Carolina Beach State Park

This is a great location, near to Wilmington and the beach. Park is on the water, but it is on the Cape Fear river and Snow's Cut.

Some beautiful hikes and Venus fly traps in their natural setting. There is a boat launch but we did not use it. Visitors center is pretty small.

You have to drive all the way in to the end of the park to check-in to camp and then back to your campsite. We had a full service site, large, level and private. Very nice.

We had a quiet and peaceful stay in a large, private pull-through site. Nights were pretty cool, but most days were comfortable with a jacket. Took in the Wilmington River Walk, Carolina Beach Boardwalk, NC Aquarium, and rode the ferry to Southport. In my opinion, off-season is the very best time to visit here. Beware that if you stay in December or January, the park gate is locked at 6:00 pm!

Only the first 14 of about 80 campsites have Water and Electric. Those sites are nearly 70% in the Sun. All the other sites are lush green sites with excellent privacy.
Verizon cell phone, three of five bars.
Warning, even though there is a night life at the speech setting, the same as remote state parks, they lock the gate at 9:00 and there's no work around! Found out the hard way. There are two dump stations, so if the one dump station is locked, go to the other.

We dry camped in site 13 while at Carolina Beach State Park. It was a really fun stay..plenty of trails to hike and historic places to visit. Here is a full blog on camping here: https://www.fulfillingtravel.com/carolina-beach-state-park-camping/.
The site was a little tight, but once we parked it was really nice. We'd definitely stay here in the off-season again.

Camped here offseason for a week in Jan 2023. Sites are very spacious and separated with lots of trees. There are a few sites with full hookups (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15), the rest have nothing but a shared water spigot nearby. They lock the gates between 6pm and 7am, but there is an alternate way to get in and out - ask about that when checking in. There's a brewery within about a 10 minute walk from the campground. Lots of walking/running trails around the campground, maybe 10 miles worth between all the trails. No biking on the trails. Lots of food options within a short drive of the campground. Very good Verizon cell service. Probably too many trees for Starlink to work.

The park was easy to find. It is located about 15 miles south of downtown Wilmington on Rt 421. There is pavement all the way including in the park. Signage is adequate. Check in was friendly but a waste of time. Sites are booked on line but you must “Check In" at the Marina Store which is quite a distance from the campground. The rules are fairly basic. The interior roads are in good condition and somewhat Big Rig Friendly. Their are some low branches but not big enough to cause any damage.

Our site, 59, was a back in that was plenty long enough for our Coach and Towed. It had NO services. This is a Handy Capped site but we were told to use it as it was the only one left that could accommodate our rig. Distancing is good for a rural park. All sites had a vegetation privacy barrier. Each site has a table and a fire pit. Our site was heavily sloped. Our left rear wheel was off of the ground when our auto leveler was applied. Overall the park was quiet and relaxing.

There is NO park included wifi or cable TV. We did not find any OTA channels. Satellite might be difficult. We did not use the washrooms or showers but we checked and found them clean.

There are no restaurants or stores within easy walking distance but just a short drive away you can find food, shopping and convenience stores. We found this park to be an okay overnighter. We paid $20.00 per night and we feel we received fair value. We will be back if in the area again.

We got a “rv/tent” site, the drive pad was maybe a foot wider than our van so we didn’t really get to use the site. Called to see if we could park in the “tent” area by the fire pit, they obviously said no. So we paid for a parking spot essentially.

Staff isn’t the nicest to deal with. We didn’t get campground rules or anything to know what was allowed. Feels poorly run for all the state parks we’ve stayed in across the country.

We’ll do a parking lot somewhere next time and save the money...

We had a great time here!! Everything about camping here was easy. Reservations, check in, check out etc... The park rangers were great. They patrol the campgrounds- which made me feel very safe. The park was clean, even on a busy weekend.

The sites have a good measure of privacy. Lots of lovely trees and wildlife. We saw deer, egrets, pelicans, etc

Lots to do here! Tons of trails, kayaking, the beach is just a few miles away, and the marina is very close by.

We are looking forward to coming back again!