St. Andrews State Park Campground

The park itself is fantastic. We loved having the jetties so close by for the kids and being able to just hop over there by bike (10 min ride) or by car was very convenient. Also, the campground loops are full of kids riding around on their scooters and bikes all day, which made for a very family friendly environment. It was a bit tight to park our 36 ft. trailer in our back in spot and I'm sure it would have been much more difficult if there was a car parked in the spot across from us, but we managed.

PROS
Entire site pea gravel
Moveable wooden and metal picnic table
Stainless steel pedestal BBQ grill
Metal fire pit with cooking grate
Quiet
No street lights
Bathhouse has motion activated lighting
Security gate closed at dusk and requires code to enter

CONS
No senior or veteran discount
$6.70 fee to make on-line reservations
Site 131 unlevel
Sites are pretty crammed together
Electric utility pole at each site had a light that burned all night long
Impossible to use the one washer and one dryer at each bathhouse, even at 530am!
No park WiFi

My wife and I agree that this is one of the nicest state parks we have stayed at. The sites are large and clean. There's 50/30/15 amp, water, and sewer at the RV sites. The bathhouses were very clean and each has a single washer and dryer that cost $2 per load each. There was a field with picnic tables, cornhole, and other yard games.

The beach in the park is a short drive down the road and was beautiful as well. The ferry to shell island operates out of the park and runs Tuesday-Saturday (as of this being posted). The cell service was good for Verizon and ATT; we had no issues with video calls or streaming.

We absolutely loved this state park and hope to be back!

St. Andrews State Park campground has been rebuilt since Hurricane Michael just about leveled the whole place. It is almost fully open. Sites are leveled with gravel. Restrooms and showers are in very good condition. The gulf side beach is about 1 to 1.5 miles from the deepest part of the campground. The campground hosts that we interacted with were friendly and helpful. The problem with the park is the illogical and inconsistent enforcement of site rules by management (not campground hosts, some who roll their eyes at the inconsistencies in management enforcement). The specific problem we had is that, unlike March of 2022 when we parked our Class A RV and utility trailer as shown in the attached photo, such a setup is no longer permitted. We rolled in late at night this year and set up just as we had last year. Sadly, our little trailer--on which we carry our bicycles and kayaks--drew the ire of the campground management. Why? Because management thinks such trailers are tearing up the park. Two problems with their logic. First, our trailer is not heavy or big enough to cause damage anywhere and that's self-evident. Second, the large camping trailers and fifth wheels can't angle into sites without most of them getting into the grass and soft sand at site entrances. In fact, within 15 minutes of being forced to move our small trailer off the site, a fifth wheel two sites down went off the road onto the grass and knocked down a site post. Five minutes later, the long trailer next to us was off the road and in the sandy grass as it backed in. Neither of these campers could really avoid going off the grass because the site angles are poor. As a sympathetic campground host said to me, this campground wasn't built by people who actually camp. While our small trailer was sitting a mile away with our water toys, campground management didn't care that several sites had camper stabilizers in the grass, that golf carts were parking on the grass, and that tent stakes were off the sites. They will allow you to park a camper, two cars/trucks, and golf carts on your site to the point where things are busting off the sight, but don't try to park a small utility trailer on your site. Come on, management can and should do better. We ran into a whole new level of irrationality the day we switched sites. Specifically, we got royaly balled out for moving to our new site without getting the pass for the new site first--even though we saw the new site had been cleaned. The new site was occupied right up to checkout time, so we didn't have time to manage the move. Since we didn't have our utility trailer (remember it was a mile away!), we had to move two kayaks and two bikes by foot. Being balled out added insult to injury. Poor policies and irrational enforcement are a problem at this otherwise pretty spot.

This park has been completely revamped following damage from a hurricane a few years ago. It is now just beautiful, every site is level with gravel parking pads and fire rings, full hook ups and great inter coastal water views. We stayed in site 14 and had access just across the road to launch our kayaks. The other side of the park has a beautiful beach facing the Gulf of Mexico with sugar white sand and a protected “kiddie pool” area for the little ones to enjoy the beach. Common airings of deer, eagles, ospreys and dolphins. The only drawback is it’s so popular, it’s hard to book a site. We’ll be back!

This campground looks like it has been newly renovated (post hurricane?), so the campsites are level, have almost new hookups, and the bathrooms are very spacious and clean. However, the campsites are way to close. You can ask your spouse to pass the ketchup and if your not careful, your neighbor will pass it through your window. If the campsites were not packed so tightly, this campground would definitely deserve at least a 4 star rating.

The beach area was a comfortable walk for us (4 miles round trip) but others might find it a bit too long of a hike. None of the campsites have a view of the Gulf your water view is of the inlet and is surrounded by city buildings and lights. If you need a quick place to stay, this will work for you. However, this is not a place that you would probably want to spend a week’s vacation.

We had a wonderful time. The newly renovated sites are well maintained, all have full hookups including sewage. Site 58 is a smaller site ( for 25 ft or under rv) our 18.5 foot Apex Nano fit perfect. It's right on the grand lagoon and despite the loss of trees ,due to hurricane Michael in 2018, we had privacy. We have already reserved the same site for next May!