Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Wilmington, NC

This campground is situated right along the Black River in Bladen County NC. Approximately 1 hour from Wilmington, Fayetteville, and Jacksonville. About 2 hours from Raleigh area, 3-4 hours for Greensboro/Charlotte. You cannot understand how peaceful, quiet and tucked away this campground is until you arrive. Be ready to be greeted by large oaks and pines that provide massive shade in the warmer months and beautiful, colorful foliage in the fall. The river itself is and should be the center of your attention while you enjoy your stay. The tea-colored water provides excellent fishing, exploration by kayak or paddleboard, or it can be your next favorite swimming hole. Miles down river you can find the oldest cypress trees east of the Rocky Mountains. The campground is primitive but still provides plenty of basic amenities includes super clean portable bathrooms, non-potable water pumps, picnic tables fishing pier, fire pits, and charcoal grills. There is a country store a 1/2 mile up the road that can provide food, fishing gear, etc and the nearest time town is about 10 minutes away which has a dollar store. Cell service is spotty however you will not be spending time on your phone I can assure that. The proprietor is the sweetest, most welcoming woman whose family built the property when she was a child. You can immediately sense that she loves having folks come to enjoy the experiences that her and her family had growing up. 10/10 would recommend coming to enjoy a stay at Black River Camping Ventures, you will not be disappointed. Booking is through Hipcamp.

Very nice Roomy Sites. Convient to Wilmington Downtown, Wilmington Beaches, Highway & Airport. Clean well maintained. Friendly Accomodating Staff. Love the Palm Trees throughout. Pet and Kid Friendly.... Please Spay or Neuter Both lol. Big Negative for us was the POOR WIFI. STAFF TRIED TO GET IT RUNNING IN OUR AREA BUT ALTHOUGH CONNECTED, VIRTUALLY USELESS TO VIDEO. RELIED STRICTLY ON OUR CELL PHONE CONNECTION.

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 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.

Spent the week before Memorial Day and Memorial Weekend at Carrollwoods. This is really a nice campground. The sites are well-spaced with a picnic table, fire pit and grill at each site. There’s a pool that was unfortunately out of service during most of our visit there during the 90-degree heat. It was finally open when the weather cooled. There were not many other campers until the weekend and then there were only a few sites left. The grounds are very spacious. Lots of room to walk with a few short paths that go into the woods. It has one of the best dog parks that I have ever been to. It is very spacious, fully shaded by lots of trees and even has a few man-made hills for the pooches to climb. The only downside was it appeared as if the waste bin hadn’t been empty in several days. I visited the winery and the two women who own it are helpful and lively. If you visit, you must get one of their wine floats. My only negatives were they advertise free WiFi and cable. I wish businesses would not promote poor quality products as “free”. I probably could access their WiFi no more than for 3 times in all the time I was there and would last no more than 10 minutes. The cable had several odd channels and there was so much buffering, it was often unwatchable. My only other issue is that they need to do some cleanup in their gardens. There were several planters with dead plants in them from the year before. Either refill them or get rid of them. The beds are well designed, but needed a good weeding. Even with its flaws, this is definitely a campground I would return to.

We checked out this park on a visit to Wilmington. Sites are wooded/shaded and seemed quite secluded. Lots of hiking trails available as well as coastline. Fun activities too- paddle boarding, boating, etc. The bathroom appeared to be well kept too. If we return to the Wilmington area we will definitely spend a few days here!

Less than a few miles to downtown Wilmington.

Really clean place. Quiet neighbors, but gentle roar of highway in the background.

Good location in proximity to Jacksonville and Wilmington

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.

From checking in until packing up to leave, my three night stay was very pleasant and restful. I disperse camp usually, but having the advantage of a very well maintained bathhouse was super nice. I have friends in Wilmington and frequent this area. This Campground will be my go to location when I'm in town!

My family and I stayed here for a week in November. My wife worked from the road while I taught school. The WiFi was strong and the employees were helpful and informative. The laundry was acceptable but expensive. I liked that we were able to have family dinners and experiences while still staying socially distant. Our site was a pull thru which was great.

We would definitely stay there again if visiting Wilmington.

This is a great place where you can camp directly on the beach, but because it is located in Wilmington, NC it can get VERY busy. During busy times you have to apply for or get a permit. 

They charge just to drive on the beach to cut down on traffic. It's very hot and busy during the summer but if you go in spring, fall or warm winter days it's absolutely amazing.

A campground that you quickly feel at home.  Level spacious sites, most with a good shade tree, allows for a quick set up.  To find the campground you have to pay attention and this is both a blessing and a challenge.  The campground is convenient to downtown Wilmington and a short drive to Wrightsville Beach.  Plenty of shopping and other entertainment nearby if the weather doesn't cooperate. The park is clean the showers are hot and the pressure is good.

We camped here when we went to Wilmington for a 5k. We stayed here for just one night and had a good time. The campsites are close. The camp store had everything you needed in case you forgot something. It is in a high trafficked area so don't look for peace and quiet. The playground was awesome and included a cool wooden pirate ship. The grandkids loved it! It was a nice place to stay for the night. The staff were friendly and helpful

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.

This campground is a little farther than I think most people would like to be from a the beach, but it’s so professional and friendly! It’s clean, it’s close to downtown Wilmington and there is SO much to do there. There is an RV wash right next door! There are a lot of gray farmer’s stands and fresh seafood stands nearby too! We choose this for reliability and friendliness over the beach campgrounds because the service here is amazing. It’s not the most shaded outdoorsy space, it does have a ton of family activities, but the people are what makes the difference for us here.

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!!!

This campground was okay. The main draw is the beach, which is just across the road from the facility (about a five minute walk from the campground). The sites are back-in only and arranged on either side of a road that ends in a cul-de-sac that is too small to turn around in. The sites themselves are extremely long, but for some reason the hook-ups are all near the front of the site, so you can't take advantage of the length. They were in the process of repaving the sites during the stay, so there were some that were pristine and others with bits of rebar sticking out of them. They are pretty close together as well, with no shade. The check-in office is further down towards the river with no real place to turn-around, so I recommend calling ahead to know your site, unhook, then drive to check-in. There isn't a playground, but there is an aquarium down at Fort Fisher State Rec Area. Kure Beach and Carolina Beach had a few nice resturants. Oh, stop by for donuts at Britts (expect the line to be 30 minutes long, but if you go to the counter you may find a seat to eat-in). But yes, they are really good. The campground is about a 30 minute drive to Wilmington. I would visit here again because the price is decent, but I wouldn't go out of the way.

Loved this campground. Easy to drive to and navigate and each campsite has their own path to the restrooms. There was plenty of space between other campsites, but there were no rowdy groups so wouldn’t have mattered. The sugar loaf trail is our favorite! Dog friendly too!!

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.

Sailed into this marina/campground in late September, had the place pretty much to myself. Loved all the modern conveniences having been recently renovated from a hurricane. Trails through the maritime forest were dog-friendly and easily hiked. Rangers were very knowledgeable and helpful in finding exotic plant life!

Away from the world, but close enough to have a pizza delivered...haha! Loved this place!!