so chose it. Thankfully that spot was available. There was some confusion about whether we could reserve it or not. Each person we spoke to said something different, but after many tries, it ended up working out and we were able to stay longer.

We stayed another 5 nights at our new spot #66. Solar was much better there, and we had a nice view of the lake. Both spots we were on were level and it seemed most in the park were level. The road coming in is paved so no issues with accessibility. Since the campground is in the park, you do have to pay the entrance fee, but we have the national park pass. Of course, because of the shutdown there was no one at the gate anyway.

We didn’t inspect the bathrooms or shower houses, but the park was clean and well-maintained. They have a camp host on-site and we did not see any issues that were seen in other parks because of the shutdown. For some reason, the dumpsters were not emptied until our last day there so some people had put their trash next to the dumpsters, but it was otherwise clean. Very quiet and peaceful as well.

The campground has a lot of slash pine trees which give some shade, but still allows some solar. There were not a ton of good spots for solar IMO (at least in the winter), but anything by the lake would be good. There are no hookups at this site, but they do have potable water and a dump station near the entrance to the campground.

Tons of things to do near this campground. There are trails and of course exploring the Everglades. Homestead/Florida City is about a 20 min drive and you can get groceries, gas and whatever you need there. Robert is Here is a nice fruit stand in Florida City you may want to check out. Worth a trip to the Flamingo visitor center to see crocodiles and manatees. I would also recommend the Royal Palm visitor center and the anhinga trail.

Overall, despite the confusion and frustration over the reservations, it was a nice place and we would stay again. It is closed in the summer months which makes sense, it would be way too hot, and mosquito infested for the summer. Mosquitos were tolerable when we were there, but you need bug spray.

We based at Long Pine Key while exploring Southern Florida for nearly two weeks. The rate, amenities and quality is best you can do for this area. Very reasonable to do day trips to Biscayne and the Keys from here. Nice quiet atmosphere and clean showers/bathrooms. Experienced full gamut of weather during our stay; from high 80's, humid and buggy to low 60's, dry and pleasant. Out booster allowed from basic use of ATT service, but don't come out here if you need internet. That said, we got full ATT service once back out on the park road.

The website says the they don’t take reservations but they do now if you call. I’m glad we called because they were full when we got there! We were very pleasantly surprised by this campground. We stayed four days between Christmas and New Years in the middle of the government shutdown. The campsites at Long Pine are all dry camping, no hook ups. There is a dump station near the entrance which we didn’t use. There are convenient bathrooms and showers with limited hot water. It was always out by the time we got there but it was 86 degrees so we didn’t mind. There was a boil water order in effect so plan ahead just in case. The campground is very beautiful. Lots of trees, a small lake, lots of hiking trails nearby. We were surprised at how quiet it was a night, we could even hear an owl in the campground. Some people ran generators but they are not allowed after 8pm. The staff is very friendly, the campground very clean and beautiful, lots of trees, great sunsets. There were some bugs but not too bad. We would definitely stay here again. Our only problem was due to the government shutdown there was no place to dispose of garbage. We ended up taking it all with us to our next stop.

I was originally bummed that flamingo was full and we had to stay at Long Pine. But turns out I liked it much better! The spots are level and private with vegetation all around. Compared to flamingo which has hookups but is basically just an open field. Clean bathrooms. Showers only had cool water but with the humidity was perfect. There’s easy access to several walking/running/biking trails. And a great little walk around the lake. I did see one huge diamondback snake so keep your pets close! Bring the bug spray and enjoy the night sky.

We spent two nights in Flamingo and one night here. We preferred Lone Pine Key mostly because it was less buggy.

You get less space here, but we were close to the pond. The campground hosts were lovely and the showers and bathrooms were very clean.

There was a group drinking and blasting Christmas carols but they stopped around 10pm. It was nice to be closer to the entrance and have a shower on a hot and sticky day. However, if you want to truly experience nature, the Everglades campgrounds are not the place to do it. There are too many people who come out there to party.