Fort De Soto, FloridaSpent the day at Fort De Soto — a beautiful coastal park at the mouth of Tampa Bay, out where the bay meets the Gulf. The park covers close to a thousand acres spread across five little islands, and it's equal parts beach day and history lesson.The history is the real thing. The fort was built to defend Tampa Bay back in the Spanish-American War era, and Battery Laidley still holds four huge 12-inch coastal-defense mortars — the last of their kind left in North America, and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977. You can walk right through the battery, and the ruins of the second battery sit out in the surf.The rest of the park earns its keep too. There are miles of beaches and trails to explore, a 6.8-mile paved trail running through it, two fishing piers, more than 300 species of birds on record, and plenty of quiet spots to just sit and enjoy the Gulf — no condo towers in sight.Best part: only $6 to park, and that gets you access to the whole park and beaches for the entire day.Definitely worth the stop if you're anywhere around Tampa Bay.Kindest regards,Kooliejoe

So as I always say everyone has their own opinion and mine is that I was not fully impressed. I've seen the fort from St. Augustin, and the fort on mackinaw island and thought this was subpar but what I did like is that you are able to explore ot on your own. The admission is $6 a parking fee. Not bad to visit the park, oh and the tolls to get in the area. Still again not bad. We enjoyed our dinner ish chicken basket :D ( got back at 4pm from the ferry ) its a beautiful area and the crowd wasent horrible, as it was the off season ( perfect time to visit) was great. Just the fort was not what we expected.

This review is for the supposed bike rentals they have to offer at Fort De Soto State Park. It’s run by Fort De Soto Hospitality.We were told that we needed to pay online prior to renting the bicycles and provide proof of receipt which we did.By the way, it’s not $10 an hour as they advertise, it is now $25 an hour. We rented three separate bicycles at $25 an hour which came to about $85.We were trying to find bicycles to fit us properly, and only one out of the whole trailer was sufficient. We were told by the staff that half of the bicycles don’t work and that the maintenance man quit one month prior so nobody was maintaining these bicycles. He told us this after we made the payment. Wish I would’ve known that before I made the payment.Chains were hanging off of the bicycles, the brakes weren’t working properly, and what bikes were available had very high seats so they weren’t sufficient for a shorter person. No variety at all.I think it’s very sad that they’re charging that kind of money for busted bicycles that don’t work and are poorly maintained.After 15 minutes of trying to find something decent for all three of us we gave up. I asked the staff member for a credit card refund which he processed.This company is a rip off, and I would never rent a bicycle from them again.If you do decide to try this, before you pay, go out to the shed and test the bicycles before you commit to a payment.This way you won’t have to hassle with the refund on your credit card.Honestly, they should just shut that down and go out of business.

Visited the fort with family during our vacation to Treasure Island. We stopped at the pier which had beautiful views of the gulf all around. Also visited the visitor's center, and what is left of the fort. Plenty of areas to visit the beach coastline, or have a picnic under the palm trees. Highly recommend.

We went to dog park by Bay Pier at De Soto. The signs are clear. The ground around the bathrooms are little untidy. The beach is clean.