Best Cabin Camping near Watkins Glen, NY

Cayuga Lake State Park has a massive campground but most of the sites don't have water or electricity and are squeezed together in tiny loops. If you stay, I'd recommend the 800 or 1000 loops--the sites were much bigger in those areas. But we stayed in the 100 loop (appropriately named "Minnow) and ended up leaving early because our neighbors were just too close for comfort. 

The lakefront area of the park was very nice and we enjoyed walking on the drive down in front of the lake. Plus, Seneca Falls is an adorable town and it was great to visit the Women's Rights National Historic Park and the homes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Harriett Tubman, while we were in the area! 

To be fair to this park, we came directly from Watkins Glen State Park (which we loved) and our neighbors were rambunctious. We may have had a better opinion, had the circumstances been different. And in any event, we did really enjoy the area but decided to leave after 2 nights (rather than the 5 we had booked). 

Oh and if you have a boat--the dock area of the park seemed really nice. We'd have loved to get out on the lake!

Wow, what an absolute delight! From the gorgeous hike up the Watkins Glen Gorge to watching the sunset over Seneca Lake to enjoying some wine from the grapes grown in the region, the Finger Lakes regions is hard to beat for total family entertainment. We came for a couple nights to check it out and stayed for over a week!

The campground at the state park is a classic one, with six loops each representing a native tribe from the area. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring, with no bells and whistles. You can choose from non-electric or electric sites with full-hookups.  We stayed in site #9, just across from the bathrooms, in the Cayuga Loop (non-electric). There is not much privacy between sites, but we were there the week after Memorial Day, so hit it during a lull period. The bathrooms are old, but kept clean and the showers are awesome. There are a couple of playgrounds for the kiddos, picnic areas/shelters, and a pool. There are also some nice cabins for those not interested in camping.

But, the campground is only the beginning of what this area has to offer! Just a short walk from the campground, you will find Watkins Glen Gorge. Entering from the main entrance (as early in the day as you are willing to get there to avoid the crowds) will afford you a walk through what feel like you have stepped into another country (or world for that matter). It is truly one of the most spectacular gorges I’ve ever seen in the U.S.!  Photos simply don’t do it justice.

In addition to great hiking and gorgeous waterfalls, this area is filled with bike trails, water sports of all kinds on Seneca Lake, Farm Sanctuary, the Watkins Glen Int’l Raceway, an extensive wine trail and more! Watkins Glen is a small town, but has all that you need to resupply…including more ice cream shops than I’ve ever seen in just a few city blocks.

We did our usual reservation-less “pull up and see what they have open” style of camping, but during the main season or race weekends, this place is nuts!  You’ll definitely need to plan ahead and make reservations if you plan to be here during the silly season. Note: Prices are lower on weekdays and you get a reduced rate for your second night, too. Bonus!

We were looking to spend a couple of nights near Watkins Glen to hit the wineries, waterfalls, and nearby museums around the finger lakes of New York and this park seemed to be in a good location for us to do all that. There were other options closer to downtown Watkins Glen but they were closed for the season when we visited. This park is quite large and can accommodate any size RV with plenty of activities to keep the entire family busy without even leaving the park (but we wouldn’t recommend that because there is so much to do in the surrounding area). 

Typical KOA with a wide range of RV sites and lodging options and tons of activities and amenities. We booked online and got our KOA discount, so check-in was easy and we were greeted by friendly people. There is a mix of site types which you can pick out online. If you don’t see the type you want online, give them a call because sometimes they can move people around to accommodate you. The roads in the park and campsites are gravel but the park is easy to navigate. They do have short fences at the front and back of sites which can make maneuvering into your site a little tricky. Not sure why they have these unless it is to keep people from driving or parking on the grass. Deluxe sites with fancy paved patios are available for a bit more$$$ than standard sites. All sites have a picnic table and fire pit.

Our site was level and long enough to fit our tow car. The pad was gravel but the patio was paved. Our fire pit stuck out pretty close to the road which was a bit awkward. Sites are definitely close so upon check-in we noticed that the park was not very crowded and asked that they not put us right next to people if at all possible. The women in the office told us that our neighbors were leaving the next morning and that was the only site option. Turns out they didn’t leave and there did appear to be other sites available. Oh well! 

The park advertises free wifi and we were skeptical as to how good it would be but it turned out that it worked well at our site for surfing the internet. Our 4G Verizon phone reception was good and the open pull-thru sites work well for those wanting to use satellite. There is cable which broadcasts 70 channels. 

What we liked about this campground was: the pastoral setting yet it was close to many attractions and things we wanted to do. The hiking trail was a big plus and really appreciated by our Labrador retriever. Wifi worked great and there were lots of cable channels. Our patio was paved which is nice but it is more expensive than standard sites with grass (so we ended up paying for that). 

By far the worst thing about this park is the price. If you come here in the summer and use all the amenities then maybe we could see paying $100/night. But we really just wanted a place to park and hook-up the RV since we spent very little time there during the day. The only amenity we were even slightly interested in was the heated indoor swimming pool. 

