Best Equestrian Camping near Cape Charles, VA

Very nice, as all Virginia State Parks are, but crowded, noisy, and lit up like an amusement park. Not a place to “get back to nature” but a place to camp, meet new people, and a place to stay for the great activities the park has to offer and visit Cape Charles.

Virginia has some wonderful state parks and this is one of my favorites. Its got a nice beach, boat launch and a couple miles of hiking trails. The lovely town of Cape Charles  with an even better public beach and restaurants is close by. I use the park as a base for exploring the barrier island on the ocean side by kayak.

Open meadow camping; some cabins and bunk houses available. Nice swimming beach and fishing pier. Many people bring their boats to put-in at the boat launch. Several easy hiking trails around. Recommend heading to Cape Charles (20 minutes north) for ice cream!

My husband and I were very pleased with this park. We got one of the campsites at the back (F1) much more secluded area then the sites at the front. The sites at the back were not right on top of each other which was perfect. Easy beach access and staff was friendly. Cape Charles is just a short drive North and is a cute little town to check out while you're there!

First time here and will definitely be going back. Many trails, beautiful beach and well maintained campground. Trails were marked well and taken care of. Beach was clean and water was gorgeous. (F Section) Campsites are decent sized. Bathhouse was aged but clean and kept stocked. Camp staff and patrons were very friendly. Also there is Cape Charles, which is about 10-15 mins away. Awesome little town with many things to see, do and try. From good food to distillery to local art gallery. Highly recommend this place.

Have you ever wanted to go to a beach where the water is calm, clear, warm and shallow? With hardly any people there? Kiptopeake is the beach for you! Located on the bay there aren't huge waves to worry about or big beach crowds. Kiptopeake is my favorite Virginia State Park campground, hands down. 

Camping:

If you are a primitive tent camper like us, you'll want to get the site-specific sites. They are more secluded, bigger, and walkable to the beach. The sites in the site-specific loop are conveniently located to the bathrooms which have nice hot showers! Each site has a pretty standard picnic table and fire ring with enough room for two tents. Our site didn't have tons of room for two cars though, we had to squeeze in to our space awkwardly. We've been here in pretty much all months of the spring, summer and fall and have never had a problem with mosquitoes or biting flies.

To Do:

The beach at Kiptopeake is so beautiful! Most of the time we post up and spend all day there. I highly recommend watching the sunset from the beach. Check out the concrete fleet on a kayak. There's some great hiking, butterfly garden, bird watching. Virginia State Parks has some great programs for the kids as well! The town of Cape Charles nearby is very charming and worth a visit for cute shops and restaurants. 

Highly recommend this park! It is a really special place you'll want to keep coming back to!

I have spent my childhood here and I am excited to share it with my kids. We hike here when visiting grandparents. Chesapeake Public Park’s does a great job with events and education at NWRP! Equestrian trails available, which is always a plus.

We come every year because it's on our top list of yearly visits. The beach and staff there are nice. Crabbing and fishing there's very popular. Very pet friendly and they also made a beach side for pets to swim at. Wild animals usually pass by often later in the evening, horses, deer, rabbits etc; sites are nice and big. Some sunny some shady. Park usually fills up when I'm there

Only campground in the Virginia State Park system that offers sewer hook-up's. As for the campsites, I was not really impressed so only gave it 4 stars. If you like open field camping and absolutely no shade, this is the place for you! Other than the lack of tree's, I think this is a great campground, a great location, and a ton of things to do...

We camped at Kiptopeke State Park in a Super C Dynamax DX3. We enjoyed this park a lot because we had a great site. The majority of the sites in the Kiptopeke State park are on the open space. All sites are spacious, clean and green, but there is nowhere to hide from the sun. There are very few shaded ones and we were lucky to get one of those. Kiptopeke State park has two unguarded beaches on the Chesapeake Bay. Kiptopekes northern swim beach is nearly half a mile long. The south beach, which is even longer is open to swimming, fishing, boating and dogs are allowed on leash. And its absolutely beautiful! We have a video about this park in our YouTube channel- Summertime RV Rovers- RV Campgrounds in Maryland and Virginia: Kiptopeke State Park and Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm. Please check for yourself.

