Camping in Florida

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In a tent, next easter. How ridiculous on a scale of 1-10 would that be? the boys will be 7&8. Has anyone done it? Or can you point me to a site of great information on these things?

Not ridiculous at all...... There are some great full facilities camp sites in the state parks... here.

but... watch out for sites beside rivers - they do close down with very little notice for flooding or algae...

I've done it once in September in cabins- it was close to everything and very well-equipped, but very very buggy and we were quite badly bitten. It's worth knowing that Easter is lovely weather wise but the busiest time of year for the parks in terms of crowds.

The bugs are one of the things (other than the temperature!) that are putting me off it a little. Couch, what do you mean when you say that it was close to everything? The outdoors?

Sorry, close to the parks and attractions :)

Things to think about: temperature, bugs, alligators. I know of a school in Massachusetts that quite often takes their 8th graders to do wild camping in Florida. Its not the first place I would think of to camp in the US.

Also we looked at staying in a cabin once near Disney, and it wasn't any/much cheaper than Villa rental; and much less pleasant.

why camp? do your family particularly love it? it wont work out a lot cheaper than a villa or cabin. what about one of those RV's where you sleep inside. you can hire these. if you want to move around and not do the Disney thing what about staying in Motel. our kids really enjoyed this when we did it. TBH camping in florida with the heat, humidity, security, bugs, just would have to ask why.

lol, we thought it might be fun - it's not a money saving thing. Pre kids we holidayed a few times in the states - just hired a car, drove, and stayed in cheap motels. It was bloody fab. Last year we took the boys and visited family in Miami, and took them to orlando for a couple of weeks. Went to universal/busch/seaworld/aquatic as not a fan of Disney. Going again next year and having a little drive around from tampa - Miami - orlando and back to tampa, and just wondered about taking the tent/buying one for the fun of it. Although I do think the idea slightly ridiculous - hence the original question :-)

make sure you visit florida keys. we had a fab week there. loads to do at john pennekamp national park with snorkelling and canoes. the upper keys better for kids than key west imo. they have some great national parks.