We all love roasting marshmallows over a campfire—and you can often still do that while cabin camping in Rainbow Lake. Finding a place to cabin camp in New York is easier than ever. You're sure to find the perfect cabin for your New York cabin camping excursion.
Enjoy the Adirondack Mountain countryside's pristine mountains, lakes and streams when you escape the city to say at Lake Placid/ Whiteface Mountain KOA. The Lake Placid and Whiteface region of the Adirondacks is one of the oldest vacation destinations in the country, and camping gives you plenty of opportunities to take in the big views, big scenery and big history this area is known for. Located in Wilmington, NY near Lake Placid and Whiteface Mountain, our campground is your gateway to all the world-class recreation you will find in this region. That means fly-fishermen and hikers alike will feel right at home when choosing one of our tent camping or other sites as your home base. We are also an ideal destination for a romantic getaway or a family adventure in the great outdoors.
Meadowbrook campground is the best bargain in town for those visiting the Lake Placid Olympic Training venues and the Village of Lake Placid. Located only 4 miles from the center of town, campers have no shortage of activities available to them. The nearby villages offer a variety of restaurants, gift stores, shopping, golf courses, boating, fishing, and various other activities. The campground is near many hiking trails for both the experienced and novice hiker. Also a short distance from the campground is Whiteface Mountain and the Memorial Highway, which offers spectacular views of the surrounding area. Amenities 62 campsites, hot showers, flush toilets, trailer dump station, recycling center, a small day-use area, pavilion rental, firewood sales and hiking.
$30 - $40 / night
The Adirondack Mountain Club’s Wilderness Campground offers a variety of primitive camping opportunities. The seasonal washhouse is available during the spring, summer, and fall; this facility has men and women’s washrooms with showers, toilets, and sinks. During the winter months guests are able to use the facilities in the High Peaks Information Center. All food must be stored inside a vehicle to avoid attracting wildlife. Campsites There are 32 campsites located in the Wilderness Campground. Each campsite has a fire pit and picnic table. A limited number of sites are large enough to accommodate a pop-up camper or small trailer. A maximum of 6 people and a maximum of 3 tents are allowed per site. These sites are open year-round. Lean-tos The Wilderness Campground has 16 lean-tos, several are located adjacent to Heart Lake. Lean-tos are a traditional three-sided Adirondack shelter, they offer protection from weather but have the feel of sleeping out in the open. Each lean-to has a fire pit and picnic table. The lean-tos are open year-round. Canvas Cabins There are six canvas cabins in the Wilderness Campground, each sleeps six people in three bunk beds. The canvas cabins have mattresses but no pillows or linens are provided. Each canvas cabin has a fire pit and picnic table. They are open from the weekend prior to Memorial Day through Columbus Day.
$25 - $55 / night
Cranberry Lake Campground features an accessible picnic area, rest rooms, shower house, accessible tent and RV campsites and an accessible fishing pier. It is located in a picturesque wooded setting alongside Cranberry Lake. One of the largest remote lakes in the Adirondacks and it's proximity to 50,000 acres of wilderness, intermingled with 50 miles of well developed trails makes Cranberry Lake the outdoor enthusiasts perfect vacation spot. Whether it's fishing, boating or just laying back and enjoying your well deserved vacation, Cranberry Lake is the spot for you. The lake has been stocked with trout in the past and many of the ponds, streams and rivers support excellent trout fishing. The perfectly formed forest canopy in the campground provides excellent shade on hot summer days while the undergrowth provides excellent privacy for campers. From Cranberry Lake to other Adirondack Campgrounds requires only a short trip on a major highway.
Nestled in northern New York, among Adirondack Park and the beautiful St. Lawrence River, Pine Ridge Park Campsite is a quiet, peaceful campground welcoming RVers and tenters alike. The Franklin County campground is located on 60 acres on the Salmon River, making it the ideal place to come and relax with your friends and family. You’ll find fun activities for the whole family, fine facilities, and friendly camp hosts at the northern New York campground! Whether you stay for the weekend, month, or longer, Pine Ridge Park Campsite is your home away from home on your Adirondack camping trip! Pine Ridge Park Campsite offers numerous activities for the whole family to enjoy, whether you enjoy being outside in the fresh air, or just relaxing with some fun games. The campground’s river frontage allows great fishing for salmon; bring your pole and try catching dinner. Everyone can enjoy the large swimming pool; on a hot day, it’s the only place to be! Take along your binoculars and camera and enjoy the miles of nature trails, play some games in the baseball field, or gather friends and fellow campers for a game of basketball. The St. Lawrence County campground also features several horseshoe pits, a rec center complete with games, and a library. Live entertainment and special events like dances are held throughout the camping season. The campground offers a classic Adirondack camping experience.
