Camping and RV Parks near Perry

Camping in the Tree Capital

Most people pass through Perry on US-19, heading somewhere else. That is their loss. The town sits at the edge of Taylor County’s pine flats, with the Gulf just a short drive south and the Forest Capital Museum State Park a mile down the highway. If you are here for the Florida Forest Festival, or just need a place to park the rig for a night or a week, there are options.

The biggest and most visible is Perry KOA Holiday, right on South Byron Butler Parkway at the main drag. It has 852 reviews and a 4.4 rating, which tells you it gets steady use. It is the kind of place you can count on: full hookups, pull-throughs, the usual KOA predictability. If you want amenities and a known quantity, this is your stop.

If you prefer something quieter, The Oaks RV Park LLC sits a few miles north on US-19. It scores 4.8 from 76 reviews, and the name fits the setting—oaks over the sites, shade in the afternoon. It is a smaller operation, the sort of place where the owner might wave you in. Not fancy, but solid.

Down toward the coast

The campgrounds with “Beach” in their names are not on the beach. They are on the rivers and creeks that drain toward the Gulf, which is better anyway. Kamp Keaton has the highest rating on this list at 4.9 from 60 reviews, on Beach Road off the main highway. It is a working camp, close to the water, popular with people who bring boats or kayaks. Southern Charm Campground also sits off Sea Horse Drive, a short hop from the same stretch. It has a perfect 5.0 from just 10 reviews, so take that with a grain of salt, but the people who stayed there liked it enough to say so.

Triple H Beach Camp is on Reed Drive, no rating yet, but it is in the same neighborhood. RV Spots is on Adams Beach Crossing, and with one review and a 5.0, it is barely a blip. These are small, mostly seasonal places. They do not advertise much. You find them by word of mouth, or by turning down a dirt road and asking.

The inland options

A little farther from the coast, FloridaBlueSky Campground on Post Oak Road has a 4.9 from 30 reviews. It is open, grassy, and quiet—the kind of place where the sky really is the point. Old Highway 19 RV Park is back on the main road, 4.8 from 86 reviews, and it is exactly what it sounds like: an older stretch of road, repurposed. Twin Pines RV park on Sea Meadows Drive has a perfect 5.0 from three reviews, which means almost nothing statistically, but nobody complained.

A few others are worth knowing about even without ratings. Get mm Getaway RV lots and Cottage on Live Oak Road offers both RV sites and a small cottage, handy if you want a roof over your head for a night. Lazy Tortoise Ranch on Strickland Landing Drive is farther out, ranch country, the sort of place where the neighbors are cows.

What you are actually here for

Perry is not a destination for its campgrounds. It is a destination for its festival, and for the forest that surrounds it. The Florida Forest Festival has run since 1956, when it was called the Pine Tree Festival, started to teach forestry heritage and fire safety after fires had gutted the timber industry. The Saturday centerpiece is the World’s Largest Free Fish Fry at Forest Capital Park, served from noon after the King Tree Parade comes down Jefferson Street. There are chainsaw competitions, the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, and a 5K if you want to earn your lunch.

The Forest Capital Museum State Park, 13 acres on US-19/US-98, tells the rest of the story. A reconstructed Cracker homestead sits beside it—house, barn, well, arbor, garden—showing how a family lived off this land before the sawmills came. The museum itself holds displays on the forest industry and the wildlife that lives in it. It is worth an afternoon, especially if you plan to camp nearby.

The practical side

Perry is a small town—6,965 people by the last count, with a median age under 35. The median household income is $44,815 and the median home value is $122,900, which tells you this is not a wealthy place. It is a working town. The campgrounds reflect that. They are modest, affordable, and mostly run by people who live here.

If you want a resort, drive to the coast. If you want a place to sleep, cook breakfast, and get out into the pines or onto the water, Perry has what you need. Book ahead in festival season—the fish fry draws a crowd, and the RV parks fill up. The rest of the year, you can pretty much take your pick.