Swimming

Lakeside Campground

28 RV Sites

Lakeside Campground in Windsor, New York, offers 23 full-hookup RV sites on a lake in the Southern Tier, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 45 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. Small back-in, standard back-in, and pull-through categories join a beach, boat docks, and kayak rentals. Twenty-three sites run in small 30-amp back-in, 30/50-amp back-in, and 30/50-amp pull-through categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric, sized to 45 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and site WiFi. The small back-in category is a useful option for compact trailers that would otherwise pay for space they do not need. Trailer rentals serve guests without a rig. A general store, laundry, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. The lake carries the recreation. A beach gives swimming access, boat docks and kayak rentals put guests on the water, and fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and paddle boats all run from the shoreline. An outdoor pool, recreation center, game room, billiards, basketball, a playground, and a pavilion fill the grounds, with planned activities through the season. Pets are welcome. Windsor sits in Broome County in the upper Susquehanna valley along the Pennsylvania border, where the rolling hills and clear glacial lakes of the Catskill foothills provide the backdrop. The campground draws families from the Binghamton area and weekend visitors from the New York metro corridor. Directions from I-86/Route 17: take exit 79 (Windsor) and proceed south onto Route 79 — contrary to many GPS directions, do not turn right onto Piper Hill Road after leaving town.

from $45/night

Susquehanna Trail and Campground

5 RV Sites

Susquehanna Trail and Campground in Oneonta, New York, offers full-hookup back-in RV sites with 30-amp service and rigs accepted to 50 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, behind a gated entrance in Otsego County. An outdoor pool, playground, and general store serve family and group camping in Leatherstocking Country. Back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30-amp, sized to 50 feet on a layout that accommodates big rigs. This is a small property, so confirm availability rather than arriving on spec. A general store covers camp basics, firewood is available on site, and a dump station, restrooms, and showers handle the practical needs. A gated entrance controls access. Pets are welcome. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with a playground for families and volleyball and horseshoes on the grounds. Fishing runs from the area, and planned activities fill the calendar through the season. The amenity set is straightforward and family-oriented, which is what the property has always been — group camping is a substantial part of the business, and the grounds are laid out for it. Oneonta sits at the Susquehanna River's confluence of branches in the rolling Otsego County countryside that James Fenimore Cooper immortalized in the Leatherstocking Tales. The county has one of the most culturally layered visitor offerings in rural New York: the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, the Glimmerglass Opera's lake-view theater, and a substantial agricultural and craft tourism scene. Directions from Albany and the east: take I-90 west to Exit 25A (I-88), I-88 west to Exit 13, turn right at the end of the ramp onto Route 205, then left onto Highway 7 at the second traffic light — the campground is half a mile down. Cooperstown's summer season drives demand hard. Reserve well ahead.

from $50/night

Back-Achers Campsites

12 RV Sites, 13 Tent Sites

On the secluded western shore of Seneca Lake in Himrod, New York—on the largest and deepest of the Finger Lakes, 36 miles long and 618 feet deep in the glacially carved trough that creates the most dramatic lake scenery in the region—Back-Achers Campsites & Cottage Rentals holds the distinction of being the only private campground on Seneca Lake with direct lake frontage, offering cottage rentals, RV and tent camping, and boat hoist rentals in a location on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail that puts the Finger Lakes' most celebrated wine-producing landscape immediately accessible from the campground's lakeside property. For wine country travelers who want to sleep beside the lake they're tasting around, Back-Achers provides the singular access that no other private campground in the region can offer. RV and tent sites alongside cottage rentals create the accommodation range for the diverse guests that Seneca Lake's western shore attracts—the wine trail enthusiasts who work through the 35-plus wineries on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, the boaters who want private dock and boat hoist access on one of New York's finest sailing and fishing lakes, and the families and couples who want the Finger Lakes experience at the intimate scale of a smaller, personal campground rather than a resort. Three cottages feature their own private docks for personal watercraft use, and boat hoist rentals accommodate guests who bring their own boats and need dry storage and launch infrastructure. Snack bar, pavilion, playground, firewood, laundry access, propane fills, and clean bathhouses provide the essential amenity infrastructure for multi-day stays. Himrod occupies Yates County on Seneca Lake's western shore in the Finger Lakes wine country, in the appellation that the Finger Lakes American Viticultural Area encompasses—one of the most distinctively positioned wine regions in the world, where the lakes' thermal mass moderates the temperature extremes of upstate New York's continental climate and creates the growing season length that supports riesling, gewürztraminer, and the cold-climate grape varieties that have made Finger Lakes wine internationally recognized. The Seneca Lake Wine Trail, with 35-plus member wineries concentrated on both shores of the lake, represents the densest wine trail concentration in the northeastern United States. Watkins Glen State Park, at Seneca Lake's southern tip 25 miles south, protects the gorge that is considered by many visitors to be the most spectacular natural feature in New York State—a 1.5-mile gorge with 19 waterfalls, ancient stone bridges, and the spray-cooled caverns carved by Glen Creek in the shale bedrock that makes the gorge geology a textbook example of post-glacial stream incision. Watkins Glen International Raceway, adjacent to the state park, hosts major NASCAR and IMSA sports car races that make Watkins Glen one of the most important racing circuits in the United States. Seneca Falls, the site of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention and the Women's Rights National Historical Park, lies at the northern end of the lake corridor. Back-Achers operates seasonally in the Finger Lakes camping window from spring through fall, with the wine trail season and the lake boating in peak condition from June through October. The grape harvest in September and October brings the winemaking activity and the harvest events to the wineries that surround the campground, creating the most festive and most authentically wine-country period of the year on the Seneca Lake shore. Reserve your site, cottage, or boat hoist at Back-Achers and let the only private lakefront campground on Seneca Lake deliver the Finger Lakes wine country experience from the best position on the lake.

