Carolina Beach State Park

A natural type campground with only a few campsites offering hook-ups (15/30/50A, H20, Sewer), but most all of them offering decent, natural spacing from your neighbor. All sites have a fire pit and picnic table.

The roads are more narrow than we prefer in a big rig - but completely accessible.

While we were here (January 2021), the campground was undergoing some construction - adding several cabins - and about half of the campsites were closed. Being here in January also meant that the gates to the park were locked from 6pm until 8am - no exceptions and no code provided. This was a bit of a pain in the behind, but manageable with planning.

The campground was surprisingly loud - lots of leaf blowing - and garbage receptacles are strewn throughout the loops in front of every few campsites, creating 'trash receptacle' noise. Each morning, we were awakened by volleys of gunshots (?) from nearby.

Nice trails winding throughout the park. A .5mile walk/bike down some trails and a greenway path leads you to a local brewery. A bit longer walk in the other direction will get you to a grocery store. The beach is 1.5 miles away. You can walk the park's trails to viewing points of the river/inlet area.

Verizon offered 5G data with download speeds near 100Mbps. Verizon's 4G/LTE data was a bit unstable - but was usable most of the time. AT&T 4G/LTE provided a much more stable/usable experience.

Paid $30 per night for 2 nights (although we were evacuated the 2nd day because of Coronavirus shutdowns). Full hoopkups (50amp, water, sewer). Stayed in site 5.

There aren't very many RV sites in the campground (most are tent or cabin), but the RV sites are enormous. You could fit a couple rigs per site and still have room leftover. And the campground access road is wide and easy to maneuver.

The water pressure was on the low side but still adequate.

The gates close at 9pm (although I noticed some months have different hours, so be sure to check). That means after 9am you can't leave the park or get back into the park if you're not back in time. There's a CVS within reasonable walking distance if you really need something, but be sure to plan ahead.

Unlucky for us, North Carolina state parks decided to close all state park camping so we were given 2 hours to evacuate on our 2nd day. Too bad because the campground was nice and quiet.

Overall it’s a nice place to stay if you don’t have physical issues. The pictures of the trails misrepresented the accessibility for wheelchair users. The handicapped shower is an afterthought to a regular stall. Same size as other stalls with the addition of a fold down seat zip tied to the support bracket and a shower head on a hose that didn’t work. Ranger Davis was very nice and tried to accommodate my needs. The handicapped accessible campsites are booked months in advance and a handicapped placard/plate is not required to occupy those sites. Nice campsite, quiet and more privacy than you would expect.

This is a great park to camp in. Except for one thing-the mosquitos. They are awful. Bring plenty of full strength bug spray and be prepared to stay in your tent or RV at all times. Showers were good. We arrived at 7:30pm on a Tuesday and there were still some spots available. Very quiet no noise at night.
Once you leave the park though it is a nice town with lots of beaches, places to eat and shop. Quiet and sleepy area without lots of tourists.
Fort Fisher beach was our fave-10 mins away and dogs are allowed on beach (leashed).
We felt like we were in Florida-fun area.

We made reservations last fall and we were able to nab a full hook up site. Our site was #10, it is a long and private site. We really enjoyed Wilmington and Fort Fisher Historic site. As of May 2019 the water pressure was so low at our site that we had to fill our tank and use the water pump. Also the sewer hook up was sluggish, if you don't pay attention while dumping you will get a "poop geyser". The quiet hours don't start until 11:00 pm and one site diagonally across from us ran a generator. Open frame construction style generators are allowed here, so the noise can be deafening if you are camping next to them. Verizon cell signal was strong at our site. If you get a chance go see the sunset at the marina. We will come back again. We are also writing a letter to the N.C. State Park system to ask them to adopt the generator rules that the National Park has (limited hours and a 60Db sound limit). Only inverter generators should be allowed... Loud construction generators should be banned in any campground. Campground rate includes North Carolina senior discount.

This is a pretty park! Lots of rangers but none very helpful. Late check-in time (4pm) and they’re sticklers about it (we’ve never encountered anyone unwilling to let us check in so long as the space is vacated- and we’ve been full-timing for two years). Also be aware the gate closes from 9pm-7am NO EXCEPTIONS, even if Jesus himself were to rise from the dead. (Literally- wouldn’t open it for people to get to Easter morning sunrise services.) Maybe our expectations are high after staying in so many beautiful state parks in FL, VA, OR, etc. with awesome facilities and great park rangers— but this park is just OK. Mosquitoes are plentiful and as big as horses. Also it isn’t very close to the actual beach. Verizon d/l decent with roof antennas but u/l not great. ATT usable.

I absolutely loved this campground. I used it as a stay between my thousand trails reservations. I wish I would have stayed longer! I was in site 46 which was a small pull through - I have a 19ft travel trailer. Had to use a couple leveling blocks but it wasn’t bad. Had directly access from the site to the Snow’s Cut trail. Short walk to water, trash, and bath house. The bath house had minimal hot water but it was great to not have to use my rv shower since I didn’t have a sewer connection. Site 46 has no hookups but generators are allowed between 7am and 11pm. I have an inverter generator and I asked my closest neighbors if they could hear it and to let me know if it bothered them and they couldn’t hear it! I didn’t utilize the wooded trails but did utilize the roads to run some long runs and it offered easy routes. Close to groceries, restaurants, and the beach. Dogs are allowed. Very empty during the week but definitely fills up on the weekend. Can’t wait to go back!