Hanna Park Campground — Hotel in Jacksonville

We really enjoyed this park and giving it a 4 Star rating doesn't truly reflect how much we enjoyed it (but is accurate for many others). The campground is truly in a whole new world. It reminds us of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. You are tucked away in a jungle surrounded by city, beaches, and a military base. The tree cover is extensive and there is abundant wildlife. The roads are narrow, you appreciate them because they blend in with the environment. We booked one week originally, but enjoyed our stay so much that we booked another.

Registration on the website is simple and the check in when you arrive is quick and painless (staff is friendly and helpful). It's just a nice park with great value.

Pros Registration and Check in (great description of site eg. level/private) -Customer Service Price (best in Florida we found so far) Atmosphere Beach in close walking distance Plenty of bike trails Hiking trails (pro and con) Most sites have a good feeling of privacy Utilities worked well (except one issue in cons) Sprint and Verizon worked great Fire rings and benches in each site Good sized spaces overall Nice lake

Cons Very muddy in rain (which happens a lot) Gravel would help Dumpsters can be pretty far away Roads are narrow for larger rigs, but we didn't have any issues Hiking trails are nice, but very limited in and out. Basically when you start on the 6 mile loop you have to finish it. There are no shortcuts. Noise can be a challenge (Military helicopters all day, construction, and animals). We didn't mind it, but many will. Electrical connection was very challenging with an EMS or surge protector. The connection is on a 45 degree angle and the weight of the cord and EMS pull it right out. We had to connect to the 50AMP and then tie the EMS to the post. Really hard to work with. Some of the sites are not level at all (site 97 was a real challenge for us). Not only is it very uneven, but your levelers will just sink into the mud. We carry 1x6s for this reason and they came in really handy. Kudos to the park though for telling you the condition of each site.

Those cons are what brought it down to a 4 star for us, but again we really liked the placed and will always stay at Hanna if in the area. The value is incredible and we would encourage people to choose the park (recognizing some of the challenges) if...

It's a nice little park. I love the proximity to the beaches and lots of hiking and biking trails. However, this park is not very big rig friendly. If you are over 39' I would be very cautious of the spot you book even if it claims it is for that size, especially if you have a Fifthwheel so you have to add in maneuvering your dually long bed truck. :O and some of the spots say they are for one size but in the description say they allow longer rig, well that was a mistake on our part we should have realized that was likely a mistake. The camp spot pictures are helpful but only to a small extent when they don't show you the entrance and exit of the spot or lanes to see the ENORMOUS and LOW LYING trees reaching into and over the road. Luckily for us the spots across from our spot was open so we were able to maneuver into that spot to get into ours. But only with the help of our fabulous camp host and the park ranger who came out to assist us especially that it had turned dark when we got there due to some heavy traffic issues on our journey over. Try your best to get here in daylight hours especially for big rigs.

Also their sewer hookups are very odd. They come up off the ground like 6-8" and then have a 90deg elbow. Very hard unless your sewer hookups are very high above to get the correct angle to drain into that elbow. You will be walking your drain hoses when dumping to get it to flow uphill into a 90deg pipe/elbow.

The bathhouse with the nature center inside is really bad and needs to be torn down and rebuilt completely. There is so much mold in this place. It is really, really, bad! We lasted like 10 min in the nature center and I was holding my breath the whole time. This is not safe nor acceptable for a public space, nor for the workers in those spaces. Does OSHA have standards on Mold exposure to workers? Cause if so this building would DEFINITELY fail. Enter at your own risk.

All in all, I'd like to return on account of the proximity to the beach access and Jacksonville. But I have to consider if we can even find another spot to accommodate our 42' fifthwheel and dually long bed tow vehicle. And don't expect at all to use that dump station unless you have a little pop up camper or camper van. It's just a little horseshoe turn right in the entrance and exit that only the smallest of...

I think your experience here will largely depend on which site you have. It's a beautiful park. Short walk or drive to the beach. The lake side of Hanna Park offers beautiful birds, a large playground for kids, fishing, kayaking (but alligators are in the lake and we did spot 3 so be aware!)

The campground itself is nice. There's a camp store selling firewood and other camping things you may have gotten along with a few souvenirs, bait for fishing, and even renting bikes.

Playground up front was nice. There's another one in the back which was nice but had a lot of areas around it blocked off for construction so it wasn't exactly super kid friendly at the moment unless under close supervision.

Restrooms were just ok. The women's near our site had two shower stalls, one offering a trickle of water and the other was super fast... So take your pick! They were relatively clean although apparently the men's were in far worse condition according to my husband.

We were at site 5. I would not choose this site again. When they say "not private" in the site description, they mean it! It was all that was available though. It (and the ones next to it) back up to the road into the campground where the gate to enter in. There is a large street light that shone on our site all night long and the noise of cars constantly coming and going was a lot. We saw security drive through maybe once? But I don't think they go around often or don't enforce rules because we had neighbors across from us who literally let their music play outside all night long non-stop 🙄. Lots of kids riding bikes, which is great!---except many ride at night very fast, even some on electric bikes and no helmets, so drive slow!

The only good thing with our site is we didn't flood. We had heavy rain on our trip and walking through the campground could see LOTS of sites and areas of the road completely flooded. Obviously you can't control weather but there is not good drainage in place and being in a tent, we would have had to leave early if we had been in one of the many sites that took on large amounts of standing water.

Overall, if we were back in the area again, if I wasn't concerned about too much rain and getting flooded out, and if I could be more particular about my site, I would try it again. We still had a...