homosasa state park great,no canping but up the road at rainbow springs campin is ok,it was there befor disney ran it out of bis.close to crystal river where we swam with the mannaties & they film it cd was $10 I think . the tour company was Birds underwatter addventure or something like that(5 years ago) dont rember how much the boat tour to swim with them was.got to swim with a week old calf awassom.then they takook us by the same boat to another spring cristal clear you cant tell how deep it is I tried to go to the bottom it hurt to bad (ears) homosassa springs state park gotta do it. boat ride to the reserve/zoo type of thing feed the manities,under watter observatory,gaters,birds,realy neet for kids&adults(I turned 48 today but I still think I am a kid)
mannatie springs havent been there if it's buy bradenton then I have ben buy it a few times going racing(NHRA drag)division 2 meet at bradenton motorsports park just about 3 miles from park.(big rig stayed at track 4 days) But in the panhandle(where I am) black watter stateforest is great camping,kanewing hiking etc.,no I caint spel &I aint no ******* but 4 of our kids are! Terea state park is great for hiking & home to the terea tree neet & very few,like the red woods& related to them.also white squarles. lots of wild life.
slopchopy is below tallahasse nice also, we stay there when we go to waculla springs state park ,thats where the creatchere from the black lagoon was made,also the orignal tarzan series with jonny wisemuller,airport 77 or one of those airport movies&others.great swming with the gators no crap swming with the gaters real ones high platform to jump off.glass bottom boats,tour boats,(cheep state run tour baots are great!!!) birds gators masstadon bones in the bottom of the spring that you dive off into while the gaters swim around or sit on the sand bar.not tame gators, wild gators they dont bother any body. state run historic hotel &restrant icecream parler. place for car showes ,hiking,but no camping at waculla state park go south to slopchoppy state park.
east of panama city an hour or so is cape sanblast (st josephs peninsula state park) great!!! un beleaveble sea life,shrimp ,lobster,seahorse,fish,seashels galore. it's 3 hours form me but the coast line is totaly defrent than hear (destin,fortwalton beach)we dont have shels,seahorse,lobster.at least not that you can pick up with your hand in sand or kneedeep watter.
henderson beach state park in niceville yes I said niceville about 20 minutes from me pretty nice hiking small beach, fishing ,boat ramp .
three rivers state park on the fl ga ala border is great also but no swming big gators that will eat you.but on the other side in ga they have swming at their park sort of like a lake .but it takes almost 2 hours to get from one to the other.gps says 3 miles,wrong the vally was flooded 50 years ago but the roads are still there just under water,go figure,they even have a submerged lake!!! havent figured that one out yet. I know a few more that we have stayed at but thats all for now. good luck