Salisbury Beach State Reservation, near Salisbury, Massachusetts, is a lively campground that’s perfect for beach lovers and families looking for a fun getaway. With easy access to the ocean, you can enjoy sun-soaked days and evening bonfires right at your campsite.

The campground offers a range of amenities, including electric hookups and picnic tables, making it convenient for both tent campers and RV enthusiasts. Many visitors appreciate the clean facilities, and one camper noted, “The ocean is so close; it’s convenient.” While the sites are fairly close together, the friendly vibe and proximity to the beach create a welcoming atmosphere for everyone.

If you’re up for some adventure, there’s plenty to do nearby. Paddleboarding in the river is a hit, and you might even spot some seals while you’re at it. Plus, the charming town of Newburyport is just a short drive away, offering cute shops and great dining options. Whether you’re grilling up dinner or enjoying a stroll along the beach, Salisbury Beach State Reservation has all the ingredients for a memorable camping experience.

Salisbury Beach state reservation overlooks the point at which the Merrimack River feeds the Atlantic Ocean. It's a great place to swim, boat, or camp. Salisbury Beach offers 484 campsites for tents, trailers, or R.V.

Salisbury Beach State Reservation

Join the fun near Salisbury. With tons of outdoor activities and scenic camping, this is an excellent vacation spot for all kinds of travelers. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in. Experience some of the most stunning views that Massachusetts camping has to offer. Get the dirt on all the best camping near Salisbury. Browse campgrounds by amenities, site types, and more.

Salisbury

The Best Camping Near Salisbury, Massachusetts

This campground is directly on the Salisbury beach. Its a pretty sweet place for families. When we arrived it was raining so there was hardly anyone here. They have shower bathrooms and some other amenities.

If your looking to party this probably isn't the place. Although it was raining, cold, and hardly anyone here they asked us to quiet down when it got later. Quiet hours are very common but when theres no one at the camp because of not so hot weather and they still complain about noise shhhhh. Its still understandable i suppose.

A short walk or drive from the reservation is the center of town. Its an old arcade pier style beach town. There is surfing, striped bass fishing, arcades, ice cream, go carts, just about everything for the kids.

Cheers!

Decent place right on the beach! we got caught in the rain.

I don’t really consider this location as actually camping. It’s a great place to bring the kids and do beach things all day. Great Spring Striper fishing. Lots of local restaurants and the center of town is super close. We’ve camped for just fishing/beach and also camped to void driving after a summer concert in town. The sites fill up fast and there isn’t much shade. Summer has fireworks and projection screen movies. Free water for bathhouses. Awful mirrors. Like, bring your own.

It it gets windy too.

Not really camping, more of a beach stay.

This Campground is almost like a desert, minimal shade hot, hot hot in the sun! You are sandwiched between the Big Beach (which is where you wanna be) merrimack river and marsh. I recommend you do a drive thru and create a map of the sites you want before you book! Some sites are awesome for hammocks and actually have shade while others are just open sites and hot hot hot! Although there is a nice breeze that always seems to be flowing (love this!) Bathhouses are questionable.. they have a big beautiful bath house but it has been "under construction" for way to long! So they have porta pottys set up outside! lol Other Bath houses have ok bathrooms and showers. DOGS! You are allowed to have dogs here which is one of the best reasons to stay! You can bring them over to the merrimack side and swim with them!! Who can beat that! The big beach is a bit of a walk from the camp ground.. I would recommend driving over or riding your bikes! Salisbury beach is great! Low tide is calm and great for walking and little kids, high tide is fun for boogy boarding and jumping waves! Overall relaxing beach camping if you have a dog and are not looking for any resort camping frills..

Dry in the middle of wet :-)

This affordable dog friendly campground can accommodate large RVs and small tents. It has water and electric hookups. There are three bath houses that offer free hot showers.

Dog friendly beach year round

If Hampton is full...