We've stayed here pretty often as it's only a few hours from home and near everything in Williamsburg, Virginia. The park is against the James river and theres easy access to the riverside. There's also a large pool during the season with a camp store, snacks. The staff are always great, the sites are level and not too close together, with plenty of shade. The bathrooms and showers are kept clean and the showers are huge! There's plenty to do on the grounds, hiking, biking, touring the plantation, geocaching, and yes, even Pokemon Go! About 5 miles away is the ferry to Williamsburg...its free and usually a highlight of the trip for the kids! You can follow history or ride plenty of roller coasters at Busch Gardens.

This was our first time staying in a yurt at Kiptopeake State Park. We love staying in the yurts at Virginia State Parks because they are always an affordable, easy way to camping without having to set up a tent or spend the extra money for a cabin. The ones at here are $75/night. This one was awesome! It is hidden down a long walkway from the parking area and is very secluded. The one we stayed in, Yurt 4, only has neighbors on one side. It comes with two picnic tables, a water spigot, fire pit, grill, a big deck around the yurt with rocking chairs, and a refreshing breeze coming off the bay. Unfortunately, the way the yurt is situated, none of that breeze gets inside the yurt and it was very hot inside. Especially if staying here in the summer, I would suggest bringing some fans or a portable a/c for a more comfortable nights sleep. The bathrooms are farther away than I would like with little kids. You have to walk through to the tent campground loop to get to them. Even with a couple negative things about it, I think this is the way to stay here at Kiptopeake and I am already planning our next yurt trip here for next year!

Love this park so much! The beach is amazing. This time we discovered the dog-friendly beach, which was less crowded than the main one. I always like to go out and watch the sunset over the bay, it is magical!

Chippokes State Park is located on the grounds of an old historic plantation, actually one if the original plantations in the area dating back to the 1600’s. The land grant was huge, and as a state park now it provides a rich opportunity to learn about the James River, the natural and indigenous history of the region, the settlement history and role of this plantation in Virginia History, and more. Visiting here provides hiking opportunities to learn about fossils along the river shore, the temperate forest in the woods, and history around the old plantation. Taking the ferry across the river from Jamestown to get here was part of the adventure too. There is a nature center and visitor center that provides lots of info and programs near the river , a network of easy park roads for biking, and the plantation itself, set back further away from the river, provides a wealth of learning, including about the history of crops and trade in this area, and about the lives of the slaves who worked the plantation. The grounds right around the plantation are, in fact, a memorial to the hundreds of souls who lived and worked the land here. It was an amazing learning experience to come to the park, and the options to stay over in the park include standard campsites in a wooded campground, or cabins. The campground has all the usual state park amenities, and was very quiet when we were there in November—so late fall is a great time to come, as the fall weather was amazing

Plenty of space at the site and plenty to do. Really enjoyed the beach!

My friends and I love to come and chill here every year. Love falling asleep to the sounds of waves and watching the stars. Great place for fishing too.

We visited for a bit and fell in love with the peace and serenity. The kids enjoyed the playground for a bit and then watched the sky to observe the hawks. The old ships are a true sight to see!

This campground had beautiful beach access but the tent campsites are too close to other campers which I found awkward. Usually when I think of camping I think of some peaceful time in the woods but I felt like I was in a crowded restaurant. One thing I did appreciate was that the beach and campground were dog friendly and the bathrooms/showers were clean.

Great little beach area with separate dog beach Tight camping Great fishing Few full hook ups Short walk to beach Decent hiking trails Bring bug spray Very hot in camp ground

The only reason I am giving 4 stars is for everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed my spot being In a cul-de-sac. But driving back to my spot I noticed all the A and B spots for trailers are just on top of each other. But overall a good camping spot if you get back in the woods which are all the tent spots. Camp hosts were amazing and always checked on us but not overbearing. Gave advice for the park and we appreciated it.

