Oscar Scherer State Park

Camping area is severely overgrown, and sites could use attention. For the size this park had a lot of camp hosts; who seemed to congregate at the bathrooms on Saturday mornings for a couple hours keeping them closed. Then they would stop there golf carts in the road blocking both directions to have a conversation instead of pulling off. Lastly the water hookups are in the middle of two sites with a wide clear path, easy to hook up but one site has a hose all the way across there site and need more than normal hose length, and the other site is walking practically on the neighbors site to deal with water.

Hurricanes really affected this park & Koreshan. And, many months on neither have cleaned up. NO LAUNDRY- supposedly taken out by storm. Bummer! Both are very �hammock� (thick tropically vegetation) that is claustrophobic for me. Won�t return to this area.

Quiet, had a back in spot on the water. Was a little scared when walking around the outside of the RV at night with our dog, because they told us there is a gator that lives in the water. Lots of privacy between sites. Great hiking, ranger told us about the bald eagle nest with babies, so that was cool. Can’t beat the price! We reserved 6 months in advance, and were only able to get 2 nights in a row. Then had to move to a different park, but this was over the holidays. This park is conveniently located near lots of shops, restaurants, and the beach isn’t too far of a drive.

An old school typical Florida state park. It is located in the middle of an urban area, yet feels really remote. It is older, but the bath houses are immaculate, the showers are hot and have great water pressure and it’s apparent the volunteers and camp hosts take great pride in keeping it that way. There are daily activities (which we did not do), and several trails right from the campground that we hiked. The beaches, stores and crowds are all nearby if you want that stuff.

First time here. Love Florida State Park system but this one that needs a bit of work. Many sites are unlevel. Not a problem if you bring blocks. Nice trails for hiking. Bathrooms are clean( 3x a day). Nice hot shower. Not much vegetation between drive thru sites. Would still return for another stay.

Beautiful wild Florida. Park is finally reopened in phase 2. The playgrounds are closed due to the covid19 Pandemic. I am disabled and staying in site 36 for 11 nights. I took a slow .7 mile stroll to Osprey lake and back today. I saw large fish in the creek. A bunny in site 35. Lots of birds and squirrels. I met 2 of the camp hosts during my walk. One was riding a bike. The other was walking 🚶‍♂️ his dog. Very friendly staff and had good recommendations for local beaches and restaurants. My site is level

Stayed 2 days here at site#17 for $24/day. The site is mostly shaded and will handle 19ft trailer and towing vehicle (yeah, at least 4 to-and-fros) in tight maneuvers. All due to untrimmed bushes and shrubs and overgrown covered the road and in the campsite. Above statement can be said for almost all sites here. All hard packed sandy road, trail, and campsite. Our site was right next to trail leading to single wooden picnic platform, a small bridge bring you pass a small black river, and the swimming pond where fatal gator attacked in 1973. Bathroom with showers and toilets are dated, but clean. All facilities are convenient if not for constant shutting down for repair. WiFi screen room has seating area and the signal wouldn’t reach to our site and that is just across small creek. On the park map; picnic area, camp loops, pond, beach area, restrooms are logically layout... and they were! Just only falling into disrepair.

Very nice park & the staff is good. The park is clean. The restrooms could use some fixing / modernization. Park is in a good location to visit Sarasota, Osprey & Venice. Would give a higher rating if we did not have to use Reserve America to book a site. We find that the confusion, miscommunication & total mess of booking with Reserve America & with the “day of” booking with the park staff is difficult, frustrating & unnecessary. Wish Florida & other states would dump Reserve America & hire some of their state citizens to do the bookings. I am sure it would be far more successful.

Very nice park & the staff is good. The park is clean. The restrooms could use some fixing / modernization. Park is in a good location to visit Sarasota, Osprey & Venice. Would give a higher rating if we did not have to use Reserve America to book a site. We find that the confusion, miscommunication & total mess of booking with Reserve America & with the “day of” booking with the park staff is difficult, frustrating & unnecessary. Wish Florida & other states would dump Reserve America & hire some of their state citizens to do the bookings. I am sure it would be far more successful.

Very nice park. We did not see any trash around the park and we take several walks/hikes a day. There is a lot of poison ivy throughout the park so keep an eye out around your campsite. Showers near our site 23 were wonderful! Lots of hiking and biking trails and also links to the paved Legacy bike trail. You can ride the Legacy trail to the Venetian waterway trail all the way to Caspersen Beach to hunt for shark's teeth. We will return.