Review of Santos Campground

Our 12 nights at Santos Campground and Trailhead are up, and we are movin’ on out today. The attraction at Santos  are the mountain bike trails. Classic Florida – scrubby, pine trees, hard woods, prairies, and lots and lots of roots and rocks. They have also built a paved greenway that goes for miles and miles from the campground, perfect for the biker who is not so into the bumpy stuff.

The campground is fairly small  – only 22 sites, and they are reserved months ahead of time, especially on the weekends. We have a one night gap between our next stay at Alafia (no Saturday night available there) and here (no Saturday night available here) even though we reserved way back in May. The sites are decently sized, but not very private. From where I site now, I can see the majority of the other sites. The price is a reasonable $22 a night  all the sites have electric and water.

It is worth it for us to be here for the trails, but if you rather something more quiet, seek elsewhere! The campground is on a noisy highway with jake-breaking trucks and loud cars and motorcycles. Not much for noise enforcement in Florida.  Yikes!! Also, the trains are frequent, not far off and whistling Dixie through the night.

Bathrooms tend towards inadequate when the campground is full, expecially for men. There is one toilet in the men’s room, a urinal and two showers. The women’s room has two toilets and two showers. We have brought the dirty bathroom conditions and lack of paper towels to the attention of the campground host three times since we’ve been here. Evidently they have a janitorial service come in four times a week – someone needs to check their work or get a new service.

The campground gets a mix of campers and tents, and one night there were at least five other small trailers here! Clientele are often fellow mountain bikers who once in a while  enjoy a party around the campfire, but most people have been friendly and respectful with their noise and pets.

Bottom Line: Would we stay here again? This was our fourth visit to this campground, so yes, for the easy access to the mtb trainls, we would stay again.