Anastasia State Park St Augustine FL

[dtcerrato]

Anastasia State Park St Augustine FL. Reserve America shows lots of campgrounds booked but 1/2 the sites are empty! Talking to some full time campers they claim lots of CGs between Ohio & FL are like that. Running at partial "covid capacity" was in their findings. Nice to get away. Salt beach life for the rest of the week...Moderate yellow flag warning & moderate surf temp 82° rough breakers on the beach has a way of chiro-ing the back:)real salty. First cool down for autumn 60s for temp & humidity tonight. Goodbye summer! Bus ran great no need for genny in A/C weather as inverter has it licked. From what I read of western campground fees this place is top on the FL state park list with hot showers 30A pole & water at site. Dump station at entry. Beach is a stone's throw & no wind in heavily wooded campground! FL residents over 65 get reduced rate on all state parks - @ $25/night here. Senior residents don't require fishing nor hunting licenses either so the inflated tourist state does give back to it's seniors. Geeze

[47hound]

The kids are in school,  so many campgrounds will be empty during the week.  I suspect that it will fill up on Friday evening.  We've been camping through this whole "event" and not seen too many pattern changes at campgrounds, besides the occasional closing of bath houses.  Enjoy the cold front.  Patrick.

[Bustle]

We have had the same experience during the summer of 2021. Trying to book a year in advance, and all the spots were taken. I kept an eye on it through the year. When we were there, our loop had 50% spaces open. I asked the park ranger what's up. He said people dont show up, and they leave a space or two to move people around if they have to due to issues with plumbing or pedestals.

[chessie4905]

have seen this all over the country this summer. Only a couple of spaces left they say. You get there and 15 or 20 empty and still empty when we leave. Also they seem to save the nicest spaces for I don't  know. Put in many sites with twigs for trees with empty ones with nice shaded ones. Also, non working or weak wifi, non working cable. Electric has been fine at every location. we have a surge protector and use 30a in tt

[dtcerrato]

I looked at our camping receipt in detail. FL resident senior rate was $14/night at two nights. Then there's $17 in fees & taxes. FL state sales tax, county tax, city tax, and a $7 reservation fee - what a rip off! there was no reservation - it was a walk in.  Also a utility fee - probably for the 30A plug in. Its getting hard to swallow. Geeze

[richard5933]

Lots of people are reserving sites for way more time than they need to make sure they get the reservation and then only show for the days they actually want. Happens all over the country since most systems only require the start date to be within the open reservation window. If a system allows reservations 1 year out, you can snag a weekend you want which is still just over a year out by reserving the week prior. It lets you get ahead of people who wait for the actual weekend to come available.

Doesn't explain all the empty sites seen in a state parks around the country, but it does explain a lot of them.

[Dave5Cs]

Where we are at there are a lot of people who leave their trailers here and only showup on the weekends then leave and go home for the week and some work in the area during the week and go home on the weekends but their trailers are always here. At $275.00 a month it is a good deal for some. That is only a long term rate. We head for Kansas Thursday and found a long term there but was $325 a month. All long terms are plus electric which runs us about 150.00 a month.

[Tedsoldbus]

We stayed there about 10 years ago so Rita could show me where she went to college (Flagler). Great campground and walked to town. Fun place. Hope to stay there this winter for a few days but everything we have called south of Atlanta seems booked, and Fla seems booked until June? We just head south and can usually use Military bases or a Walmart now and then. Not going to be scared off by "no vacancy". Buses are great. 100 gallons of water, and 200 gallons of fuel runs the generator for a long time.

[dtcerrato]

THAT'S THE SPIRIT!

[windtrader]

If most campgrounds are in the same situation; that is, lots of reservations then no shows, will they let you into the spot if unoccupied or keep empty if paid for? If they release the campsite then it's the same as the old days where you just show up, drive into an empty site, then go pay.

[Fred Mc]

Probably snowbirds from Canada who can't enter US by land.Flying is OK because as EVERYONE knows people who fly don't get covid.

[Jim Blackwood]

Neither do people who go to ball games.