The surrounding area boasts lots of activities from exploring the natural wonders to wineries and museums. The region is known for its waterfalls including the popular Watkins Glen Gorge that has 19 waterfalls and many more in the surrounding area. Watkins Glen sits at the southern end of Seneca Lake and offers many opportunities to get out on the water for sight-seeing and a diner cruise. Close by are 40 some wineries and breweries that draw many visitors. A 30-minute drive south will put you in the town of Corning home to the spectacular Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Art Museum. Watkins Glen Speedway hosts major motor racing events including the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Click here for a link to our blog post about what we did

We (family of 5) stayed at Watkins Glen State Park 8/12/20 to 8/16/20. We were tent camping in Seneca Village and had an absolutely BEAUTIFUL site. There was a good mix of tent and RV campers. The bathrooms were clean, the showers were nice and warm. Quiet hours are enforced from 10pm to like 7 or 8am. Firewood and ice are available at the ranger station. Each “village” has a playground for the kids in addition to the large playground near the pool at the entrance to the campground. We didn’t use the pool (though it was open) but got plenty of use out of the playgrounds. The nicest playground was in Tuscarora Village. Tuscarora and Seneca had very nice sites. Onondaga felt like the sites were a little closer to each other or closer to the road. I did not explore any of the other villages but most sites are wooded and offer privacy and seclusion. We had an amazing time hiking and exploring the area and can’t wait to go back.

This is a gated campground that we stayed at 6/30/19-7/04/19. We are NOT an RV. We own a Napier tent that hooks to our truck so that we can sleep up in the bed. However, due to it being a holiday week, the tent sites were completely booked and they only have 4(which also have water& electric). The tent sites are located in the back of the campground behind the sports field within the trees. I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to see them but they have them pictured on their website. They let us book an RV site and it was rough setting up on a gravel RV site but we understood that we were not within a normal tent element and placed an extra tarp under the tent. The campground is located at the top of some beautiful and scenic driving through farmland in Pennsylvania and you will be 30 minutes from anything like shopping or small town amenities(we drove to Walmart after setting up to get our perishables since we drive up from Virginia). Our site had water and electric, was a drive through spot for a typical RV with a section to the side of the drive through for the fire pit and picnic table. We were located right next to the shower/bathrooms/playground and had some tree coverage and shade. A lot of the RVs in the campground are permanent sites and our neighbors never showed so we had a quiet buffer but it was not a noisy campground. It appeared that they cleaned the bathrooms twice daily and we were impressed with the cleanliness of the bathroom/showers. There were 4 in the building so we never had to wait. The staff were friendly and helpful. They had a store right next to the pool area that offered common items and RV'er might need with a small grocery area as well which included bundles of wood($6 honor system after hours) and Ice($1.78 per bag). We were allowed to run an account which we paid at the end of our stay. Our campsite was required to be paid at check in. The campground is 18 acres with gravel roads, a sports field, fishing, horse shoes, bocce ball, multiple playgrounds, a rec center with some games, claw machines etc. a splash pad and salt water pool. You will be doing a lot of walking or bring your bicycles like we did. They offer scheduled activities for holidays etc and various weekend activities. You can rent non electric boats and they offer catch& release fishing without a PA license in the lake. My son caught 2 sunfish :) They have guidelines for visitors and quiet hours(my cousin came to visit us in the evenings as she lived close by). We enjoyed camping here even if we were on an RV site. We booked site 211 which had the little bit of tree coverage and was located right next to the showers/bathrooms/playground with a quick walk to the lake for fishing. Most of the other available sites in the road ahead of us had no tree coverage but closer to the lake had more trees and shade. OR, just get an actual tent site :) but they are all the way at the back of the campground, furthest from the lake so I actually preferred our site.

HIGHLIGHTS : 

Most sites are pretty spacious 

Pets allowed in some loops 

Marina convenience store with pontoon boat rentals

Fishing 

Swimming 

Ice cream and concessions stand 

Arcade room 

Outdoor movie screen 

Nice playgrounds 

Military museum 

Paved loops - good for bikes and scooters

NEAR BY ATTRACTIONS: Wineries

CONS: 

Electric service boxes are shared in-between sites. This could pose an issue if your power cord is not long enough.

There is only source for water fill up. This could end up being a very very long wait if you arrive at the same time as other campers.

Only 2 dump stations

They don’t allow pull-in camping. Campers MUST be backed in

This is one of the main attractions for the area. Locals come here when the weather is nice.

We stayed in yurts, which are round tents ($38 per night). We had a cozy wooden deck and slept four people in two bunk beds. We also had a cooking stove, refrigerator, heat and electricity.

There is plenty of fishing and hiking to go around.

Really recommend this campsite if you have a little extra money to spend and are looking for a light getaway with friends.

If you're looking for a secluded place for yourself or with a loved one, I would look around the area for a less-popular campsite.