Stargazing

Jellystone Park™ Williamsburg

118 RV Sites, 46 Cabins, 17 Tent Sites, 2 Yurts

Jellystone Park Williamsburg in Virginia offers 118 RV sites, 46 cabins, 17 tent sites, and two yurts with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 80 feet. Preferred premium patio pull-through, premium, and deluxe categories join a pool, mini-golf, laser tag, and jumping pillow at the center of the Virginia Peninsula. One hundred eighteen sites span deluxe back-in, deluxe pull-thru, premium back-in, premium pull-thru, and preferred premium with patio pull-thru categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 80 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. The patio category adds outdoor living space. Forty-six cabins, 17 tent sites, and two yurts round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with mini-golf, laser tag, a jumping pillow, arcade, game room, craft room, recreation center, fitness center, sports courts, basketball, gaga ball, and gem mining filling the grounds. Golf cart rentals, walking trails, biking, a playground, pavilion, dog park, and on-site dining round it out, with foam parties, wagon rides, arts and crafts, live music, and planned activities through the season. Stargazing is good on clear nights. Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Settlement, Yorktown Battlefield, and Busch Gardens sit within a short drive between the James and York Rivers. Summer is decisively the season. Reserve well ahead.

from $38/night

Smith Mountain Campground

20 RV Sites, 2 Tent Sites

On Liberty Road in Penhook, Virginia—in the rolling Blue Ridge foothills of Franklin County less than five miles from the nearest public boat launch on Smith Mountain Lake—Smith Mountain Campground operates as a family-owned RV facility with full hookup sites, a stocked fishing pond, private hiking trail, and the quiet country character that the lake region's residential neighborhoods have preserved across the decades since Appalachian Power dammed the Roanoke River to create what has become Virginia's second-largest lake and the surrounding community's defining natural asset. The campground's private pond, four-unit bathhouse with individual tiled rooms, and boat parking give guests who came to fish and be near the water the specific combination of amenities that lake-country camping specifically demands. Full hookup sites with 30 and 50-amp electric, water, and sewer connections, picnic tables, and fire rings serve both back-in and pull-through configurations across the property's site inventory, and complimentary high-speed WiFi keeps connected guests online through the site footprint. A four-unit private bathhouse with individually tiled rooms—each containing a shower, sink, toilet, and electrical outlet—provides a level of bathroom privacy that the typical campground shower-house arrangement doesn't supply. A dedicated laundry facility handles the practical needs of extended stays. Dedicated boat parking accommodates the trailered watercraft that lake-bound guests consistently arrive with, and a pavilion available for private reservation serves the group gathering needs of family reunions and organized camping events. A playground and outdoor recreation area serve families with younger campers and children in tow. The private hiking trail and stocked fishing pond are the property's most distinctive natural amenities—giving guests who want to fish without launching a boat an on-property option that the lake's five-mile distance doesn't otherwise provide. Smith Mountain Lake's character—a 20,600-acre reservoir on the Roanoke and Blackwater Rivers at the base of the Blue Ridge, with 500 miles of wooded shoreline and an elevation of 795 feet—provides the fishing and boating programming that organizes the Franklin County camping calendar from spring through fall. Striped bass, largemouth bass, crappie, and bluegill populate the lake in numbers and quality that have established Smith Mountain Lake among Virginia's premier fishing destinations, and the shoreline's development as a residential and resort community has produced a marina and restaurant infrastructure that gives boating guests on-water dining access that few Virginia lakes match. Smith Mountain Lake State Park, on the Halesford Arm of the lake's western reach, provides the hiking, swimming beach, boat rental, and educational programming that bring non-boating visitors specifically to the state park when a day on the water doesn't require owning a vessel. The park's mountain bike trails and the lake's kayaking and paddleboarding resources extend the recreational programming beyond powerboating into the quieter water-access categories. Roanoke—Virginia's largest city in the western part of the state, with the Taubman Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, and the Blue Ridge Parkway access via the Roanoke Valley—is accessible for the urban cultural programming that a lakeside camping base supplements naturally. Smith Mountain Campground is open seasonally through the Virginia camping calendar, with the prime season running from April through October when Smith Mountain Lake's fishing, boating, and outdoor recreation are at their most active. Fall foliage on the Blue Ridge foothills surrounding the lake creates one of the most visually rewarding shoulder-season camping opportunities in western Virginia. Reserve your site with boat parking early for the spring bass season and let the Franklin County lake country earn the reputation that Virginia's recreational community has assigned to it for decades.

