4 campgrounds with availability this weekend
First Landing State Park Campground and Sandy Bottom Nature Park house glamping campgrounds on Virginia's coastal plains, 20-30 minutes from Portsmouth. Glamping options include furnished yurts with real beds, canvas tents with private decks, and unique lakeside tent cabins for a premium outdoor experience. Each site offers electricity, comfortable furnishings, and proximity to water features. "The tent cabins sit right on the edge of the lake," one visitor noted, providing scenic views while maintaining modern conveniences. Several locations feature climate control systems for year-round comfort, along with upgraded bathrooms and shower facilities beyond standard campground offerings. Many accommodations include picnic tables, fire rings with cooking grates, and trash service for a hassle-free experience.
The waterside locations provide exceptional recreational opportunities with hiking trails, fishing, kayaking, and boating being particularly popular. Sandy Bottom Nature Park maintains boat rentals at affordable rates while offering a 456-acre wildlife refuge setting transformed from former dump sites. One guest shared, "Lots of hiking trails to walk & turtles in the lake!! Plus you can rent boats for a cheap price." Military Park Langley AFB Bethel Recreation Area provides another glamping option with paddle boating and a playground that families particularly enjoy. Most glamping campsites remain open year-round, though North Bayshore Campground operates seasonally from May through October. Reservations for these premium accommodations should be made well in advance, particularly for summer weekends when Virginia Beach and coastal attractions draw significant visitors to the region.
"Our family stayed at site 99 which is close to the bathhouse and camp host. It is also on one of the small roads that leads to a boardwalk to the beach."
"The cottage is furnished, has a queen size bed and 2 sets of bunk beds; nice living room/dining room combo, full kitchen with dishes, pots, etc.; TV; fireplace; outside deck with grill; and screen porch"
Available this weekend
from $32 - $147 / night
"Excellent sites, good access roads, plenty of bathrooms, beautifully tiled and modern, climate controlled environment in the bathrooms, nightly entertainment, shuttle stop right at the campground, excellent"
"You can rent sites for RVs or tents, you can rent cabins, campers, and even glamping tents!"
from $25 - $92 / night
"They have a really nice climate controlled game room too. They are extremely fairly priced. They also have THE best campground bathrooms I have ever seen."
"The showers were nice and the bathrooms were very clean. The camp store is great. It has ice cream, which my kids loved. Would definitely go again"
"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."
"Situated along the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore, campers can participate in tons of water fun."
Available this weekend
from $32 - $413 / night
"Sites: 11 primitive tent sites 2 of which are group sites 4 tent cabins that sit right on the edge of the lake
The individual campsites are FCFS and you must park and hike in."
"The park is centrally located with easy highway access. Plentiful parking, lots of trails to choose from. The staff was top notch and super kind and helpful. "
from $11 - $42 / night
"Originally, we planned to stay closer to Virginia Beach, but after finding Davis Lakes, we decided to give it a try."
"We had a personal guide to show us the location of our campsite. Campsites had wood decks which would be nice in warmer weather. Close to highway but reasonably quiet at night"
from $72 - $105 / night
"It each site has a grill, picnic table and a fire ring. A couple of the sites have some drainage issues, but only after repeated heavy rains. "
"He’s awesome and treats everyone like they’re special :) The tent sites are clean, closely grouped, and the lights from the bathroom shine on them all night (so bring a sleep mask)."
from $15 - $30 / night
"There are picnic tables and fire pits at each site, however my picnic table has a very very warped bench. But it makes no difference to me as it is only me, and I have my own chairs!"
"Bathrooms were brand new, showers were clean & HOT. Coin laundry available. They are in the process of adding another bathroom/shower building so only running at half capacity when we visited."
from $21 - $36 / night
"Nice spots, a little close, no campfire rings, friendly staff, close to amenities, nice bathrooms."
from $32 / night
"This is a small family oriented campground close to Sandbridge beach. They are located on a small waterway that leads to Back Bay. Good fishing and wonderful area to kayak or paddle board."
"Nice pool & bath house. Owners very nice. Close to Virginia Beach & Sandbridge. Pet friendly."
from $55 - $85 / night
TravelerA beautiful campground. Nice wooded sites with decent space between sites. Bathroom and laundry were clean. Showers were just ok. Nice trails and the walk along the James
river was nice. Will definitely stay again.
