Boating

North Shore Landing Resort

Lake Oconee — Georgia's longest lake, stretching 374 miles of forested Piedmont shoreline across Greene and Morgan counties — consistently ranks among the Southeast's most desirable recreational waterways, and North Shore Landing Resort occupies a 55-acre prime lakefront position just 90 minutes east of Atlanta in the Greene County town of Greensboro. What distinguishes the property immediately is the campus: 13 historic railroad cars, repurposed as resort amenities and unique rental accommodations, give North Shore Landing a one-of-a-kind character that no conventional campground can replicate. The railroad-themed campus sets the visual tone from the moment of arrival, and the resort's full-hookup RV sites and tent areas complement the repurposed-rail lodging options with more traditional camping infrastructure alongside the lakefront. Lake Oconee waterfront access provides boating, bass fishing, kayaking, and waterfront relaxation directly from the resort's shoreline, and the community-oriented atmosphere — where neighbors quickly become familiar faces across many seasons — gives the property a warmth that distinguishes it from purely transactional campground experiences. Pets are welcome throughout. Lake Oconee itself is a superlative natural backdrop: consistently clear water in a setting where the rolling Georgia Piedmont countryside descends to the shoreline in forested ridges and coves that create hundreds of sheltered inlets for boating and fishing. The lake's calm waters are ideal for pontoon cruises and wakeboarding, and largemouth bass fishing on Lake Oconee is among the most productive in Georgia, drawing tournament anglers and recreational fishers from across the region. The surrounding hardwood forests light up spectacularly in October, when the combination of lake views and fall color makes the resort particularly beautiful. Harbor Club on Lake Oconee, 15 minutes from the resort, is one of Georgia's premier lake communities, featuring a Tom Weiskopf-designed championship golf course, fine dining, and sweeping lake views that make the surrounding area worth exploring beyond the campground. The historic town of Greensboro, seat of Greene County, offers antique shops, local restaurants, and a genuinely preserved small-town Georgia downtown character. Reynolds Lake Oconee, one of the most acclaimed resort communities in the South, encompasses multiple championship golf courses and lakeside dining in the broader Lake Oconee corridor. North Shore Landing Resort is open through the camping season, with summer on Lake Oconee being the clear peak for boating and water activities. Spring and fall bring comfortable temperatures for exploring the lakeside community and Greene County's broader landscape, and the fall foliage window in October makes these months particularly compelling for guests who haven't seen the Georgia Piedmont in autumn. The fall foliage window in October adds a visual dimension to Lake Oconee that surprises guests who associate Georgia primarily with its coast or metropolitan areas — hardwood color reflected in the lake's clear surface creates a photographic opportunity that regional visitors travel specifically to experience each year. Reserve waterfront sites and railroad-car accommodations as early as possible — they are consistently the first options to fill each season, and for very good reason.

Wilderness Cove Campground

3 RV Sites, 7 Tent Sites, 8 Glamping Sites, 2 Cottages, 1 House

Wilderness Cove Campground in Saluda, NC, offers 3 RV sites, 3 cottage and house rentals, 7 tent sites, and 8 glamping sites, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and back-in sites for rigs up to 45 feet. Sites come in two categories, 30/50-amp full-hookup back-ins carrying water, sewer, and electric, and 30-amp water-and-electric back-ins, each with site-delivered WiFi, a fire pit, and a picnic table. With 18 non-RV accommodations against 3 RV sites, this is a glamping and cottage property that also takes RVs. The grounds are gated, with a bathhouse with showers, a general store, firewood, on-site dining, and visiting food trucks. Pets are welcome. A zip line, a marina, a beach, inflatable water toys, and walking trails fill the riverfront property, with kayaking, boating, swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, and picnicking on the lower Green River. Saluda sits at the base of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, where the mountains drop dramatically from the Appalachian highlands to the Carolina Piedmont. Rates for every accommodation type are on the booking page. Three RV sites means booking early is essential.

