We stayed in 3 campgrounds on 3 different Keys. The campgrounds in the middle or lower/middle Keys seemed better priced that those further north (toward Key Largo) or south (by Key West). However, many cost $100+ per night for a hookup spot. Summary & Advice – There are a lot of awesome campgrounds on the Keys. If you ask around, you can find some businesses and individuals who allow people to stay in their parking lots or properties cheaply, but this is very case-by-case, so you need to be in the Keys and making friends to find the opportunities. We spent the days swimming and working at Fort Zachary Taylor (which I highly recommend checking out), and used their beach showers / restrooms. I can’t guarantee that they will always allow this, since the owner said he’d be fined $250 if the city caught us, but we were able to make it work for a few days, and even pop the camper as we slept in it. We found one 24-hour lot on Simonton St & Green / Dey St in Key West that let us stay for $15/day for 3 nights. The best cheap camping we found was in parking lots. We had a lot of places we needed to be, plus work meetings and calls each day, so we opted to minimize time wasted looking for spots and just pay for parking lots or cheaper campgrounds. I’m 90% sure you can find places to pull off and camp on the roads mentioned in this post if you have a few hours to kill driving and looking, and can plan to move spots each day. We tried to find a few of these sites, but gave up before driving too far. Other dispersed camping options – According to this post, you can find dispersed camping sites near Key Largo, on Sugarloaf Key, and on Marathon Key. However, Ramrod is a gorgeous spot, and free to enter, so I highly recommend checking it out. We tried and were advised by locals that it was no longer possible. Unfortunately, free camping (or any camping) is no longer allowed at Ramrod Swimming Hole. Where you can no longer free camp – Ramrod Swimming Hole. I can’t confirm that this is possible since we didn’t try it and didn’t see it ourselves, however I think you could make it work for a couple of nights on Stock Island or on roads around the Naval Air Station (the Key right before Stock Island). We also were told that there were roads ‘behind Leo’s Campground’ on Stock Island (the Key right before Key West) where people, including RVs, were seen camping for days or weeks at a time. We couldn’t have popped the top of our truck camper), then you can generally sleep in any parking lot that allows free parking and isn’t monitored (This seems analogous to sneakily camping on streets that allow parking in cities). From what we understood, as long as you aren’t obvious about it (i.e. We talked to people who’d been sleeping in their vehicles for weeks in a Casa Marina spillover lot. One example is the Casa Marina Key West (no link added because I don’t want them to see this article and start policing their lot more heavily). There are a few parking lots that allow free 24-hour parking. If anyone disagrees with that or has made it happen easily, let me know in the comments or at Free camping is easiest if you’re staying in a regular vehicle or camper van. I’ll start by noting that it will be really difficult to free camp if you’re in an RV (and in general). TLDR Find ‘free parking’ lots that don’t close after a certain time, and side roads with pull-offs. Cheap, Free and Unique Camping in the Florida Keys Free Camping Florida Keys Read on for my tips on how to camp for free or cheap in the Florida Keys. If you happen to (like we did), it’s because you either got lucky or knew someone with inside info. However, you should note that boondocking or camping in parking lots isn’t allowed, so you shouldn’t head to the Keys and expect to find places to sleep for free or cheap. Although it’s tremendously more difficult to camp for free here than it is out west, it may be possible if you’re staying in a vehicle, van, truck camper, or tent. As of writing this, we’ve been in the Keys for over 3 weeks, and have stayed at a number of places – from campgrounds, to parking lots. We had campgrounds lined up for our first week and a half in the Keys, but planned (hoped) to figure out how to stay longer (for cheaper) once we were there. One of my top goals for the first leg of our truck camping journey was to get scuba certified so I could volunteer with the Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo.
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