Ranger
My husband and I really enjoyed our stay here 5 years ago due to the hiking along the river that was available. Sometime between then and now, the KOA moved down the road a couple miles, so when we arrived, we were really disappointed--now we just paid for overpriced "camping". Despite that, the staff was very friendly and the showers were warm.
Legend
This place is a paradise. Located near river.
Guide
Stayed here one night and it was super quiet and dark 8pm until we woke up. I hammocked right next to the water of Cranberry Lake. It has showers with hot water, which is timed and high pressure. Checkout was at 10am
Scout
We stayed in the Venus yurt from Saturday August 3rd thru Thursday August 8th 2024. We were going to stay until the 10th, but we had an incoming hurricane and decided to leave before the exit flooded.
Overall, their website pictures are NOT current and I believe the reviews on their website to either be inaccurate or very old.
Day 1: the yurt smelled heavily of febreeze and was smaller than the pictures showed. The mattress, which had no cover on it, had been turned over(the bottom had nubs on it so it wouldn’t slide- this was face up). When we flipped it over, there were obvious fresh red fluid stains and other stains on the top of the mattress. For the price we paid, we would have expected either a waterproof cover enclosing the mattress or that the owners would have swapped out this mattress. The fact that the cleaning staff felt it was ok to turn it over expecting nobody to check was a bit revolting. We went to the office to get it removed, but the best they could do was provide 2 comforters to place between the mattress and our sheets.
When we left to meet up with friends, we found the door lock was broken. We could only lock it from the inside. Our friends were in RVs and apparently the site was digging for new sewer lines, so when the wind shifted, we got a fresh scent of raw sewage.
When we went to take showers at the facility nearest the yurts, we found there was no hot water, the showers had to be pumped to run(no continuous water flow in either the showers or the sinks), and only 1 of the 4 stalls had lockable doors. Both of these were reported to the office the following morning.
Day 2: found that by the store were 6 showers with hot, continuously running water. 3 were out of service and only 1 locked. This was reported to the store/office multiple times.
The lifeguard on duty at the smaller pool across from the store was sitting down in a regular chair with a table with an umbrella between her and the pool, face down in her phone with one hand, holding her sunglasses up with her other hand, while 3 small children(~8 years old) were sliding and playing unsupervised. As a former life guard/ wave pool certified lifeguard, I would have fired her on the spot. That is an unacceptably dangerous situation.
The mini golf course was in disrepair, the arcade was empty of machines, and the activities touted on their website were nonexistent.
The charcoal grill, which we would have used, had a large rusted hole in the bottom right side taking out~25% of the usable bottom, making it basically useless. Thank goodness for butane camp stoves.
Day 3: shower lock situation had not improved(did not improve during our stay despite the office being made aware) Our neighbors left the yurt to our left and the person cleaning the yurt did a cursory cleaning at best. No sign of COVID cleaning discipline whatsoever. We spent the majority of the day offsite
Day 4: lawn mowing started at 8:15 am. The grass absolutely did not need to be mowed. Very loud stand behind rider mower that kicked up dust more than anything as it had been very dry. Took them~3 hours. As a person on vacation, this clearly woke me up early. Very disappointing.
Day 5: got a bit cold in the early morning, so we turned on the heat. It blew dust, filled the entire yurt with a burning smell and caused my partner to use her rescue inhaler. We turned it off quickly, opened the door and 2 windows to clear the air, and found the heater had not been cleaned.
Day 6: decided to leave due to the pending hurricane. As I was checking out, a gentleman checking in was told he had been moved further into the campsite in case the river flooded and was told that, if the river did flood, they had a plan and to not be surprised to see RVs in the road. That was their plan?!?!?
Overall, we will not be returning and will not be recommending this to anyone. If anything, we will encourage anyone looking to camp in the Adirondacks to avoid this campground.
GuideTo start off, we are avid KOA campers. So when we looked at this campground, we expected the typical layout which had a swimming pool and other stuff for the kids, however, this campground lacked all of the above. When we arrived here, check-in was easy we did drive along ways to get to our campsite which was nice to be wooded, but I did miss the typical activities and KOA usually has which when I booked the site, I usually expect them since the prices usually, fairly high compared to state parks. Our main reason for seeing KA versus state parks for these extra activities. With that said the bathrooms were clean, which we barely use since we have a full hook up camper. The dog park was very small and it looked like they did the very minimum to check the block. If you’re looking for a place to run your little guy around, he might be disappointed at this place. However, there are plenty hikes nearby to wear them out if you desire. As far as location, there is a lot of stuff to do in the area as we went and hike, the mountain, which was amazing.