from $36/night

Timberline Glamping at Lake Lanier - Shady Grove

Timberline Glamping at Lake Lanier Shady Grove in Cumming, Georgia, provides a gated glamping and camping retreat on the shores of Lake Sidney Lanier in Forsyth County's northern metro Atlanta lake country, combining direct water recreation access on one of the most visited lakes in the United States with the privacy and natural character of a wooded shoreline setting that the lake's more developed commercial areas cannot replicate. Positioned on Lake Lanier's eastern shore just south of the US Army Corps of Engineers' Shady Grove Recreation Area, the property serves both local metro Atlanta day visitors and overnight guests seeking the Georgia lake lifestyle in a gated property away from the crowded public beach and marina facilities. The property's water recreation focus is evident in every facility decision: boat docks, boat rentals, kayak rentals, paddle boats, and paddleboarding access give guests multiple on-water options without leaving the property, and the gated entrance and shoreline setting provide the private lake access that Lanier's most sought-after properties command. A beach for swimming, general store, firewood, laundry, playground, showers, and dump station serve the practical needs of overnight guests, and the bird and wildlife watching available in the property's wooded shoreline complements the active water sports recreation with quieter natural observation opportunities. Wine and beer tasting options accessible nearby reflect the north Georgia wine country character developing in the Forsyth County hills. Lake Sidney Lanier is a 38,000-acre reservoir on the Chattahoochee River in the northern Georgia Piedmont, created by Buford Dam in 1956 and now one of the most visited US Army Corps of Engineers lakes in the country with approximately 11 million annual visitors. The lake's proximity to Atlanta—approximately 40 miles northeast via GA-400—makes it the primary lake recreation resource for the nation's ninth-largest metropolitan area, driving the boating, fishing, and swimming demand that makes summer weekends on Lanier among the most energetically social lake experiences in the American Southeast. The Lake Lanier Islands Resort complex on the lake's eastern shore provides the most concentrated public amenity infrastructure with a water park, golf course, and marina that complement the more natural glamping experience at Timberline's wooded shoreline property. The north Georgia wine country developing in the Dahlonega area above the lake, and the Gold Rush heritage of Dahlonega's historic downtown—where the nation's first major gold rush occurred in 1829, 20 years before California's—provide cultural and culinary day-trip destinations that extend the Lake Lanier visit beyond the water recreation itself. Timberline Glamping at Lake Lanier Shady Grove operates seasonally from late spring through early fall in north Georgia's four-season climate, with the summer swimming and boating season from Memorial Day through Labor Day driving peak demand for the boat docks and water recreation access that distinguish this property from inland alternatives. The lake's famous July 4th fireworks display, visible from the water, represents the single most competitive reservation period of the summer when boat traffic on Lanier reaches its annual maximum. Fall's Georgia Piedmont foliage through October and the cooler temperatures of September provide a more relaxed canoeing and paddleboarding experience on water with significantly lighter boat traffic than the summer peak.

Bells Marina Campground

2 RV Sites, 1 Cabin

Bells Marina Campground in Eutawville, SC, offers 2 full-hookup lakefront RV sites and 1 cabin, with 30 and 50-amp service. Both sites are full-hookup 30/50-amp lakefront back-ins configured for short-term stays, carrying water, sewer, and electric with site-delivered WiFi, a fire pit, and a picnic table. The grounds are gated, with laundry, a bathhouse with showers, a general store, a dump station, EV charging, and on-site dining. Pets are welcome, with a dog park. The amenity list belongs to the marina and resort around the sites, and it is deep: boat docks, a boat ramp, boat and kayak rentals, bike rentals, a fitness center, a recreation center with billiards, a barn, a playground, walking trails, and planned activities, with fishing, boating, paddling, hiking, biking, and birding. Golf and wine tasting are nearby, and the property hosts weddings. Eutawville sits on the northern shore of Lake Marion, South Carolina's largest lake, in the Lowcountry. Rates for the sites and the cabin are on the booking page. Two lakefront sites at a full marina — call and book as early as you can.

