FL springs and Disney Trip

[Bayoumama]

Looking for opinions....my husband and I want to take a trip for just us, no kids. We want to stay a few nights at a Florida springs and a few nights at the Fort. Does anyone have experience at any of the springs parks? We see Ginnie Springs, Rainbow Springs, Juniper Springs, Silver Springs, etc. Any experience with these? We want to go when it's still hot but not too crowded, thinking end of August/September. We want to canoe and snorkel....If we went Oct or Nov is it still hot enough to do that? Any experience/advice accepted.

 

[amcc]

We do a yearly Florida spring and Fort Wilderness trip. We've been to Wekiva Spring and Blue Spring which is our favorite. The spring is a few minute walk down a trail at the campground. It's got a large swimming area and a nice run. Wekiva is only a swimming area with no run. The campground at blue spring has nice size, private sites and the bathrooms are brand new. The cold water is amazing during the steamy hot summer - perfectly clear and fresh.

You can snorkel/dive at blue spring, kayak and canoe early or go out on the St. John river for longer routes. We love it. I will be happy to answer any questions!!!

 

[Bayoumama]

I'm going to have to look into Blue Springs. What months have you gone? How crowded is it? I would like to go when kids in school so it would be quiet.

 

[amcc]

We go in July. It's crowded on the weekends and deliciously not during the week. October should be very uncrowded. They do close the spring for swimming for manatee season but I believe that is later in November. From my research, this has some of the easiest spring access. We've also rented canoes and the cost was reasonable.

 

[Nan P]

If anyone is interested in visiting Blue Springs, the summer months are good family fun for swimming and camping. We like the winter (November thru February), because the manatee come into the warm springs at night. They leave to go back to the river in mid mornings. Rangers do daily head counts and the last time we were there, 233 manatee were counted swimming back to the river and lots of them with babies. We were able to watch them up close on the "pier" type walk way. The campgrounds are nice and private and quiet. A good place to spend a few days.

 

[Bayoumama]

Thanks for the info! Been checking out videos on you tube of Blue Springs and saw the manatee....good picture above!

 

[blemon]

I've never camped at Blue Springs but it's really gorgeous there.
We just camped at Wekiva in July and it was amazing. Site 31 is the best.
It's about a mile or so to the springs from the campground so if you might want to have an alternate way to get there if your "house" is your campervan, like ours. You could easily bike on the road. There was also a trail that we did not take.

 

[Lady Marie]

We stayed near Ginnie Springs on the Santa Fe River, which ended up being lots of fun. You can canoe/kayak down the river and pull off to swim and snorkel at the different springs all up and down the Santa Fe. We go yearly in July, so I can't speak to whether or not it's still warm enough to swim later in the year.

 

[Bayoumama]

I'll check those out too. I've seen pics of Ginnie and it looks awesome.