Swimming

Halesford Harbour Resort

1 Cabin, 25 Condos

On 41 acres of Smith Mountain Lake shoreline in Moneta, Virginia—on the private reservoir that Appalachian Power created in 1966 when it dammed the Roanoke River in Bedford and Franklin Counties and inadvertently created one of the most beloved recreational lakes in the American South—Halesford Harbour Resort combines 133 luxury RV campsites, a 24-room inn, the Jake's Place restaurant serving craft beers and American fare, a saltwater pool, waterslide, boat launch and marina, a paradise boardwalk, and the complete lakefront resort experience for guests who want Smith Mountain Lake from both a waterside berth and a resort-quality camping platform. The resort's professional event team and regular activities programming create the community feel that distinguishes Halesford Harbour from a campground that merely happens to be near a lake. RV sites on full hookup service sit within the 41-acre property alongside the inn's 24 guest rooms, creating the mixed accommodation model that allows traveling groups to split between RV and hotel-style lodging without separating properties. A saltwater pool operating Memorial Day through Labor Day, a waterslide, beach area, basketball court, playground, and the paradise boardwalk provide the on-site recreation alongside the marina's boat launch, boat rentals through Bridgewater Marina, boat storage, and boat docks. Jake's Place restaurant provides on-property dining with a craft beer selection, children's menu, and pets' menu—a detail that reflects the resort's commitment to the traveling family experience. WiFi, laundry, a pavilion with gas grills and picnic tables, and the dump station complete the practical infrastructure. Smith Mountain Lake covers 20,600 acres of Bedford, Pittsylvania, and Franklin County terrain in the Virginia Piedmont's Blue Ridge foothills, with 500 miles of shoreline in the rolling hardwood landscape that characterizes southwest Virginia's rural character. The lake's depth—reaching 250 feet at its deepest in the main channel—and the clarity of the Roanoke River inflow create the water quality that supports one of Virginia's premier striped bass fisheries, alongside the largemouth bass, crappie, and blue catfish that attract recreational anglers and competitive tournament fishers throughout the warm-weather season. The Smith Mountain Lake State Park on the lake's north shore provides hiking trails, a swim beach, and boat access for the day-visitor population that the lake's regional drawing power sustains. The Blue Ridge Parkway, America's most visited unit of the National Park Service and the most scenic motor route in the eastern United States, runs through the mountains 20 to 30 miles west of the lake—providing access to the Peaks of Otter visitor center, the Roanoke Valley overlooks, and the complete Blue Ridge hiking and scenic drive inventory that makes the Parkway one of the most rewarding road trips in the American East. Downtown Roanoke, the region's urban center, is approximately 35 miles northwest with its revitalized downtown, the Taubman Museum of Art, and the outdoor recreation culture anchored by the Roanoke Valley Greenway system. Halesford Harbour operates year-round on Smith Mountain Lake, with the summer season generating the highest marina activity and the event team's most ambitious activities programming. The spring striped bass spawn draws serious anglers to the lake from across the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and the fall bass fishing in the lake's coves and creek arms is consistently productive. Reserve your RV site or inn room at Halesford Harbour and let Smith Mountain Lake's warm Virginia water and the resort's boardwalk, restaurant, and marina make this Blue Ridge foothills stop one of your most memorable mid-Atlantic camping destinations.