from $73/night

The Cabins at Long Branch

3 Cabins

The Cabins at Long Branch above the Nantahala Gorge in western North Carolina are handcrafted two-bedroom cabin retreats at 3,500 feet elevation — a secluded, private mountain cabin accommodation tucked high above the Nantahala River's Class III and IV whitewater corridor in the southern Blue Ridge, where the elevation gives guests the cool mountain climate that the gorge bottom cannot provide and the proximity to Nantahala's outdoor adventure infrastructure gives the cabin guests the complete access to whitewater paddling, mountain biking, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park from a high-elevation mountain cabin that the Nantahala National Forest's ridge and valley landscape sustains in one of the most recreationally active outdoor adventure destinations in the eastern United States. The Nantahala Gorge's position in Swain or Macon County gives the cabins the specific southern Appalachian elevation character of a mountain retreat above the gorge in a landscape where the 1,800-foot elevation difference between the gorge floor and the surrounding ridge crests creates the dramatic western Carolina topography. Handcrafted two-bedroom cabins at 3,500 feet above the Nantahala Gorge give The Cabins at Long Branch the specific mountain cabin retreat character of a high-elevation private accommodation that the gorge-bottom commercial campground cannot replicate — the elevation gives the cabins the cool mountain summer temperatures and the ridge-top forest setting that distinguish a 3,500-foot cabin experience from the whitewater activity corridor below, and the proximity to the Nantahala Outdoor Center's outfitter services and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Swain County entrance gives cabin guests the complete southern Appalachian outdoor adventure access from a comfortable mountain cabin base. Pets are welcome. The Nantahala Outdoor Center, five miles north of the Nantahala Gorge's lower takeout on US-19/74 in Swain County, is the most comprehensive whitewater outfitter and outdoor adventure resort in the American South — a campus of whitewater rafting, kayaking instruction, zip lines, mountain biking, and flatwater paddling that has served as the entry point to the Nantahala River's Class III whitewater for over a million guests since its 1972 founding. The Nantahala River's consistent 45-degree water temperature (released from the bottom of Fontana Lake's cold hypolimnion at Nantahala Lake) and the Class III Nantahala Falls at the takeout give the gorge its specific cold-water character and its most technically demanding rapids. Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Swain County entrance at Bryson City, 15 miles north of the Nantahala Gorge on US-74, provides the Deep Creek area's three waterfalls (Tom Branch, Indian Creek, and Juney Whank Falls), the tubing on Deep Creek's mild rapids, and the access to the park's backcountry trail system that the Swain County entrance specifically makes available in the less-visited southwestern section of the most visited national park in the country. The Cabins at Long Branch serve guests through the western North Carolina mountain cabin season from late spring through fall, with the prime whitewater rafting season on the Nantahala from May through October sustaining the outdoor adventure visitor market and the October fall foliage on the Nantahala National Forest's ridgelines giving the 3,500-foot elevation the most spectacular autumn color display in the southern Blue Ridge. The Appalachian Trail's Wesser Bald section above the Nantahala Gorge and the Bartram Trail's ridge walk through the Nantahala National Forest give hikers the long-distance trail access from the cabin's elevation position. Reserve cabins well ahead for the peak summer whitewater season and the October fall foliage weeks.

from $169/night

Nantahala Ridge Campground

3 RV Sites, 5 Cabins

Nantahala Ridge Campground in Bryson City, NC, offers 3 full-hookup RV sites and 5 cabins, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service. Sites come as back-ins and pull-thrus, each carrying water, sewer, and electric with site-delivered WiFi, a fire pit, and a picnic table. Maximum rig length isn't published, so call with your dimensions before booking — the roads in this canyon are narrow and it's worth the minute. Laundry is on site, and the five cabins give guests without a rig a place to stay. Pets are welcome. Three RV sites in a river canyon is the appeal: hiking from the property, dark-sky stargazing, and no crowd. Bryson City sits in Swain County where the Nantahala runs cold and clear through a corridor of rhododendron and hemlock, minutes from the Nantahala Outdoor Center and the southern entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Rates for sites and cabins are on the booking page. Confirm your rig's fit when you reserve, and book early for rafting season and fall color.

