Best Glamping near Hermon, NY

Lovely State Park in the 1,000 Islands where water activities are the main attraction. Make sure to check out the island too! The park spans the island and a little snaking river-like bay. Really pretty to explore on boat. Easy and very pretty trails on site, walk along the shore too. Decent wildlife and great birding. Feels very isolated though easy to get to. Bring your passport, you can see Canada from some of the picnic grounds. Incredible sunsets!!!

Quality State Park facilities, clean. Camping ranges from tents in shady woods to cabins. Some sites are pretty private, even the ones that aren't are quiet.

Note: Robert Moses apparently did a lot in New York State. This park is near Canada! There is also a Robert Moses beach on Long Island near NYC (Fire Island National Seashore) and Robert Moses parkway near Niagara Falls. These are all 8+ hours from each other! Be careful with your mapping apps and in getting advice for travel.

This campground is like having 2 campgrounds in one. One side of the lake is a bit crowded and can get rowdy. This side has flush toilets and showers. There are waterfront sites here. The other side of the campground is completely different, and a bit hidden. (Meacham Lake West) No flush toilets or showers, simply outhouses at each site. There may be a couple flush toilets you can walk to. Also, you will need to park and hike in a bit, but the views are so worth it! You can have a beautiful site right on the lake, and your neighbors are not on top of you. There is running water as well.

Swan Bay Resort is exactly that. All of there sites are on slabs,neat and clean hook ups. There is riverviews from just about every site which is nice and then there are sites right on the river, the river sites do face west , so you do get beautiful sunsets. Check-in was smooth and the staff was very helpful. There are plenty of bathrooms and washing machines are in all of them. They offer boat, kayak, and paddle board rentals. They have 2 pools and a tiki bar on site. They looked beautiful but they were crowded and nobody was practicing social distancing , and for me we are still in the unknown with covid so we stayed away. No judging at all just a personal preference call. The shop was mostly chatchskis and except for the normal staple items sewer hoses and stuff of that nature. There is a supermarket that is walkable which was nice. Now for the downside and it's only 1 , this place is a bit pricey. What I spent here for 2 nights I could have stayed a week at a KOA, so I did pay for those beautiful river sunsets.

I’ll start by saying Swan Bay is a busy, family-oriented campground. We arrived on a weekend and it was pretty busy but loved it during the week when everybody left and things were quieter. Our site (#38) was a Passport America site so we got a great nightly rate of $42 which is half of the regular nightly rate. Our site was a “standard site” near the pool, boat launch, activities, and Tiki Bar which surprised us because sites close to activities are usually desired and not discounted. Campsite costs depends on whether you get a waterfront (which is $95/night even in the off-season), water view, pull thru, or standard site. Most sites do not have shade but they added a new section that does have some old mature trees and sporadic shade. All the sites are the same in that they have paved parking areas with gravel in front, pavers for a patio and full hook-up. Some of the newer sites now have a bit of shade from trees. There are lots of rental park models and cottages close to the pool and Tiki Bar. Within walking distance is a Price Chopper Grocery, Dollar General, gas station, and wine and liquor store.  

There is a free boat launch and boat slips (not sure if they are free) for guests. I was hoping to spend a bit of time on my paddleboard but soon realized it is very windy here and found very few windows to paddle. Our neighbor (who has camped here seasonally for the last four years) mentioned that he lost three awnings to the wind. So, don’t leave your awning out when you leave your camper and beware of winds if you want to be on the water. Check-in was quick and easy. The park is gated so you get a gate card to enter the park. You also get a BOGO card to use at the Tiki Bar which has specials during the week (like margarita Monday, bucket of beer, bloody Mary’s, etc.). The pool and Tiki Bar were not very busy when we were there. There is a second pool but it was not open yet for the season. In between the pools is a community fire pit with nice Adirondack chairs which is pretty cool. The playground is awesome and huge with lots of cool features for kids to explore. The dog park is very nice and a decent size to throw a ball for your dog. It also has potable water for drinking, which, for some reason, did not work during our stay. There are gobs of activities for kids and adults. Plenty of rentals too – ranging from boats, kayaks, golf carts, etc. 

A couple of the downsides of this park are the price (unless you get a discount like we did), sites don’t have much privacy, the park gets crowded and noisy, and there was lots of noise from the construction work within the park they were doing. If you are in the back of the park, you get some road noise from Route 12 and the refrigerated truck at the neighboring Price Chopper. Overall, we loved this park during the slow season and during the week when there were not kids running around and adults playing loud music and drinking constantly.

We stayed at Swan Bay Resort in Alexandria Bay, NY, for our last trip this year. Spoiler alert… we had a great stay! 

This is a great park. It’s an easy mile from I-81 and just 10-minutes drive to Alexandria Bay downtown. The staff was great— friendly and helpful. Our waterfront pull-IN site was a level concrete pad and gravel with FHU and everything worked great. Oh, and the best part was our view of the St. Lawrence River with passing ocean liners and lots of migrating birds. 

The park has 2 swimming pools, a tiki bar, a food truck, and nice communal hang-out areas. There’s a marina with pontoon boat rentals. They put on Octoberfest during our stay which featured a live band and food and craft vendors. 

There are plenty of restaurants and stores nearby. Adjacent to the entrance is a self-service car wash with bay large enough for motorhomes. 

I have nothing bad to say about this place and encourage you to visit when you can.