Stopping point between Baton Rouge and the Fort

jolynne28

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Hi all. We are making our first trip to The Fort the week before Thanksgiving. We have always stayed at hotels on property, but recently bought a travel trailer and are super excited to finally get to camp at The Fort. I've looked around and read some other threads that asked this, but haven't made a decision on what is best for us regarding the drive down.

We live close to Baton Rouge, so we are looking for an overnight to split the drive. I've seen good things about Defuniak, Big Oak, and Perry. Perry would be my choice, I find the traffic on I-75 to be horrible. But I worry it's too far for the first leg of the trip, it's over 500 miles.

Has anyone done this? Do you have any other recommendations?

Oh and feel free to throw in your favorite Premium Loop, just for science ; ) We are spending 8 nights, my parents will be there for 6. Will we be able to request sites next to each other? If so, do we do this in advance, or once we arrive?

Thanks so much!
 
We stayed in Pennsicola this year at Pennsicola RV. Not fancy but clean and just off l 10 at exit 11. Another pretty good RV park just down the street. About 6 hours from the fort and not bad drive from Baton Rouge. 600 - 900 all great. We were in 600 this spring and found it close to everything except bath house. 800 or 900 may be closer to showers. 700 closest to boat and Trails End.
 
Thanks for the info. I think we want to get as close to halfway as possible, so Pensacola is probably not the best option for us. We're traveling with 3 kids under 6, and even though we will both be driving, I know being in the truck with all 3 for that long is going to be a challenge.
 
We stay @ KOA Denham Springs, east of Baton Rouge our 1st. night. Then Perry KOA & really like our sites. Not a fancy KOA, but the people are very nice. Then you are approx. 5 hrs. to the Fort. We arrived last year on 11/12 to 12/07. You will have a great time. We prefer 700 or 900 loop. Safe travels - weather was great.
 


We RV travel a good bit and find the Allstays app very handy. It will give you rules for each state, rest stop locations, different businesses. Even if it doesn't help with your original request it will be way handy with the little ones for all trips. Have a great trip!
 
There is a Jelly Stone Campground on I10 at mm 258 in Madison, Florida, it's right off the interstate. And is about 30 miles from the I10 I75 interchange.
 
Stopping around Defuniak Springs would probably be fine, or even closer to Tallahassee.

I live not too far from Defuniak Springs and we don't always go the I-10 to I-75 route. Depends on the time of year and how busy we think traffic will be. We hate driving on 75 down near Ocala/Gainesville--especially where the construction is.

We often turn off I-10 and go down 19/98 to get to FW. It's a little bit longer of a drive but much less headache!

500 loop is our favorite. I believe you can tie the reservations together somehow so they know you're traveling together. You can always request to be put near each other, but it's just a request.
 


We’ve gone twice from New Orleans with young kids.

Stopped at Falling Waters and Three Rivers state parks and also at triple C campground. Planned to stay at the caverns state park last time too, but it flooded. Which is how we found triple C.

Going again in the fall and will probably stay at triple C since it’s so close to the interstate.
 
We are planning to stay there in August/September when we come down to the Fort. It seemed like a good half way point for us (coming from the Huntsville AL area).

We usually leave early afternoon from Baton Rouge so it’s a good stop for us. The pull through sites are long and level. We don’t even unhook, the bath house has always been very clean.
 
We live near Baton Rouge and boondock on the way there. We've stayed 3 times at the Walmart in Tallahassee.
 
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions! Sorry I dropped the ball on this thread, end of May was crazy busy with our kids and then sickness followed right after. My dad wants to get together one day soon to figure out where to stay and go ahead and make the reservations.

I REALLY wanted to do Perry, but for us it will be too far. My parents are early 70's, so my dad typically doesn't drive his Class A over 4-5 hours at a time. It's just to tiring for him. We will be pushing our legs to 6 hours each, and that till won't get us to Perry. But, I am hoping we can possibly take that route down and avoid 75. That stretch of interstate is stressful just driving a car, I can't imagine towing something through there.

I have looked at Milton, but it makes the 2nd half of the trip 7+ hours, so we need to go a little further the first day. I'm thinking Defuniak or Tallahassee.

I wish we could boondock, we actually stayed in Tallahassee last year on our drive (no TT) and went to that Walmart right off the interstate. We don't have a generator, but my parents do.

My dad is looking at Outback Springs in Bonifay. Anyone stayed there before?
 
Stayed at St. George Island State Campground in the Panhandle of Florida several times. The island is about 20 miles longs with half being residence (lots of house rentals) and the other half is St. George Island State Park. Beautiful beaches, cool lighthouse etc. The Drive from St George Island to Disney would be a little over 5 hours.
 
Be sure to check ahead if thinking about Falling Waters or Three Rivers. I believe one is still closed to camping and the other is limited--due to damage from Hurricane Michael.

There is COE Landing in Tallahassee that's off of Hwy 20. It's a quiet little park on the lake. We've stayed there in my Dad's 24ft Class C. They have limited spaces for larger MoHo's though. If you decide to go down the non-Interstate way, you might want to look at that. It's a Leon Cty park, so you'd have to search for it that way.
 
Thanks everyone! Booked Falling Waters for one night on both ends of the trip! It fits our needs in regards to proximity to the interstate and halfway point of the trip.
 

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