from $49/night

Lake Jasper RV Park

100 RV Sites

Lake Jasper RV Park in Hardeeville, South Carolina, offers 100 full-hookup RV sites on a lake in the Lowcountry, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 50 feet. Lake-front back-in categories and long-term options join standard back-ins and pull-throughs, 30 minutes from both Hilton Head and Savannah. One hundred sites span full-hookup back-in, long-term back-in, pull-through, lake full-hookup back-in, and long-term lake back-in categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 50 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. The lake categories are worth requesting early. A general store, laundry, dump station, RV storage, boat storage, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. The lake carries the recreation. A fishing pier, kayak rentals, and paddle boats put guests on the water, with fishing, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and water sports from the shoreline and inflatable water toys in season. An outdoor pool, disc golf course, bike rentals, horseshoes, walking trails, hiking, biking, a playground, dog park, pavilion, and community fire pit fill the grounds, with planned activities through the season. Pets are welcome. Hardeeville sits in Jasper County, and the position is the park's strongest asset: 30 minutes from Hilton Head Island's beaches and 30 minutes from Savannah's historic district, with the Beaufort District's coastal attractions filling the region between. Winter and spring drive the heaviest Lowcountry demand. Reserve ahead.

from $59/night

Hill's Landing & RV Park

Hill's Landing & RV Park in Cross, South Carolina, offers full-hookup RV sites on a big-rig-friendly property between Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, with a marina, boat ramp, boat docks, boat storage, and on-site fishing guides. A general store, laundry, and on-site dining serve anglers in Santee Cooper country. Full-hookup RV sites carry water, sewer, and electric on a layout sized for big rigs. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, showers, firewood, and WiFi handle the practical side, with on-site dining for meals and boat storage for guests who leave a boat between trips. The marina is the property's center. A boat ramp and boat docks give direct access to the Santee Cooper system, and on-site fishing guides are available — a real advantage on water this large, where local knowledge separates a productive day from a long one. Fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and water sports all run from the property, with walking trails, hiking, biking, corn hole, and strong birding besides. Cross sits in Berkeley County on US-176 between Moncks Corner and Santee, on the isthmus between South Carolina's two largest lakes. Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie together cover 110,000 acres and form the most celebrated freshwater striped bass and catfish fishery in the American Southeast. A state park is nearby. Fishing season runs long in the Lowcountry, with spring striper runs and fall drawing the heaviest demand. Reserve ahead if you are booking around a guide trip.