We stayed at this State Park campground for 1 night. The tent sites are decent, shaded by pine trees and on a sandy terrain. There’s a water spigot but no electricity. The RV sites (where my friends stayed) are not very nice, the RVs are parked very close to each other and there’s no trees for shade or to hang an hammock. The bathouse is ok. It was warm when we went so they had the AC running. I've seen cleaner bathouses but it was overall fine. The park offers hiking and biking trails, but the main attraction is the beautiful beach on the Chesapeake Bay. You can rent a kayak or fish from the pier.

Fishing pier. Boat launch ,boat and kayak rental. The bay is beautiful here. Dog beach.

We only stayed here one night back in August 2017 en route to South Carolina.  The tent sites were nice, wooded and spacious, but there was not a whole lot of privacy between each site.   We were there on a weekday, thus there were only about three other campers in that loop, so it wasn't a big deal.  The bathroom facilities were clean and the shower was spacious.  

There is a great fishing pier and a little gift shop that had some camping supplies, ice cream, snacks.  The RV sites left something to be desired - no shade whatsoever and not much spacing between the sites.

Several full hook up sites, reservable sites and some walk up. Nice wide sites, fairly open, but still a good amount of trees. 50/30 amp available. Was able to pick up a few tv stations on our antenna. Camp is full on weekends, empties out during the week. Some sites are shaded several in full sun. Nice swimming beach on the Chesapeake Bay (North Beach), just a short walk, either down the road or by lovely boardwalk through the woods. Wearing water shoes is advisable or the blue crabs might mistake your toes for lunch. No one likes their pinky toe pinched! The South Beach is just on the other side of the pay fishing pier and boat ramp. This beach is not great for swimming, the tide is different and has drop offs, not to mention, several folks fishing and crabbing here. Dogs are allowed on the south beach, not the North. Tho, this beach is where the shells are! Kids can splash on the waters edge, but going in too far is not advised for the littles. Boat ramp also has side area for launching kayaks and canoes. There's no licence needed on the pier, it's included with the fee. Great views of the concrete WWII ships that have been placed as breakwater. There are several well kept trails and boardwalks, 5 miles in total. Great play ground across the road from the campground, which isn't ideal. There's also a falcon observation deck near the playground, we didn't use either. Bathrooms were clean, didn't observe or use the showers, we had full hook up. There's also several coin-op washers and dryers available. Camp hosts are friendly and very visible, obviously to thank for the well kept grounds and facilities. It was windy here, not sure if that's the norm, so we kept our awning in. A little pricey for a state park, other commercial campgrounds near by were not much more. However, we do appreciate a quieter, non-commercial campground with full hook ups. You do have to haul your trash down to the entrance of the park, we asked why they were so far, host said they were in the campground, but the smell was awful, so many people fish and crab, so it was decided to move it farther away, good idea. Lovely campground.

Great place with a lot of fun & views

We camped at the tent only loop(F3). The site was great. The walk to the beach was longer than I thought. The most northern access was closed.

I was a bit disappointed with the bathroom situation and the trash situation. The one shower/bathroom serviced 3 different loops. And they closed it for cleaning in the morning for about 30 min. Frustrating.
There was no trash can in the loops. It was located at the entrance to the park forcing us to either drive it up daily or keep on site till the end.

Otherwise I loved the fishing and crabbing. The north beach was beautiful and water warm. Although they don’t allow dogs on the north beach.

Overall I would still go again.

Awesome campground with amazing an amazing beach! You can rent kayaks or paddle boards. Has a bait shop/gift shop. Really good crabbing. Caught like 40 crabs in half an hour. Have to pay to use pier for fishing (5 for adults 3 for kids.) Really nice cabin and have stayed at tents as well. Awesome park and will definitely come back for years to come.

Very clean and enjoyable personnel where very friendly