Florida Keys in Dec/Jan?

[Cdash]

We are planning a trip to Florida and the Keys in December/January 2017 during the kids holiday break. I have always read that reservations can be a challenge, especially during the winter months. As I understand it, reservations can be made 11 months in advance for Florida State Parks. I can handle the actual reservations, but am looking for help on the best way to get the days we want there without having to move from site to site.

We'd be arriving on December 27th and departing on Jan 6th.

Do I need to get online every day, 11 months in advance and make a reservation for every day that opens up?

Can anyone help me out with a step by step version on how to have the best chances of getting a reservation for the times I want down there?

[Grumpy]

All I can say is "Good Luck". Even the private parks fill up a year in advance.

[Mustang65]

After talking with the people inside of Reserve America, they open their new state (Florida) CG sites up at 08:00:01 each morning for those new sites 11 months in advance. All those nights that I spent online at midnight to see if the dB was updated... no luck.

You will need to be on the computer daily until you snag a LUCKY week, with a site that will fit your RV's size. Important item, make sure the site will fit your RV as you will not be allowed to park on that site if your RV is larger than the site limitations. There were a lot of 1 and 2 day openings, never lucked out with a 2 week opening. The farther north in Florida the more sites are available, but it does snow in the panhandle.... Tampa area is about the northern edge of the tropics... cooler and colder temps north of there.

We spent about 2 weeks each morning checking and we did get a week in December for each of the last 3 years, in the Keys. They also raised the cancelation fees to $24 this year. We just cancelled a week in the panhandle due to a conflict with the delivery date of my daughters twins.

Some of the CG's keep open sites on a first come basis, but the max you can stay in on of those sites is between 1 and 3 days.

Have faith, there have been people that lucked out on their first attempt.

Good Luck, start the coffee pot early.....

Don

[Sundancer330]

It gets real tricky trying to get a reservation at state parks. If you want a start date of Dec 27 for a week you have to start looking on Dec 20, on the 20th you can reserve 14 days forward. On the 20th some will reserve 14 days which is usually the max allowed then cancel the first 7 days and keep the last 7 days. If you wait until the 27th everything is usually gone.

[Cdash]

Another question.....

I'm donning some planning to get things figured out so that when it is reservation time, I know what I want and where.

Thinking that we'll spend 3 to 5 days in Everglades, 2 to 3 in Curry Hammock, then 3 to 4 in Bahia Honda.

Would I be more likely to get reservations if I made multiple 2 week reservations, then cancelled days to get down to what I need? So for instance, make a 2 week reservation, with the last day being the first day I want to be there, then 3 other reservations to get the next 3 days?

Can this work?

[ReelCool]

On the way down if you go US 27, I highly recommend Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL. We stay at Knights Key Campground in Marathon near the 7 Mile Bridge during mini lobster season. It is not a state CG but fairly reasonable. We usually get a spot right on the water.