Best Glamping near Annapolis, MD

Tuckahoe is a go to for us for several reasons.  It is less than 40 mins from Annapolis and close to DC and Baltimore.   Yet it is isolated and quiet.  There’s some great trails as well as walking between the camp loops and picnic areas.  The electric loop has pretty level pads with paved drives.  They are sticklers about parking on the pad and the driveway.  There is one bathhouse per camping loop they are a 6 to 7 out of 10.  Nothing fancy.  

The hikes are scenic with the lake and the creek.  There’s also an awesome native plant arboretum nearby.   Adkins Aboretum.    Water is available at several locations around each loop.  Each loop has a handful of cabins available also.   Take everything you need.  There’s not much around for supplies.  Firewood is available at he front for $5 a pack.  Nicely dried and the sales help the park.   There’s also a picnic loop with some awesome playgrounds and slides.   Also good place for birding, fishing and stargazing.

Two thumbs up on this small campground with spacious, wooded sites!

We stayed here on a Thursday when the campground was almost empty, but there was a reservations list that showed the campground would be full for the Columbus Day weekend. We have good luck walking up to campgrounds during the week, but we look ahead to weekends and make reservations.

Spacious, Wooded Sites

- Lots of shade and trees on large sites and space between sites make this a pleasant campground.

• Parking pads on the electric loop are asphalt.

• There's very finely crushed rock on the non-electric loop. This includes the parking pad and tent pad.

• There are 8 camper cabins, 4 on each loop. There are beds for 4 or 6 people, and the cabins have air conditioning, a ceiling fan and electricity. These are a nice alternative to camping in a tent.

• Bathrooms are located in the middle of each loop, and there are spigots on the loops with potable water.

Small Park But Many Activities

• Canoe/kayak launch between sites 46 and 48. The walk to Tuckahoe Creek from the parking area is very short, and the creek leads to Tuckahoe Lake (no gasoline motors) with more of the creek on the other side of the lake.

• Fishing

• 20 miles of hiking trails are also open for biking and horseback riding.

• Archery range

• Disc golf

• Hunting - as a hiker, I am extremely wary of hiking in parks at a time when hunting is allowed.

We had another great stay at Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD. 

We stayed in a level pull-thru site(#1715) with picnic table on a paver patio, iron table and chairs, clean gravel surface, grill, and fire pit. The site was just big enough for our motor home and Jeep. Full hook-ups with 50-amp service all worked fine. 

If you’re visiting Washington, this is the place to stay. They offer a daily charter bus plus the Metro bus stops at the campground entrance. And if you have a car, it’s about 35-minutes drive time(maybe a bit longer with traffic). 

To be honest, it’s a great place to stay even if you’re not visiting D.C. They have two swimming pools, a cafe, playgrounds, well-stocked camp store, delivery of firewood, ice, and cafe orders, and a concierge to help with travel and tourist sites. 

The entire park is clean and well-maintained. 

THINGS I ESPECIALLY LIKED: 

1. Proximity to Washington, D.C. 

2. Excellent condition and clean 

3. Great staff to help with making the most of your stay

Small by some State Park standards, Tuckahoe offers two loops: a tent/cabin site, and an electric site for RVs. The sites are well maintained. The bathroom/ showers are the cleanest I’ve ever seen, especially since we stayed in the hottest time of the year. There are a few trails here. Nearby is the Chesapeake bay with all its amenities, an Arbouretum that is a bit over priced. And access to the Tuckahoe River for fishing and kayaking. No swimming. There is a Bird Aviary that housesthose that cannot be fully healed. We tend to use Tuckahoe as a way station while camping our way up and down the Bay. I wish it had more to offer. One note is if you’re here for the annual Easter egg hunt GET There Early and make reservations, the campsites fill quickly. There is opportunity to see a great night sky if the clouds stay away.

This campground is about 25 sites. Only 5 sites have electric (2, 5, 18, 24, 25)but all 25 sites have water hookup. Weekends are some what noisy because of the games across the street in the park. This is not a gated campground so anyone can come through and have a tour. Park Police patrol the campground 2 times a day. Also the bathrooms are clean, their are 2 stalls and 1 shower, cleaned daily by park rangers. Raccoons run wild at night flipping trash can lids on your campsite hunting for food. Use repel spray to keep the raccoons off your site. Site 24 and 25 are very close together but the other sites are at a distance however, 6 of the 25 sites are unleveled so tent camping is probably the only option. This is not big rig friendly but there are pull through sites but the roads are very narrow and there is only 1 way in and 1 way out (same entrance) there is a dump station at the beginning of the campground with access to water as well. Free of charge. This is a quiet campground and it's cheap for maryland residents and about $20 for non-resident. There is no registration on site it's online only. www.pgparksdirect.com

