If you live outside Florida, your booking window for Bahia Honda, Curry Hammock and Pennekamp opens 10 months before you arrive, not 11. Florida residents get the extra month, and the Bahia Honda and Curry Hammock park pages mention only theirs.
How far in advance can you book Bahia Honda?
Florida State Parks runs two windows. Residents book RV sites 11 months in advance, with a Florida driver's license or ID card number. Non-residents book 10 months in advance.
New dates open every day at 8 a.m. Eastern, per the Florida State Parks FAQ. A stay that starts inside your window can run past its end, up to 11 months and 13 days out for a resident and 10 months and 13 days for anyone else.
The Curry Hammock page says reservations "can be made up to 11 months in advance", and the Bahia Honda page gives the same 11 months. Neither mentions the 10. Read by a non-resident, that line is a month wrong.
What the missing month costs a non-resident
Take a stay that starts in mid-February 2027, the middle of the Keys winter. A Florida resident can book it from mid-March 2026. A non-resident can book it from mid-April 2026. For a full month before your first chance, every Florida resident has had those dates to themselves.
The parks are small. Pennekamp has 42 reservable sites and Curry Hammock 28. Bahia Honda numbers its sites 1 to 80 across three loops, and only one of those loops takes a big rig.
On Thursday, October 8, 2026, Pennekamp's reservation system showed no site at all for that Friday night. That was one weekend in the shoulder season, checked once. Florida State Parks does not publish how many sites the residents' month takes, so nobody can tell you. It is a month nobody else gets.
Which Bahia Honda loop should you book?
The window is half the problem. At Bahia Honda the loop decides whether your RV gets in at all, so pick it before the window opens.
- Buttonwood, sites 1 to 48. Large RVs down to tents, with electricity, water and a dump station. The park publishes no length cap for this loop; the reservation system's park-wide maximum trailer length is 48.
- Sandspur, sites 49 to 72. 23 feet at most, hitch to bumper, because "larger camping rigs cannot navigate the sharp turns".
- Bayside, sites 73 to 80. No electricity, and the road in runs under a bridge with 6 feet 8 inches of clearance.
The Bahia Honda campground page counts how many of today's RVs that can reach Big Pine Key are short enough for Sandspur. It is a small share. If you book Sandspur first and the RV second, you are choosing from that small share.
How long can you stay at a Keys state park?
Fourteen nights per reservation. At least three nights out of the park between reservations, and no more than 56 nights in one park in six months. There are no seasonal sites.
A month in the Keys at state parks means moving between them, or paying for a private park. Monthly RV rental in the Florida Keys weighs the two.
What does cancelling a state park site cost?
Cancel more than 24 hours out and Florida State Parks keeps a $17.75 cancellation fee and the $6.70 reservation fee. Inside 24 hours it keeps the first night as well.
The RV cancels separately, on the host's own terms. A site you can cancel cheaply and an RV you cannot, or the other way round, is the mismatch to avoid.
When did the 10 and 11 month windows start?
The Florida State Parks pages we read do not say. Leads point to a 2023 state bill and a start in January 2024, not to a 2025 change. That is not confirmed on the session law, so no date is printed here.
Do Keys private parks open bookings this early?
Most do not publish a window at all. Leo's Campground in Key West starts taking new reservations for its December to April season after April 1 each year. For any other park, ask the office; the details are on each Keys campground page.
Book it in this order
- Fix your arrival date. Count back 10 months if you live outside Florida, 11 if you live in it.
- Pick the loop your RV will fit: Sandspur only at 23 feet or less, hitch to bumper.
- Be on the Florida State Parks reservation system at 8 a.m. Eastern on the morning your date opens.
- With the site held, find an RV whose host delivers to that key. State park RV rentals in the Keys shows which RVs fit each park's limit, and RV rental on Big Pine Key covers the RVs that reach Bahia Honda.
Sources: Florida State Parks early access for residents, Florida State Parks FAQ, Bahia Honda amenities, Curry Hammock amenities, Pennekamp amenities, Bahia Honda reservation page, Leo's Campground policies. Read October 8, 2026.
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