from $99/night

Jellystone Park™ Natural Bridge

126 RV Sites, 22 Cabins, 23 Tent Sites, 9 Lodges

Jellystone Park at Natural Bridge in Natural Bridge Station, Virginia, offers 126 RV sites, 31 cabin and lodge units, and 23 tent sites in the Shenandoah Valley foothills, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 45 feet. Waterfront back-ins join deluxe, premium, and pull-through categories, alongside a water park, swim lake, and movie theater. One hundred twenty-six sites span 30/50-amp back-ins, deluxe back-ins, premium back-ins, pull-throughs, and waterfront back-ins, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 45 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. Thirty-one cabins and lodges and 23 tent sites round out the accommodations. A general store, laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. A daily resort fee applies and covers cable and WiFi, aquatic facility access including the resort pool, waterslides, splash pad, and swim lake, the dog park, the movie theater, and 24-hour on-site management. Recreation is the product. A water park with waterslides, splash pad, swim lake, beach, and outdoor pool anchors the summer, with mini-golf, a jumping pillow, gaga ball, arcade, game room, and recreation center besides. Sports courts, basketball, a playground, pavilion, barn, golf cart rentals, and a pond for fishing fill the grounds. Pets are welcome. Natural Bridge State Park — one of Virginia's most striking natural landmarks — is close, with the upper Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge corridor beyond. Summer families and fall foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $34/night

Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing

11 RV Sites

Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing in New Castle, Virginia, offers 11 dry-camping RV sites and cabin accommodations on an adventure property in Craig County, with a high ropes course, disc golf, kayak and bike rentals, and a hot tub. Sites take rigs to 45 feet with fire pits and picnic tables. One thing to know upfront: the campground spots are dry camping with no hookups. Eleven pull-through RV sites operate without hookups, sized to 45 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Portable toilets serve the sites, and a bathhouse provides flushing toilets and hot showers. Cabins offer enclosed lodging for guests who would rather not camp. A general store covers basics and firewood is available. From May through November, the Outpost opens Friday evenings through Sunday morning for food and drinks, including beer and wine. Adventure programming is what sets this property apart. A high ropes and adventure course provides aerial challenge elements almost never found at a campground, and a disc golf course, bike rentals, and kayak rentals fill the rest of the day. Trails, a pond, and a creek run the property for swimming, fishing, canoeing, and mountain biking. Volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole, and a pavilion round out the on-site recreation, with planned activities through the season and strong birding in the surrounding forest. Pets are welcome. New Castle sits in Craig County, Virginia's least-populated county, in the ridge-and-valley country of the Jefferson National Forest. Craig Creek's cold, clear water runs nearby, and the surrounding Allegheny highlands carry extensive trail access. The property serves both family recreation guests and corporate and group retreats. The May-to-November window is when food service runs and the adventure programming is at full strength — plan dry camping supplies accordingly, and book group dates well ahead.

from $45/night

Lake Ridge RV Resort

84 RV Sites, 20 Cabins, 7 Tent Sites

Lake Ridge RV Resort in Hillsville, Virginia, offers 84 RV sites, 20 cabins, and seven tent sites on a lake in Carroll County's Blue Ridge Mountains, with 30 and 50-amp full-hookup service and rigs accepted to 65 feet. An outdoor pool with water slides, a clubhouse, and a full activity calendar make this a family resort rather than an overnight stop. Sites run from back-in and deluxe back-in with 30-amp water and electric to VIP back-in and pull-through options and super pull-throughs with 50-amp, all sized for rigs to 65 feet. Twenty cabins serve guests traveling without a rig, and seven tent sites cover simpler camping. A general store, snack bar, laundry, propane fills and exchange, and a dump station handle the practical side, and WiFi reaches the property. On-site recreation is extensive. An outdoor pool with water slides anchors the summer, with a lake on the property for fishing, boating, paddle boats, and paddle boarding. Sports courts, basketball, horseshoes, shuffleboard, and gaga ball spread across the grounds, with an arcade and clubhouse indoors and a playground, pavilion, dog park, and walking trails besides. Golf cart rentals make the resort easy to cross, and planned activities run through the season. Pets are welcome. Hillsville sits near the Blue Ridge Parkway close to the Virginia–North Carolina line. Galax and its Old Fiddlers' Convention, the New River Trail State Park, and Grayson Highlands State Park are all close. Roanoke and Winston-Salem are each about 75 minutes; Virginia Tech is 52 miles. The resort runs the Blue Ridge season, with summer families and October foliage driving peak demand. Reserve ahead for both, and check pool and slide operating dates when booking shoulder-season stays.

