Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park — Attraction in Jacksonville

We stayed at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park campgrounds for three days.. It is located right on the beach in Jacksonville It is a large park and campground, with over 290 campsites available, some of which are full hookups. The campground has a main central road that is just wide enough for two way traffic, with "loops" to the left and right as you go down thru it. The sites are labelled on each loop on the central road only, so if you get lost, you will need the campground map to get back around to the central road. I had a full hookup site so did not need restrooms, but visited one and found it to be clean and up to date. There are large washer/dryer buildings (one had 7 washer/dryers). The camp store has all the necessities and you can rent canoes, kayaks, bikes there. From the camp store you are literally 5 mins walking distance to the beach. There are hiking and biking trails. There are playgrounds, docks to fish off of at the lake (no swimming, alligators). Dogs are allowed on the beach! Cons: I am going to list Cons first, as for me they were pretty important ones, so much so that I probably would not return. First, the drive in to the campground off I295 is bumpy pulling a camper on SR116. I mean REALLY bumpy. I assume this is because, as the main route in, it get's all the fifth wheelers, motorhomes, etc, in that right lane. I was literally bouncing up and down going 5 MPH under the posted speed limit. I would recommend coming in by route 10 to Mayport Road, to old Mayport Road to the campground. Second: Saying the campground roads are narrow is an understatement. I don't know how some of the larger fifth wheels / motorhomes negotiate some of the turns. Most of the loops are literally single car wide, and have sharp turns at the end of the loop. Unless you are going straight down to the loops that have pull through sites, I think you should be very wary of this campground if you have a fifth wheel over 35 feet in length. You can view a very good video of all the sites on youtube by searching "Hanna Park Campground Tour Detailed Site to Site, Jacksonville Beach, Florida" by the youtube channel "Downsizing Makes Cents". Third: The sites are not as big as the map says they are, in my opinion. I stayed on site 290, which says it is for campers up to 35 feet. My camper is 26 feet long bumper to hitch, and we barely got in so our truck would be able to park. The site was not level at all, and so you should make sure you have levelling blocks Once we were in, we had only the width of our awning, which touched the tree's, so outdoor living space was minimal. Fourth: I noticed dog feces on the roads, paths in several places through the campground. I even saw someone had thrown a 1 lb package of meat on the side of the road inside the campground, which was rotting. I also noticed the dumpsters had trash on the ground around them, and the tops of the dumpsters were open, allowing animals into them. Pros: The campground is very nice looking and you feel like you are in a lush tropical jungle depending on your site. There is a lake at one side of the campground, and it has a fishing dock that you can look out over the lake to view wildlife. The bathroom I visited at random was very clean, and this was at night after most people would've used it. The store at the campground had souvenir items and ice cream (what else do you need). The beach is VERY nice, wide, and was not crowded at all. If you have a bike (or rent one) you can literally ride for hours and not get bored in the park. If you are military, Mayport Naval Base is 1/2 mile down the road, with gas, shopette, and restaurants. mountain bike trails, and a few hiking trails for your enjoyment. Restaurants and gas stations are minutes away outside the park. The park utilizes a code which changes each week, so you feel somewhat secure. The main road of the campground (as all roads leading in) are lighted, and each shower room, laundry room, etc are also well lit at night. There are plenty of sites with...

