Best Tent Camping near Buzzards Bay, MA

There are 2 Fearing Pond loops at Myles Standish State Forest, the H & I loops. The H loop entrance is closer to the Charge Pond loops and is higher above pond. This loop is better suited to the larger trailers/tents with more space to drive around a loop , but some spots have slopes. The I loop's best feature is a small beach that is easily accessible from all sites. They've done a lot of site restoration and the fact that it didn't open in 2020 helped. In spite of that, many of the sites have awkward approaches and there is a large parking lot closer to the bathroom. There are no hookups, but there is a dump station available. Water is available, but no electric hookups. Fire rings and picnic tables provided.

The forest has miles of biking trails, ponds for swimming, fishing, and boating, and even cranberry bogs to explore (though harvest is late in the camping season and this section is not open at that time).

Cell phone coverage is poor to absent in the forest, so download maps for offline use prior to your arrival.

Plymouth is nearby for a any forgotten provisions and for sightseeing. Erickson's ice cream cafe is near the entrance if you need a treat!

Scusset Beach offers an extended camping season, although the extended season is restricted to self-contained units as the restrooms are turned off.  Also, there are only 5 designated tent sites during the peak season, so if you want to tent camp here, you'd best make a reservation well in advance.. You cannot reserve an RV site for a just a tent, though if you have a trailer, you may also have a tent on the site. The 5 tent sites have their own fire pits, but the RV sites must use a community fire pit, though in mid-November, just before the campground closed for the season, RVers used the firepit at a tent site that provided some additional protection from the wind.

The RV sites have paved parking pads and picnic tables, but the area to the side of the parking pads sometimes slopes away, so it's less usable for chairs, etc.  In the 2020 camping season, every other campsite was closed (thus the picnic tables across the entrance of the parking pad). Some of the sites, 32 34, 36, are along the back of the campground closer to the trees/scrub, and so have some degree of privacy and protection as compared to the others in the wide open park.

The campground is on the north shore of the Cape Code canal and provides access to a sandy beach, a jetty, and the Cape Cod Canal Trail for biking and walking. There's a nice playground for youth. You can fish from the shore or jetty, No need to cross the bridge to the Cape. Plymouth is also nearby to explore.

Loud campers in large groups.

Rules regarding quiet hours, no generators, number of tents per site and late arrival and setups were not enforced.

People next to us crammed 8 tents on 3 sites. I counted a group of at least 20.

There is no privacy, people were constantly walking through our site and stepping over our tent guy lines.

People partied until 2:00am and woke up at 5:30am shining headlights and idling cars.

Bathrooms were dirty, sites boundaries not marked and crammed together. No shade.

Beautiful location, rangers were nice.

RV folks were surly, seemed like a lot of them stay there for the entire season. One said hi, the rest stared when we drove by.

We booked and paid for two nights and left first thing after just one night.

We stayed here for a season and loved it! The staff from the front desk to the front gate are incredibly friendly and welcoming!

Pros-

Front office is open late (9pm)

Offers wood, ice, fire starters, hoses and adapter cap for gray water drain.

Country Store

Ice Cream

Amazing views of the canal.

Bike path along the canal, easy access.

Lots of playgrounds for different ages

Bounce pad (in-ground)

Pool

Stair access to canal bike path.

Dump station

Inexpensive to have visitors\

Located near so much! Walmart, Market Basket, Target all within 15min.  

Cons-

No on site drainage for black water (grey takes an adapter). You will need a poop tote.

Lots of tight spaces

Anyone can pay to access canal, so they can access any campsite even without staying there. 

Highway noise.

BRIDGE TRAFFIC- if you know you know.

Formerly Paine's campground, this is now under the Massachusetts DCR. It offers inexpensive, rustic camping on the Cape, though rates are much higher for out-of-state guests than for instate. Many sites are small, some require walk-in, and parking may be separate from the site; in some instances it is across or near the site, and for others it is closer to the park entrance. Under the new ownership they've paved some of the roads, but the roads are narrow and with curves. All of the conditions have led them to limit campers to tents and short trailers/campers only, with length <15' and only 1 unit/vehicle per site. There is 20A electric on a number of the sites. When you read site descriptions, it will indicate 'compact loop' or 'petite site' and those are accurate!