Montebello Camping & Fishing Resort

38 RV Sites, 5 Cabins, 17 Tent Sites, 2 Cottages

High in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Nelson County, Virginia—less than three miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway where the Virginia highlands' apple orchards, vineyards, and the watershed of the Tye and Piney rivers create the elevated rural landscape that Nelson County's outdoor and agricultural community has built its identity around—Montebello Camping and Fishing Resort offers authentic log cabin and cottage rentals available year-round, full-service RV and tent camping from April through October, a 5-acre private lake with complimentary kayaks and paddleboats, a fee-based trout pond requiring no fishing license, and the historic country store that has occupied its Blue Ridge Mountain post since 1894, providing a camping and fishing experience in the Virginia highlands whose combination of mountain setting, free-use lake, and license-free trout pond makes it the most complete fishing resort on the Nelson County side of the Blue Ridge. The trout pond needs no license. The country store has been open since 1894. Log cabins and cottages available year-round provide the enclosed accommodation for the Blue Ridge winter visitor whose mountain hiking and wine country touring calendar runs twelve months, while the full-service RV and tent sites with electric hookups, restrooms, showers, dump station, and laundry provide the spring-through-fall camping infrastructure from April through October. The 5-acre private lake's complimentary kayaks and paddleboats eliminate the boat rental transaction and create the self-directed water recreation that the lake's fishing, the leisurely paddle around the mountain-reflected perimeter, and the wildlife watching from the water deliver without additional daily charges. The fee-based trout pond—no fishing license required—provides the accessible, managed angling experience that non-licensed guests and the family with young anglers learning the sport use specifically to avoid the license paperwork. Montebello sits in Nelson County at the Blue Ridge's eastern escarpment, in the watershed between the mountains and the Shenandoah Valley's Rockfish River corridor where the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Skyline Drive converge in the concentration of Virginia's most significant long-distance trails and scenic routes. Crabtree Falls, 5 miles north on VA-56, cascades 1,000 feet in a series of five distinct drops that makes it the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi in the Virginia Blue Ridge—the 1.7-mile trail to the falls' upper viewpoint through the hemlock and hardwood forest is one of the most rewarding short hikes in the Virginia highlands. Wintergreen Resort, 15 miles north via VA-56 and Wintergreen Drive, operates Virginia's most complete four-season mountain resort with skiing and snowboarding from December through March and the Devils Knob Golf Course, spa, hiking, and mountain biking from spring through fall on the Blue Ridge plateau at 3,500 to 4,000 feet elevation. The Nelson County wine trail—the concentration of boutique wineries along US-151 south of the resort in the Rockfish Valley—provides the wine tasting alternative that the valley's elevation and the well-drained clay soils have made increasingly productive for Virginia viticulture. Montebello Camping and Fishing Resort's cabin and cottage accommodations operate year-round in Nelson County's Blue Ridge climate, with the apple harvest season from September through October, the fall foliage peak in late October, and the spring wildflower season from April through May providing the three most visually distinctive periods in the mountain calendar. The RV and tent camping season from April through October corresponds with the Blue Ridge Parkway's most comfortable driving and cycling conditions. Reserve your cabin, cottage, or RV site at Montebello and let the fee-based trout pond, the 5-acre lake's complimentary kayaks, the Blue Ridge Parkway's proximity, and the 1894 country store make the Virginia highlands the mountain escape the Nelson County Blue Ridge has always provided.