Guide
We recently bought a travel trailer and this was our first camping trip with it. Emma and JC were wonderful from start to finish. They own the property and you can tell they take such great pride in this gem. The grounds are beautifully kept and both were very helpful. We arrived much later than expected because of traffic and this being our first time traveling with the travel trailer. They were very accommodating to our later than expected arrival. Once we got all set up at our site, we were very happy. JC is very helpful with helping guide you in to your spot if you need it. There's a nice bath house with toilets and private showers. It was kept very clean and it was nice to know we could use that if needed. There's a beautiful spot to go down by the lake and watch the sunset over Lake Champlain. We absolutely loved our time there and will be happy to return again. JC has quite the sense of humor and my partner and him had fun conversing. Emma was great at communicating from start to finish and made everything easy and convenient.
Guide
This campground is located in a central area between Burlington and north hero. The views of lake Champlain are amazing. Ex check in and plenty of amenities.
Legend
We stayed at Meadowbrook over Memorial Day weekend in 2024. It's an average campground, but has a really good location between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.
Our site had the standard DEC picnic table and fire pit. There are showers (the hot water was broken the day we were there, but the attendant said we could go to nearby campgrounds to use theirs), toilets, and water spigots. I had decent Verizon signal.
The sites were clean, but the fire pit was showing its age. We stayed in site 37, which was a bit more private and surrounded by trees. The sites in the two loops closest to Rte 86 (#1-13, 27-34, and 51-62) were much closer together, and some didn't have trees between sites. Even at our more "isolated" site, we could still see our neighbors.
The bathroom was actually one of the nicest I've seen in a DEC campsite; it looked like it had recently been rebuilt.
There are positives and negatives about the location. On the plus side, there's ice cream and places to eat within walking distance. We also forgot lunch for our hike the next day and were able to walk to a convenience store to grab supplies. And if you're doing things in Lake Placid and Saranac, the location is tough to beat. On the minus side, there's a bit of road noise and some of the campsites looked like they had great views of a parking lot.
Legend
I haven't camped here, I stopped in a spoke to the host. Drove through and was impressed with the campground, it's well maintained and very nice. The problem for me is it's really two or three connected fields, with hookups in places and lean-tos and fire pits. There was no privacy. But if you're looking for a tent location or a spot to park your camper while you fish on the lake this is the spot.
Scout
The"road" into the campground is more like a goat trail, with numerous washoutsand uneven rocks and dirt. RV site 8 is so out of level that we couldn't get our Airstream level unless we put 10" of blocking under both axles. And the whole idea of paying a"lock fee" is total BS, especially when we paid for our site, in full, 2 months in advance. The ladies at the front desk and the maintenance guy went out of their way to try and make things right, but the manager, his boss and Campspot are completely incompetent and only care about making money.
Traveler
Stayed in a campground for one night just so I could hike Mount Marcy in the morning! It was 40 dollars a night and it has a great hot shower and flush toilet. The area was perfect!
ScoutFirst time camping solo- great place! Felt safe and campground was quiet and clean. Will definitely be back!
ScoutHusband and I took a trip with all 3 pups and I couldn't even tell you who had more fun!! The doggos and husband absolutely loved being able to walk the beautiful trail in the cooler weather, especially the husky. And being a fan of gems, I definitely bought an embarrassing amount of dirt for the gem mining(Got some good finds, so worth it!) Views were amazing and so was the staff, we will absolutely be back!!
ScoutSpacious sites close to great amenities! Super staff! Clean and updated facilities. Close to beautiful hiking, lake activities and rail bikes. We can’t wait to come back!
ScoutThis is such a nice campground and a great experience! The kids loved the gem mining and train rides!! We enjoyed the water view and the staff was so nice to us! On our favorites list for sure!
Guide
This is a gorgeous campground on the banks of Fish Creek Pond and Square pond close to Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake.
Very site has water access, and the water is super shallow all along the shoreline. It’s perfect for dogs, kids, and hanging out in the water. The bottom is sandy with some rocks, good to have water shoes but not essential. Sites 65-100 get a great view of the sunset! Our site was level and dry, as were the surrounding sites. There’s not much brush on the sites and there are lots of old, tall trees, so I had tons of places to put up our dogs tie out, my hammock, and the clothes line.
There were clean bath houses everywhere and one shower building on the west side of Square Pond. I was surprised by the number of bathrooms, you’ll never be far from one while camping here.
Over all, one of my favorite camping weekends ever, it was a gorgeous spot for water sports and great for a run or bike ride. Don’t sleep on this spot!
