Camping

Peanut Island is a spoil island in the Lake Worth Inlet reachable only by a short water taxi, which is half the fun for kids. On the north side a rock breakwater encloses a shallow snorkelling lagoon where the water flushes clean with the tide and holds a surprising amount of fish for somewhere this close to a city. The lagoon runs from about two to ten feet and is best near high tide. Onshore there is a twenty-site tent campground, a loop path and picnic pavilions. The concrete bunker built as a fallout shelter for President Kennedy when he wintered in Palm Beach is still on the island but is closed to visitors until further notice, so do not plan the trip around it. Bring everything; there are restrooms and very little else.

The inlet concentrates fish moving between the Indian River Lagoon and the Atlantic, which makes the north jetty the busiest and most productive shore fishing platform in the state - snook, redfish, tarpon and Spanish mackerel all run through here. It is a real walkway with railings rather than a scramble, so children can fish it safely. On the lagoon side there is a protected shallow beach for swimming. The north side has the best surf break on the Florida east coast. Two small museums sit within the park - the McLarty Treasure Museum on the 1715 Spanish fleet wrecked off this coast, and the Sebastian Fishing Museum. A bait and tackle shop opens daily except Wednesdays. Note that bridge construction on the highway began in 2026 and can affect the campground entrance and reservations, so confirm before booking a site.

The rock jetties at St. Andrews create a protected pool on the Gulf side where the water stays flat when the open beach is rough, and it holds fish - sheepshead, spadefish, small rays - close enough in that a child in a mask can see them standing chest-deep. That combination is uncommon on the Panhandle, where most beaches are beautiful but empty of anything to look at underwater. There is a second calmer beach on the lagoon side for younger kids, plus a campground, and a shuttle runs across to undeveloped Shell Island in season.

The eastern end of St. George Island is state park, which means nine miles of dune and beach with no buildings at all. Walk ten minutes from the parking area and you will have sand to yourself even in July, which is the opposite of most Florida beaches in summer. The Gulf side has gentle surf; the bay side is flat and warm and better for toddlers. Shelling is very good, particularly after a storm. Facilities are limited to a few pavilions and restrooms, and the nearest shop is back across the bridge, so this is a pack-everything destination.

Sun Bay is a public balneario, which means facilities - restrooms, showers, shelters, a large parking area - attached to a beach that on most days is close to empty. The bay is broad and shallow with very little wave action, so it suits small children, and the sand runs for over a mile so you can always walk away from whoever else is there. Vieques’s free-roaming horses graze the grass behind the beach and wander onto the sand, which is one of those things children do not forget. Camping is permitted with a permit. It is the easiest beach on the island to reach with a hire car.

Torreya sits on high bluffs above the Apalachicola, and the trails climb and drop through ravines that hold plant communities more typical of the Appalachians than the Gulf coast, including the endangered Torreya tree the park is named for. The loop trail has genuine elevation gain, which makes it the closest thing to real hiking in the state and a good choice for older children who find flat Florida trails dull. The Gregory House, an 1849 plantation house moved across the river piece by piece, sits on the bluff edge and is open for guided tours on a fixed schedule - once a day midweek, twice at weekends - so check the times before building a day around it. The trails reopened after Hurricane Michael flattened much of the canopy in 2018, and the regrowth is visible along them. It is remote; bring what you need.

Run by the Adirondack Mountain Club at Heart Lake, this is the rare place where a family can pick their comfort level: bunkroom or private rooms inside the log Loj with meals included, or tent sites, lean-tos and small cabins in the Wilderness Campground next door. Everything sits at the base of the High Peaks with trailheads for Mount Jo, Marcy and Algonquin starting at the door, and the Heart Lake beach is a hundred yards away. Staying here also solves the notorious morning parking problem at the Loj lot.

A small, old CCC park strung along a mile of the Blanco River right at the edge of town, and one of the gentlest introductions to camping in the Hill Country. Sites sit under pecan trees a short walk from the dammed swimming area, and because the park is compact you are never far from the restrooms or the car. Being inside Blanco means groceries, tacos and a hardware store are five minutes away if you forget something. It fills fast in summer because it is easy in exactly the way big parks are not.

If you travel with an RV or a travel trailer, the Broken Bow and Hochatown corridor has private RV parks in addition to the hookup sites inside Beavers Bend State Park. Private parks generally offer full hookups, laundry, bathhouses, and a mix of pull-through and back-in sites, and several sit close enough to the Highway 259 restaurants and shops that you can leave the truck parked. Sites near the lake and the river command a premium. Big-rig access varies a lot, so confirm site length and turning room before you commit.

