Best Tent Camping near Abbeville, SC

Victoria Bryant State Park is probably one of my most frequented camping spots in the last few years. All of the tent sites are sheltered platforms, with electricity, potable water and an overhead light. Rain or shine, you can have a good time (and stay dry) at Victoria Bryant. There are only about 8 platforms, and one is ADA only, so they book up quick. They are all spaced pretty far apart, privacy isn't too hard to maintain (except maybe site 7&8). 1-4 are down a hill, 4 being the furthest away at about 40 feet, down the steepest incline. There are facilities right across the parking lot, that have always been clean and well maintained, and heated in the colder months. Camp hosts and office have firewood. There are several miles of trails that are lower difficulty, save for some hilly spots. In October, the park does a pretty cool little haunted trail. There's obvious reasons we enjoy VBSP, staying dry in the rain, nice, dense forested areas, and awesome campgrounds make it an easy choice.

This campground is huge. A lot of the campsites are close together, but we snagged a site along the west side of the campground, where there’s a little more privacy and seclusion.

Being right on the water was amazing, the water was so warm and being able to swim from your site is pretty cool. This site had some stairs leading from the parking spot to the site, then slopes down to the lake.

Dogs need to always be on leash and there’s no alcohol allowed, which is a bit of a bummer.

Spigots and bathhouse was convenient, except no soap by the sinks.

We camped in one of the tent only walk-in sites located on a peninsula jutting into the lake. We had a ton of stuff, not realizing it was an uphill and pretty long trek, but it was totally worth it. We had the whole place to ourselves, no neighbors, in late March. The sun setting over the water was beautiful, it was quiet even as a few motor boats came in for the night. There is a tiny beach on the tip of the peninsula, picnic tables, and an outhouse. It was my favorite spot of everywhere we stayed on an Alabama-Georgia-South Carolina roadtrip including AirBnB and bed and breakfast.

This is a review of the four walk-in tent sites at Mistletoe State Park.  I personally stayed in #4 and had a look at the others. 

The best site is definitely #2 -- feet from the water, spacious, suitable for more than one tent or hammock (better for tents as it is mostly open, but there are places for hammocks along the edges). 

Site #4 is probably second best, better for a hammocks probably (which is what I had) as no great level ground. It is not right on the water but has it's own private path to the water(couple hundred feet to the water).

Sites #1 & #3 do not really have access to the water without climbing down something steeply dangerous or through thick trees.  (The water access from the other sites is right in the middle of those other sites so you couldn't really share that unless they are empty or occupied by friends.)  Still #1 is a pretty good site.  #3 is the least interesting and smallest, but still secluded -- I wouldn't call any of these bad.

None of these sites have groomed tent pads -- just gravelly ground.   They do each have a table, fire pit, and lantern pole.  #1 & #2 are best for tents.  There is good separation between all sites.  Sites #2 & #3 are within shouting distance of each other and you'd be able to see tents, etc at one from the other.  There is an outhouse between sites #1 & #2, and another another between sites #3 & #4.  It is a 5 minute (or so) walk to the real bathroom (which also has showers) back in the main campground.

Other than the lake itself at sites #2 & #4, I didn't see any dedicated water source for these sites.  (The lake is silty -- pre-filtering recommended if you are using a filter.)  So you'd have to bring in water or get it from the bathroom area or maybe from an empty RV site which all have spigots.  You'll have to pack out your trash, and there are definitely critters around that will get in your trash so it should be secured somehow.  (Hanging it from the lantern pole isn't good enough -- you'll wake up to find a hole in the bag and it strewn around, ask me how I know.)

Everything in the park was very clean and well-maintained, although when I was here in September (during the week), the whole place was basically deserted anyway.

The water access at sites #2 & #4 is nice but it is not a real beach -- it is all large rocks for the most part and they were very slippery even when dry so be careful.  The water level was also extremely low when I was there so some of those rocks are probably covered by water earlier in the year.

Although a nice campground several things turned me off about this campground.  Mainly the lack of enforcement of dogs running loose, owners not cleaning up after their dogs and enforcement of number of people on a site.  The roads into the campground loops are narrow in spots and not well marked at all.  Backing our 30' motorhome into our site required asking the neighbor to move his truck off our site and maneuvering around other vehicles parked in the road.  The site was fairly level and offered a picnic table and fire ring with quite a bit of grassy area. Unfortunately, the neighbor on that side decided it belonged to them and set up games in it, then near dark other people joined them and set up a third tent in that area. Sites are 30/20 electric and water, but there is a dump station.  This has the potential to be a very nice campground, and I'll go back sometime. Perhaps we just had one bad experience so we'll try it again sometime.

Tugaloo state Park: This Georgia State Park offers a multitude of activities from hiking, paddling, boating, fishing, swimming, putt putt, tennis/pickleball court and biking the park roads to name a few things. This park appears to be a local favorite and weekends were more active than weekdays during our 10 night stay at the camp ground. We really felt at home here due to the friendliness of the park staff and camphost volunteers. We loved the gravel sites, good Verizon cell reception 📶 and best of all the ease of access to our kayaks🛶. (Do check with the park office because some things like putt putt may be seasonal) 🔔 Another thing- should you want to rent a patio boat ⛴ - the park office has some numbers for you.

We stayed here in late October for 10 days and didn’t want to leave. The campground is laid out well with gravel sites, concrete picnic tables, fire pit, water, 30 amp and grey water drains throughout the campsite areas. 🚍Larger rigs—> Bring a dogleg/bone for double 30 amp.👍. Also- be aware some of the pull thru sites are almost buddy sites - your truck hauling your trailer will fit but your trailer won’t because another camper is sharing the pull thru lane with you. Rv’s with Tows won’t have this same issue. 🏡Cabins- I shared on the video that cabins 1-10 have less stairs if that is important to you. Yurts- some of these are on a hill- this means a walk up to restrooms ...but don’t worry, there is a nicely paved sidewalk. 🏕 no electricity at the walk in sites- you do have water, fire pit and picnic table. There is a group campground too.

We did 2 videos of this park- so there is lots of info about all the amenities at this park. ***This is a park we have put on our favorite list to camp host here in the future.