Lake Manatee State Park

We stayed in Loop 1 site 8. Sites are spacious and private. Bathrooms with showers are in center of each loop and therefore very accessible to all sites. Rural yet close to grocery and restaurants. Huge lake. Could only get one night. Rate of $39 includes a reservation fee and a utility fee. Excellent cell service with Verizon. 104 tv stations over the air. Easy hiking trails. 

Was not crowded when we were there just before memorial day weekend. Great facility boat launch, beaches, great showers and bath facility. 30 amp. Very inexpensive. Some shade. Great camp host.. no family amenities, other than boating , fishing and swimming. A typical excellent state park. dump station and trash on departure.

Well kept campground bath houses are nice close to bradenton good value, recommend.
No laundry facilities here.
Lake is pretty
Stayed here in the past.

Come during the week to avoid loud dragstrip 1 mile away. You will hear it! Some road noise from route 64 but not bothersome. Most sites spacious with good privacy side to side and some shade. Electric and water hookups are in the middle of sites rather than at the back, worked well. Quick check-in. Paved roads, great for walking, sandy / dirt sites. Large oak trees with spanish moss on many sites. The two loops are connected to each other and the day use area on the lake by paved walks, very nice touch. No beach at lake, more for boating than swimming. Bathrooms looked clean but I did not use them. Book well in advance. No stores in the area, must drive to Bradenton. Verizon 4gLte 3 bars, fine for streaming and online work. OTA from Sarasota only. I will return.

Chose this state park for our first trip in our new TT as its close to home. No frills, 30amp service and water at each site. Place was fairly empty when we arrived but filled up quickly. Bath house was clean, but lacked A/C. There was a sign which advertised bike and kayak rental, however we didn’t use those. We did have some ants at our site (15) but they didn’t seem to be a problem. Overall we were happy we chose here for our first trip. 

Nice, clean, and quiet.  Thats because there is nothing to do.  They don’t rent canoes or bikes. There is no general store to buy supplies (ice).  

Too many state and county parks with better (any) amenities to go to.

Great stay. Quiet.  Trails.  Water & electric.  Only  30 sites.

This is another great Florida state park the only reason I give 3 stars are because with our normal daily thunderstorm some of spots become unusable with standing water covering anywhere from a third to the whole camp site. 
Otherwise, the sites are large with a lot of space between sites.  On the sites on the inner circle of the loops all of the sites have blacktop trails to the bathhouses which are large and clean. 

No 50 amp service. No a/c in bathrooms.  Lot 2 was overrun by ants. 
Beach was empty. Doesn’t seem very popular. Spots were roomy. 

The sites are fairly large & private. There are nice trails & a beautiful lake with boat ramp. Make note of the early gate closing time & call ahead for the entrance code or you'll be locked out. You can hear the racetrack noise, which is about a mile away. 

Really nice sites easy accessibility.  Our stay was during very hot days but made the best of it hiking the trails.  Well laid out and great facilities. Park very clean and staff friendly.   Only complaint is they need more gravel on site ground.  

The staff is very friendly, great park, nice lake. We discovered the Desoto Racetrack and drag strip are just down the road. Saturday night stock car races were a good find. Be sure to take ear protection!!! Easy access to Bradenton, but a ways out. Easily 45 minutes to the beach. Swimming in the lake has warnings about alligators, but we never saw any.

Cant say enough good things about the whole park. It's a perfect template for how a resounce should be used.

Beware of the drag strip schedule across the street. It gets INCREDIBLY LOUD during any special event they may hold.

We love it here! Lot sizes are big and private. Staff is very helpful and friendly! Nothing but good things to say about everything here. 

Park was nice. Seemed small, but due to the rain we really didn't go out much. Super quite (we went on a weekday). We biked around a little. Highlight of our trip here was the big alligator we saw in the swimming area. That was cool to watch! If you swim, swim with caution. They had canoes and kayaks you can rent for a reasonable fee. Old ranger lady was not friendly. 

Campgrounds are private, and lake is very nice to look at and swim in! We loved it!!