Best Glamping near Richmond, VA

This park is only about an hour's drive from Richmond which makes it very accessible for a short weekend trip. The tent-only section of the campground is alongside a lake, which provides beautiful views. There are lots of hiking trails to explore in the park. The facilities are well-maintained.

Its a nice park right on the river, sites are a little close but not bad with mostly full hookups. Easy access to bike trail that runs from Richmond to williamsburg, passing many plantations and farms,forrest, etc along the way. The bike path runs seperate from the roads, but is blacktoped for easy riding. They also have canoe, kayak rentals, a nice pool in summer, beautiful views off the bluff of the river as well as a trailered boat launch.

This state park is amazing, it is close to the Richmond metro but allows an easy and wonderful retreat to nature. I was there in early June, and it wasnt crowded, though I can imagine it might be later in the summer. There are numerous camping options here, ranging from tent camping to RV’s to camper cabins to yurts, to regular full service glamping cabins, all in different sections. There is also an area set aside that could be rented for a group retreat or group summer camp, with groups of cabins around meeting space and dining hall area. The full service cabins are new and very upscale; the camper cabins are older but well maintained. The yurts are lovely too. I car camped in a standard site, all the campsites are wooded, shady, fairly private and well spaced. The park is huge and has lots of recreation, from miles of hiking and riding trails, biking and more. Very family friendly, with playgrounds, an incredible waterpark and pool, and nature programs at the visitor center. There is also a summer series of concerts etc in the park. Highly recommended!

Just 20 miles from Richmond Va. Pocahontas offers boating, picnicking, camping, camping cabins, yurts, plus 90 miles of trails, along with nature and history programs. The Aquatic Center, which offers a toddler pool, fountain wet deck, three foot and five foot deep leisure pools, along with activity pool and two tubular water slides. affords seasonal water based activities for all.  Three lakes offer plenty of fishing. Boat rentals available seasonally by the 225 acre swift creek Lake.  The Civilian Conservation Corps Museum, dedicated to Depression era workers who helped build the state park system, is one of a handful in the nation.  Two Dinning halls may be rented for meetings, weddings and special events.  Rustic group facilities with primitive overnight cabins (bunkhouses) are available seasonally for larger groups.  The park also offers buddy camp sites for 2 sometimes 3 campers in a party.

The park's 2,000 seat amphitheater hosts the Pocahontas Premiers series of concerts and family-friendly entertainment.

Pocahontas State Park's Location and 90 miles of trails make it particularly popular among bicyclists.

The canoe trips around the swift creek lake will leave lasting memories of the fun times in nature as you will see and abundance of it.

Pocahontas has 129 camping sites some of which are site specific while others are reservable, on a first come basis. Most all the sites are somewhat level and lengthy, but if you have a lengthy setup, it's recommended to reserve a lengthy site. The reserve America website will post site overall lengths and be helpful in reserving the proper sites.

This is a rather big and very enjoyable state park with much to do, while being fairly close in to town for lots of other exploring. Should You decide to give it a closer look. I hope You will find it greatly enjoyable as I do.

Due to covid please check ahead to be sure activities you may be interested in are not canceled.

The park does have some slight rolling hills in sections while there are fairly flat hikes as well. Best Wishes and Enjoy!

Glamping in rural VA, I did not expect to find an uncrowded state park over the July 4th weekend. The trails were marked once you got on one, not all were visible as trails. With that being said my pup and I took several paths not walked often without another soul or human sound. I did walk past a ranger and friendly. I do believe we walked over 3 miles with navigating around. Parking for day use is not posted, or I didn’t see it. I parked at a spot by the entrance to the cabins. It was so pretty and peaceful.

We usually take a trip with the 3 families but all buy one set of the men fill stayed behind leaning us with 3 women, 5 children and one man, thus the title.

It was early March so we had a little cabin, which was adorable and had electricity and we used a space heater and were very toasty. The fellow next door had an r.v. and were watching television outside as we roasted marshmallows. They get yelling and laughing about how they were "glamping". All the kids thought they were hilarious.

There are great trails, clean amenities, plenty of places to swim when it's warms and get your water sports on.

The kids still talk about this trip.

What could be better than camping and kayaking on a beautiful river? Maybe try fishing off the new pier or taking a bike ride on a nice long trail after visiting Jamestown or Colonial Williamsburg or Busch Gardens which are all within a very short driving distance! Or even a Ferry Ride across the river to a lovely waterside restaurant where you can experience delicious food and the most amazing sunsets! And no worries if you don’t have a tent or camper, because they have cozy yet roomy glamping tents available!We love camping at CRP! Everyone is always friendly and helpful! Facilities are always clean and well maintained. We have stayed in the spring as well as late summer without any problems. There is a camp store, two bath houses, and a convenient dump station. Playground and fenced pool. A boat ramp for motorized boats as well as a launch site for kayaks. Bring your own or rentals available. Looking forward to our next visit this Spring!