from $45/night

Wake in the Woods Aquapark & Campground

Wake in the Woods Aquapark & Campground in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania, offers camping and cabin rentals on a private seven-acre lake with an inflatable aqua park on the water, behind a gated entrance in the Pocono Mountains. Boat docks, boat rentals, a bar, and food trucks serve families and group events on historic Lake Genero. Tent sites and cabin rentals make up the accommodations, with corporate retreat and group event infrastructure on site. A general store, boutique shop, propane fills and exchange, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side, with WiFi throughout and a gated entrance controlling access. The inflatable aqua park is the signature. These are large floating structures with water slides, obstacles, and climbing features, designed to give swimmers a safe, genuinely demanding play area on open water — considerably more engaging than a pool, and the reason most families book. Boat docks, boat rentals, swimming, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and boating fill out the water recreation, with sports courts, basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole, walking trails, hiking, a playground, pavilion, and community fire pit on land. A bar and visiting food trucks handle evenings, and the property also serves as a wedding venue. Stargazing and birding are strong across the forested acreage. Pets are welcome. Lake Ariel sits in Wayne County in the northeastern Pennsylvania lake district, where private lakes, state forest land, and ridge-and-valley terrain built the Pocono resort region's identity for Philadelphians from the nineteenth century onward. Summer is decisively the season for the aqua park. Reserve well ahead.

Riverbend RV Park

139 RV Sites

Riverbend RV Park sits in Blossvale, New York, on the southwestern shore of Oneida Lake—the largest lake entirely within New York State—where the park's waterfront position, boat dock access, and proximity to Sylvan Beach provide the full complement of inland lake resort camping that central New York's largest body of water sustains for seasonal campers and destination visitors. The campground is the East property of a two-park Riverbend operation in the Blossvale area, offering spacious wooded lakeside sites that accommodate any size RV in a setting where the water and the social infrastructure of the Sylvan Beach strip are both within reach. Full hookup sites with 5-way hookup service—electric, water, sewer, cable, and telephone—serve seasonal and short-term campers in a well-maintained site layout. Wooded sites with water views, cabins for enclosed accommodation, a playground, laundry, showers, walking trails, and boat docks provide the foundational amenities. Planned activities through the season and bird and wildlife watching in the lake corridor fill the recreation calendar, and the campground's Oneida Lake frontage provides swimming, kayaking, canoeing, and boating access from the property's own dock infrastructure. Oneida Lake's fishery is one of the most actively managed in New York State—the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation stocks the lake annually with walleye, yellow perch, and bass, supporting a sportfishery that draws serious anglers from across the Mohawk Valley and central New York for the walleye population that has made the lake locally famous. The lake's 79 square miles of open water provide habitat for all of these species across a range of depth and structure conditions, and the early ice-out season each spring triggers the walleye activity that signals the opening of the central New York fishing season. Sylvan Beach, about two miles from the campground, provides the entertainment infrastructure that transforms a camping trip on Oneida Lake into a genuinely social destination: a small amusement park, the Lake House Casino at Sylvan Beach, the Crazy Clam, and the waterfront restaurants and ice cream shops that have made Sylvan Beach central New York's classic summer beach town since the late nineteenth century. The town's combination of carnival atmosphere, lake access, and walking-distance bars and restaurants gives it a nostalgic summer resort character that remains largely unchanged by the development that has transformed other Great Lakes tourism communities. Riverbend RV Park operates through the upstate New York camping season, typically May through October, in a lake climate where Oneida Lake's thermal mass moderates the temperature swings that inland central New York experiences and the long summer days provide maximum time on the water. The fall walleye season in September and October drives some of the most dedicated fishing traffic of the year, and the early spring ice-out period begins the season that seasonal campers return to establish for the summer. Rome and Utica are within easy reach for urban amenity access when needed, and the Erie Canal corridor to the south provides historical cycling and boating context for the broader Mohawk Valley region.

