Sugar-white sand, sparkling emerald waters lapping at your feet and a scenic fishing village along the Gulf Coast provide a triple-threat of fun and relaxation at Carrabelle, a picturesque town in the eastern Florida Panhandle. Birdwatching, boating, fishing, swimming and snorkeling allow visitors to re-energize and reconnect with nature, especially marine life. Travelers can explore Carrabelle's natural surroundings with a stay at one of three campgrounds in town or about 30 minutes away at a secluded state park.
Sunset Isle RV & Yacht Club Resort (sunsetislerv.com) offers a limited number of campsites, but the year-round park on Timber Island is packed with incomparable water views and outdoor recreational amenities. Cottage rentals, about 30 RV sites and more than 40 deep-water boat slips afford guests views of the Carrabelle River, Apalachicola Bay and St. George Island. In addition to restrooms, showers and wireless Internet access, a clubhouse, cook shack and fishing dock are at your disposal. Hone your cannonball technique in the bay-front swimming pool, or relax in the riverfront pool and hot tub. Kayaking, canoeing, boat rentals, charter fishing and licensed saltwater fishing are outside your front door, and a public beach for swimming in the gulf waters is nearby.
Directly across the street from swimming and fishing fun, year-round Carrabelle Beach (rvcoutdoors.com) offers roughly 100 full-hookup RV sites and rental bungalows with kitchens, baths, lofts and water views of the Gulf of Mexico. A camp store, dump station, restrooms and showers are on the premises, and cable TV and wireless Internet access are available. Recreational amenities, including a game room, playground, swimming pool, fitness center, bocce ball and horseshoe pits, keep families active. Beach access is steps away, and the nearby boat club is the place to go for vessel rentals, charter fishing trips and relaxing hours on the observation deck.
At the Ho-Hum RV Park (hohumrvpark.com), campers can beachcomb for shells and sea glass, gaze at the water from lawn chairs and watch dolphins playing in the waves. The year-round park's 50 full-hookup sites are open to senior snowbirds, but a few of the campsites are available for overnight guests. A laundry, camp store, recreation room, restrooms and showers dot the park's three acres. Guests get together for bingo and cards, and saltwater swimming, boating, canoeing, kayaking and licensed fishing off the on-site fishing pier add to the fun.
If concrete pads and crowds are not your style, a couple of state parks are located within 30 minutes of Carrabelle. Pack plenty of bug spray for a stay at Ochlockonee River State Park (floridastateparks.org). The 543-acre park contains thick groves of tall pines, oak hammocks and grassy ponds where mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers mingle with campers at partial-hookup RV sites and youth group tent sites. For water-based fun, bass, catfish, redfish and speckled trout are just waiting for your hook and line, and swimming is allowed in designated areas. Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park (floridastateparks.org), an almost 2,000-acre jewel of a barrier island with nine miles of white-powder gulf beaches, provides birdwatching, beachcombing and boating opportunities as well as swimming, hiking and licensed saltwater fishing adventures. Two camping loops, in walking distance to the beach, have partial hookups, restrooms, showers and a dump station.