TravelerBeautiful views of Lake Champlain. Plenty of spots for in and out visitors. Seasonals are mostly elderly residents but set back from the non-seasonal sites. I would definitely revisit.
TravelerTerrific location to hike the different trails of ausable chasm. Good sized site with electric and water. Shady but also had sun to dry our shoes from the raft tour. Bathrooms and showers weren’t too bad, the doors are always kept open which means bugs but not too buggy as they are cleaned daily. Did wish more than once that they had those “occupied/vacant” airplane locks.
Scout
I have been a seasonal camper for 7 years and there is just no better place than Medcalf Acres. The owner is very nice and accommodating and the staff, in particular Michael is always doing something to make the campground look better(cleaning, mowing and weed whacking) just to name a few. There is always something for the kids to do and the staff makes it fun for the kids. They have a heated swimming pool or you can float/swim in schroon river. There is Wi-Fi, cable, sewer, water and electric. You can’t find a better place for the money and the memories that are made.
Traveler
State Park camping isn't for everyone. If you enjoy nature, want to be able to fish, swim, and hike without leaving the campground;and don't mind being without basic utilities of electric and water on site then this is the campground for you.
Located in middle of Lake Champlain. Grand Isle was one of the most enjoyable campgrounds we've been to. Their in park Naturist, Julia was an absolute delight. She did guided hikes, crafts, and other family friendly activities.
The cleanliness of the facilities was excellent. State Park camping is economical and relaxing. We were pleasantly surprised with all the activities that were offered. Usually it's only the private campgrounds that offer those type of extras.
TravelerThis is also listed as the North Pole Wilmington KOA. Medium size KOA, quiet, sires were a little bigger than most KOAs. Close to hiking trails, Whiteface Mt Parkway & Lake Placid. Nice, helpful staff. It is NOT wheelchair accessible. There are steep steps to the office, no grab bars in the bathrooms.
ScoutRiverfront town park. Nice for families. Electric, water and sewer available. Reasonable rates. Spacing okay.
Traveler
Very nice place, easy to book reasonable price because of winter season they close the bathroom, but there is a jiffy John waste, dump station have water and laundry, if needed 
TravelerWir waren 2 Nächte hier. Die Plätze sind privat, durch Bäume voneinander abgeschirmt. Es gibt Wlan, je nachdem wo man ist -mal besser, mal schlechter. Die Sanitäranlagen sind sehr sauber. Die Mitarbeiter freundlich und hilfsbereit.
ScoutThe website for this business is deceptive and highly deceptive.
This is not a“truly modern” campground. The internet was intermittent at best. There is one pool, not two. The sites are nowhere close to“spacious.” The fire ring was a 10” trailer wheel whose size did match the 5 foot picnic table and couldn’t even fit small logs.
The presentation of this business as somehow affiliated with Shelburne Farms is disingenuous and deceptive. The location of the site adjacent to a poorly maintained motel only a few hundred yards off a major roadway is not mentioned and was not conducive to“relaxation and peacefulness.”
ScoutWe visited this campground twice this summer after the switchover to KOA. They had lots of activities to take back to the campsite for rainy days. They do not have a dog park and this caused our pup to get a bit hyper.
RangerWhere do I begin, the name says it all. It is child free which means it is super quiet and so relaxed. We spent about 11 days in absolute paradise at this campground. All of the sites are charming in their own right and the access to the lake is wonderful, providing a truly stunning view and wonderful place to cool off. The owners take great pride in the property that they have curated, and it is evident in every inch of the campsite. The facilities are cleaned daily, firewood is available, and the owners are a wealth of local knowledge and insight. this is by far the best campsite we have ever stayed at, the tone set by the owners really does attract a certain level of campers that are respectful and pleasant, there was no loud music, late nights or bright lights blazing through the night. This is an absolutely perfect place to decompress and enjoy the scenery. We cannot wait to come back.
Camping near Rainbow Lake, New York, offers a mix of beautiful scenery and outdoor activities. Whether you're looking for a peaceful retreat or an adventure-filled getaway, there are plenty of campgrounds to choose from.
Camping near Rainbow Lake, New York, has something for everyone, from families to RVers. Just remember to plan ahead and enjoy the great outdoors!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular cabin campsite near Rainbow Lake, NY?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular cabin campground near Rainbow Lake, NY is Lake Placid-Whiteface Mountain KOA with a 4.4-star rating from 43 reviews.
What is the best site to find cabin camping near Rainbow Lake, NY?
TheDyrt.com has all 29 cabin camping locations near Rainbow Lake, NY, with real photos and reviews from campers.
