Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Carolina Beach, NC

Our family has tent camped here twice and recently reserved a camp cabin for a week this summer. This is a quiet and spacious campground mere miles from Carolina Beach at a price that's hard to beat. We tent camp here around $30 a night for a tent site. Each site is very large and spacious. It could could comfortably fit 2 tents and a car.

This Campground offers bathhouses, picnic tables, and fire rings. Dogs allowed, but not in the cabins. Plenty of walking trails.

Campground is flat and shaded, although there are some primative group sites away from the main campground but they don't have as much shade. Grocery store is maybe 6 miles away.

We visited this area last summer, but didn't camp there. However we did spend a lot of time in area. This campground is directly across the street from the beach. The beach is beautiful and the landscaping has rock formations scattered through it. It's a somewhat remote feel to this area even though it's not far from Carolina Beach. There is also a aquarium, and museum down the road if you need a history or education fix. Down South of it is bald island a access to a ferry that will take you to Southport. Next time we come back to this area we will definitely camp here.

We camped here in our 34 travel trailer. We both work from home on hot spots and our Verizon connection was great.

The place is VERY quiet in the off season. We didn’t have any neighbors in the surrounding spots.

The pool area looks super nice, but it was a little to chilly for us to spend any time in the pool. The hot tub however was a great way to end our work days! There are plenty of showers and two laundry rooms. Both are very nice and clean. There’s a small arcade which was fun too.

Check in was super easy. We were very late and they accommodated us. The staff is polite and friendly.

The site is great. Concrete pad makes for super quick and easy leveling set up. There’s a fire pit and picnic table. The spots next to us are “premium” so they have a little pavilion over their table.

The dog park is small and definitely geared towards smaller dogs. It has a cute agility type course set up. Our GSD felt a little to big for the dog park, but we made it work.

Carolina Beach State Park is an amazing campground that has awesome hiking trails, very nice, affordable camp sites, a marina, fishing and swimming in the ocean and tons of fun. I loved it so much I rented a house nearby and actually lived there two years and got married at Carolina Beach Town Hall. I want to tell the whole world what a great campground Carolina Beach State Park is.

Carolina beach state park is one of my favorite places to go in North Carolina. Not only does it have an awesome campground, but it's right near one of the best beaches I've ever been to. The sites are nice and secluded, just how I like them. Most of the sites are tent sites, but they have a few full hookup sites for RVs and some cabins to rent too. All of the sites have picnic tables, fire rings, and drinking water.

Within the park, there are tons of hiking trails through a really beautiful area. I hear the fishing is also really good within the park, but I've never done it myself. The only downside is you can't swim within the park, because the currents can get dangerous. The beach is only like 5 minutes away though, so not really a big deal.

As for the beach, it's my favorite one to go to in the states. I like it because it's not really touristy like the outer banks or myrtle beach. Not a whole lot of people come to it, so it's always pretty secluded and clean. In July, the water temperature is perfect, the waves are nice, and it's great all around.

Awesome spot in NC.

Carolina Beach is a beautiful and peaceful campground, with spacious and private campsites. Sites are easy to locate, easy to access. Plenty of shade and nice fire pits.

Bathrooms haven't been updated in decades. Showers don't offer much privacy, but do offer decent pressure and hot water.

Grocery store is half a mile away.

Loved the small town of Carolina Beach.

Highly recommend, and will return in the future.

This campground is right by the water, inlet of the Cape Fear River. It's about a 5 min drive to Carolina Beach. The area is intertwined with a few short 1-2 mile trails. There's a small marina and it's very popular during the weekend for boaters. Kayaking is also available. One of the trails has a small beach access, great area to take your dog or fish. Swimming is not allowed.

There's a Food Lion grocery store nearby. Amazing place called Wake N Bake donuts. Also, if you enjoy beer, Good Hops Brewery, who also has a disc gold course in the backyard. Kure Beach also has a good size course.

Highly recommended!

I love staying at Carolina Beach State Park! Very close to the beach, you can drive it ride a bike there.

The hiking trails are well maintained and way to follow.

This is a relaxing, natural campground. Many bird songs at sunrise and Whip poor will calls at sunset every night. We have dogs and there are nice places to walk along the pond, and grass areas all around the campground. The dog park is nice for some off leash time. The facilities are great with a store, laundry, and clean restrooms and showers. A very nice pool is available, but with Sunset beach, and Ocean Isle beach just minutes away we have gone there daily. I am fascinated by Bird Island that is a nature preserve and reachable from Sunset beach, this is a day trip we are looking forward to taking the dogs on. Calabash is another town we have visited and it is a gem. We didn’t expect to want anything but seafood but the Peruvian restaurants’ line out the door was intriguing and we ended up there for a late lunch and loved it. My partner is an avid fisherman and had a great day fishing on a Hurricane charter out of Calabash.