Gorgeous Stays

5 Cabins, 3 Tent Sites, 2 Glamping Sites, 1 Yurt, 3 Vintage RV Rentals

Gorgeous Stays in Bryson City, North Carolina, is a unique outdoor retreat offering glamping sites, tent sites, yurts, cabins, and vintage RV rentals near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Swain County's western North Carolina mountains — a property whose combination of accommodation novelty, mountain setting, and immediate access to the Smoky Mountain recreation corridor specifically serves the traveler looking for a curated, design-aware overnight experience in one of the most visited mountain regions in the eastern United States. Bryson City's position on the Tuckasegee River at the park's western gateway gives Gorgeous Stays the specific location advantage of proximity to the national park, the Deep Creek tubing area, the Nantahala River, and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad's steam excursion trains. Glamping sites, tent sites, yurts, cabins, and vintage RV rentals give the property an accommodation portfolio that explicitly resists the conventional campground format in favor of the experiential accommodation approach that guests seeking a distinct overnight character specifically pursue. The vintage RV rental format gives guests without their own equipment the classic Americana camping aesthetic that a new contemporary rental trailer cannot replicate, and the yurt and glamping tent formats provide the canvas-and-structure outdoor sleeping character that the Bryson City mountain setting deserves. Pets are welcome. Great Smoky Mountains National Park's western approaches from Bryson City provide access to the park sections that the Gatlinburg and Cherokee corridors' visitor traffic primarily bypasses — the Lakeshore Trail along Fontana Lake, the Road to Nowhere's tunnel and lakeshore hiking beyond Bryson City's park boundary, and the Deep Creek valley's triple waterfall sequence (Indian Creek, Juney Whank, and Tom Branch Falls) accessible by the Deep Creek Trail just north of town. Deep Creek's tubing — floating the cold mountain stream on inner tubes through the campground at the creek's valley — is one of the most characteristically Great Smoky Mountains family recreation experiences available without a permit or reservation. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, operating steam and diesel excursion trains from the Bryson City depot through the Nantahala Gorge and the Tuckasegee River valley since 1988, is one of the most scenic heritage railroad experiences in the southern Appalachians — a 44-mile round-trip journey through the river gorge terrain between Bryson City and the Nantahala Outdoor Center that provides the mountain valley viewshed in a format specifically suited to guests who want to experience the landscape without driving its narrow roads. The Nantahala River's Class III whitewater through the Nantahala Gorge, 10 miles west of Bryson City, sustains one of the most popular commercial rafting operations in the Southeast. Gorgeous Stays operates through the western North Carolina mountain season with the spring wildflower season from late April through May, the summer Smoky Mountain visitor peak from June through August, and the October foliage season representing the three primary visitor demand windows. Bryson City's Cherokee County mountain location gives it the highest-elevation Great Smoky Mountains gateway character — cooler summer temperatures than the Tennessee gateway communities, the most intact rural mountain town atmosphere on the park's perimeter, and the specific Nantahala Gorge outdoor adventure access that makes the Bryson City corridor a genuine outdoor enthusiast destination independent of the national park's draws. Reserve accommodations months ahead for summer peak and October foliage, when western North Carolina mountain accommodation fills from the Southeast and mid-Atlantic markets.

from $30/night

Spacious Skies Hidden Creek

108 RV Sites, 18 Cabins, 26 Tent Sites

Spacious Skies Hidden Creek in Marion, North Carolina, offers 108 RV sites, 18 cabins, and 26 tent sites at the base of the Black Mountains, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups and rigs accepted to 60 feet behind a gated entrance. Premium creek-front pull-through and lakeview categories join standard back-in sites, with a pool, mini-golf, and gem mining. One hundred eight sites span back-in 20/30-amp, back-in 30/50-amp, premium creek-front pull-thru, premium lakeview back-in, and premium lakeview pull-thru categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric, sized to 60 feet. The creek-front and lakeview premiums are the ones to request. Eighteen cabins and 26 tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, and firewood handle the practical side. All guests and visitors check in at the main office on arrival and sign the terms. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with a lake and creek supporting fishing, boating, and swimming. Mini-golf, gem mining, a jumping pillow, arcade, recreation center, billiards, basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, and corn hole fill the grounds, with walking trails, hiking, golf cart rentals, a playground, pavilion, community fire pit, and dog park besides. Pets are welcome. McDowell County's gem mining tradition is genuine rather than a novelty, and the surrounding hollow-and-ridge terrain marks the Blue Ridge's steepest eastern escarpment. Summer and fall foliage drive demand in the North Carolina mountains. Reserve well ahead for October.