Still great beach spot. Close to main strip with restaurants

Cute beach spot

Fun and care free camping. A bi yearly trip. No sewer hookup. Septic truck comes 2wice a week. Right on the beach. Awesone breeze

Fun and relaxing

Very nice neat and clean campground. We did not like the fire rings because they had the three walls with only one opening. See photos. It was lovely to walk on the Atlantic while there and enjoy sunrise on the beach. There is a large public access parking area beside campground. Eat breakfast at Pat’s Diner just a few miles from the campground. It’s the real deal. 

So we went with our two dogs. there were plenty of other people there with dogs as well. there were a lot of children on bikes and playing. The restrooms were clean. We've been back twice but not to camp. The beach was clean.

Great place for kids and dogs

Campground was great. Nice sites plenty of space and with a full park for the weekend you didn’t feel on top of each other

Clean and quiet

The feel here is electric, and positive. Lots of RV’s that stay here all summer long. Feels like you are in a tight-knit community, very friendly folks, packed tightly together.  Just fine if you don’t mind close quarters. Everyone gets so creative with their lighting/decor, it is fun just to walk around the campsite and admire just how well (and mobile) some folks live. The place comes to life as the sun sets, and stays very quiet during sleeping hours. A very short walk to the stunning beach.  Perfect pit stop on a road trip north.  

Beachside camping in MA

I probably shouldn’t even be writing this review because it may prevent me from being able to stay here again this summer, but this very basic campground gives you everything you need located across a parking lot from the beach. When families are paying over $2000/week to rent within steps of the campground.   You can’t beat this value at this prices!

Hidden Jewel 

Loud campers will be asked to leave, there are three shower houses the one closest to main beach is the best with handicapped accessible shower stalls

Family oriented camp ground quite nights

This campground might not be for everybody, but if you like the beach you should give it a try. The sites are open with maybe one tree on most sites. Sites have  paved and concrete driveways and lots of them have a concrete pad that would be under your awning. They recently built a new bathhouse and re-did the dump station to three lanes. Like I said it’s not for everybody weather is pretty much an open field with some sporadic trees, so very little shade. The ocean is on one side and the Merrimack River is on another side with a marsh that is great for canoeing,kayaking and fishing on another side. 

Beach camping...

Good sites, with water and 30 amp electric.  Easy walk to the beach.  Dog friendly, big dump site, and good prices.

Very nice beach campground

Clean facilities, super quick access to the beach, friendly staff, sites are pretty close together with little separation between each other. RV &amp; tent sites available. Our family loves both the ocean &amp; camping so it is a win-win! 

Love this campground!

Better than expected

The electrical post and water hookup were placed way behind our site and we could not reach even with our 40’ electrical cord. Park staff told us we could back onto the grass in order to reach the electric and since the ground was hard packed sand we were able to do that. All sites have a picnic table, fire pit, and BBQ grill. The camping pads and roads in the park are paved. We camped at a non-peak time so the park was not very crowded but we can image it being quite different in the summer. As there are a lot of campsites and with this being a popular beach area, the campground is probably full in the summer. Most of the sites are wide open so getting satellite is possible. We were able to get plenty of antenna channels and had a strong Verizon phone signal.

  

We loved paddle boarding in the river where seals were plentiful and fun to watch. There is also another winding river that goes through a marshy area that was great for bird watching. Beware of tides and strong currents in these areas as they can make paddling difficult and you may get stuck in the marsh. The nearby town of Newburyport is super cute and a must-see(click here for a link to a previous blog post about the area). We loved strolling around the town popping in and out of shops and walking along the waterfront. About 30 minutes north on I-95 is the New Hampshire town of Portsmouth which is super hip and has great restaurants. Definitely recommend visiting both of these towns if you have time. There are a couple of drawbacks about this park– the price, no sewer, short campsites, and it has the potential to feel very crowded since there are so many sites and fairly close together. At $47/night this is fairly expensive for a state park, but, you are right on the beach with good water access so that may be justification. Many of the sites are short but since you can park on the grass that turns out not to be a problem.  

