Long Point Park — Hotel in Sebastian

Have camped here for 18 years. Place has gone downhill greatly, so much in fact that we'll not be back. You need to made a reservation a year in advance, and they keep ALL your money for that entire year. They have $900 of mine right now for my reservation a year from now. And they penalize you if you change your reservation. They allow campers to call and reserve a prime site for, say, November. Then that person calls and changes his date to December, and then January. When I call in January for a reservation 12 months hence, the prime sites are taken by these cheaters, and the Park does nothing to stop it.

On winter weekends, scores of teens invade the park, violating all the rules about numbers of tents and people per site. And this raucous bunch might be camped right next to an old couple in their trailer, the kids playing radios, screaming, skateboarding and traipsing thru adjacent campsites. If you walk at night, you can get run over by a bike, which is supposed to have a light in front. They don't enforce this rule at all. Long-term campers dread the weekends, especially if there's an empty site next door.

The facilities are not well maintained. The newest bathhouse has no water pressure and a big exhaust fan keeps the place mighty cool but is noisy as an airplane. The older bathhouse has tiles missing from the floor, soap dishes gone, fixtures badly stained. It was recently repainted right over peeling paint. The cheap toilet paper is thin and frail and an inch narrower than what you use at home. Quite an adventure.

State law prevents cutting of mangroves, so the park is surrounded by dense mangroves. The river can't be seen from many waterfront sites because of this. Most of the scenic spots in and around the park are choked with mangroves, making it difficult to view wildlife. The road into the park is a mile long and in dismal shape. It has not been worked on in at least 20 years and it jostles your vehicle and RV when you come and go.

I wrote to the County and the State about this park about 4 years ago and was assured they were going to take my comments to heart. The next year they installed wi-fi (which they previously had claimed was cost-prohibitive). We've had it two years now and most people don't bother with it. It works sometimes. You can usually get on their network, but not on the internet. Apparently they aren't paying for enough bandwidth to handle the users. This year the rates went up about $3, we figure to pay for the wi-fi. All sites are the same price. They did nothing to address my other concerns. We're paying $31 per day for sites with water you can't drink and don't even want to make coffee with. No sewers or tv. There is no monthly rate or other discount.

The place is attractively situated on an island/peninsula that sticks out into the Indian River Lagoon. It's only a mile to the ocean and 3 miles to Sebastian Inlet. Birds are plentiful. Fishing has deteriorated in the river and ocean, and many of the old-timers are looking for other places to spend their winters. We will cancel next year's reservation once we decide where to stay. We'd suggest you...

Longpoint Park has long been a favorite of my families. However, the park has fallen under horrible enforcement of rules and policies, making it almost entirely unenjoyable. Some are personal experiences, others observation. Late check-ins are not allowed, despite the reservations stating “check in is from 2-9 pm… anyone needing assistance after office hours please call…” I saw multiple people turned away on Good Friday who were coming in to camp for Easter weekend, despite having their information and site paid for, they were refused entry (not after quiet hours). We had to move sites, we were packed and ready to move at 11 am to our new site, and when I went to let the office know I was switching to the new site (a standard operating procedure in the 70+ campgrounds I have been to over the last 4 years), I was told I needed to park in the overflow and wait until 2 pm for my site to become ready (the previous occupant left at 11 and there was no mess or anything left on the site). It was lost on the worker to understand why someone would want to not waste an entire day waiting for their site to be ready. We checked out on Easter before 11 AM and wanted to paddle board. I asked if it was ok to Diana, who said it was fine to park in the area I pointed out, as those sites are out of service for electrical issues, and it was on the shoulder (note there were other cars, trailers and boats parked there as well). When we returned from paddle boarding I was confronted by the same woman who said it was OK and handed a “courtesy notice” for not DEPARTING the PUBLIC PARK at 11 am, which was checkout time. Not the site, the whole park, which is publicly accessible.

These people do not understand the camping lifestyle, how to talk to people or how to even read their own rules as a public park. They believe 11 am checkout means complete departure of the property, and 2 pm check in means you cannot enter the property, which, as I said, is a public park. Even still, hotels allow guests on property to use the facilities before check in and after check out, and they even allow early check ins and late check outs if they can accommodate.

All of this being said, the attitude my family received about every little thing during our stay was completely out of the norm for any sort of campground I have been, and contrary to...

We booked our reservation on a whim taking the last available campsite for tents with water and electric hookups looking for a place on the east coast to try out some saltwater fishing close to Sebastian. The campground itself seemed over-crowded with sites stacked so tightly together making it so there was barely any room between you and your neighbors. Our site (spot #8) was in between two groups of people who knew each other (spots #7 + #9) which was unfortunate for us and really put a damper on our experience. All night we dealt with loud obnoxious music, talking, and yelling from both teenagers + adults who kept bright lights on till 1am and kept walking through our campsite to get around us. This really sucked for us making us feel uncomfortable, unable to relax due to the noise and feeling like we were in the way just by being in our own space. Despite the issues with other campers and losing sleep, the islands are quite beautiful. The back of our site had water access where we could fish through the opening in the mangroves and watch the dolphins swim by. The fishing pier and bridge to scout island provided us with easily accessible spots for fishing along with scout island’s beaches. We spent most of most of our time in the park at a secluded beach on scout island; fishing, swimming, checking out wildlife in the water, and picnicking with what we carried in. The water at scout island is gorgeous and felt like a dream to experience! I wish we could’ve camped there instead of at our crowded uncomfortable campsite. If we ever return we would probably bring an Rv/camper/van as the park seems better suited for them. The bathrooms and showers were decent; either brightly lit and filled with an array of bugs or dim and slimy but overall mostly clean. If you’re down to deal with dozens of raccoons trying to steal from you, tons of mosquitoes, and small camp sites obnoxious neighbors are probably the only issue you could...