Site was heavily wooded and very private; we were surrounded by woods on three sides, and could only see our neighbors across the narrow loop road. Site included a picnic table, fire ring, grill grate and lantern post. Pad was nice and level; didn’t need to use any blocks. Drive way was just long enough to accommodate our truck. Site was a little farther from the bath house than we usually prefer, but didn’t really matter as we were camping sans kids this time. I loved the privacy of this site, so I didn’t mind the little bit of extra walking. Almost all the sites looked relatively private, with a fair amount of trees in between, but our was on of the only sites that was truly surrounded by forest. Since we were here in November, the leaves were especially beautiful. Bath house was large, heated and extremely clean; looks recently renovated. There was also a nice large dishwashing station on the Men's side, which I love. The park itself is very quiet, pretty, and easy to get around. Lots of multi-use trails, which i believe are mostly flat, so maybe not the best for die-hard hiking enthusiasts. We took the Lake Trail down to the day-use area, and it was a very pleasant, scenic hike that took less than 20 minutes. The lake/day-use area is beautiful, with a pavilion, picnic tables, boat launch area, volleyball and large recycled-tire playground for kids. There were quite a few people out and about, more than I would have expected during November. The lake is popular for fishing, kayaking and canoeing (no swimming allowed). During the on-season, canoes and kayaks are available for rent to explore the lake and water trails in the adjacent Tuckahoe Creek. Would love to come back in the summer to check them out. There is also a disc golf course, challenge course, and archery range on-site.

Overall, we really enjoyed this park. It has all the major elements we typically look for: privacy, lots of trees, electric hookups, clean bath house, large playground, and a place to fish. The fact that it’s only about an hour’s drive from us is a bonus. We can’t wait to come back in warmer weather with the kids!

We were here for just one night during September. Our first time camping in the area and since COVID. Check in process was relatively simple, just pull up and pop out of your car to check in, with mask of course. We got a quick run down, some wood and a brochure with maps and area info. We were at site 133, non electric non water. I feel like the spots at the end of each loop might have slightly more privacy, but our site was fine. It included a picnic table and probably the best fire pit with grill that I've had in a while. It rained the night before we came, and the night we were there so the ground was pretty wet. Bathrooms had a sign for taking care with COVID precautions, and to wear your mask. Bathrooms were ok, but floors were a mess from muddy feet. Not much to be done about that. There were showers, and a dishwashing sink, plus laundry available. It's nice to know we've got a close spot to escape to if we don't have time to go far. This is a pet friendly campground. There's a lot to do out at the whole park, and its worth exploring (we just didn't have time). I'm sure its so pretty out near the water.

This review is specific to the non-electric tent sites.

From a services available view, their staff is visible and around to help.  Bathrooms, "Comfort Stations", could use some cleaning more frequently but I've seen a lot worse.  Big trash bin near the comfort stations, convenient.   Definitely a well stocked camp store, its obvious they cater to beginner and family camping.  You are NOT permitted to use deadfall at this park, must bring locally purchased USDA wood yourself or buy from camp store.

There are comfort stations and trash bins close to every non-electric camp site, an easy sub-200 yard walk for me, but that fact is also where my disappointment starts.  The non-electric camp sites in some cases, appear to share a single area, fire pits 10 feet apart from each other, one flat area, barely a full length truck can fit in the parking available at each site they are so close to the road.  If you whisper,  your neighbors will easily hear close.   A big part of camping for me is the peace and quiet of nature.  THIS IS NOT THAT CAMPSITE.  It is extremely compact and close to each other.  Snoring of your neighbor is definitely an issue no matter which site you choose, except for maybe 138 as was said in another review.

The gravel road into the campsites,  is a RESIDENTIAL road.  Yes, there are houses at the end of the road these campsites are ON.  Not off of, on.  Now mostly that wasn't a big deal, cars moving through during the day, early evening.  But that one guy that sat with his high beams on pointed directly into my tent late night for a solid minute or two before loudly accelerating through was a bit irritating. 

This was a weeknight trip, there was only one other camper in this small campground with me so all in all, not a terrible trip but definitely not worth the cost and will not be visiting here again.

We stayed on the big loop on site 48. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything on ReserveAmerica specifying the water situation, so when we arrived we found that we didn’t have water hook up. I’m attaching a photo of the color map I got at checkout which specifies which sites have water.

Bath house was cleaned regularly and was generally very clean (except footprints from people who came in while the floor was wet from mopping). Shower stalls and bathroom stalls were very small but water was hot. Laundry facility in the bath house, $2 per load, quarters. The camp store had most everything you could need and was open 8-8. Staff was all super friendly. They had numerous activities going on for kids.

Definitely be prepared for bugs and ticks.

Sites were shaded well but many didn’t have a lot of privacy from neighbors. Definitely a tad smaller than the photos online show. Our site was level.

The raccoons and squirrels have no fear and will chew through plastic containers to get your food.