Best Glamping near Broomes Island, MD

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

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

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.

Site Details: We stayed on site#19 in Loop B(the electric loop). Our site was large, very level, and surrounded by pine and hardwood trees. All sites in this loop were fairly spread out, with ample tree separation between each one. I don’t think there was a bad site in the loop. 

Facilities/Overall Park: The loop had a wonderful, heated bath house which was centrally located and a very short walk from our site. It looked to be recently built(or renovated), and was impeccably clean with very nice-looking showers(which we didn’t use this time). However, there were only 3 stalls and 2 showers, so I imagine the lines could get pretty long during peak season. There was also a nice outdoor dishwashing sink on the exterior of the bath house. 

The park itself is rather small, but very pretty and(mostly) peaceful. It’s set on the Choptank River and Watts Creek, with a great amphitheatre and walking trails with beautiful water views. There is also a nature center(which was closed for the season), as well as several pavilions and playgrounds scattered throughout the park. The pavilions were in definite need of a facelift, and the playgrounds were older but decent. 

While the park was very quiet and enjoyable during the day, unfortunately I couldn’t say the same for nighttime and early morning. The first night, we were awoken several times by the very loud firehouse siren from the neighboring town of Denton. It sounded like one of those older air raid-type sirens, with a really loud, jarring windup. My husband looked it up the next day, and discovered that Denton does in fact use that old fashioned alarm system to signal any type of emergency. In addition, we heard very loud gunshots from nearby goose hunters right at sunrise. So, you may luck out if you camp outside of hunting season and there are no overnight emergencies during your stay.:) 

Martinak is a sister park to the larger Tuckahoe State Park(about 10-15 minutes down the road), and the two parks share and co-host many events between both facilities, mostly during peak season. Upon check-in, the(extremely friendly) rangers handed us a map and calendar of events for both parks. 

Surrounding Area/Attractions: The small town of Denton is about 5 minutes outside the park, with a Walmart, a few chain and standalone restaurants, plenty of gas stations, and most modern conveniences. St. Michael’s, a very quaint and popular tourist destination, is about 45 minutes away. 

Overall, while this a very pretty park with nicely wooded and spaced-out sites, we prefer the neighboring Tuckahoe SP for its slightly better trails, nicer day-use area with newer playground, and(most importantly) lack of midnight sirens.