TravelerDO NOT WAIST YOUR MONEY! THIS IS A SCAM!! Our 3 campsites flooded with 6 inches of water within an hour of arriving before high tide. Very difficult to get ahold of staff due to limited hours of business. I have requested a refund for failure to render services due to unusable campsites. I have left several voicemails and sent emails with attached pictures. Management has been avoiding my phone calls, will not call back. Very unprofessional. I received one call from"management" at 7:20 pm to tell me that he received a message to call me, but he hasn't looked into why he needs to call me and he will call back the next day. I never heard back from him and that was a week ago. I have followed up daily with phone calls without a return phone call. My family makes several camping trips through the year, will never return here.
TravelerGenerous sized sites but only semi-private. Excellent facilities
ScoutThis campground was very enjoyable. I spent a lot of time at the fishing pier, learning to ID birds I had never identified before. Brown pelicans were everywhere near the sunken ships. I also talked to the Hawkwatch people for a bit.
My campsite was far enough from the bathroom I couldn't hear the door slam, but since I was the only one in the F loop, that wouldn't have mattered. Since the loop was so empty, it was an absolute pleasure.
Had the campground been full, I would have felt too close to the people in tents in the sites next to me.
One great thing was that there weren't tent pads so we didn't have to worry about how to fit two tents on to one tent pad.
GuideEnjoying this campground. Close to all the attractions. Incredible staff, super friendly. Pool and game room are wonderful.
TravelerNote to Self: No Primitive Site reservations...EVER. I love this park. It's situated far enough from the busy traffic noise...beautiful Virginia city of Hayes. When I arrived, it was such a scorching day and there wasn't nearly enough tree cover to shield my tent from the "son of Hades". Suffered heat exhaustion almost to the point of death...Literally. Night was my only respite. If it hadn't been for the wonderful camp attendants who came to my rescue, it would've been an utterly failed experience. Bless their hearts. Other than that, this was a great training experience for an old Novice camper. Now that I'm a bit more practiced, I'm going back 😁, armed with knowledge and more confidence.
TravelerThe good: super clean and new restrooms / showers. The entire parking immaculate. Stayed at site 12. Offers water views and shade. Site 13 is similar and is probably the most ideal site.
Cons: zero privacy. The sites are basically scattered around an open grassy area and fairly close together.
Be aware: sites are not vehicle accessible. Need to carry your kit 50-75 yards.
TravelerThis is a long one! Here we go. My partner and I travel for work, we went out of our way to move to this location based on reviews saying this is a great place. We have paid in full for the whole stay which is about little over 2 months. We have been here approx 2 weeks give or take. We work night shift. No activity during the day. Simple easy. Not our first campground by any means. At first, we were excited to experience the amenities and such. Now we’re uncomfortable to try anything out. Why you ask? Situation: first day we move in, we end up next to what seems like the literal only other long term or possibly even permanent resident on the grounds. My service animal alerted me to a trigger, which she left the front door of the camper before we walked out. Recalled her to me once we saw that the perm resident (our neighbor) had what presented as an aggressive dog. (Husky maybe?). Within not EVEN 5 minutes of this event, someone was at our door- instead of asking what is going on we were immediately accused of her running around off leash I guess? We had just woken up from sleeping and it was evening time, time to go to work. Instead of arguing or even offering up ANY facts related to the situation I simply said got it thanks and the interaction ended. I’m thinking to myself well damn. Okay. A week or so maybe goes by? Leash in hand VISIBLE -at the door my dog steps out, I step out behind her- same time same situation. She walks ahead of me to where she will relieve herself, I ask for her to come back next to me, she recalls- neighbors dog loses its mind again. I look up at neighbor and say “just go ahead and call man, I get it”. She calls. This time THREE employees are driving on carts to our site, at this point we’re already leaving for work. I knew it was coming, figured they would for sure ask what’s going on this time. They don’t. The older woman accompanied by two men behind her- simply says “you have been told before you need to leash your dog”. We reply yes we understand. Nobody asks for a description of the events, what’s going on, or if this even happened. The female voice is raised and hostile presenting towards both of us. The man behind her approaches our car and peers into the vehicle I’m not sure if to intimidate or what, but that action was also very ineffective in diffusing the situation and instead very intimidating. And now making us both VERY late to work as this is an extra 15 minute drive to the hospital in which we work at. Seemingly, the word of this permanent resident is all they needed to full on accuse the two of us… of what? I am not sure. My animal has resided all over the country in countless locations, all while working and we have had no issues to date. At this point I am still remaining silent as the female worker continues to educate us on our alleged actions. My concern is that there has been ZERO questioning, only full on accusations. We’re highly uncomfortable at this point. They say “we will be speaking with the general manager tomorrow”, Which also felt threatening. I’d like to add that given the whole situation this wouldn’t matter but since this is happening: earlier that morning after work I had stopped by the front desk, to ask about a package I thought that I sent to the wrong place, but didn’t. The same female was there. I remember thinking wow she’s actually so rude. But I brushed it off. Now looking back she must have some kind of prejudice toward myself and my dog. I’ve never been threatened / accused so one-sidedly in my entire career such as what has been happening at this campground. Our resolution was to request moving sites, however nothing was asked of us WHATSOEVER. As stated we were not given any opportunity to speak on the situation. Will attempt to update review whenever we speak with management of this location. Warning is to be wary of implicit bias in staff, potential favoritism, and inconsistent / unfair conflict resolution, aggressive long term campers, and lack of communication from staff.