Sites are largely shaded. Some of the sites back up to neighboring yards (9-12 area). Walk-in distance to some sites can be substantial (see sites 49, 59, 61, etc.) so be sure to read site descriptions carefully, but 61 in particular offers greater privacy. The sites aren't always level. There are no photos on the reservation website, so I've tried to capture most, but not all, here.

No alcohol or pets allowed. 

The are nearby beaches, hikes, Cape Cod Rail Trail and other biking opportunities are nearby. If you don't have a bike, you can easily rent one from nearby shops.

It won't be for everyone, but if you want a campground that is less expensive, caters to tents and trailers rather than the big rigs, this may be for you!

This is by far one of the best campgrounds I’ve stayed at so far. North of Highland Camping area definitely caters to tent campers – the roads are not big enough for large trailers or RVs, and they have no electric or sewage hookups anywhere in the park. This campground has been owned by the same family since the 1950s.

We arrived around 10 am on a Saturday morning, and even though it was the weekend before July 4th, there were still several sites available for walk-ins (they have more than 250 sites). The desk clerk was one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met, and extremely helpful – he walked us through picking the best site available by asking us what our preferences were (did we want to be near the restrooms, close to the beach path, what size tent did we have, etc). He even gave us tips on getting beach fire permits. The price for the site was reasonable for the area.

The campground itself is gorgeous – it’s within the pine barren forest near Head of the Meadow beach, completely surrounded by Cape Cod National Seashore land. All of the sites are shaded, and they are decently sized with picnic tables. There is also a ½ mile walking path that leads directly to Head of the Meadow beach; if you go to the town beach side, walk-ins are free!

There are several restrooms centrally located to the main camping loops, plus one building that houses the coin-op showers, the camp store, a rec hall, and even an adults-only quiet room w/ electronic charging stations. The restrooms were very clean and well maintained, and even had soap and paper towels, which is rare in campgrounds. Each restroom building also had outdoor showers for rinsing off.

The owners are VERY strict on their quiet hours policy (1030pm – 730am), and they are very restrictive on some noises during the day as well – pets, motorcycles, and portable generators are not allowed in this campground at all. This is exactly the kind of camping experience I’m looking for, as I’ve had some bad experiences the last year or so with other campgrounds attracting loud partiers.

Overall, this was one of my favorite camping experiences and I will definitely be back!

Pros: Wonderfully helpful staff, reasonably priced, very quiet and relaxing, clean and well-maintained facilities, great location, beautiful.

Cons: If I had to pick any cons, it would be that the roads throughout the campground are in kind of rough shape and could use more signage (a lot are one-way and sometimes hard to distinguish from campsite parking spots). I had no problem in my SUV, but it might be a little rougher driving on them in a compact car. Also, no fires are allowed in the campground itself due to fire restrictions, but you can easily get beach fire permits to have one on the beach. That’s all I can think of – this campground was great!

This campground is on the banks of the Cape Cod Canal and owned and operated by the Bourne Recreational Authority. The park has a “state park” kind of feel but with amenities you would find at a private park. There is a wide diversity of activities including fishing, hiking, scheduled activities, a recreation hall with video games and jukebox, and store (outfitted with groceries, ice cream, beverages, and other miscellaneous items). The park is quite large with 465 sites, some of which have views of the canal. 

Bourne Scenic Park is conveniently located near many of Cape Cod’s attractions including beaches, golf courses, historic landmarks, restaurants and shopping. The park is approximately one hour from Boston, Providence and a 30 minute ride to the ferry terminal taking you to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. Closer to the park is downtown Bourne and Buzzards Bay which are just five minutes away and have groceries, fuel, restaurants, shopping, etc. The glass museum in the nearby town of Sandwich is very interesting with live glass blowing demonstrations. You can tour the Cape Cod Chip factory which makes delicious kettle chips.

