In this blog, we’ll review Wekiwa Springs State Park in Florida. The park sits just north of Orlando in Apopka, Florida. Given its location, it is an ideal park to use for exploring the multitude of recreational and entertainment options in and around Orlando.
The Wekiwa Springs State Park campground sits among very mature trees that provide plenty of shade. The campsites are generally private, with many having full hookups. Likely, the biggest draws to the campground are its location to Orlando, the outstanding spring area, and a robust trail system. There is even a custom app for the park and trails to navigate the many hiking opportunities. The park is large, and once you enter it, it is tough to believe you are close to the city.
The beautiful spring has a large swimming area, concessions, and plenty of parking. It can get very busy from day-use visitors on nice days. With the great hiking, mature campground, and location, it’s quickly become a favorite camping spot.
Besides the modern campground, Wekiwa Springs has equestrian, primitive, and primitive group camping. There are two campground loops in the modern campground with a total of 60 campsites, many of which have full hookups. Each of the two campground loops has a bathhouse with restrooms and showers. All non-full hookup sites in the modern campground have city water and at least 30-amp electric service, with several sites having 50-amp service. The full hookup sites are especially difficult to snag, given the lead time required to book a site at Florida State Parks.
If you haven’t heard, Florida State Parks is changing their booking window for out-of-state campers starting on January 1st, 2024, giving residents a one-month lead on booking. If you are unfamiliar with this change, you really should watch my newscast on the issue to fully understand the implications of the policy change.
Before we delve into our five criteria for rating a campground, we want to remind you about our RV maintenance process document page. We have detailed process documents on everything from Winterization and Dewinterization, to replacing vinyl trim, to backing in a travel trailer. Each process has a free downloadable .pdf that you can take with you when doing RV maintenance. Just head over to johnmarucci.com/docs-downloads.
There are five criteria we look at when rating a campground. First up, Hospitality and Check-In. We give this a 5 out of 5 as it was easy to check in. We were able to remain in our vehicle to check in, making it very easy to confirm our reservation with the park ranger, receive our site tag, and be on our way.
Next in our review is Infrastructure & Amenities, which we are giving a 5 out of 5. The main park roads and campground loop roads are paved and in generally good condition, and it was easy to maneuver the truck and trailer. While the campground loops are a bit narrow, they weren’t a problem. Also, most campsites sit at an angle to the loop road, making it relatively easy to back into the campsites.
The bathhouses at the campground were in good condition. There is a dump station at the campground if you weren’t fortunate enough to snag a full hookup site. Like most Florida State Parks, there is a security gate at the park entrance to enter when the ranger station is closed.
Site Quality gets a 5 out of 5 as most campsites are composed of hard-packed dirt and gravel, are large and shaded, and have some privacy. Tall older trees above most campsites provide a great canopy with plenty of shade. The utilities are well-placed and easy to access. There just isn’t anything bad to say about the campsites.
Our Exercisability rating is 5 out of 5 as the trail system was excellent for hiking, and there are plenty of paved park roads to run and bike on. Having a trail system app with QR codes at the trail signposts was nice to get further information. And, of course, there is also the spring to frolic in. This makes the park a great place to exercise, but you will likely share the spring and trails with many day-use visitors.
For our final rating, we are giving a 4 out of 5 for Workability, as the bandwidth using a Verizon iPhone was excellent. However, the tall tree canopy made Starlink satellite internet practically unusable. Using an iPhone 13 Pro, we had speeds of 44.5 Mbps down and 7.03 Mbps up, making for flawless streaming and ease of use. Given the limited hot spot plan with Verizon, this meant keeping a close eye on usage.
Overall, I would gladly stay again at Wekiwa Springs State Park. There is almost zero downside to the park, campground, and campsites. It is a great place to exercise and work from, and with the close location to world-class amenities and the possibility of full-hookup campsites, staying here is practically a no-brainer.
That should do it. All the best in your camping adventures!
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