ScoutWe stumbled across Davis Lakes Campground last year when we brought our camper down to visit our son and grandchildren. Originally, we planned to stay closer to Virginia Beach, but after finding Davis Lakes, we decided to give it a try. We were lucky enough to get site F28 right on the lake, and we enjoyed it so much that we came back this year—and even booked the exact same site.
After reading some of the other reviews, I wanted to share our experience because it was very different. Yes, there are some rules regarding dogs at the beach, but they never interfered with our stay. We enjoyed walking our dogs every morning around the campground and lakes, and it was a wonderful way to start each day.
The beach itself was clean, had plenty of nice chairs, and the AquaGlide was an absolute blast. We spent 5–6 hours a day swimming, and surprisingly, the beach never felt crowded.
One thing that really stood out was how fair the prices were. The campground store was stocked with essentials, and unlike many campgrounds, the prices were very reasonable. If you forgot a loaf of bread or wanted to grab a pool float, you didn’t feel like you were being gouged. They also have a cute snack shop, a spacious game room, and an impressive movie selection, making it a great place to spend a rainy afternoon.
The campground itself was clean and very well maintained. Although many of the sites are seasonal, they were neat, well cared for, and nothing like some seasonal campgrounds where sites become cluttered or run down. It was obvious that both the staff and the campers take pride in the campground.
The nightly rates were very reasonable, and while there is a visitor fee, we found it to be completely fair considering the amenities. We had an amazing time with our son and his family, and the campground played a big part in making those memories.
Davis Lakes isn’t a luxury resort, and that’s part of its charm. Its focus is on beautiful lakes, swimming, friendly service, and providing a relaxing camping experience. It reminded me of the kind of campgrounds I grew up enjoying—simple, welcoming, and centered around making great memories.
We’ll absolutely be back. If we lived closer, I’d seriously consider getting a seasonal site myself. In fact, my son is even talking about buying a camper just so he can keep it nearby and enjoy Davis Lakes more often. Many of the employees and seasonal campers are locals who return year after year, and I think that says everything you need to know about this place.
Camping options near Portsmouth, Virginia range from basic tent sites to premium glamping accommodations within a 30-minute drive. The coastal plain geography creates a humid subtropical climate with mild winters and hot summers, making the region accessible for camping year-round. Water features prominently in the camping experience with most sites located along rivers, lakes or near the Chesapeake Bay.
Fishing from shore or pier: At Kiptopeke State Park Campground, visitors can catch unusual species. "I did enjoy the fishing pier and got to catch fish I have never seen before. One being a searobin. By the way a searobin crocks like a frog when you grab it," reports Annemarie R.
Kayaking and boating: The waterways near North Bayshore Campground provide excellent paddling opportunities. "They are located on a small waterway that leads to Back Bay. Good fishing and wonderful area to kayak or paddle board. You can even bring a boat," notes Tina C.
Hiking trails: Multiple trail systems exist within a short drive. Adam and Suzanne B. mention, "Large, private sites among really cool, bent trees. Clean, up-to-date facilities. Large laundry room. Close to the bay and a few minutes drive to ocean beaches and the boardwalk. Near plenty of restaurants and activities. Hiking and biking in the park."
Privacy and natural setting: First Landing State Park Campground offers wooded sites. "Our game ground was surrounded by the forest but your in walking distance to the beach. The shower and rest rooms are sit up nicely the best I've seen at a campground," shares Timothy B.
Multiple swimming options: Campers appreciate having both pools and beaches nearby. At Holiday Trav-L-Park, one visitor noted, "The pools are nice and clean but can get crowded as expected. Very good campground though imo and we are going back in july."
Wildlife viewing: Sandy Bottom Nature Park offers excellent animal sighting opportunities. "Lots of hiking trails to walk & turtles in the lake!! Plus you can rent boats for a cheap price which we will probably go back to do. It was so pretty & so fun," says Gracie B.
