Best Equestrian Camping near Suffolk, VA

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

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.

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...

Blackwater Birds and Bees offers many treasures. Without giving too much away, setting up camp, I noticed a sweet bouquet of freshly picked wildflowers and a small tasting jar of honey from their apiary on the picnic table! There is a pond on the property, with several canoes and kayaks to graciously borrow. I took to the Blackwater River that runs along the property, which I highly recommend for a peaceful and scenic paddle. The goats and chickens are all smiles behind the blueberry patch and a fresh bog. See if you can spy the carnivorous plants! If you venture past the southern Virginia peanut plantations you’re heading in the right direction, to a beautiful property with amazing camping!

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

They need to no that if you go on a rainy season bring boots.

The sites are on the small side, especially the tent pad. The sites have good separation between them and don't feel crowded at all. Very well maintained. Very helpful rangers that stopped by daily to welcome us and to collect trash.

The 12 trips in 12 months’ progress well. February’s outing was Merchants Mill Pond. What a great place. It probably helps that the bath house had just been redone with fresh paint. But that wasn’t the only thing. The park staff was friendly and the camp sites are nice and spaced well apart. Each site had a fire pit, tent site and picnic table. I am not sure that all the tent spaces were leveled, but if you pay attention when you set your tent up you should be fine.

I happened to be a glorious weekend in February and the temperatures were good enough for a hike in shorts and tee shirts. The trails were well maintained and it was a day well spent on the Lassiter Trail. The park also rents kayaks and there are marked water trails as well. Next trip will include a boat ride and a search for alligators (from a safe distance).

Good hikes, good campground and evenings by the campfire. Definitely on the places to return to list.

Our first time to Merchants Millpond State Park was awesome and we're already planning on coming back. We did the canoe-in camping and brought out Hobie kayaks (beware if you bring them our mirage drive seemed to find every downed tree or cypress knob under the water 😜) Buoys marked the different routes to the different areas of the park. Easy to follow. Sites are well maintained and not right on top of each other. All had firepits, grills, and a picnic table. There's a pit toilet towards the back to serve all of the canoe campsites. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it's a pit toilet but you can tell they kept it up nicely. Extra TP, hand sanitizer, etc. Tons of wildlife to see. Turtles, gators, snakes. Not a place I'd go in the summer because I'd imagine you'd get carried away by bugs but definitely a place to check out in spring or fall.