We camped here Wed through Sat for my son's fall break. We arrived on Wed afternoon around 4pm. I was wearing leggings and the mosquitos literally landed on my leggings and bit me through them. I didn't even know that could happen. I should have left the campsite then and gone to Walmart, 17 min away, and bought enough bug spray and candles for the weekend but we set up the campsite instead. We just got back so camped the first week in October, site 17. For the four days, I had two citronella candles, one on the picnic table and one near our camping chairs, a thermocell fogger in the tent (ran for about an hour before we went in to go to sleep)  and then two bottles of 40% deet spray...one for our car when we came back to the campsite and one on the picnic table. We brought our kayaks and launched from both the Carolina Beach State Park marina and also Trails End public access (intercoastal waterway). Both were great with plenty of parking while we were there. There are VERY large yachts in the trails end area which are cool to see, just be careful when paddling that area. We fished at both places and also at Carolina beach from the surf. I caught a HUGE drum there. Lots of dogs off of leashes (rules change Oct 1st) so that was cool to see. We mostly cooked at the campsite but ate dinner at Sea Witch Cafe one night. The place is dog friendly, which we needed, and the food was reasonably priced and so good. The park rangers lock the gates at 9pm and they don't open until 7am so you have to plan accordingly. This wasn't an issue for us, we just watched the clock and made sure we were back. Beach is about 6 min away, Walmart is about 17 min or so, several grocery stores nearby (Food Lion, Publix). Overall, it was a great trip, I just wasn't prepared initially for the mosquitos. I got 90 bites that first day. I even had to constantly spray down my dog to keep the mosquitos off of her. It was a bit much. Definitely put all of your food in your car or at a minimum in your tent. Raccoons come nightly. :) We lost a quesadilla, some dog food, etc.

This campground is well worth the visit!  Nicely wooded campsites that are very large and private!  The park has numerous hiking trails, a marina and a beach nearby!  Carolina Beach area has many things to offer; they have a boardwalk that in the summertime has bands playing free of charge, amazing restaurants, fun carnival type activities for the kids, and fireworks every Friday!  Weather you want to relax in seclusion in the forest atmosphere of the park or go to the beach and party the night away, Carolina Beach has it all!  From the state park the beach is only a 5 min drive, less than 7 miles!  You could almost walk there if you didn't have all that beach gear!  But you could certainly ride your bike!

Great location close to Wilmington and Carolina Beach. The recent addition of air-conditioned cabins are a welcome alternative during the hot summer months even though they book up quickly. We enjoyed fishing and exploring the campground.

Carolina Beach State park has an awesome location if you’re looking for an inexpensive place to stay at the beach. It’s a short drive to Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher. There is no swimming area at this park. There is a marina and some great hiking though! We took a day trip to Bald Head Island as well! The campsites are large and well secluded from each other. The restroom and showers are centrally located, and clean enough. One thing I will mention is the pack of gigantic raccoons that kept us up all night while we were there. We accidentally left some food out one night and they were bothering us all weekend, even during the day! Some of the biggest raccoons I’ve ever seen. Don’t be like us and leave food out, lol!

Carolina Beach State Park is a great place to visit! You can drive out on the beach for the day and it is never crowded. The weather is usually nice and the beach is clean. It is great for those who own 4wd vehicles.

Campground Review:

Carolina Beach State Park is located just over the bridge in Carolina Beach NC.  It is close to many restaurants and grocery stores, but offers a bit of seclusion with the large trees and overgrown shrubbery between sites.  

We enjoy the short hikes at Carolina Beach State Park, and the visitor center!  The visitor center has fantastic exhibits of venus fly traps with hands-on activities for the kids, explaining about the different kinds of carnivorous plants that live in the park.  We found both pitcher plants and venus fly traps on one of our hikes!  

This campground has 2 large loops - with affordable cabins scattered throughout.  It is a fairly large campground - almost 100 sites, with bathhouses, showers, spigots and trash through the park.  Camping costs around $26 a night for a tent site, or you could reserve one of their cabins (double bed and desk in the front room and bunks, or 2 bunk beds) for $58 - what a steal!!  