from $25/night

Sun Retreats Shenandoah Valley

52 RV Sites, 10 Cottages, 4 Lodges

Sun Retreats Shenandoah Valley in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, offers 52 RV sites and 14 cottage and lodge units across more than 130 wooded acres, with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 76 feet. Full-hookup and water-and-electric back-in categories join a pull-through tier, with an outdoor pool, mini-golf, jumping pillow, and a spring-fed lake. Fifty-two sites span back-in 30/50-amp, back-in water-and-electric 30/50-amp, and pull-thru 30/50-amp categories, carrying water, sewer, and electric where noted with site WiFi, sized to 76 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Confirm your tier, as the water-and-electric category does not carry sewer at the site. Seventy-six feet is generous for a wooded valley property. Fourteen cottages and lodges round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. The property was long established as Shenandoah Acres Family Campground. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with a lake and pond supporting swimming and fishing. Mini-golf, a jumping pillow, arcade, game room, barn, sports courts, volleyball, basketball, corn hole, a playground, pavilion, dog park, on-site dining, and a snack bar fill the rest, with planned activities and wine tasting nearby. Stuarts Draft sits in Augusta County between Waynesboro and Staunton, minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, and the Shenandoah Valley's orchards and wineries. Fall foliage and summer drive demand. Reserve well ahead for October.

from $59/night

Misty Mountain Camp Resort

92 RV Sites, 16 Cabins, 15 Tent Sites

Misty Mountain Camp Resort in Greenwood, Virginia, is a full-hookup camp resort with RV sites, tent sites and cabin rentals, an outdoor pool, a fitness center and a clubhouse, set half a mile off Interstate 64 at the eastern foot of the Blue Ridge. The property is big-rig friendly and takes coaches up to 90 feet, which makes it one of the more accommodating options in the Rockfish Gap corridor between Charlottesville and Shenandoah National Park. Full-hookup RV sites handle rigs to 90 feet, with a dump station on site for guests who need it. Tent sites suit campers who want the mountain setting without hauling a rig, and cabin rentals provide enclosed lodging for guests traveling without either. A general store covers basics, propane is available by both fill and exchange, and firewood is sold on site. Bathrooms, showers and laundry are available throughout the season, and WiFi reaches the sites. On-site recreation is unusually deep for a campground this size. An outdoor pool anchors the summer season, with a fitness center and clubhouse open year-round and a recreation center for indoor gathering. Sports courts host basketball and volleyball, and horseshoes and corn hole fill the space between. A playground serves younger guests, a fenced dog park serves the four-legged ones, and walking trails run the property past a pond and the creek that crosses the grounds. A covered pavilion hosts planned activities, live music and visiting food trucks through the summer, and the resort also operates as a wedding venue. Gem mining and gold panning round out the on-site programming. Pets are welcome. Shenandoah National Park's southern entrance at Rockfish Gap is 20 miles north, where Skyline Drive begins its 105-mile run along the Blue Ridge crest and the Blue Ridge Parkway heads south toward Cherokee. Charlottesville lies 15 miles east on I-64, putting Monticello, the University of Virginia and the Downtown Mall within a half-hour drive, and the Greenwood-area wineries sit closer still. Misty Mountain operates through Albemarle County's four-season climate. Spring wildflowers from April into May and fall foliage from mid-October into early November are the two peak windows, and both draw heavily from the Richmond, Northern Virginia and Washington markets. Book well ahead for fall color weekends and for the summer live-music calendar.

from $44/night

Roaring River Vineyards

7 RV Sites

from $25/night

Camp Holly

8 RV Sites

Camp Holly in Diana, West Virginia, offers eight full-hookup RV sites across a 22-acre mountain property in Webster County, with 30-amp service and rigs accepted to 36 feet. Cabins, glamping structures, and tent camping join a pond, playground, and general store in the state's most rugged interior. Eight back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30-amp, sized to 36 feet, with site WiFi. Note the 36-foot cap before booking a larger rig. Cabins, glamping structures, and tent camping round out the accommodations. A general store, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. Two useful tips from the operators: buy fishing passes when you book your campsite for a discounted rate, and add a jumbo firewood square at booking and they will deliver it to your site. Pets are welcome. A pond anchors the on-site recreation with fishing, swimming, paddle boats, boating, canoeing, and kayaking from the water. A community fire pit, playground, hiking, and biking fill the rest, with planned activities through the season. Diana sits on WV-20 in the heartland of the Mountain State's most remote interior. The Cranberry Wilderness, the Gauley River National Recreation Area, and the Williams River's wild brook trout stream give this the most complete wilderness and outdoor adventure access of any campground in central West Virginia's Chestnut Ridge and Back Allegheny country. Summer water recreation and October foliage drive demand. With eight RV sites, reserve well ahead.

