Best Cabin Camping near Charlestown, RI

Update number 2: I told you I come here a lot, we did bingo and it was a blast. It was a beautiful day on the beach pond. They had great prizes for cheap cost. I spent 2 dollars for 10 long rounds of bingo with 4 cards. Who can beat that!!?? My son won a game prize worth 5 times that. I had to give the rest of the money I had as a tip because I was so happy with how everything worked out. They are always updating, someone broke the basketball 🏀 hoop on one side and it’s fixed 2 weeks later.

Update: They have changed days for me many times when I had issues with the camper. Never once asked questions or even treated me differently. No extra cost. You might have have to change spots but I don’t care. They are so easy to work with. Thanks guys

Great Value and Nice Family owned business. The lake is perfect, the river needs work. But this an awesome small campground. The kids who work here are so friendly and the playground is nice. They did a show on the beach one night that was fun too. We did bingo too. Have been going for 2 years and started with tenting up to a trailer. I love coming here and wish I could spend more time. Really close to Hammonassett beach and one of my favorite restaurants the “log cabin”. Make sure you bring Tupperware with you to this place.

Also don’t let other family’s ruin your trip. We had 3 family’s meet up on 2 sites near us and the father and mother just kept yelling at the kids. Made me feel bad for the children but doesn’t make me right a bad review about the campground.

We stayed at Mystic KOA in North Stonington, Connecticut, to be tourists in Mystic. Spoiler alert… we had a great stay! 

This campground is just 15-minutes from Mystic and about an hour’s drive to Newport, Rhode Island. It’s just a few minutes from I-95 and so close to Mystic Aquarium, downtown Mystic, Mystic Seaport, and all the local spots. 

It’s a well-maintained campground with 2 pools(though the larger one was closed for maintenance during our stay), lots of play areas and daily activities for little ones, and a cool“pub truck” for adult drinks. Our site(#408) was about 85’ long with plenty of room for our 45’ motorhome and toad(and then some!). It was level and gravel with a nice fire ring and picnic table. The hookups worked fine with 50-amp electric and decent water pressure. Cable TV had nearly 50-channels, but the wi-fi didn’t quite reach our part of the park. 

Due to a family issue, we needed to leave about a day-and-a-half early. We called the office as a courtesy to let them know as we were pulling out and received a partial credit for a night’s stay on our credit card. Didn’t even ask, they just did it. Thanks Mystic KOA! 

We’ll definitely be back. This is a great place to stay when visiting the coastal Connecticut/Rhode Island area.

Stay at least once or twice a year. Always a good time. RV and Tent sites with one cabin as well as canoe sites off the beatin' path. Public beach with another beach for campers. Store on site for firewood and ice.

Okay, I will try to update this information on the Dyrt site, but I’ve had mixed success getting that to stick. So if you are confused about things like location, let’s knock that out first:

This campground is located near 2185 Putnam Pike, Chepachet, RI 02814. It’s by Bowdish Lake, near the Connecticut border. This is a cool area of Rhode Island that I enjoyed getting the chance to explore a little bit. Great Italian restaurant if you don’t feel like cooking (Mr Z’s By The Lake) and some historical sites like a very nice covered bridge to the northwest.

Full water and electrical hookup and a very unique and fun play area for kids. The lake access is excellent, obviously. Pay showers of varying degrees of cleanliness. Open to tents, but clearly preferred by the RV crowd.

Camped out here for two nights after reading about this place in the"Best Tent Camping: New England" book. It's better than the other campgrounds in Rhode Island that I looked at (Burlingame, Fort Getty) but isn't my favorite campground. If you're not a Rhode Island resident the fee for most sites is$36/night. Is it worth it? Eh, probably not unless you're really jonesing to camp for a weekend in the Ocean State. 

It does have some great things going for it, namely the hiking trails and views of the lake. There are some tent-only sites which are numbered T1-T5. I stayed in T5 and it was the best of the bunch because it had the most privacy and space, including a grassy area. The other tent-only sites were fairly small and if you go to any mixed use sites you run the risk of having an RV next to you. The A1-A7 sites are remote and hike in, but you're going to have to hike either 0.4 or 0.6 miles through some uneven terrain. The next best group of sites would be 19-24 which are on their own small loop near the lake. 

The things I didn't like were the streetlights over the port-a-potties that shine all night. There is a manned gate where you check in and you have to get let into the campground during the day, but at night the gates are wide open and it seems like some people know this because there are a few oddballs around in the early morning. There is swimming at the lake but it looked way too dirty. 

Overall the place was managed very well, the sites were cleanish and the grounds were taken care of. The employees drove by at least once an hour, I thought they were collecting trash from dumpsters but the only place with a dumpster is near the entrance. I couldn't figure out why they kept driving by so often. I had a good time, it was relaxing and scratched the camping itch.

On our way to through Connecticut, we needed to stop for a night. This was on Long Island Sound and had walk-up sites available. $33 per night gets you a site with bath house/restroom close by but no hook-ups. There is a public "beach" nearby which is way different than our Florida ones. We had to walk under the railroad tracks through a tunnel to get there. Interesting but still a nice feature and probably the main attraction here. There was also a concession stand, nature center, picnic area and boat ramp here at this park. Since we were getting a walk-up site they let us drive around and pick our site from a list of available ones. Most of them were on the small side accommodating tents or pop-ups. We found one in the Osprey loop which was very shaded. The bath rooms were clean and up to date. Good for a night on our way to Rhode Island.