  

Overall, we liked this campground and the location. The nearby town of Salisbury is a kitchy beach town with a few restaurants and the drive north up Coastal Route 1A is really pretty. There is lots to do in the nearby area when you are not busy enjoying the beach.

Great Beach Camping

I really enjoyed staying here! The ocean is so close its convenient.  My dog even enjoyed the camping!

Great place! Very clean!

Big bathhouses, convenience store in middle.  The whole scenery is beautiful, close to Hampton Beach.  Watch out for the black birds they'll fly into your screen tent,  get in your trash and eat your 🍉 out of the rind.  The sites are pretty close it's like parking lot with small yard.  The water spigots are 4 in 1 and are closer to some sites then others which can cause people to get into arguments, but the staff said they are fixing it soon so each site gets its own water spigot. All sites have electric. It was windy but your right on the ocean what do you expect also the trees are awesome, they look like giant bonsai trees.  

The place was right in the beach. The sites are back-in level paved with concrete slab some grass and electric and water but bring a big hose because the water spigots are not lined up very well. (There supposed to remedy this) 

And freshwater.. and they love dogs there! The dogs are the best part of the site. The sites are all open field and very tiny. Most of the water is off limits, but it’s beautiful to be by. The campground has an active police station and patrol which is comforting. They also have quiet hours and a limit on how long you can have a fire going. Alcohol is also restricted in some areas. 

It’s Oceanside..

Let me start off by saying this is a very family oriented place it’s close off the highway and the number one thing is it the ocean is absolutely gorgeous clean beautiful and that is my favorite but on this campground there are showers there is electricity you can hook up to there’s many different sites for families couples etc. for get together‘s grilling toasting marshmallows kicking back with one of your favorite tropical drinks, after a long day at the beach and maybe a little ski ball at the arcades they have, which is all less than a five minute walk ice cream salt water taffy is all right there. Great place to go camping everything you need is right there and to note that it’s reasonable and price it won’t break your bank. 

Family oriented

If you’re looking for privacy and quiet, this isn’t the place for you. However, you can’t beat the location and it’s a great place to go with a group. The site pad made leveling a breeze, and it was nice to have the water and electricity- not something you always find at Massachusetts State Park campgrounds. 

Great location

My wife has been coming here for over 20 years. After getting married I have come here almost yearly. Our first year, the bathrooms near the back of the campground were getting rebuilt. This wasn't a huge deal because next year would be great. Which it was. Everything was clean, tidy, and well maintained.

The last two years we have had issues each time. Loud neighbors after quiet hours, we contacted the main office and I spoke to a younger person. When asking him if he can reach out to that campsite he said "there isn't anything I can do." I reminded him that it was quiet hours (I believe I called at 11:30) and we were getting to bed. I asked for his name and then he magically was able to "do something" and shortly after my call, someone was down to their site to quiet them down.

This year, the bathrooms are pretty gnarly. It looks like they are cleaned every-othet day. TP, trash, ...other things are all over the floors. I'm not sure if staffing is to blame? But things could be cleaner. 

Besides that, our stay has been great.

It's a good location but could be cleaner.

Great location.  Perfect for a beach weekend or week.  Not much privacy, but beautiful relaxed spot. Mostly trailers and RVs.

Excellent beach area campground

Stayed here with my partner for her birthday while we were up in the Plum Island/Rockport area. Beautiful ocean access and great facilities. We stayed in a site right next to a large bathhouse with showers, plentiful stalls, and water bottle fill-up and rinse off station. We were situated next to a kind family who lent us fire starter and offered us some of their snacks they were making when we arrived, while we were setting up we did lose some egg rolls to a hungry seagull but I think he needed them more than we did. Not very private and sites are packed close together, but that is what I expected based off the map! I would absolutely return again, this time to check out the beach and surrounding area!

Seagulls hungry for Egg Rolls and sunsets galore!

Campsites are close together, but the beach is amazing. Especially in the off season.

Photos of Salisbury Beach State Reservation

Real photos from real campers