There are 465 RV sites to choose from that are water/electric (30/50 amp)/cable or no hook-up/tent sites. There are also lodges (with water, electric, cable) and rustic cabins. Of those 465 sites, 50% of them can be reserved for the entire season (April 1st – October 30th) which is nice if you want to stay long-term.  No sites have sewer; however, grey water dump stations are randomly placed throughout the campground and can be accessed with a garden hose. Some roads were paved while others were gravel/sand. Sites and patios were grass, sand, or gravel. There are six pull-thrus and the rest are back-ins. The one thing we did notice was that the site layout in some areas is not traditional meaning they are not all in the same direction and configuration. Some sites run parallel while the next one runs perpendicular. Restrooms and showers are spread throughout the park and were clean. There is a dump station located close to the park exit. 

Leveling was not an issue for us in our site (C-25) but the majority of sites would be a problem for a motorhome to get level without the aid of blocks. In fact, some sites were ridiculously unlevel and took a scary amount of blocks. We choose a pull-thru because of our length. Utilities were well-placed and all worked well. The cable hook-up yielded 99 channels. Campsites have a picnic table and fire pit. There was no wifi but our Verizon phone picked up a strong signal.

This park has lots of amenities - there are two pools, hiking/biking trails, playground, basketball courts, camp store/restaurant, pavilion, and picnic area. The park has live music on Saturday nights and various other activities like sack races and scavenger hunts. We liked that this park had a paved hiking/biking path and was big enough for a good walk. It was in a great location for exploring the Cape and the towns of Sandwich, Hyannis, Buzzards Bay and more. 

The people in the office were super nice and helpful finding us a site. They gave us a map with all available sites for our size and let us drive around to decide. Our site was nice with a large patio and while we were there just before the park closed for the season it was very quiet. 

We were there in the off season and enjoyed that very few people were in the park but we got the feel this place could be really busy in the summer. The park is a little pricey at $48/night but you are on the Cape so they can command that. 

Dog owners will appreciate the paved trail that runs the length of the canal and easily accessible from the campground. There were a couple of hiking trails thru the woods that we found which served well for a dog walk. There is no off-leash dog park but the park is plenty big enough for a long dog walk.

This campsite loop at Myles Standish State Forest is closest to the headquarters and borders a small pond with beach. In addition to tent/RV sites, there are 3 yurts available with bunks. Sites that appear to be near the pond are pond view rather than pondside. Approaches to Yurt JC and J5, J 26, J27 are sloped. J14 is a little awkward. J33 is probably among the largest and nicest with a pond view. The sites aren't as large as those in the Charge Pond loops, but it's a smaller campground.

The loop has flush toilets and showers. Water is available, but no electric hookups. Fire rings and picnic tables provided. Cell phone coverage throughout the forest is poor to absent; download maps for offline use if you want to be sure to know where you are or find directions. There are miles of bike trails and ponds for fishing, swimming, and boating. There's a larger beach and picnic area at College Pond.

This is a really cool option for those interested in visiting Cape Cod and also backpacking. The park has 5 dispersed sites located 3-4 miles from the trailhead with picnic tables and an outhouse. The hike in to the sites can be particularly difficult because it requires trekking through sand without any sun coverage and with all of your gear. It’s also a bit of a gamble because the sites are not reservable ahead of time. In order to secure a spot, you must show up at the park headquarters where sites are handed out on a first come first served basis. A nice amenity is that the park staff will send someone to the sites to deliver 5 gallons of water for free as well as firewood for a small fee so you don’t have to carry those resources. The sites are tucked away from the beach a bit into the brush which provides a nice relief from the wind. Fires are permitted at the beach and I was lucky to witness a really beautiful beach sunset. I did not encounter too many bugs during my time of visit but I’ve been warned that it can get quite buggy in mid to late summer. Overall, this is a 5 star primitive spot for me because it’s secluded, requires a bit of leg work and has a great view.