from $60/night

Kittatinny K-Camp

58 RV Sites, 13 Cabins, 270 Tent Sites

Kittatinny K-Camp in Barryville, New York, offers 58 full-hookup RV sites, 13 cabins, and 270 tent sites on the Upper Delaware, with 20 and 30-amp service and rigs accepted to 30 feet. Creekside standard, deluxe, and standard back-in categories join a beach, pond, on-site dining, and a bar in the National Park Service river corridor. Fifty-eight back-in sites run in creekside standard, deluxe, and standard categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 20 and 30-amp, sized to 30 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Two things to plan around before booking: the 30-foot cap is genuinely restrictive and rules out most modern coaches, and service tops out at 30-amp. The creekside category sits along a hemlock-shaded trout stream and is the one to request. Two hundred seventy tent sites make this overwhelmingly a tent property — a scale of tent camping almost no other campground matches. Thirteen cabins round out the lodging. A general store, dump station, restrooms, showers, and portable toilets handle the practical side. A daily resort fee covers the playground, bathhouses, and on-site boating amenities. A beach and pond anchor the recreation, with the Delaware carrying canoeing, kayaking, and swimming. Walking trails, hiking, a playground, pavilion, on-site dining, a bar, and productive birding fill the rest. Fourteen miles south of Narrowsburg, the property sits inside the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River corridor — 73 miles of one of the East's last free-flowing major rivers. Summer paddling season is the peak. Reserve well ahead.

from $57/night

Jellystone Park™ PA Wilds

71 RV Sites, 34 Cabins, 3 Tent Sites, 1 Onsite RV/Trailer

Jellystone Park PA Wilds in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, offers 72 full-hookup back-in RV sites, 31 cabins, and three tent sites, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 75 feet. Full-hookup categories at 20/30-amp and 20/30/50-amp join a pool, mini-golf, jumping pillow, and golf cart rentals in Pennsylvania's Wilds. Seventy-two back-in sites run in full hookup 20/30-amp and full hookup 20/30/50-amp categories, both carrying water, sewer, and electric, sized to 75 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Pick the tier that matches your rig's service, and note that 75 feet accommodates a long coach with a tow. Thirty-one cabins — including the six-person Cardinal Inn — and three tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, restrooms, and golf cart rentals handle the practical side. Check-in is 3pm and checkout 11am, and day passes run $10 per person. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with mini-golf, a jumping pillow, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, corn hole, a pond, playground, and live music filling the rest. Boating and fishing run nearby, and a state park is close. Pets are welcome. The PA Wilds is a 12,000-square-mile expanse of north-central wilderness where elk graze open meadows at dusk, the Pine Creek Gorge drops 1,000 feet through what is sometimes called Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon, and the night sky is dark enough to have earned one of the most significant dark sky designations in the eastern United States. Cherry Springs State Park is the destination for that. Summer and fall foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $31/night

