Hontoon Island Adventures — Attraction in DeLand

This was the most wonderful day my son and I have had in a long time. You start with a short ferry ride to the island, captained by an extremely welcoming and informative park ranger. As you dock, there is a massive playground to your left, canoes to rent to your right, and just ahead of you is a building containing a ranger's station, a gift shop, and a visitor's center which is like a room of a museum (that alone held the attention of my 9 year old and myself for quite some time). Apon the suggestion of the ranger that ferried us over, we headed to the right towards the hiking trail. There are several miles of trails on the island most hard dirt roads but the hiking trail avgs 36 “ in width and involves some jumping and balancing but only to get around black muck filled low-lying areas (which only adds to the adventure). We saw an array of different birds on our trip, brave birds that were not startled by my excited son's voice. There is all sorts of wildlife in the island including deer, gator, and bear but we didn't run into anything of the sort. We spent 5 hours hiking and walking around the park. On our way back to ferry we passed through to camping area that boasted more than a dozen firepits, grills, and camping sites including cabins. There are bathrooms and showers situated in the middle of the large camping area. We decided that we will be renting one of those cabins before the summer hits. If you like fishing, look no further, there are two rivers and a lake off her shores. The only thing I regret is not having cash on me to donate to the park, I won't make that mistake next time (which could be today, they are open 365...

Awesome park, we were on our tiny houseboat adventure, pulled into a slip to check things out and was greeted by Park Ranger Whitey. He was VERY informative and helpful, explained normaly would need a reservation but they had plenty of room and took great care of us. With all the COVID stuff going on he followed all protocols but you could see the smile shine through the mask. We encountered him an number of times throughout our 1 night stay and again always helpful. He represented the State and park with top notch professionalism.

The park itself is clean and has many options albeit still some closed from COVID.

All amenities we saw and or used ( great hot showers) we clean and easy to access.

For those that don't know you can only access the park by boat or a FREE ferry.

We will be back!

If you know Whitney please let him know that Anthony's was REALLY GOOD and doordash will deliver to the parking lot for the ferry...

The Hontoon Island experience began with a ride across the water on a pontoon ferry. Life jackets were available and staff was super friendly! As soon as you dock you are greeted with a store and welcome center. Lots of family boaters and campers were docked for the day and having a great time when we arrived. The welcome centers had ton of info about the area and its history. The store was very handy for anyone, but I'm sure campers found it helpful to pick up any forgotten items like bug spray or sun screen at a reasonable price. We bought ice cream for the kids and enjoyed eating it in rocking chairs looking out over the water! The trails to walk on are beautiful and clean. The boat ride fits 6 people at a time and can become a little backed up here and there in busier times of the day. This was our first visit but I can't wait to see more of this...