Absolutely love the park! Been going for years! The overnight security guard, on the other hand, is AWFUL. It's not really on the company that they use for security, its just the specific guard that is there on the weekends. We got on her radar Thursday night because we had too many cars on one site. Although this rule is minimal, we were still breaking the rules, so we complied. As we were unloading the vehicles that we were going to be moving to visitor parking, she came by a second time about 2 minutes later, yelling and still insisting that we move the cars with a sense of urgency. We eventually moved the vehicles to visitor parking as she watched us. When we returned to our camp site we found out that her yelling woke up the neighbor, who heard her giving us a hard time. He offered to let us leave one of our vehicles on his site, since he has room and it didn't violate the rules. Later that night the security guard snuck onto our site a second time giving us a hard time about the vehicle. We advised that he allowed us to park there and no rules were being broken. Realizing she had nothing on us, she threatened to kick us out if we were lying, and left us alone for the night. Friday afternoon, I go up to the front office regarding the security guard harassing us. We also asked if an exception could be made to the rule since we now have two campsites. I asked if, instead of two vehicles per site, we could have three vehicles per site. The front office agreed as long as the vehicles weren't out in the street. I then asked if they could let the security guard know of the changes so that she would have no reason to harass us again. They agreed. Friday night comes around and we have three cars on one site and two cars on the other site, well within the changes to the rules. The security guard sneaks onto our campsite again. Since we went around her to the front office to nullify the issue, she came back to accuse us of drinking alcohol, which is against another rule. Since she is standing in the middle of our campsite she can see that there is not alcohol anywhere and since she snuck onto the site we wouldn't have had time to hide it. She was completely making this up, she just wanted to bother us yet again. Throughout these encounters we are still being cordial, hoping that she would just leave us alone. Thinking that there can't be anymore issues, were relaxing around the fire Saturday night and I see her sneaking onto our site again. At this time we had three vehicles on each site. Her issue tonight is that we were only allowed to have three vehicles on one site, not both. I advised her that she is incorrect and request that she stop harassing us every night. She then gets upset and calls, what we believe is, her supervisor stating that we were threatening her and surrounding her truck. Her supervisor advised her to leave us alone. When she gets off the phone she stated that she wants us to hit her so that she can press charges and that she is going to call the cops on us. Once the cops arrive they give us a final warning, as if we were the cause of the issue. Both she and the offices leave. Overall this is the worst experience I've ever had here. Although its not typical, I spoke with other people who camp here as well and they stated that the overnight security guard is obsessive, radical, and invasive. This seems like she will be a continuous problem until she leaves. We have a reservation for later this year but, at this point, I don't know if I'd come back without something changing. P.S. We have a video of the final interaction with her before the police...

Great place! Gated entry, code changes every Tuesday. People inside the office are helpful. They have host teams throughout the campsites. Very on top of things as soon as a camper leaves. They are right there cleaning up for the next one to come in. The dumpsters are emptied everyday. They have bath houses, washers and dryers. They're $3 each . They have walking trails lakes but I don't suggest swimming in the legs due to alligators being seen in the lake. If you want to go swimming, walk across the boardwalk and find the beach very beautiful! There's a camp store there. There not much in it but you can rent bikes I believe. Kayaks very friendly as well. They have the necessities in the store. If you like to go off the campsite, there's many things to do as well. Places to eat. There's Walmart Publix Big lots. You name it. The mall's not far. Safe harbor market is a fresh seafood place. Wonderful prices and a bit of everything across the street from that is the safe harbor restaurant. Wonderful food there as well but I do suggest to do takeouts waiting in line's. Not worth it, but if you do it take out it's 15 minutes versus an hour in line. There's a fairy down there as well just past the markets and the theory is on the left. They take the money while you are on the car on the ferry. The campsites are good sized, very wooded bring your mosquito spray and if you have pets make sure they're on tick prevention. Loads of ticks I should say little teeny weeny ones. Bring your tweezers just in case. And out Neosporin. And alcohol. I suggest if you're going to go in the daytime to set up. Do not try to do it at night. Night it's not easy. No street lights in the campgrounds is very dark. He has the roads, are narrow. And no street lights is hard to see but with the narrow roads comes you can go any direction. There's not an in or an out. It's all the same. You need to make sure it's a clear sailing before heading all the way out. That's the only drawback I had seen with the park but everybody there is willing to lend a hand. Finding a host family is not a hard thing. Thing they're usually on every corner and they have a sign that says host. They are there for a reason. You need something you ask them. They're very sweet. Dogs are allowed on the beach, just clean up after...