Sun Retreats Birchwood Acres

29 RV Sites, 24 Cabins, 20 Tent Sites, 6 Cottages, 4 Onsite RV/Trailers, 13 Villas, 29 Lodges, 1 Park Model

In the foothills of New York's Catskill Mountains in Ulster County, Sun Retreats Birchwood Acres delivers a resort camping experience built around a private four-acre lake, an interactive water zone, two pools, and an activity calendar that runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day with barely a gap. Located at 85 Martinfeld Road in Greenfield Park—a small community in the rolling wooded landscape between the Hudson Valley and the Catskill high peaks—the resort sits within the reach of New York City weekenders and destination travelers alike, offering an amenity-rich alternative to the more rustic camping that defines much of the Catskill region. The result is a campground that functions as its own destination rather than just a base. Full hookup RV sites, tent camping, and deluxe two-bedroom cottages with full kitchens and screened porches accommodate the full spectrum of guest preferences. The four-acre lake with fishing docks and paddleboat rentals provides quiet water recreation, while the interactive Water Zone, outdoor swimming pool, and extensive sports facilities—tennis, basketball, volleyball, bocce, gaga ball, shuffleboard, handball, and human foosball—create an activity-dense environment particularly well suited for families with children. An arcade-inspired game room, laser tag, golf cart rentals, planned activities like arts and crafts and Bingo, and live entertainment throughout the season round out what is genuinely an impressive amenity lineup for a private campground. Greenfield Park occupies the transition zone between the Hudson Valley's softer topography and the more dramatic terrain of the Catskill Mountains to the west and north, where the glacially carved peaks rise to over 4,000 feet and define one of the most distinctive landscapes in the eastern United States. The surrounding Catskill Park encompasses more than 700,000 acres of state land with hundreds of miles of hiking trails, trout streams, and swimming holes. The resort's own wooded setting provides the natural backdrop—birches, oaks, and maples creating the canopy that gave the original campground its name. The Catskill region offers outdoor recreation at every level: day hikes to summit views on Slide Mountain and Hunter Mountain, Class III whitewater on the Esopus Creek, trout fishing in the legendary Willowemoc and Beaverkill rivers that define the American fly fishing tradition, and the summer stock theater of the Woodstock and Hudson Valley arts scenes. Kaaterskill Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the northeastern United States, is accessible via a popular day hike that showcases the Catskills' dramatic topography. The Hudson Valley wine country and the historic village of Woodstock add cultural dimensions to the outdoor recreation menu. Summer season at Sun Retreats Birchwood Acres runs May through September, with July and August at absolute peak capacity—reservations many weeks in advance are essential for summer weekends. The fall foliage season in October attracts a second wave of visitors who come specifically for the color show that the Catskills reliably deliver. Weekend rates at the resort reflect its popularity; midweek stays offer better value for flexible travelers. Book your site or cottage at Sun Retreats Birchwood Acres and let the Catskill foothills and the four-acre lake set the scene for a genuinely fun and activity-rich camping experience.

from $31/night

Junius Ponds Cabins & Campground

44 RV Sites, 4 Cabins, 4 Tent Sites, 4 Cottages

In the Finger Lakes wine country of Ontario County, New York, near the community of Phelps between Canandaigua Lake and Seneca Lake in the heart of one of the East's most celebrated wine and outdoor recreation regions, Junius Ponds Cabins and Campground provides a 250-plus-site family campground with full-hookup RV positions, four cabin rentals, tent sites, and the weekend programming—hayrides, free crafts for children, campground dinners, and adult wine tastings—that gives the campground's family recreation character the distinctly Finger Lakes cultural dimension. A swimming pool, catch-and-release fishing pond, three playgrounds, a camp store with soft-serve ice cream, basketball, and laundry complete the on-property infrastructure for multi-day stays in the most campground-friendly wine region in the eastern United States. More than 160 full-hookup RV sites with 20/30/50-amp electric, water, and sewer service plus seasonal, long-term, and tent positions provide the full accommodation spectrum, and pull-through configurations accommodate larger rigs in the well-designed layout. Four cabin rentals extend accommodation options for guests without RVs, and the weekend programming calendar—free crafts and hayrides each weekend, campground dinners, and occasional wine tasting events for adults—creates the community-events culture that transforms a campground stay into a genuinely social experience. A swimming pool, catch-and-release fishing pond, three playgrounds, camp store with soft-serve ice cream, basketball, laundry, and restrooms complete the day-to-day infrastructure. The catch-and-release fishing pond and the campground's natural setting in the Ontario County lake country provide the freshwater fishing and outdoor character that the Finger Lakes' interior agricultural landscape surrounds with vineyard-covered hillsides and the lakeside communities that make the region feel unmistakably different from any other camping destination in the Northeast. The weekend hayrides through the campground's property and the surrounding farmland provide the agricultural touchstone that connects the Finger Lakes camping experience to the land itself—beyond the wine tasting and waterfall hiking that define the region's primary tourism identity. Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion in Canandaigua preserves a 50-acre formal Victorian garden estate in nine distinct garden styles—an extraordinarily well-restored 19th-century pleasure garden in the Finger Lakes' most elegant mansion setting, with rose gardens, Japanese tea garden, and Italian garden structures that Victorian horticultural culture considered its highest expression. Seneca Lake State Park in Geneva provides public swimming, boat launching, and the lakeside recreation that the largest and deepest Finger Lake's 43-mile length enables, and Watkins Glen State Park at the lake's southern end protects the gorge trail through 19 waterfalls in a slot canyon that is arguably the most famous waterfall hike in the northeastern United States. The Finger Lakes' four-season temperate climate supports camping at Junius Ponds from spring through fall, with the summer season from late June through Labor Day representing peak family camping activity alongside the wine trail's busiest weekend tasting room visits. The spring shoulder season in May and June activates the Finger Lakes winemakers' best tasting experiences before summer crowds arrive, and the fall harvest season from September through October provides the wine country's most agriculturally resonant backdrop when the vineyards turn gold and the crush season fills the air with fermentation aromatics that define the Finger Lakes autumn. The October foliage on Canandaigua Lake's hillsides and Sonnenberg's chrysanthemum displays make fall the most visually varied season for a campground-based Finger Lakes exploration.