from $25/night

Lake Moultrie RV Park & Marina

Lake Moultrie RV Park and Marina in Cross, South Carolina, is a waterfront camping destination under a lush tree canopy in Berkeley County — a campground with tiny home cabins and spacious RV sites on Lake Moultrie, the Santee Cooper reservoir that covers 60,000 acres of the South Carolina coastal plain between Charleston and Columbia in the most extensive freshwater impoundment in South Carolina. The park's marina access and the waterfront positioning under the tree canopy give guests the Lake Moultrie experience that the Santee Cooper Lakes system specifically provides — the combination of the freshwater fishing for striped bass, catfish, and crappie that Lake Moultrie sustains and the direct boat access that the on-site marina enables give fishing and boating guests the seamless water recreation that a lake-based marina campground specifically delivers. The lake's Berkeley County position makes it accessible for the Charleston weekend market. Three tiny home cabins with accommodation for up to four guests alongside spacious RV sites give Lake Moultrie RV Park the complete accommodation range for varied visitor groups — the tiny home cabin format gives the couple or small family without camping equipment the lake cabin experience at a scale and price point that full-service resort cabins rarely provide, and the RV sites' spacious layout gives larger rigs the comfortable setup access that tight campground designs consistently limit. The waterfront tree canopy gives the campground its natural shade and visual character through the warm-season camping months. Pets are welcome. Lake Moultrie, the western reservoir of the Santee Cooper hydroelectric project completed in 1941 in Berkeley, Dorchester, and Orangeburg Counties, covers 60,000 acres of the coastal plain's pine flatwoods and was created by diking a natural drainage basin rather than damming a river — a construction method that gave Lake Moultrie its characteristic shallow, flat-bottomed character and the extensive flooded timber structure that sustains the striped bass and catfish populations that make it one of the most productive striped bass lakes in the South Atlantic coastal states. The lake's rediversion canal connecting Lake Marion to the north gives the Santee Cooper system its flow from the Santee River basin. The Francis Marion National Forest, east of Lake Moultrie in Berkeley and Charleston Counties, protects 258,000 acres of South Carolina Lowcountry longleaf pine savanna and blackwater river swamp that the Francis Marion unit of the national forest system has sustained since 1936 in the most extensive public land block in the South Carolina coastal plain. The forest's Palmetto Trail, the blackwater paddling of the Wambaw Creek Wilderness, and the winter red-cockaded woodpecker population give the Francis Marion its specific natural character distinct from the developed Lowcountry of the Charleston resort corridor immediately to the east. Lake Moultrie RV Park and Marina serves guests year-round in Berkeley County's subtropical coastal plain climate, where the spring striped bass run from March through May represents the most concentrated fishing demand on Lake Moultrie and the fall striped bass feeding season from September through November provides the second peak angling window. Charleston, 50 miles southeast of Cross on U.S. 176 and I-26, provides the Colonial-era historic district, the Boone Hall Plantation, and the Fort Sumter National Monument's harbor tour that extend the Berkeley County campground's day-trip range into the most historically significant and most architecturally complete port city in the antebellum South. Reserve sites and cabins ahead for the spring striper run and the Charleston-area spring and fall travel seasons.

Rolling Meadows Family Campground

1 RV Site

Rolling Meadows Family Campground in Murphy, North Carolina, offers a water-and-electric back-in RV site alongside cabins and tent camping in the far western corner of the state, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 35 feet. A brand-new heated bathhouse, disc golf course, and laundry serve a Cherokee County property still finding its way onto the maps. The RV site is water-and-electric back-in, carrying 20, 30, and 50-amp service, sized to 35 feet, with a fire pit and picnic table. Plan around the hookups — water and electric rather than sewer, with a dump station on site — and note the 35-foot cap. Contact the campground for current availability of additional sites; the property is new and expanding. Cabins and tent camping round out the lodging. A dump station, portable toilets, and a new heated bathhouse and laundry handle the practical side. One navigation note the campground states plainly: the campground and its road are so new that many GPS applications do not have them yet. Try 195 Hampton Church Road — their radio station neighbor — and follow signs from there. A disc golf course, bocce ball, corn hole, and horseshoes fill the grounds, with boating nearby. Pets are welcome. Murphy sits at the far western tip of North Carolina where the state meets Georgia and Tennessee, surrounded by the Nantahala National Forest. The Hiwassee and Valley Rivers, Lake Hiwassee, the Tail of the Dragon, and Harrah's Cherokee Valley River are all close. Spring and fall foliage drive demand in the western mountains. Reserve ahead for October.

from $39/night