A Forest Service campground in the Ouachita National Forest built around a small lake with a sandy swimming beach. The setting is classic national forest: tall pines, well-spaced sites, a lake loop trail kids can walk on their own, and no commercial development in sight. There is a separate equestrian camping area, so horse trailers do not end up parked next to family tents. Facilities are simpler than a state park, which keeps both the cost and the crowds down.

A small, quiet state park in the Kiamichi Mountains with campsites and a handful of cabins around a modest fishing lake. It sits in genuinely rural southeastern Oklahoma, which is exactly the appeal: dark skies at night, almost no traffic noise, and a lake calm enough for young kids to paddle. The park is a natural stop on the drive between Broken Bow and the Talimena Scenic Drive. Facilities are basic compared with Beavers Bend, so plan to bring what you need rather than counting on a store nearby.

The most remote-feeling park within striking distance of Austin, reached by six miles of gravel road along the Colorado River. Camping is deliberately rustic: river-access drive-up sites and walk-in sites with no hookups, composting or vault toilets in most areas, and very little light pollution. The draw is Gorman Falls, a seventy-foot travertine waterfall reached by a rocky mile-and-a-half hike, plus guided wild cave tours for older kids. Come prepared, because the nearest real supplies are a long drive back out.

A state campground on a bluff above Schroon Lake with a swimming beach at the bottom of the hill and a boat launch nearby. Schroon Lake sits far enough north of Lake George to be much quieter, but it is right off the Northway, which makes it one of the easiest Adirondack campgrounds to reach from downstate. The village has a beach, an ice cream stand and a summer band concert series that kids enjoy more than they expect to. Sites are wooded and the lake views from the bluff are excellent.

There is no drive-up campground at Enchanted Rock. Camping means walk-in tent sites a short distance from the parking area, plus primitive backcountry areas for families willing to carry everything in. The reward is enormous: the day-use line at the gate can close the park by mid-morning on a nice weekend, and campers are already inside. Sunrise and sunset on the granite dome with almost nobody else on it is a completely different experience from the midday crowd. Nights are dark enough that the Milky Way is visible.

If you’ve already read our family camping tips for first-timers, you know the philosophy: start close, keep it short, don’t overbuy. This is the other half - the actual checklist, built by reading what all 41 family campgrounds in our database tell you to bring and counting what repeats. It’s a shorter list than you’re expecting. And one item on it will surprise you. Four items cover almost everything Of the 24 campgrounds with detailed packing notes, 19 list the exact same three things: tent, sleeping bags, camp stove. That’s 79% of them, word for word, in that order. ...

Most of the sites here are reached only by paddling, which puts Forked Lake somewhere between a car campground and true wilderness camping. You park at the headquarters, load the canoe, and paddle to a site on a wooded shoreline with nothing around it. A small number of drive-in sites exist for families who want to test the water first. Facilities are deliberately minimal: pit toilets, no showers, carry your own water. For a family with kids old enough to paddle their own gear, it is a genuinely memorable step up.

Garner is the most beloved family campground in Texas and the reason many Hill Country summers happen at all. Hundreds of campsites sit under giant pecan and cypress trees along the Frio River, with a mix of tent sites, water-and-electric sites, screened shelters and a set of small CCC-era cabins. Kids spend the day tubing and swimming and the evening at the famous summer jukebox dance at the pavilion. Summer sites are released on a rolling window and are gone within minutes, which is why regulars set calendar reminders.

A state campground on the southeastern shore of Raquette Lake with one of the best swimming beaches in the Adirondack Park: a long sandy crescent with a gradual entry that suits toddlers as well as teenagers. Sites sit back in tall pines behind the beach and a boat launch gives access to one of the largest natural lakes in the park. It is a straightforward, old-fashioned family campground where the day plan is usually just the beach. The village store at Raquette Lake covers basic supplies.

Four miles of Guadalupe River frontage with towering bald cypress along the banks, about forty-five minutes north of San Antonio. The campground has water-and-electric sites plus walk-in tent sites, all a short stroll from the river crossings where kids tube, swim and hunt for crawfish. Rangers run junior ranger programs and guided walks over at the Honey Creek unit next door. Because it is close to two major cities the weekend sites go quickly, but midweek in spring you can nearly have the river to yourself.

A city and county botanical garden on Oahu that allows weekend tent camping in grassy lawns beneath the sheer green wall of the Koolau Range. It is one of the only genuinely quiet, non-beach camping options on the island, and the setting is spectacular: 400 acres of themed tropical plantings, a small lake for catch-and-release fishing, and the ridge rising straight up behind the tents. Camping is limited to a Friday through Monday window and requires a permit obtained in advance from the county.