from $39/night

Hickory Hill Camping Resort

130 RV Sites, 9 Cabins, 4 Tent Sites, 6 Cottages, 5 Lodges

Hickory Hill Camping Resort in Bath, New York, offers 130 RV sites, 20 cabin, cottage, and lodge units, and four tent sites in the Finger Lakes Southern Tier, with 30 and 50-amp full hookups, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 60 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. A dedicated Big Rig back-in category joins premium sites, alongside a splash pad, mini-golf, and fitness center. One hundred thirty sites span 30/50-amp back-in, 50-amp back-in, premium back-in, and Big Rig back-in categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV, sized to 60 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. The dedicated Big Rig category removes the guesswork for large coaches. Twenty cabins, cottages, and lodges and four tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, dump station, restrooms, showers, firewood, and a concierge handle the practical side. Reach the resort at [email protected] or 607-776-4345. A splash pad and outdoor pool anchor the summer, with mini-golf, a disc golf course, fitness center, recreation center, craft room, sports courts, basketball, bocce ball, shuffleboard, horseshoes, and a jumping pillow filling the grounds. A lake, pond, and creek support fishing, with walking trails, hiking, golf cart rentals, a pavilion, and community fire pit besides. Live music and planned activities run through the season, and the resort operates as a wedding venue. Watkins Glen, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Finger Lakes wine trails are all close. Summer and fall foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $55 $48/night

West Canada Creek Campground

57 RV Sites, 2 Cabins, 3 Tent Sites

West Canada Creek Campground in Poland, New York, offers 57 RV sites, two cabins, and three tent sites directly on the creek in the Adirondack foothills, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 57 feet. Deluxe waterfront and premium waterfront back-in categories join premium and standard water-and-electric tiers, with an outdoor pool and general store. Fifty-seven sites span standard back-in, back-in 30-amp water-and-electric, premium back-in 30-amp water-and-electric, deluxe waterfront back-in, and premium waterfront back-in categories, carrying water, sewer, and electric where noted with cable TV, sized to 57 feet, with fire pits. The waterfront categories put you on the creek and are worth requesting early; confirm your tier, as the water-and-electric categories do not carry sewer at the site. Two cabins, including a four-person unit, and three tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with the creek supporting swimming, fishing, canoeing, and kayaking. A pond, playground, basketball, and biking fill the grounds, with planned activities through the season, productive birding, and a casino nearby. Pets are welcome. West Canada Creek is a fast-moving Adirondack stream, and the property occupies a forested stretch where hemlocks and northern hardwoods line the water. Poland sits midway between Syracuse and Albany, 12 minutes north of Utica. Summer and fall foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $58/night

Spruce Creek Campground

31 RV Sites

Spruce Creek Campground in Dolgeville, New York, offers 31 full-hookup RV sites along a stocked brown trout stream in the Adirondack foothills, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 65 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. Back-in and pull-through categories join a splash pad, mini-golf, and disc golf course on a family-run property. Thirty-one sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp in back-in and pull-through configurations, sized to 65 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, BBQ pits, and site WiFi. The sites are genuinely large, which is the first thing returning guests mention. A general store, laundry, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. Spruce Creek runs through the property as a stocked brown trout stream, putting fishing directly at your campsite. A splash pad, mini-golf, disc golf course, sports courts, basketball, volleyball, a playground, and a pavilion fill the grounds, with paddle boarding, paddle boats, canoeing, kayaking, boating, biking, picnicking, and birding besides. Off-roading is nearby. Pets are welcome. The campground is family-run and family-focused, with a full activity calendar and the kind of clean restrooms that get mentioned in reviews. Dolgeville sits in the scenic foothills of the Adirondacks, ten minutes from the East and West Canada Creek rivers — both popular for fly fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and tubing. Adirondack Park's hiking, sightseeing, and wildlife viewing open up from there. Summer and fall foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $20/night