Fort Belvoir Military Travel Camp

This is a great spot if you’re looking to visit northern Va and DC. It’s a little ways from the city but very reasonably priced for the area. The camp sites are great, nice level concrete with quality hookups. The sewer is a bit far from the power/water which was a stretch for my little camper but it worked out. Beautiful water views, clean bath house and coin based laundry. A bit noisy being on a military base in the city but not bad.

We stayed here in our 32 foot Avion travel trailer (no slides) in May 2021 for 5 nights. **You must have specific credentials from the military to stay here and this should be looked into before trying to book.

OVERVIEW: Campground is on the Fort Belvoir Military installation base. There is great close access to DC, Historic Fredericksburg (we spent one whole day there!), Mount Vernon, Alexandria, VA. There is lots of mall and big box shopping nearby as well including an IKEA. We also took the day to visit Gunston Hall historic mansion and grounds which is almost visible across the Potomac from the campground. The campground is very new and boast beautiful well kept grounds, sites and facility buildings. There are no activities or other amenities (e.g. no pool, beach, swimming), playground equipment is minimal at best. There is one walking trail we found on site. There is a large fishing pier which everyone on base can use and did but this did not affect our privacy or stay at all.

SITES: the sites are some back in, some pull through. The back ins have more privacy and ours (#14) on the river side had nice view of river even though a distance away, other sites to our south would have had some views impeded by tree line along river. Power box is fabulous, very new, well maintained and with even a light to see if hooking up at night! We had a very rainy deluge one day and we did have some flooding over the concrete on our site because of how all sites are sloped/terraced to some degree from each other making stepping out to car a wet affair. The sites have two runs of concrete for your tires with a gravel bed in the middle (good thing for rain drainage) . The picnic tables are fixed and on a nice concrete pad integrated to where you park your rig, the lawns are lush and well kept. Finally a campsite with ZERO mud!

CAMPGROUND FACILITIES: I gave this a 4 of 5 simply because they do not have a pool, hot tub, onsite store or activities. That being said, the facilities here are top notch! The main and only bath house is very clean, well maintained, no signs of bugs, cobwebs, etc. Each shower/lavatory facility is accessed by its own exterior lockable door. Nicest we have ever seen in 10 yrs of RVing. Laundry facility is very nice and modern. Playground is very minimal. One hiking/walking trail onsite. Fishing pier was popular with others who live on the base so we are assuming some good fishing in the Potomac here. Keypad entry gates at both entrances. We found the back entrance easier and quicker to use for our site 14. ***One thing we did find a bit different at this campground was the lack of friendliness of other campers. We were surprised by this especially since we were there over Memorial Day weekend and we were only 1 of the 2 campers even flying flags. We found everyone barely acknowledged each other, perhaps with a nod but not nearly as friendly as other campgrounds we normally have been at. We always take walks around any campground we stay at for exercise and to look at other rigs and usually at least folks will wave or acknowledge you if you are passing each other. This was our first time at a military base campground, so it will be interesting to see if that becomes the norm.

IMPORTANT CHECK IN NOTE! Once on the military base the signs are good to find the campground, however they do not direct you to the correct check in building. When you get to the foot of the road before the river, the Check in building is to the RIGHT in the RECREATION BUILDING! Do not follow that final sign to the campground as there is no where to turn around once you get to the key pad gate! So at foot of road at "T" intersect, take a right, go to REC building to check in. If late check in they will leave a packet outside for you. The parking is not great, so try to pull in before building and loop around back of building and then park on left side of building if possible. Then loop back out and go straight across the T intersect to the campground itself.

AROUND THE AREA: There is a lot to do in the immediate and day tripping area. DC can be accessed via transport buses to get you to the fabulous DC metro systems are available from the front of the Exchange. The Commissary was huge and well stocked, we enjoyed the variety of foods from all over the world we cannot get in our local supermarket. Alexandria VA and the historic Mount Vernon are also very close. We did not have our bikes with us but I would say bike riding around the base would be fine, but the main artery roads around the base are very full of heavy traffic, multiple lanes and we did not see dedicated bike trails. However we do know there is a beautiful bike trail that runs along the Potomac closer to the Mount Vernon estate so that would be worth looking into even if you have to drive to a lot and get your bikes out there. We spent and entire day in historic Fredericksburg which was about 35-40 minute drive past some other beautiful historic churches, and lots of shops/restaurants, etc. Fredericksburg offers great restaurants, quaint cobble streets, shops, historic sites and museums. Very worth the trip! We also spent a whole day going to Gunston Hall historic site and did the 2 mile hiking trail to the Potomac. The house tour was excellent and the house worth the tour. They have a nice gift shop onsite as well.

Will we stay here again, yes for sure! Hopefully more of the museums in DC will be open again when we do as many were on very limited timed entry or closed due to COVID when we stayed this time.