from $35/night

Frisco Oceanfront RV Resort

On Hatteras Island in Frisco, North Carolina—on the Outer Banks barrier island chain where the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound converge in the most dynamic and powerful coastal environment on the East Coast, adjacent to Cape Hatteras National Seashore's 70 miles of wild beach, the most powerful natural lighthouse in the country, and the surf break that has made Hatteras Island a nationally recognized destination for windsurfers, kiteboarders, and the serious surf fishing community—Frisco Oceanfront RV Resort opened July 1, 2026, as Hatteras Island's newest oceanfront RV option with sites steps from the Atlantic and complimentary Avon Pier sightseeing passes included with every reservation. Oceanfront and non-oceanfront RV sites alongside four two-bedroom cabins bring new camping capacity to the island's most desirable coastal stretch. RV sites in both oceanfront and non-oceanfront configurations provide direct Cape Hatteras National Seashore access across the dune line that separates the campground from the Atlantic's open beach. Four two-bedroom cabins with kitchenettes and living rooms with pull-out couches provide the enclosed accommodation option for guests who want the Hatteras Island experience with weather protection and cooking facilities. All guests share access to the resort pool, a bathhouse with hot showers, a dog park, and laundry facilities, and complimentary high-speed WiFi covers the property. Complimentary Avon Pier sightseeing passes—included with the room rate—give guests access to one of the Outer Banks' most storied fishing piers with the kind of value-added amenity that makes comparing per-night rates against competing properties incomplete without accounting for the pass. The resort's inaugural 2026 season runs from July 1 through mid-December. Cape Hatteras National Seashore—the first national seashore designated in the United States system, encompassing 70 miles of barrier island beach from Whalebone Junction to Ocracoke—provides the beach access context that makes Hatteras Island camping worth the specific drive to the Outer Banks rather than a closer mainland campground. The beach is wide, wild, vehicular-access-friendly for those with oversand permits, and productive for the surf fishing that targets red drum, bluefish, and Spanish mackerel in the seasonal runs that bring anglers from across the Atlantic Coast specifically to the Cape Hatteras point. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse—the tallest lighthouse in the United States at 198 feet, moved 2,900 feet back from the eroding shoreline in 1999 in the largest lighthouse relocation in history—provides the architectural landmark that defines Hatteras Island's visual identity. The lighthouse is open for climbing during the summer season, with the Atlantic panorama from the top delivering what the barrier island's geography looks like at altitude. The Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry, departing from the inlet community at the island's southern tip, provides free vehicular transport to Ocracoke Island—the most remote and least commercially developed of the Outer Banks communities—for the day trip that most Hatteras Island visitors consider essential. Frisco Oceanfront RV Resort operates through mid-December in its inaugural season, with the full summer and fall shoulder season constituting the operational calendar. Hatteras Island's fall season—when the red drum runs peak and the crowds thin relative to summer's peak occupancy—represents the best value and some of the finest surf fishing conditions of the year. Reserve your oceanfront site, pick up the oversand vehicle permit for beach access, and let Cape Hatteras National Seashore deliver the Outer Banks experience at its most elemental and storm-sculpted.

from $65/night

Dogwood Family Campground

52 RV Sites

Dogwood Family Campground in Newport, North Carolina, offers 52 full-hookup RV sites with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted up to 110 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout — one of the most generous length allowances on the Crystal Coast. Sites are numbered individually, including pond and pond view categories, on a Dark Sky Friendly property open all year. Fifty-two sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp in back-in and pull-through configurations, sized to 110 feet, with site WiFi. Categories are listed site by site — including pond back-ins and pond view back-ins — so you can pick your exact spot rather than a general type. RV storage, firewood, and a playground handle the practical side. The property is deliberately quiet and dark. A pond sits on the grounds for fishing, walking trails run the coastal plain forest, and corn hole and birding fill the rest. The Dark Sky Friendly designation is the distinguishing feature — genuine stargazing on a coast where light pollution usually washes it out. Pets are welcome. Newport sits at the inland edge of the Crystal Coast in Carteret County, which gives the campground unusual dual access: the Croatan National Forest's freshwater recreation and wildlife begin immediately north, while Beaufort's waterfront and the Cape Lookout National Seashore's barrier island beaches are 15 minutes east. A beach and state park are nearby. Open year-round, with summer beach traffic the peak and mild shoulder seasons drawing steady demand. Reserve ahead for warm-weather weekends.

from $67/night