Campgrounds near Philadelphia and New York City
 

Someplace close, possibly, maybe, having public transportation to the cities but it's not a deal breaker. We will have a car.

Tent camping and would love a campground that allows campfires.

Prefer state parks but private parks are okay as well.

Please help.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/statepar...ping/index.htm

PA has excellent camping facilities, though many might be seasonal.

I am not aware of any campgrounds within reasonable reach of NYC. there is a place in NJ where you can park an RV - I believe it costs about $60 per night - but don;t think they allow tent camping. I believe it has a couple of buses per day that connect to regular public transit - but it would still take about an hour to get to the city. For tent camping you should look at the web site of NY State Parks - but I don't know of anyplace (potential campgrounds) - closer than about 1.5/2 hours from the city).

www.rv.net/forums has lots of friendly people talking about anything camping/RVing related.

Well if you want to drive to the end of Long Island NYC you can camp out at "Hither Hills" right on the ocean! I think you need to make a reservation in advance however.

I spent a day with a friend who had rented a spot for the week. Beautiful location, with many facilities for comfort.

-john

How close do you want?

Here's the website for NYS parks.

nysparks.com/ and the state wide camping guide here http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nysp...pingguide2011/

The Taconic Region is the stretch north of NYC. Fahnestock State is a nice park about a 1.25hr drive north of NYC, and about 15min drive to Cold Spring (with a few good restaurants). It's in the Hudson Highlands, and the Appalachian Trail passes through there.

From CS you can catch the RR into Grand Central.

While Hither Hills does have camping - and is in a nice area - it's not a day trip to Manhattan. You would have to take the LIRR or the Hampton Jitney - and it's at least 2 hours from NYC - except on weekends when it;s ore like 3 hours. OK if you want to see the Hamptons but useless for the city.

As for Fahnstock - I don;t know how far in advance you have to make reservations. The park is a $20 taxi ride from the train station - $40 RT plus all the train fares. Or - you could drive into the city and park the car - for a whole day a garage will be about $30. In terms of time - I don;t think there is any way to get into the city 1 1/4 hours - unless you do it at off hours - which would give you very little time in Manhattan (rush hour is 7 to 9:30 am and 4 to 7 pm).

Certainly look up the details - but expect to spend a lot of time and/or money getting in and out of the city - leaving yoursefl time to do little there.

When moving to Philly I didn't want to spend money for a motel room, so I resolved to just camp in a tent each night. The last night I saw that I would staying just outside the city, so I checked out what was the closest campground.

The nearest campground is the one described as the "Philadelphia" KOA.
http://www.philadelphiakoa.com/
It's actually 33 miles away, but a station for a commuter train that goes direct into Philly is ten miles away in Downingtown.
http://www.septa.org/stations/rail/downingtown.html

The nearest public campground is in NJ, at Atsion Recreation Area in Wharton State Forest -- about 30 miles away.
http://www.visitnj.org/atsion-recreation-area
It is less than ten miles from a commuter train station in Hammonton NJ.
http://www.njtransit.com/rg/rg_servl...&selStation=55

I've driven from Fahnestock to Manhattan many, many times. The 1.25 hrs is drive time to midtown, off hrs.

If you're going in during rush hour I'd recommend the train from Cold Spring. Since you'll have a car you won't be paying the taxi fare, but you will have the RR ticket.

Peak fares are $32.50 per person, round trip
Off peak is $24.5

If you're doing it once it'd be far, but you could certainly do a day trip. I do. Multiple days it'd be a real drag.

There is a NYS park closer to Manhattan - the FD Roosevelt park in Westchester co, but I think it's only a day use park. It draws huge crowds from the city in the summer - metal detectors at the pool. Not my favorite park.

There is a campground for RVs in Jersey city close to the ferry to NYC. Check it at:

www.libertyharborrv.com/

Sorry - IMHO 1.5 hours on train - plus time to get to the train station - is NOT near NYC. This would be a 4 hour commute - tied to the train schedule and finding rare taxis to get to to/fro campground.

nyt -- this is a 3+yo thread (which you responded to back then). It was topped by an advertiser.