Best RV Parks & Resorts near Fabius, NY

We were just passing through on a rainy night, but this park would be a good choice for a multi-night stay. 

Activities for a Multi-Day Stay

• Swimming in the lake, golfing, boating, fishing, multi-use trails for hiking or mountain biking

• You're only about 20 minutes from the Binghamton/Johnson City area. For us, that means food and craft beer.

Sites in the Chipmunk Camping Area

• Parking pads in the non-electric section are dirt/grass. Some of the pads are short; this section is geared toward tent campers. We found a site long enough to easily accommodate our vehicle and teardrop trailer (30 ft total) since we didn't want to detach for a one night stay. Even if the pad wasn't that long, there are other pads wide enough to handle a vehicle and trailer like ours side by side.

• Parking pads in the electric loops (30 amps and 50 amps) have a good amount of gravel.

• We usually prefer sites on the outer part of a loop, and this was no exception. The sites have more trees.

Amenities

• Electricity at about 1/3 of the sites

• Pretty good restrooms/showers

• Water spigots on the loops and more water at the dump station

• Trash disposal

• Playground at the beach area, not the campground

Wildlife

• Beware of raccoons. They are brazen thieves here...and every campground they inhabit. Just don't leave your food out.

• The park brochure warns of the occasional bear but that's true even in towns all over NY. I doubt you'll see one.

• Deer are all over. Watch out for them on the roads. We had four that were feeding behind our site in the morning.

We scheduled a pull through for 1 night last minute due to an unexpected change in plans. We are a full-time traveling family (2 kids - 8 & 13) and 2 English Bulldogs. We have a Class A motorhome and flat tow a Jeep. The campground was beautiful and easy to get in and out of. The sites were level and great size with nice spacing in between. The location was nice too! We did head over to the casino briefly and enjoyed that. We also took a drive to the University of Syracuse to tour the campus. Clean and wonderful park. Would definitely recommend.

Small and quiet national forest campground, just about 20 minutes from the hustle and bustle of both Ithaca and Watkins Glen. We woke up to thrushes singing and fell asleep to nightingales and owls calling!  Sites are basic with a picnic table and fire ring. Two pit toilets and trash/recycling are available, but no drinking water (also no streams for filtering water…so come prepared). Some sites can accommodate longer RV’s and some are perfect for tents.  All sites have quite a bit of shade and privacy as they are lined with trees and shrubs.

The best part about this campground is you are perfectly situated in the heart of the NY wine country!  Seneca Lake is just a couple miles west and has more wineries than you can possibly visit. Our favorite was Catharine Valley Winery…great wine, fun atmosphere, and gorgeous view of the vineyards and lake. 

Also, with the help of a local, we found Smith Memorial Park – a great place to launch our kayaks and make some dinner at the beach. Their campground is currently closed for renovations, but there is a boat launch/docks, picnic pavilion, and a lovely view of the sunset.

No reservations, first-come first served.

This is a small campground set up on the periphery of Butternut Hill farm which is located on the main Route 20 in Bouckville NY.  At the time I submitted my review, I was not able to make edits on the basic campground listing;   I am not sure why the Dyrt platform wouldnt let me update the important details, but you can get more info and make reservations on the campground webpage which is here: 

https://butternuthill.net/

The campground is in a convenient location in Bouckville,  a small upstate NY village with a concentration of numerous antique shops, which is a draw for collectors in the area. There is also a famous Inn and restaurant, the Landmark Inn, which anchors the town, adjacent to a trailhead for a hiking trail along the historic Chenango Canal, an offshoot of the Erie Canal. 

The meadows and fields of Butternut Hill are the superb festival setting for several regional events, including several Antique shows, the Central New York Fiber Festival, a craft fair and a car show, events that are scheduled a few times a month throughout the summer. 

The campground is adjacent to the festival fields, lining a forest edge with expansive views of the surrounding valley. During special events, vendors and exhibitors have a convenient and inexpensive place to stay that is not far from the exhibit tents and festival fields, but people attending the events can stay there too, or campsites may be reserved at other times through the summer, on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. 

Many of the sites are for RV's, which have electric and water hookups along with a picnic table and fire pit; rates fro these rang $40-50. There are also primitive tent sites which have a grassy tent area and fire pit but no picnic table and cost  $30 per night. There is a cozy log camper cabin available, at a very inexpensive price of $60 per night (bring your own linens). All camping spots are in close walking distance to the bath house, which has water, showers, and bathrooms. (Additional porta potties are set up during festival events.)  

I was there during the Fiber Festival, and I was impressed at how well organized the programing was, and how clean everything was despite large attendance. In addition, it rained really hard one day of the event, and though the access roads got a little muddy, the campsites seem well drained and did not get muddy. The campsites all back to the woods on the west side, so this serves as a good windbreak too. 

The campground office has some basic camping supplies available, but an advantage of being there during a festival event was a nice food tent and a variety of food trucks offering delicious fare!  If you were coming from a distance to attend one of the local special events, this is a good place to stay, though of course busy during the day. If you wanted to camp here at a non event time, you would find it to be a quiet pastoral location with access to some hiking and fishing spots in close proximity. For staying in the area, the camper cabin would be a great all-weather option if you can get it!

This was our first experience at a Hipcamp site, but we took advantage of a $30 promotion from REI and decided to try one out. Camp Elderberry is located on an organic vegetable farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Weekend tours of the farm are available for a nominal fee. There are two sites here, both quite separate from each other so they are very private. You can camp in an RV or in a tent on the grass. Due to recent rains, the grass was quite tall, so we did not go deep into our site, which had a view of Seneca Lake. No hookups at either site. 

Communication with Lael was very good from the beginning, and he met us as we arrived to help us get settled. We arrived much later than planned due to a flat tire, so we did not spend much time exploring the property. There is also a ½ mile hike to the beach that I would have explored if we had arrived earlier. I had read there is a porta-potty, but we did not use it. There is also potable water and a cold-water shower. No WiFi, but the cell signal was strong on Verizon. There are many wineries nearby but again, because of our late arrival, they were all closed when we got there. 

We have been exploring a variety of camping options including Tentrr, Harvest Host, RV parks, Corps of Engineers campgrounds, county parks, state parks, and national parks. Hipcamp campsites vary widely by accommodation and price. The price for Camp Elderberry was not unreasonable ($50) but is more expensive than most standard (non-private) campsites. We did enjoy the unique experience, however!