Ocracoke Campground

The basics: the campground is clean, bathrooms are clean, the sites and roads look newly paved with asphalt, the grass is pretty and the campground is on the other side of the dune from the beach. Also, the campsites are level.

What does the campground have? Cooking grills at each site, picnic tables at each site, recycling and garbage, outdoor showers with cold water (outdoor exposed like a beach shower and outdoor sheltered private shower with a locking door). The campground doesn’t have water, sewer or power hookups in the campground. There’s a hand fill water station somewhere I saw people filing their jugs up at. You can, however, get potable water and use the dump station for your rig outside the campground across the street just past the nature trail parking. Pull up satellite view on a map and you’ll find it.

Prepare for your trip. If it’s cold, consider how you’ll manage hygiene for few days if you can’t stand the water temperature. If it’s hot, consider how you’ll keep cool and have shade. I’ve read that mosquitos are bad in the warm months. The sites are exposed with no tree coverage. I didn’t mind this part at all. I usually want more privacy at campgrounds with large RVs because of their blinding outdoor white lights and imposing nature that make me feel less like I’m camping. But this campground has a ton of tent campers and people with small camping rigs. Like people are outside doing normal camping things like cooking, eating, sitting in their chairs talking. And it’s been cold!

The sites are smaller than you might expect. Our 22 feet camper van fit just fine. I mention this as I saw another reviewer complain that the sites aren’t long enough to accommodate a 35 feet Class A. This campground simply isn’t for you. Your car and rig must fit in your spot on the asphalt. If your car can’t fit, you have to park it at the campground parking. Tents are all setup in the grass. DO NOT PARK IN THE GRASS. The grass is so pretty. Why would you do that??? And it’s not allowed anyway. Don’t be “that” camper.

How did we keep clean during our three days in the cold? We showered in the van. This did require us to drive to the fill/dump station everyday. Which is just fine since we aren’t hooked up to anything or on leveling blocks.

Late check-in? We arrived at around 7:30pm. You don’t call for a key code or anything. Each reservation is posted at each campsite. Just park in your spot and check-in the next day at normal check-in time. There’s no central office. The camp host will greet you as you drive into the campground.

I give this campground an easy 5 stars.

Internet. T-Mobile doesn’t have service on Ocracoke. At the campground for Verizon on my iPhone 12, my connection was pretty okay: 7 mbps down, 0.7 mbps up and 205 ms ping. I connected my cell booster for a stronger connection.