from $10/night

Endless Caverns RV Resort & Campground

95 RV Sites, 15 Cabins

Endless Caverns RV Resort & Campground in New Market, Virginia, offers 95 RV sites and 15 cabins at the base of Massanutten Mountain, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups and rigs accepted to 45 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. The resort has its own six-mile limestone cave system — discovered in 1879 and still geologically active — accessible directly from your campsite. Ninety-five sites run in 30-amp and 50-amp back-ins and pull-throughs, carrying water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp, sized to 45 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Fifteen cabins serve guests without a rig. A laundry, dump station, restrooms, showers, firewood, and boutique shop handle the practical side, with WiFi throughout. The caverns are the distinguishing feature. Tours run about 75 minutes, led by guides who cover the history and composition of the system, and the underground temperature stays cool regardless of the season — comfortable walking shoes are recommended. Above ground, an outdoor pool anchors the summer, with a disc golf course, jumping pillow, gem mining, sports courts, pickleball, volleyball, horseshoes, a game room, and a recreation center filling the grounds. Walking trails, hiking, biking, fishing in the pond, a playground, and live music round it out, and the property also serves as a wedding venue. Pets are welcome. New Market sits on US-11 in the central Shenandoah Valley between Luray and Harrisonburg, which makes this one of the most comprehensive single-stop bases in the Valley. Summer families and October foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead for fall color weekends.

Norwood Campground

25 RV Sites, 10 Tent Sites

Norwood Campground in Norwood, North Carolina, sits at Morgan Mountain on the shores of Lake Tillery in Stanly County's Piedmont foothills — a well-equipped campground with 86 full-hookup RV sites, primitive tent camping in the hardwood forest, and exclusive Lake Tillery beach access that gives guests the combination of developed campground infrastructure and genuinely fine lake waterfront that makes Norwood a destination campground for the Charlotte metro, Piedmont Triad, and central Piedmont regional market. Lake Tillery's 5,000-acre Yadkin-Pee Dee River impoundment and the surrounding Uwharrie National Forest's ancient eroded mountain terrain give the campground a natural setting of understated but genuine Piedmont distinction. Eighty-six full-hookup RV sites with level pads and the infrastructure for comfortable extended stays, alongside primitive tent sites in the surrounding hardwood forest, give the campground the accommodation range from fully equipped RV travelers to minimalist tent campers who want Tillery-access and the Morgan Mountain forest experience. The campground's exclusive Lake Tillery beach access gives guests a private waterfront amenity that distinguishes Norwood from the surrounding area's public lake access points — a private beach in walking distance of the RV sites creates the daily lake swimming, fishing, and kayaking access that Tillery's warm Piedmont water sustains through the full camping season. Pets are welcome. Lake Tillery, one of four Yadkin-Pee Dee River lakes managed by Duke Energy through the central Piedmont, provides largemouth and smallmouth bass, striped bass, crappie, bluegill, and catfish fishing across its 5,000 acres of river-corridor lake water. The lake's combination of cove structure, rock bluffs, and the submerged river channel sustains a diverse and consistently productive recreational fishery that the Stanly County and surrounding Piedmont counties' fishing community has relied on since Tillery's impoundment in 1928 — one of the oldest hydroelectric lakes in the Carolinas, with the fishing character of a well-established natural system. The Uwharrie National Forest, west of Norwood in Montgomery and Randolph Counties, preserves the remnant Uwharrie Mountains — an ancient eroded mountain range whose Precambrian volcanic and metamorphic rocks represent some of the oldest exposed geology in the eastern United States, predating the Appalachians by hundreds of millions of years. The forest's hiking trails through the ancient ridges and hollows of the Uwharrie Range, the Birkhead Mountain Wilderness's primitive backcountry, and the Uwharrie Trail's 20-mile through-hiking corridor give Piedmont-based outdoor recreation guests a mountain hiking experience within an hour of Charlotte's urban core. Norwood Campground operates through the Piedmont Carolina camping season, with the spring and fall seasons from April through May and September through October delivering the most comfortable temperatures for Lake Tillery fishing, hiking, and extended outdoor activity. Summer heat in the Stanly County Piedmont is genuine but the lake's water recreation — swimming, kayaking, and evening fishing — moderates the seasonal challenge for water-focused guests. Charlotte, 45 miles west, provides the metropolitan service access, professional sports, and cultural programming that makes a Norwood campground base practical for guests combining lake recreation with metropolitan day trips. Reserve full-hookup sites ahead for spring and summer weekends when the Charlotte-area regional market's lake camping demand consistently fills Tillery-access campgrounds.