One of our favorite sites is number 45 - it backs right up to the river - and is slightly elevated, allowing beautiful views (while it isn't raining!).  This campground also has a marina - where boats can be rented as well as put in.  There are hiking trails, both short and long - the shortest being the venus fly trap trail - where you can see both venus fly traps and pitcher plants.  We hiked Sugarloaf - down to the private beach -  and hung out for several hours.  It was wonderful!  

Product review:

As a ranger for The Dyrt, I get to review items.  I reviewed the morsel spork XL while at Carolina Beach with my family. https://morselspork.com/products/morsel-spork

  I have had several sporks while hiking the Appalachian Trail, yet this spork exceeds expectations.  

First of all, the spork itself is sturdy, but pliable.  Secondly, the spatula feature on the side makes it easy to scrape every last bit of food out of your container or food pouch - and on a long hike - we don't want to leave one bite behind!  I have used this spork both with standard tupperware containers and also in dehydrated food pouches - and the XL is perfect! Lastly,  I dislike getting food on my hand when reaching in a pouch and the length of the spork is perfect! I can get a bite (with either the fork end, or the spoon end) and remove the utensil without getting slimy/sticky food on my hands.  I would highly recommend this spork for hiking/camping and my family is planning to use these in our lunches for the upcoming school year!

I've been to the campgrounds at Carolina Beach State Park a lot over the years and nothing has really changed since the first time. Rich native wildlife and plants in a shaded setting.The sites themselves are easily accessible and closely located to restrooms. Rarely have there been rambunctious clientele and you're centrally located to a number of recreational opportunities. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the area.

Great campground, excellent marina and paddling opportunities on the Cape Fear River with paddle access to many small white sand beaches.  Marine store nearby, Bath houses very clean and newish.  Sites relatively private and well shaded for the most part.  Be careful in site selection though a few would be very tight for even the smallest pop ups with someone with a PhD. in backing up.  I would avoid #60 & 61 in particular. While in the town of Carolina Beach, campground in not on the beach.  Beaches are a brief drive away. Nice hiking opportunities too.  Shopping and dining options only minutes away.

My first visit to Carolina Beach State Park was an excellent one. It was May a few years ago, and even though the water wasn't quite warm enough to swim in yet, the trip was still an awesome one. The ocean beach isn't actually in the park, but there is access to Cape Fear River. I didn't have a boat (and I still don't), but people keep there boats at the marina and they make strolls through the park a bit more exciting. Campground had nice bathrooms and showers. There was plenty of space to stretch out and throw the frisbee around our campground.

I would recommend walking by the marina around sunset for cool views of the water with the sun setting in the west.

Are you on the sand beside the ocean? No, but this is a great campground with in the state park that has secluded campsites in the woods. This is a rare find this close to the beach/ocean. There are sites that you can not even notice you have neighbors. It is located in the town of Carolina Beach and is along the intercostal waterways. It has some nice trails for light hiking and is just down the road from the ocean. Being in town it is close to grocery stores, places to eat, and shopping. That being said once in the park you feel like you are far from the crowds of town. I like to use this campground/park as a landing spot. Hiking in the park but also adventuring out to the different beach things around.

We stayed here for 2 weeks in September 2019. We don’t have kids, so we didn’t need amenities to entertain them. There is no pool, or playground, but there is a large area to walk your pets. Yes, they are PET FRIENDLY.
It’s not a large RV campground, with only 34 back-in sites. You do have FULL HOOKUPS. The owner is very friendly and is easy to work with. He keeps the grounds neat and the showers and restrooms clean. You are only 10 minutes to Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle Beach. Also, North Myrtle Beach is only 25 minutes away. They close December 15th, until sometime in spring.
If you are just trying to get a place in the area and don’t need a lot of campground amenities, I would recommend this place to you. We’ll definitely be going back.

I stayed at the Carolina Beach State Park Campground a few times and enjoyed every moment. First of all, it provides an affordable option for those who want to be close to the beach but also enjoy camping, woods, and hiking trails. It's also a nice campground with clean nice bathrooms and showers with hot water. 

Sites 71 and 73 are connected and provide plenty of space for a larger group with several cars. The site doesn't have tent pads, it's basically just some gravel, pretty level and with a lot of space for tents.

The park has about 5 miles worth of trails. My favorite is the Flytrap trail, which leads to swampy areas with Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants. They are small and easy to find if you know where to look. Ask a ranger for specifics. 

BTW, if you're in Wilmington area, check out https://www.wilmingtonandbeaches.com/listing/stanley-rehder-carnivorous-plant-garden/901/ - this is a cure little destination for kids and adults.

The weather can be hot and humid during the summer months. Bring a lot of bug spray!!!