Brunswick Family Campground

We enjoyed our stay here along the Potomac River. So pretty. The campground was very clean. We were in Site B05. We paid $79 for a weekend rate and $55 for a weekday. I based the ratings on our site vs other sites in the campground. There was a lot of room behind the camper with a nice flat area for tents. The site was level and nicely shaded. I definitely prefer the two circle areas (B and C) for a camper or trailer. The electric and water hookups are shared. Be prepared for longer distance hookups with adequate hoses and cords. This is a train town and the trains did go by. It was not a problem for us. Starting around 4am, we could hear rumbling and booms from the train yard as they changed cars, etc. But for us it was not an issue. We were here for the Appalachian Trail Flip-Flop Hike Festival. The campground was used by a variety of guests in all age ranges; families and groups seemed to really have a nice time here. Cell service was adequate for communication but spotty at times under the trees with AT&T. All around a good experience.

We rate this campground 5 stars for location, and 1 for management & RV park quality - thus our 3 star rating. Nope, reducing it to 2 stars after writing this.

We booked online the night before, and originally selected site A20 because it seemed to have the best odds of privacy to one side. Their online site gives you no detailed photos of each site - so you're guessing. The A sites are along the Potomac River - which was our preference. When we arrived to our site, A20 actually angles into site A19.. leaving their 'porch' & fire ring as your back view.

The folks in A19 at our arrival were a larger group with 6 guys on an apparent fishing get-away from their porch / our site (and staying in two distinct camping units parked on the site.. don't know how they got away with that) and a dog in a fenced area that barked non-stop at our arrival.

So we knew this wasn't going to be the peaceful riverfront stay we were hoping for - especially once their dog might meet our leashed cat.

Given that when we booked the night before about half the riverfront site were open for our stay - we hoped management would be able to move us. And sure they were.. to site A13. And only that site. Apparently, all the other sites were booked. Umm.. ok. In the 18 hours since we booked?

Site A13 was fine with a lovely river view.. except being horribly unlevel. We needed 4.5" of raising the front of our 21' van to make it work. And wouldn't you know it.. all of the open sites we found online remained open during our stay. Many of them would have been easier to move to. Gee, thanks for the awesome customer service (end sarcasm).

The bathrooms here are just horrible. Absolutely disgusting. Especially the portable unit they have parked on this end of the campground. They toilets seemed to never be cleaned. And we wouldn't dare shower in their main bathhouse.

And the dump station? Horribly placed so you block traffic to use (and have to turn around at the end of the campground to even get to) and has some sort of weird cover on it that is difficult to remove.

Oh, and did we mention that you're required to wear ridiculous arm bands during your entire stay - to prove you were a guest? Like, who would want to actually impersonate paying $49/night to be here?

At least the location is great if you want to bike the C&O canal tow path - which was our reason for being here. The path is amazing and only 7 miles from Harpers Ferry. We loved that part, and Brunswick itself has some really cute coffee shops and diners. But you do have to travel a mile of the tow path to get to the campground (annoying if there's traffic.. only room for one RV to pass and there are many tour buses!)

Great cell signal though (so at least we could stream our disgust away).. but overall, we wouldn't return unless management showed they were invested in improving this amazing location. So much potential!

Brunswick Family Campground is in an excellent location near Harpers Ferry and the small historic town of Brunswick, MD which has many of the services/stores you might need while you are in the area. There is also a train station where you can hop on a Marc Train and be whisked away to Washington DC’s union station in under 90 minutes for $10 each way. Harpers Ferry is about 15 minutes away and Antietam Battlefield is a gorgeous 30 minute drive away. The Park also runs rafting and tubing trips right out of the park (on the Potomac) and from other locations on the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.

So to make a long story short the location is superb! That’s where the good stuff ends.

When you arrive you must drive about three quarters of a mile down the C&O towpath which is barely wide enough to get by another vehicle if you meet anyone on your way in or out. You will also need to watch out for pedestrians and bicycles using the path. I also to advise you to slow down to a crawl when you encounter bikers and hikers or else you will leave them in a quite a dust cloud. We arrived from US Route 15 coming from Pennsylvania and followed the directions the campground provides on the website and confirmation email. This was a good way to get to the campground. Our RV Life GPS tried to take us on a different route which includes a very narrow street in old town Brunswick.

I arrived and checked in to my site (D7) to find that the sites in D-loop were all laid out as buddy sites. They apparently went cheap when installing the pedestals so there is one pedestal between two sites (there were two 50 amp plugs and a water hookup with a plastic splitter). I went back and checked the park’s website to see if I missed the fact that I was in a buddy site and there was no indication anywhere. I spoke to a few other campers, and they were all surprised as well. I would never have booked a buddy site if I had known unless I was camping next an actual buddy. So basically, we shared a campsite with a family of complete strangers. Everyone was nice and quiet, but I think we lucked out. It looks like D loop is the only loop with buddy sites, if you don’t want that try to book something in A loop, it looked much more private. The campground is very busy with folks arriving for river tours in the mornings, keep that in mind if leaving during those times because the roads can be a little hectic, especially if you stop by the dump station it can be tight.

OTA TV was non-existent. AT&T worked good enough to stream TV. T-Mobile was super slow. The bathrooms were well worn, but serviceable. The staff pretty much ignored us except for one man that I believe lives on site who was very nice. Overall, my experience was soured by the layout of my campsite. I did not enjoy sharing a camping area with complete strangers and never would have stayed here if I had known this would be the case. So be prepared to take the good with the bad when staying here. The location cannot be beat, but the facilities are on par if not lower than those at a typical KOA and they raise the prices on the weekends! The rate of $64 was based on 3 weeknights at $54 and 2 weekend nights at $79.

Stayed Thursday ($49) Friday & Saturday ($64). Site A06 backs up to the Potomac River. Within 1" of level side to side. Kinda crowded but we had adequate space. Electric and city water. The campground is right on the C&O Canal which is a bike/hiking path. Canoe, kayak, tube and bicycle rentals in the campground. Also right next to a CSX rail yard which excited me. Plenty of train watching. Within 30 mins of Harpers Ferry and also numerous breweries and wineries in the area. Campground has a nice playground and the river is very shallow for wading. Small camp store. Only one dump station but we only had 1 trailer ahead of us. Nothing fancy but we'll definitely go back in the future.