We planned a brief stop in the Boston area with the intent of seeing the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and Normandy Farms appealed to us for various reasons. One reason was the fact that they have dog walkers that will come to your site and take care of your precious pooch while you are away. Not knowing how long we would be away from the campground that service was a great option. As it turned out, we did not need to use this service but for some it would be a great perk if you were going to be gone all day. And with Boston traffic, we can see how that could happen. By the way, the library is well-worth it.

When you enter Normandy Farms it is more like checking into a hotel than campground complete with a concierge and express check-in. The park is gated and a code is needed to enter and leave giving you a sense of security but I’m not sure it is necessary. Driving in you quickly realize how huge this park is with some 400 RV sites, tent sites, yurts, lean-to’s, safari tents, and cabins. 

There are plenty of sites to choose from the “premium” full hook-up (50 amp) to basic with just water and electric and many others in between. Both back-in and pull thrus are available as are sites with shade and full sun. Premium sites have paved patios while other sites are gravel. Roads are paved and plenty wide enough for big RV’s to navigate. They offer cable television that yielded nearly 100 channels. Wifi worked well at our site and other places throughout the park. All sites come with a fire pit and picnic table. 

We chose a paved full hook-up pull thru with paved patio (Site E1). Our site was easy to navigate in and out of and was definitely big rig-friendly with ample space for our motorhome and tow car. All utilities were well-placed and functioned properly. The site was level. At the time we were there in October the campground was not very busy but we imagine that things get a little crazy when the park is full. 

There is a really long list of amenities for this campground….four pools (include an indoor heated one), fitness room (with elliptical, treadmills, bikes, machine and free weights), creative arts center, camp store, 20,000 square-foot activities building (with adult only lounge, pool table, arcade, games, wide-screen televisions, sauna, Jacuzzi), restaurant, huge off-leash dog park (you can reserve individual day kennels), BMX bike park, horse shoe pits, baseball diamond, volleyball, fishing pond, shuffleboard, disk golf, and playground, and probably a few more things I missed. During the busy summer months there is a long list of activities ranging from yoga to kids games.

Normandy Farms is approximately 35 miles from Boston. If you don’t want to drive to the city, you can park at the nearby train or subway station and ride into the city. You are just five miles from Gillette Stadium (home of the New England Patriots) and Patriot Place (a hub for shopping and dining). About a mile from the campground is Foxboro State Park where you will find 20+ miles of hiking trails. Also within a five mile radius are plenty of restaurants, shopping, hardware store, grocery store, and more. 

Some of the really good features are the huge dog park which has a dog washing station, water fountains for dogs and humans, agility-type obstacles for them to play on, dog kennels, and a bin with balls and Frisbees. I also liked (and used daily) the fitness center which had functioning equipment and a large television to help pass the time while working out – and was never crowded. The large community building has and adult-only lounge which serves as a nice place for people to get together and watch television or hang out without kids. With everything this campground has to offer you can see why it is a destination park for some people as their kids would be busy all day. 

The downside really is the price and how many sites there are. If you are looking for a quiet, peaceful getaway this is not it.

Didn’t quite feel like camping, but it was still a lovely weekend away at the Mystic KOA. We decided to head down to check out the aquarium and stayed at a deluxe cabin. It was cute and clean and furnished with linens, cookware, utensils, kitchen essentials, keurig coffee maker/pods, and full-sized fridge. Only complaint was an odd, musty smell we couldn’t quite figure out.

The grounds are large with vast amounts of space. Be forewarned that it’s right off of 95, and the sound definitely carries. Trees are sparse in areas, but the sunsets were a nice trade off. Amenities seemed nice from what we could tell - cool outdoor movie screen, pools and playground, though we certainly didn’t get to enjoy these things in February.

This campground has a minimalist approach that most campers will love. It is just off the highway, and most sites don’t use electricity or water. They are great for all types of camping equipment (tents, campers, etc.), and they are spacious enough to fit two vehicles per lot. There are sites that have the amenities that people may want... canoe access, a beach, and certain sites do have water/power hookups. The bathrooms are minimalistic and don’t use water or chemicals to be processed, but they do have running sinks and showers! The beach is within walking distance of almost all sites, and there is a larger beach that is accessible at the beginning of the park. There are even cabins to stay in, and they are beautiful! The staff and rangers are amazing and will address any concerns you may have.

Hopeville Pond is a moderate sized state park campground located along a river and offering fishing, boating, and swimming opportunities. Some of the site have 50A/20A electric hookups and there’s a dump station available.There’s a small boat ramp without trailer parking Neither pets nor alcohol are permitted. It opens for the season earlier than many of the others, in early April. 

Loop F is not along the water, but there the large beach has a parking area, also used by day visitors. The sites in this loop offer more privacy; there’s also a cabin at the beginning of this loop. There’s also a section called Canoe Sites, 4 of which are available for booking. As their name would indicate, they’re right on the waterfront and are tent only sites, but parking is available and they’re reservable. Latrines are available in this section. Sites in loops A-E tend to back up to one another and are wooded, but not a lot of low brush providing privacy. A few of the E loop sites are right on the water; some of the C loop sites are across from a grassy beachy area.