Question: I’ve lived in Florida my entire life, but I haven’t really explored it. I want to take a month off to tour the state on a budget. Can I legally sleep in my car in Florida? Is it illegal to sleep in your car in Florida?
Answer: Whether you are allowed to sleep in your car depends on where in Florida you are. There are no blanket rules at the federal or state levels. Instead you’d have to know how municipal ordinances, private property rules and highway rules intersect.
Municipal ordinances in Florida ban sleeping in cars
Florida cities are often explicit about their rules on sleeping in vehicles. Ordinances can be found through Municode, by selecting the municipality and searching keywords such as “sleep,” “camp,” or “overnight.”
Miami’s Code of Ordinances, Section 37-4 states, “Other than the area at the Marine Stadium designated for use by self-contained camper trailers, it shall be unlawful for any person within the city to park any vehicle on public rights-of-way, public properties or private parking lots, for the purposes of:
- Living;
- Sleeping;
- Cooking;
- Bathing; or
- Housekeeping.”
Pompano Beach’s Section 132.24 states, “It shall be unlawful for any person to lodge or sleep in, on, or about any automobile, truck, camping, or recreation vehicle, or similar vehicle in any public street, public way, right-of-way, parking lot, or other public property, within the limits of the city.”
Key West’s Section 70-130 states, “Except as provided for in sections 70-464 [and] 108-683, it shall be unlawful for any person to lodge in, on or about any automobile, truck, trailer, camping or recreational vehicle or similar vehicle in any public street, public park area, public way, right-of-way, parking lot or other public property within the limits of the City of Key West.”
Highway rest stops: Three hours max
You can’t sleep at highway rest stops for more than three hours unless you are a commercial vehicle operator, where you’re allowed 10 hours of stay, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. There are no RV hook-ups at Florida’s rest areas either.
Where can you sleep overnight in Florida?
When it comes to overnight parking in Florida, you can try the usual suspects across the country: Walmart and federal lands.
Walmart has a policy of allowing store managers to decide whether they welcome RVs to park overnight. You can check with them to see whether the specific one you’re headed to in Florida allows it. Walmart is one solution for parking in urban areas.
For rural areas, try dispersed camping in National Forests. Florida has three – Apalachicola National Forest, Ocala National Forest, and Osceola National Forest. Some state conservation lands also offer opportunities for free camping, such as the Cypress Creek Preserve, just north of Tampa, where you can get a free campground reservation. Other possibilities throughout the state can be found on this Boondocking map.
Xuyun Zeng is a content strategist with a wide-ranging content background including tech, journalism, cars and health care. After graduating with highest honors in journalism, Xuyun led a newspaper to win eight awards, helped start an award-winning film industry podcast and has written over a hundred articles about cars repair, state laws and insurance. Prior to joining Jerry, Xuyun worked as a freelance SEO consultant with a mission to create the best content that will help readers and grow organic traffic.
Giselle Gomez is an editor with over a decade of experience editing content across personal finance, education, travel, and sports. In editing for Jerry, Giselle’s focus is on making sure content is consumer and SEO-friendly and helping readers understand all things car ownership. In prior roles, she worked as a content strategist, syndication editor, and writer. Her work is featured in AP, NerdWallet.com, BestColleges.com, and more. Giselle holds a master’s degree from Arizona State University.
