Best Glamping in Rhode Island

Rhode Island might be the smallest of the 50 states, but that just makes it easier to travel between its extensive number of adventure hotspots and through a whopping 400 miles of sandy coastline. Camping in Rhode Island is more than worth it for the diversity of outdoor recreation opportunities alone. Within the 1,212 square miles they call home, Rhode Islanders can enjoy hiking the green, lake-speckled hillsides of the New England Uplands, explore the dozens of rivers in the north that feed into Narragansett Bay, venture south toward the Seaboard Lowlands to breathe in salty sea air, and head offshore to navigate 38 islands by boat, kayak, and more.

The Ocean State earned its nickname for a reason, and any fan of marine fun will especially love camping in Rhode Island. Make your way to historic Newport for a quintessential New England experience. Also known as the City by the Sea, the nine-village coastal community’s manicured mansions, cobbled streets, and pristine beaches make it the picture of Gilded Age resort life.

Visitors flock to Newport beaches like Easton’s for family picnics, kite flying, and boogie boarding. Head to Gooseberry for a calm and luxurious day of sunbathing. Visit the dog-friendly Fogland to enjoy a day of stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, and windsurfing. Don’t forget to stop by Sachuest (also called Second Beach) to find the longest beach in Rhode Island, surfable waves, and a shoreline RV campground with hot showers. Retreat to one of two state parks for quiet camping, or find community at nearby Melville Ponds Campground.

The belle of Newport’s ball sits at the north end of town on Narragansett Bay. Fort Adams State Park not only draws music-festival-lovers for the annual summer Jazz Fest and Folk Festival, but also attracts people year-round for swimming, kayaking, boating, and more.

The Department of Parks & Recreation runs five campgrounds throughout the state that make it easy to find camping in Rhode Island. Pitch your tent at Burlingame State Park, the state’s first official campground, which offers space for 700 rustic campsites and access to freshwater swimming, fishing, canoeing, and hiking trails beneath towering trees—as well as a camp store in case you left anything at home.

No matter how you want to go camping in Rhode Island, The Dyrt can help you find the best place for it.

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Best Glamping Sites in Rhode Island (4)

    1. Burlingame State Park Campground

    50 Reviews
    Charlestown, RI
    Website
    +1 (401) 322-8910

    $18 / night

    "I've never camped in Rhode Island, so I was curious to see what a state park campground had to offer."

    "Pros:

    Lovely location - it's in the middle of the woods, has a pond, has pond swimming. It's just minutes to the ocean by car. Hiking and biking for miles.

    Camp store - well stocked."

    2. George Washington State Campground

    25 Reviews
    Pascoag, RI
    +1 (401) 568-6700

    $18 - $75 / night

    "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."

    "Tons of hiking trails. Picnic tables and fire pit at each site. The folks a few miles down the road by the rotary sell giant piles of wood for $10. They do not have an on site store or sell firewood."

    3. Bowdish Lake Camping Area

    4 Reviews
    Pascoag, RI
    Website
    +1 (401) 568-8890

    $40 - $200 / night

    "We’re at site Red 24 and it’s very secluded and flat. This site is right next to the state park that’s nearby, so it’s fairly quiet."

    "The site was very secluded and very large which was awesome! Kids had a blast! I didn’t use the restrooms or showers there so I’m not sure about that."

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Recent Glamping Photos in Rhode Island

7 Photos of 4 Rhode Island Campgrounds


Glamping Reviews in Rhode Island

81 Reviews of 4 Rhode Island Campgrounds


  • Amy B.
    Jun. 28, 2021

    Glamp Frogmore

    Glamping at it's Best

    Glamp Frogmore offers the privacy of camping while offering extras to make a truly unique getaway. The large tent has a couch, an extremely comfortable bed (bamboo linens, pillows, and comforter included), battery powered lanterns, a battery powered fan, and games. The private campsite has a site for an additional pop-up tent (which they will include for a fee), a fire pit (firewood included), a Coleman stove, all cooking utensils, pots and pans, and an outhouse. Take one of the trails and visit the small pond with Adirondack chairs and a horseshoe pit. The site also abuts miles of Audubon trails. Optional extras include dinner in a cast iron pot delivered in the evening, coffee and breakfast delivered in the morning, a pop-up tent, a dog bed, a cooler stocked with ice and a sampling of local beer, or seltzers, or lemonade, s'mores fixings, and homemade chocolate chip cookies upon arrival.

  • Jean C.The Dyrt PRO User
    Mar. 1, 2020

    Burlingame State Park Campground

    Huge campground, not many level sites.

    I've never camped in Rhode Island, so I was curious to see what a state park campground had to offer. Rates are reasonable for state residents, but quite high if you are out-of-state, given the amenities. There are no hookups, but dump stations are available. Bathrooms have flush toilets and coin-operated showers. There's a small beach at the pond, a boat ramp, and proximity to wildlife refuges and the ocean. It's a HUGE campground, with 700 sites and 20 cabins. Canoes are available to rent.

    There's a nice playground, a camp store, and a naturalists cabin. Trails are available for hiking and biking. The beach is sandy and there's a small parking lot there, but I suspect most people walk to it. No alcohol allowed. 

    I didn't see more than a handful of level sites, with varying degrees of slope, but many are quite large. If you have an RV, plan to level; if you have a tent, be sure to bring good mattresses to protect you from the roots and rocks and orient your head to the uphill side. Most of the sites have some degree of visual separation from their neighbors, but there are places where it's hard to tell where one site ends and the next one starts. Site have fire rings and picnic tables, but if you plan to cook over the fire, bring your own grate or plan to use sticks and/or aluminum foil. 