Close to Richmond. Nice clean facilities and shaded campsites.

If looking for a place to stay near Richmond with full reliable hook-ups this would service that need. Other then a pool on site and close proximity to Kings Dominion Park. 

This is your typical KOA campground. Tight sites and no frills.

This state park has it all!  Nice roomy campsites.  Clean bathrooms and showers. Laundry in the park.  Many trails to hike or bike.  Beautiful area.  It is near Richmond, VA where we were visiting family so it worked well.   There are also cabins available in the park.

Pocahontas State Park is a pretty nice place. My family always used to go here whenever we needed to stay near Richmond, because its only about a 20 minute drive.

The campground has a lot of amenities, including a few lakes where you can fish, a nice pool with water slides, lots of trails, picnic tables, and some nice camp sites. There's also cabins available to rent out if you don't feel like roughing it.

Richmond is an awesome place to explore too. If you've never been, I definitely recommend it. For those of you who are rock climbers, Manchester Wall is an awesome place to check out. It's an old train bridge support wall that has been converted into a bunch of cool climbing routes. Great for beginner climbers too. There's also the river right nearby, which is great for floating and mountain biking trails too.

Cool campground in a great area!

This is a nice quiet campground to enjoy outside of Richmond. We have a Class A and enjoyed the sites facing the lake. We stayed in site 119. Customer service is wonderful! If you have time, take the 15 minute drive or so to Mabel’s for a delicious cheeseburger and some crazy milkshakes! IG @mabelsrva

Pocahontas State Park has really nice campsites that are well kept and decently spaced apart. We visited on a weekday and had all the trails to ourselves, which was wonderful. Trails were clearly marked and easy to navigate. If you like canoeing or kayaking you can do so in Swift Creek. 

If you venture outside the park, you are in the Richmond, VA area with many places to eat and shop.

Truly enjoyed this CG. Staff are very friendly and helpful CG is clean. Bathroom rooms are dated (compared to the ones at Twin Lakes State Park near Farmville, VA). The dump station is two-sided - helps on busy mornings when campers are leaving. Spent time touring the civil war sites around Petersburg. Lots of breweries in Richmond - a much needed place as a cold beer was very needed during the extreme heat occurring during my stay.

It was Veteran’s Day a 3 day weekend…and boy was it full, even with the late season tropical storm blowing through later in the day! I guess it was busy because it is free on Veteran’s Day! Water and electric at each rv site, but water and 50 amp only in sites 66-129. (Dual dump station on the way out.) Host sites are #41 & 99 and can answer questions for you. Cabins and yurts also available for rent. Hike or mountain bike down to the lake for some fishing or scenic exercise. Camp store has ice, snacks, ice cream, camping games, and first aid supplies. Friendly store staff too! Separate laundry facility at the camp store.

Nice little state park close to Richmond and not too far from DC. We had a non-reservable site in the Black Oak loop—sites were tiny and very close together, but it was still pretty quiet even on a full weekend. The lakeside spots on the Acorn loop looked really nice and much more spacious. Kids enjoyed the little sandy beach, paddle boats, and easy, flat hike in the pretty forest around the lake.

This campground is beautiful! We have been here multiple times but have only car camped here one night. This park has trails, a sprayground, playground, camping, cabins, nature center, and picnic areas. I love this park. It really is beautiful. We stayed here one night for a vintage scooter rally. The bathrooms were very clean and well lit. It was nice and quiet and I love the campsites themselves. It was a nice site with a picnic table, lantern holder, and tent pad. The camp store was closed by the time we arrived but we had everything we needed. We even did a little Geocaching fun while we were there. I love this park and look forward to more camping hopefully next year. They do have yurts and cabins too. Great place for stargazing but city lights are close by.

Visited in early September; temperature was great, but it rained quite a bit. The sun was plentiful on the second day so we were dry for at least some of the trip. We used Pocahontas State Park as a base camp for our planned activities in Richmond (Civil War sites/museum/breweries). The park has a lot of hiking trails and also offers a variety of talks and events. On our last night, we went to a blue grass performance off the back of one of the park cabin buildings and then the park rangers gave us stuff to make smores! The sites are well maintained and some are secluded enough to find solace. We will return.

Pocahontas is one of the funner State Park campgrounds we've been to. The campsites are great, nice and flat, with a fire ring and picnic table. There are a lot of RV's here, which is a negative for us. Our site was not very private, but it did have electricity and was close to the bathrooms. Not a ton of bugs, great weather. The best part is if you are camping here you get free entry to the Water Park! Which is super fun, the kids love it. There's a splash pad and a water slide and a couple regular pools. It wasn't too busy in the middle of June. Also great hiking here! Love the location is close to Richmond, so there is fun things to do there as well.

