Best Cabin Camping near Hampton Beach, NH

My first time experiencing a park in the New Hampshire Park system. We went down with a group. Pawtuckaway State Park offers a variety of landscapes, with something to do and see for everyone. The park includes a large family beach on the lake. There are many opportunities for hiking, with trails leading to many special points of interest, including a mountaintop fire tower; an extensive marsh where beavers, deer, and great blue herons may be seen.

The park lines the shore of beautiful Pawtuckaway Lake.  The 192 sites are wooded and many provide views of the lake.  Each campsite has an open fire ring, picnic table, flat areas for a tent, and a parking space. The bathhouses are equipped with running water, flush toilets, and 24 hour showers.  There are no hook-ups at any of the campsites. The park also has a camp store where canoe and kayaks are available, as well as a plublic canoe and kayak launch. Five cabins are available; each sleeps six people, has electricity, and includes a fire ring and picnic table. Pets are not allowed in the campground or beach area of the park.

Old Orchard Beach is a fun, family-oriented campground located in the fun little beach town of Old Orchard Beach. Old Orchard is known for their amusement park, arcade, pier, fun downtown, and expansive beach with seven miles of room to walk. Here you can stroll along the streets listening to the melodic sounds of an arcade, buy an airbrushed t-shirt and eat pier fries and fried dough. And the best thing is there is a trolley that takes you from the campground to the beach so you don’t have to deal with parking. 

When the summer season is in full swing, there is lots to do in the campground and at the nearby Atlantic Ocean beach. There are lots of amenities in the campground like a basketball court, Wiffle ball field, horseshoes, badminton, playgrounds, arcade, swimming pools and hot tub, group bonfire, and dog park. The campground is quite large and divided into a variety of sections, some areas are all seasonal campers and others are for transients. The campground offers RV sites, cabin rentals, park model sites, and simple tent sites. We liked the sections in the back (Bear Brook and Black Forest) which are set away from the entrance and the majority of activities. We visited in the off-season but can only image the park gets pretty busy especially in the front section where the swimming pool, arcade, camp store, and other activities are located. The campground is gated which limits who can come into the park. If you want to have guests, plan on shelling out a bit of cash as it is $8/day for kids and $10 for adults and$12 for overnight guests. 

Our gravel site was perfectly level with no potholes and the roads leading to our site were easy to navigate in our 45’ motorhome. The patio was gravel and there was some grass between campsites. Our picnic table was clean and not made of old rotten wood with sagging benches. There was not much shade at our site which was fine with us because it was October when we visited and wanted the sun. We were able to pick up wifi at our site because we were close to a tower. Our Verizon phone and hotspot worked great as did the parks cable television. The campground is just one mile from Old Orchard Beach and close to Route 1 which is the main corridor leading up and down the Maine coast. 

The nearby town of Biddeford has some great restaurants(Palace Dinner, Run of the Mill Public House and Brewery, and Dunston Tab and Table). While the campground is large enough for a good long walk, we prefer to walk the wooded trails at Ferry Beach State Park. If you are looking for something for kids to do there is Funtown Splashtown which is a large water and amusement park and you can get discount tickets at the campgrounds camp store

About an 1 1/2 hours north of Boston and 40 minutes west of Hampton Beach lies Pawtuckaway State Park. Many of the reviews I perused before my visit balked at how busy the park was, and it was generally busy, but it was beautiful and turned out to be one of my favorite parks.

After you register its about a 1.5 mile drive before you hit the camping areas. The park isn’t completely isolated, but you get that sense that you’re headed out into the wilderness. You’re passing wetlands, trailheads; there are three separate camping areas- Horse Island, Neal’s Cove and Big Island. Each seems to have their own vibe and feel. The park also has a visitor’s beach, playground, store, plenty of boat access and modern bathroom facilities.

I had site 35 on Horse Island. Gorgeous. It’s a longer “driveway” to the site, but it’s like you’re tucked away in this secret hideout. It was decently sized and shaded, with a fire pit and picnic table. It was also right on the water (Pawtuckaway Lake). There was a small sandy access-you’re not supposed to swim anywhere besides the beach-but I didn’t notice anyone enforcing this. For future notice bring water shoes, but the swimming was amazing. So many other campers had their paddle boards and kayaks out-just such a nice amenity. I really lucked out.

Truly, there really wasn’t a bad site in the park-some are better and more private than others, but this is one of the more solid parks I’ve come across. After some exploring, I compiled a list of some other A-list sites; and while it is by no means exhaustive (ran out of time to explore everything) it could come in handy! As far as Horse Island goes, sites 1, 4 and 48 really knocked it out of the park. 7, 16 and 17 are also some pretty stellar options. If you’re looking for secluded, waterfront- these are excellent sites! On Big Island, my go-to sites would be: 90, 93, 95 and 122. 90-95 aren’t waterfront, but they’re incredibly shaded, private and genuinely seemed to have that in-the-wilderness feel. (at least those are my favorite qualities in a good camping spot!) 111 and 112 are also strong contenders. I didn’t get to explore much of Neal’s Cove, so I will be saving that for my next visit.

I definitely recommend this park-yes there are many campers, seems to be a popular place. But it’s well taken care of, offers a host of amenities and has many beautiful sites to choose from!

The campground itself is beautifully wooded with mature pine trees. However, the sites are packed so tight you can barely maneuver in and out. We only have a 17' travel trailer pulled by a Ford Explorer and had great difficulty backing it in. I did not see any pull-through sites. Our site had a picnic table, fire ring and water & electric hookups. When we arrived we were given a rules list (as customary) that strongly threatened to remove anyone who was too loud, including dogs. I was a little worried because our Border Collie sometimes barks when people walk their dogs past our campsite. Anyway... after we went to bed we were awakened by a cacophony of road noises, including trains, trucks, and tractor trailers. Planes sounded like they were flying right above our heads. Trucks sounded like they were dumping rocks only feet from our site. In between those noises, we could hear a group of people partying outside on the deck of a house very close to the campground. This went on well into the night. Even though my husband has poor hearing, he couldn't sleep through all that. And yes, the irony of the campground's stern noise warning wasn't lost on me. We were there 3 sleepless nights. I would suggest bringing quality earplugs if you go there. Oh- and they do not allow you to choose your site. You get what's assigned to you.