    If you don't have a tent, consider reserving one of their rustic cabins. These offer two sets of bunks (no mattresses) and a small porch with a picnic table and fire ring outside. Some are located along the pond.

    3-4 bar cell phone coverage. No road traffic. East Beach is nearby, but parking fills early.

  • allison W.
    Aug. 4, 2022

    George Washington State Campground

    Updated information! Good site.

    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.

  • Laurie M.
    Jul. 19, 2023

    Burlingame State Park Campground

    Once a gem, but steadily declining.

    Burlingame state park campground is 3100 acres and many of the 739 reservable campsites are well spaced out and you could obtain great privacy if you know which site to pick. The condition of the park has steadily declined since about 2016. Plans are in the work to update all bathroom facilities, but it keeps getting pushed back year after year. Burlingame State Park campground is the only state park managed by an outside corporation who assumes the day to day responsibilities for campsites, dumpsters and bathrooms. Ongoing issues, especially on holiday weekends have been noted by hundreds of campers.  The new pre-registration offered through Reserve America has been a great improvement. It allows to avoid the long lines at the check-in station and drive straight up to the gate. Lack of staff on the management level, and Rhode Island state park department level definitely shows. Rhode Island DEM is allowing this wonderful campground to deteriorate. Flooding issues during even minor rainfall is apparent in a large portion of sites, so beware which campsite you reserve. Camper created group called Bound4burlingame has filmed every campsite and put them on YouTube and has created a private group on FB where the camping community of Burlingame contributes daily to an extremely popular public forum. Best place to gain info and insight. Get campsite recommendations straight from the people who actually camp there.

  • Ryan A.
    May. 15, 2024

    George Washington State Campground

    An OK Campground but not Great

    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.

  • Jessica A.
    Feb. 7, 2023

    Burlingame State Park Campground

    A Camper's Campground

    Burlingame is a HUGE state park campground with over 700 sites. The location is fantastic, but with this many sites (so, with this many people), there are bound to be pros and cons.

    Pros:

    Lovely location - it's in the middle of the woods, has a pond, has pond swimming. It's just minutes to the ocean by car. Hiking and biking for miles.

    Camp store - well stocked.

    Price - dirt cheap if you are a RI resident, but pricey if you aren't.

    Spacious - even with all those sites, there's plenty of room between sites and tons of open space for kids to run around, fly a kite, play tag, hide and seek.

    Real camping atmosphere - fire rings at each site, wooded sites (and open grass sites if you like that better). Wildlife (listening to the several types of owls is a favorite pastime at night). While RVs are welcome (and we have tent and trailer camped here), this is NOT an RV resort. No hook-ups.

    Cons:

    No hook-ups, lol. This is a con in the heat of the summer if you want/need AC. 

    Bath houses - are usually pretty filthy, and that's because there are too many people per bath house, and people are gross.

    Noise / Parties / Drunks - again, too many sites means too many people and nowhere near enough park staff. On the weekends people can get out of hand with the partying and it's not uncommon to have to listen to noise late into the night. Do not come on a holiday weekend, it's packed.

    Overall, if you are a camper's camper, this is a great place. Close to CT so a day trip to Mystic is easy, close to several gorgeous beaches, close to great restaurants, ice cream, and shopping. Swim in the pond. Fish in the pond (catch and release). Bike. Hike. Hammock. Avoid holiday weekends and the heat of August if you can. Be prepared for dirty restrooms and come armed with hand soap (they no longer provide any), paper towels, and Clorox wipes.

  • Joanna M.
    Jul. 29, 2020

    George Washington State Campground

    One of my favorites

    They allow 2 cars per site. Kept very clean. Swimming area. Great for kayaking and fishing. We camp in our tent. They do allow RVs. Tons of hiking trails. Picnic tables and fire pit at each site. The folks a few miles down the road by the rotary sell giant piles of wood for $10. They do not have an on site store or sell firewood. So bring your own things. Simple but very nice.

  • K
    Jul. 29, 2024

    Burlingame State Park Campground

    Pros outweigh the cons

    Stayed for a week mid-July; during the week had almost an entire loop to ourselves which was wonderful - it felt like having the entire park to ourselves. Things picked up on Friday/Saturday but overall we lucked out with no neighbors who were disrespectful of the quiet hours (10p - 7a). Bathrooms, dumpsters, and portapotties are plentiful, but not always well maintained. Staff are seen frequently throughout the park and are very willing to be helpful when asked - our site had a few Yellowjacket nests and they took care of them for us almost immediately when asked. It’s worth investigating the various sites ahead of time - there are a number of sections much more likely to be busy than others, and lots of low-lying sites that show signs of easily being washed out in anything more than a moderate rain. With multiple great east coast beaches minutes away (as well as conveniences like fuel/stores) we will definitely be back.

  • Peter C.
    Oct. 10, 2018

    Burlingame State Park Campground

    Extremely large and busy campground with nice sites

    Large State park near the ocean that was very busy. We stayed on a Sunday night and on a Monday night. On Sunday the whole campground was packed. Monday night was much more calm.

    Site was good. Fire pit was made of rocks and was larger than most campgrounds.

    Bathrooms were fine... could have been a little cleaner but I think that has to do with the sheer volume of people camping at the time.

    The lake front beach is nice. It's small and doesn't get that deep but it was a nice change from the cold ocean water.

    If you want to hit the beautiful and nearby East Beach... go early and bring cash. There are limited parking spots and they fill very quickly. We arrived at 9:45am and the lot was full.