Powhatan State Park is a relatively new addition to the VA State Parks system; the park itself has only been open since 2003. The primitive, canoe-in campground opened with the park, and the loop with electric and water hookups opened in 2016.

**Canoe-In Campground: **

When we stayed, we stayed in the canoe-in campground, although we hiked in the approximate 1/4 mile from the parking lot, rather than coming in by boat. This is a quiet, beautiful loop, with 8 sites, each with a picnic table and fire ring. There are composting toilets here and no potable water, so you will need to bring enough water for your trip or purification methods. Proper food storage is also essential back here; while this section of Virginia does not have the bear activity you’d find in the mountains, there are still raccoons and other wildlife who should not have access to human food. There are no bear boxes, so treat food storage as you would in the backcountry. 

-Sites 7 and 8 are closes to the toilets, and back up to the woods leading towards the Turkey Trail; hikers are visible from site 8 and audible from site 7.  

-Sites 4 and 5 back up to a very wooded area, and are further back from the gravel loop. Site 4 is closest to the boat ramp and is visible; site 5 is probably the most private in the loop. 

-Sites 1,2, and 6 are in the center loop, but have more space between them than inner-loop sites usually have. Sites 1 and 2 are right against the River Trail however, so will have hikers walking directly past during the day. 

The canoe-in loop sits against the James River; there is a rack to stow your canoe/kayak overnight, and a pay by honor-system pile of firewood. Due to the thick foliage there is no actual river-view during the warmer months, but it’s easily accessbile. When we stayed in early spring there were a lot of vines that served as “natural playground” for our kids; they used them as swings, monkey bars, and enjoyed getting their feet wet at the base of the canoe ramp, so much that they declined hiking or driving to the park’s man-made playground. This loop makes a great “trial run” site for anyone considering a future backcountry trip; the walk to the parking lot is short enough to make multiple trips if you need to, and you still have access to the park amenities if you don’t mind a walk/drive to get there.

River Bend Loop

The River Bend Loop has 29 sites with water and electric hook-ups, though very little privacy between sites. The surrounding trees give all but the first three sites decent shade and a wooded atmosphere, and this is a great loop for RVs or tent campers who enjoy being close to other sites. If you are looking for a feeling of isolation however, you would be better off minimizing your gear and walking to the primitive sites, or going to a different park altogether. The bathrooms here have electricity, flush toilets, and showers with hot water. Sites 1-14 are available for advance reservation, and sites 15-29 are first-come first-served. Site 25 offers the most privacy for tent campers, and it’s very large, but if the campground is at full occupancy all sites are going to have a crowded feel.

There are several hiking trails at this park ranging from very easy to moderate, and a couple of them are horse-friendly; our kids enjoy seeing horses on the trail with them, but be mindful if you have kids/dogs who may be afraid of the horses. The park also has a playground, picnic shelters, and ranger activities on the weekends, and there are three yurts available to book.

This is a very open, well-maintained park, and the camping options should appeal to a wide spectrum of campers, and my only reason for giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the lack of privacy in the drive-up campsites. It feels a lot like a hidden gem; the hookup campground fills up during warmer weather, but all of our visits here have been very quiet and peaceful. If you are looking for camping options near Richmond, I highly recommend this park!

When I was passing though Richmond I found Pocahontas State Park and decided I liked it so much I had to find out a bit more. There were so many things to do at this park and while there were only around 5 miles of dedicated hiking trails there were nearly 50 miles of bike trails, swimming and paddling on the water, horseback rides and monthly programs.

While I was here I checked out some hiking trails and also the camping which was $35 for a site which included water and electricity in addition to the standard picnic table and fire ring. Sites were nice and wide all built to accommodate tents or RVs.

There are two loops for camping. I stayed in the first loop in site 59 which was pretty close to the bathrooms but still fully secluded by the tall trees around me. I found this site to be absolutely perfect for my needs and I was able to set up right off the pull in on a nice flat section of ground. I was shaded from the harsh sun of midday by the trees around me but it did make it a bit less bright for waking up the next morning.

Another nice feature of my campsite was it was close to the firewood station and the camp host. I enjoyed socializing with the host and them telling me a bit more about the things to do in the area as well as at other state parks for which they had worked. Such a great host!!

TIPS:

• Check in at this campground is not until 4 p.m. so if you arrive before this you are not guaranteed to be able to get your site.

• Enjoy free boat launch or swimming here if you are camping. If you are not there is a day use fee for using this amenities at the park.

I gave this campground a 3 out of 5, mostly because it wasn't very memorable. I had a good time there with my family, but there wasn't anything that really stood out to me.

Also, I really love to hike and get out into nature when I camp. Powhatan, Virginia isn't the best place for that compared to all of the amazing wilderness you can find in other parts of Virginia.

The sites were a little close together for my liking, but they were still very nice.

The staff was very helpful and friendly.