Best Cabin Camping near North Topsail 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.

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.

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!

The group campground is isolated from the rest of the camping areas and is quiet at night. There are a lot of park visitors who walk through the area, but the trail through goes around he main campsites. The pit toilets are in need of some attention, but have always been well stocked. It’s about 400 yards to hike in, so we used a wagon to bring in gear. No water on site, but a really nice fire pit with grill top and 2 picnic tables. Shady tent sites available, but really hot and buggy in summer. Group camp site is about .5 mile hike from the river which is great for wading, but swimming is not allowed.

Many species of carnivorous plants grow here and abundant wildlife.

in the summer months there is a place to rent kayaks and paddle boards at the marina.

We camped here in February, so only certain sites were open - those for Rvs which had water and electricity and to our surprise sewer hookups, Which is a good thing because the bathhouse in our section was under renovation and only a port-a-potty available (this was not mentioned on the website or in any of our reservation emails). Despite that, it’s a very nice, wooded area with very spacious sites. Lots of hiking options and trails in the area, and a small marina to put in. We were there in February so didn’t avail ourselves to the beach area. Level gravel/stone pad with a nice picnic table and fire ring. We bought firewood from the store at the marina when we checked in, but were greatly disappointed to find out it was too wet or unseasoned to burn. We tried, even used lighter fluid, and no go. A waste of $8.00. Buyer beware! Buy your wood someplace else before you arrive.

The camp ground was really easy to get around with kids, plenty of trails that preschool kids can enjoy as well as adults. Lots of beautiful views just a short hike away. We camped in a primitive tent site, plenty of shade with nice picnic table and fire ring with grill grate. The bathrooms were so clean, we were really impressed. The rangers are super helpful and very nice. One of our best camping trips ever. Fort Fisher Historic site and Aquarium are less than 15 minutes away. Beach accesses are less than 5 minutes away by car. I would highly recommend visiting in early Spring or late Fall. I live a short distance away and the mosquitoes are unbearable in the warmer months.

I hesitate to give it five stars because of my particular campsite. It was difficult to get into because of the trees, especially since I had a full sized truck. I had to back up, pull forward, back up, pull forward, etc., the first time I pulled in. I love trees, but taking one out would be a lot better for the campsite where I was. 

With that said, the campsite did have many good things going for it. It had a sheltered picnic table with a light, a charging station, and power outlets. However, if you are planning to run a cord between the power outlet and your tent on the tent pad, you need something long than twenty-five feet. I didn’t realize how far away the power was going to be, so I had to go to a store in town to get another extension cord. The site is sandy and level. The tent pad was also sandy and fairly level. If you are going to set up a tent on the tent pad, I suggest making sure it is not too big of a tent. My 8’ x 7’ tent fit, but larger tents may have a problem if there are tie-outs. 

Another problem with my tent site is that it was so close to the bath house, which may not seem to be a problem to most. However, the lights on the bath house are on all night, and they light up the area as if it were a ball field. The bath house itself is really nice—one of the cleanest and well-kept bath houses I have used in my camping experiences. They are individual toilet/shower combos and can only be accessed via a code. However, the water pressure in the shower is so weak it would barely wet a frog’s back(slight exaggeration, but it was still VERY disappointingly weak). The bath house is handicap accessible and has a ramp. 

Another problem I experienced was the noise. If it wasn’t the barking dog, it was what sounded like a garbage truck at 4:00 in the morning. There was also road noise from Market Street. 

The reason most people come here is because of its proximity to Wrightsville Beach and other attractions, but there are things to do at the campground. There is a swimming pool, a playground, a beach volleyball court, and more. It also provides information about tours, and I believe it also has kayak rentals. 

Overall, I would recommend this campground, but I believe it is better suited for RV campers rather than tent campers.