Military proximity affects some sites: Camping near bases means occasional noise. "We were in site 156 which was right near a boardwalk and a bathhouse... be warned if you go to the southern side of the park near the beach that you will be very close to a US military base called Fort Story. You may hear occasional machine guns and artillery. You will also hear reveille in the morning," warns Nita D.
Highway noise can impact relaxation: When glamping close to Portsmouth, Virginia, consider the campground location relative to major roads. At Sandy Bottom Nature Park, a camper observed: "The biggest negative was that no matter where you were in the park, there was significant noise from the highway. Horns honking, sirens blaring, the general rush of cars going by."
Summer heat affects tent camping: Plan accordingly for hot nights. "The campsites were ok. easy to get to. I wouldn't recommend tent camping in the middle of summer - my husband and i both got sick," cautions Grace M.
Guided activities for kids: Northwest River Park & Campground offers various supervised programs. "Plenty of things to do for the active camper. Put put golf, kayak, hiking and much more," notes Patricia L.
Winter options with climate control: For glamping close to Portsmouth during cooler months, some sites remain comfortable. "We enjoyed biking all over the place (including a family-friendly bike trail to the VB boardwalk), playing on the many small playgrounds, swimming in the dome-covered pool (there are three more of them for warm weather), playing mini-golf, and enjoying our time," shares Amanda P.
Campground with pet-friendly beach: Military Park Langley AFB Bethel Recreation Area combines camping with pet beaches. "We tent camped here over Labor Day weekend as our first family camping trip, and we all had such a good time! Our boys (8, 6, & 4) had so much fun on the big playground and paddle boating," says Kimberly F.
Drainage issues during storms: Some sites experience standing water. "Your about a mile to the beach the rv sites look every well kept the primitive slot we're nice a little small for what it is, but you just feel packed in which it's no state park and I get that," notes Joshua S.
Level sites matter: When glamping in an RV near Portsmouth, check site descriptions carefully. "Sites are a bit tooo close for me. I don't like camping right on top of people and as soon as I walk out of my tent there's people on every side of me," mentions Annemarie R.
Seasonal operation schedule: Some campgrounds have limited availability. North Bayshore Campground only operates from May through October, while others like First Landing State Park and Northwest River Park offer year-round options with varying amenities during winter months.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does glamping cost in Portsmouth?
Glamping costs in Portsmouth vary based on accommodation type and amenities. At First Landing State Park Campground, cottages with furnished living rooms, full kitchens, queen beds, bunk beds, and outdoor decks provide a premium experience. For more affordable options, Sandy Bottom Nature Park offers tent cabins situated right on the lake. Yurts at state parks typically run around $75 per night, while fully-equipped glamping tents and cabins can range from $100-200+ depending on size, amenities, and season. Most sites require reservations, especially during peak season.
What is glamping in Portsmouth?
Glamping in Portsmouth offers luxury camping experiences with the comforts of home while enjoying nature. At Holiday Trav-L-Park, you can rent fully-equipped glamping tents that provide an upscale outdoor experience without the hassle of setup. The Portsmouth area also features Kiptopeke State Park Campground with yurts that blend camping convenience with comfort. Glamping accommodations typically include real beds, furnished living spaces, and easy access to modern facilities, making them perfect for those who want to experience nature without sacrificing comfort.
What glamping amenities are available in Portsmouth?
Glamping sites around Portsmouth offer extensive amenities for a luxurious outdoor experience. Anvil Campground provides premium sites with 50/30/20 amp electric, water, cable, WiFi, and shuttle service to local attractions. Their log cabins and cottages combine rustic charm with modern comforts. At North Bayshore Campground, glampers enjoy access to clean, climate-controlled bathhouses, fishing spots, and waterways perfect for kayaking and paddleboarding. Many glamping sites include furnished accommodations with real beds, kitchenettes, private decks, grills, and fire pits, while still providing easy access to nature trails and water activities.
When is the best time for glamping in Portsmouth?
The optimal glamping season in Portsmouth runs from late spring through early fall (May-October), with summer offering warm weather ideal for beach access and water activities at Chickahominy Riverfront Park, where you can enjoy kayaking, fishing from the pier, and nearby attractions. Fall provides comfortable temperatures and fewer crowds at places like Northwest River Park & Campground, perfect for nature hikes and campfires. Most glamping accommodations are available year-round, though some facilities may have reduced services in winter. For beachside glamping, aim for June through September when water temperatures are most pleasant.
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