from $40/night

Sycamore Lodge Resort

19 RV Sites

Sycamore Lodge Resort in Jackson Springs, North Carolina, provides a lake resort camping experience in Moore County's Sandhills country, where the long-leaf pine and wire grass ecology of the North Carolina Sandhills creates a distinctive natural environment and the proximity to Pinehurst's legendary golf courses and the Uwharrie National Forest's hiking and off-road vehicle terrain makes this corner of the Carolina Piedmont a more recreation-rich destination than its modest visitor profile suggests. The resort's private lake, boat docks, cabins, hot tub, and comprehensive recreation roster create a self-contained family vacation experience in a natural setting that preserves the Sandhills character of one of the Southeast's most ecologically distinctive regions. The resort's recreation infrastructure delivers variety across water and land-based activities: a private lake with boat docks and swimming beach, an outdoor pool, hot tub and sauna, mini-golf, golf cart rentals, canoeing and kayaking, basketball, volleyball, corn hole, bocce ball, planned activities, walking trails, game room, RV storage, general store, pavilion, dog park, laundry, and Wi-Fi serve the full family vacation recreation agenda across multiple days without requiring guests to leave the property. Cabin rentals provide enclosed group lodging alongside the full hookup RV sites, and the library and fitness center serve guests whose resort stay includes reading, exercise, and the indoor recreation that complements the lake and sports programming. Jackson Springs occupies the Moore County Sandhills where the ancient marine sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain meet the Piedmont's harder crystalline basement rock in a transitional zone of well-drained sandy soils that once supported the vast longleaf pine forests whose resin and turpentine production defined the colonial North Carolina economy. The Sandhills region's deep sandy soils also proved ideal for the golf course development that has made Pinehurst the most celebrated golf resort destination in the United States—the Village of Pinehurst, approximately 15 miles northeast, contains Pinehurst No. 2, consistently ranked among the top 10 golf courses in the world and the site of multiple US Open championships. The Uwharrie National Forest, approximately 40 miles northeast of Jackson Springs in the Uwharrie Mountains—the eroded remnants of some of the oldest mountain ranges in the world—provides hiking trails, OHV terrain, primitive camping, and the Troy area's gold mining heritage that reflects the piedmont geology underlying the Sandhills' sandy surface. Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve, managed by the North Carolina State Parks system near Southern Pines, protects old-growth longleaf pine habitat in one of the few remaining stands of the mature Sandhills ecosystem, and the nature center interprets the red-cockaded woodpecker recovery program conducted within the preserve's protected pine forest. Sycamore Lodge Resort operates seasonally from spring through fall in Moore County's temperate Piedmont climate, with the spring and fall seasons providing the most comfortable outdoor conditions for the resort's lake and trail recreation and the surrounding Pinehurst golf community's prime playing season from March through May and September through November. Summer's warm temperatures make the lake and pool the primary daytime recreation anchors, and the resort's shaded Sandhills pine landscape moderates the heat better than open-terrain campgrounds in the Carolina piedmont's hotter months. The golf course access nearby extends the adult recreation options for guests whose Moore County visit combines lake camping with Pinehurst-area tee times.

from $72/night