Little Manatee River State Park

As everyone else said, roomy site, lots of Real Florida vegetation, lots of privacy. Hookups (electric, water) could have been set deeper into the site but nobody in a modern rig will have a problem. Super hiking. WiFi was very weak.

This park has big, private campsites. Many of the sites have some shade. The staff was friendly and helpful.
They are rebuilding the bathrooms and have temporary bathrooms and showers set up in campsite #21. They were not super clean while we were there, but they are functional. There was plenty of hot water for showers. No laundry.
Over all this is a nice park, but it made me a little sad. You could tell that the park does not have strong community support like Oscar Scherer or Myakka River. Everything looks just a little run down. For example, much of the trees and undergrowth near the campsites are just covered with that kudzu-type vine that just chokes out everything, and the oak trees near the campground looked, I don't know, unhealthy? Lots of dead branches and hardly any leaves. This park is pretty and deserves more effort.
We enjoyed hiking the blue, green, and oxbow trails. The park drive was a nice bike ride.
We had spotty cell phone signal. (T-mobile)

Bathrooms still being rebuilt. As of 06/30/19 No even the foundation has been poured. Most are large sites, 6,7,8,9,12,19,22,24 being the largest. Nice nature trails. Awesome place to stay. I never used the temp restrooms. I have a poop wagon that I emptied every morning. No big deal.

Nice small quiet campground. There was a tortoise in our spot when we arrived. Bathroom still getting built. Plenty of walking pass. Great place to canoe and kayak. Nice playground for children.

The staff was friendly and helpful when we arrived. They made us aware of the bathhouse construction that was taking place. They did mention that the portable restrooms were encountering an issue at that time and were not functioning. Luckily we had what we needed in our RV. Our site was primarily a packed sand site. With the recent rans there was some washout in the site and the wet sand was tracked into our RV even with mats and rugs deployed. With roughly 30 sites the campground remained very quiet on our trip.
There is a Publix and Walmart 5 to 10 mins away which makes it nice in case you forgot something or need to replenish your supplies.
This park won't make our favorites list but if we would stay here again in the future if we want to be in West Central Florida.

Little Manatee is a very nice State park. Most sites are private. It would be beneficial to add more campsites. Plenty of space in the park and campsites. We have stayed here periodically for years. Several nice trails in the peaceful park. Staff and Volunteers are nice and helpful. The hurricane damage to the restroom was almost 2 yrs ago and the construction continues or appears to be at a standstill! A concrete structure sits. Very slow progress. Construction contractors disappear for days. Why? Unfortunate for campers to not have a restroom versus using the temp bathhouse. Please "really" clean the temp bathrooms ea day.. The construction of the RR apparently is not a priority to complete.

This was our first campground as RV owners and the Advice was to stay in a close location to try our RV. We couldn’t have made a better decision. Found a spot on week of February 4 and stay for 3 nights. Which we could have had a week to enjoy al the activities around. Although the bathrooms of the RV site are under constructions but very advanced they had a facilities with portable ones and showers. They have great private areas for Big rigs as well as the standard small ones with water and electric hook ups 39/50. Most spot has back privacy nature views as well as sides. A picnic table as well as fire rings well maintained and clean. The volunteers at this Campground are very friendly and willing to help. We rented the canoe and you can also rent bikes. The Little Manatee River Park is very good for camping as well to enjoy fishing or nature sightseeing. There were turtles along our way and didn’t got to experience a gator which has warnings signs. Cold weather and gators are not likable so for us was ok as well. They have a huge spot for family campgrounds and rental of pavilions just next to the river view very big for birthdays. They also have Amphitheater at location and lots of bike trails. There is also an equestrian area very nice and spacious for horse lovers and lots of horse trials for your personal horses. Hopefully this will not be our last visit since this park has so much to offer in a very quiet and well maintain and updating overall facilities. Loved it

We loved everything about this park except the bathhouse situation. The sites are large and extremely private thanks to dense trees and shrubs. The main loop is small, but even sites on the inside of the loop have dense greenery surrounding the sites. All that foliage means that in some places there are trees that make parking awkward, but the sites are also fairly wide so there is room to maneuver. We saw many large Class As and 5th Wheels in the campground during our stay. There is minor road noise but the park is large and the noise is distant.

Until the bathhouse construction is complete the park is providing a trailer with shower/toilet cubbies. It's better than nothing, but not by much. The facilities are tiny and the water is unheated (maybe there is a little solar?) so showers are basically air temperature. The toilets were out during part of our stay and the park provided port-o-lets. It will be great when the new bathhouse is finally complete.

There are trails on both sides of the river; the Loop Trail on the north side of the river (accessed from US 301) was our favorite and is hiker-only. Most of the trails on the south side of the river (where the campground is located) are equestrian trails but usage is not heavy so there is not too much poop for hikers to deal with. We saw some wildlife including deer and red-tailed hawks, plus other smaller birds.

The pristine "Old Florida" river is beautiful and best enjoyed from the water. There is a canoe launch in the park though it is far from the parking area and is best used with those wheeled kayak/canoe carts. There is also an outfitter located just outside the park boundary off 301 which offers rentals for one-way floats down the river.

The location of the park is actually pretty ideal for exploring the Tampa Bay area because it is more or less equidistant from downtown Tampa (via I75) and downtown St. Petersburg (via the Skyway Bridge). We found it to be an excellent location for exploring the bay area.

Cell service on AT&T was not great at the time of our visit. Signal strength was fine (2 bars LTE) but the towers are very overloaded in this fast-growing area so we found our speeds to be quite sluggish.

This was our first time camping at this park and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Love camping in the woods and this campground has more than the usual vegetation screening between sites. All the sites are level and easy to back into with any size RV. We are happy to report that the new bath house is beautiful, very clean, and has two sets of new coin operated washers and dryers. Paved sidewalks connect to the three handicapped sites. We will definately return to camp here again,and for us seniors the 50 percent discount makes it even more appealing.

It a nice park, good camp sites. Nice clean bath houses. Good bike trails, canoeing, and horse back riding.

Bike and canoe rentals available.

Water and electric are easy to set up.