CP Campground Review – James County Island Park, Charleston, SC
A simply wonderful county park only ~7 miles from downtown Charleston, SC
Note/ Review updated as of last stay Nov 2017
Link to campground here: James Island County Park, Charleston, SC
Link to map location here: James Island County Park, Charleston, SC
- Site Quality = 4/5
Very nice sites here, with just one main ding. Sites are generally spacious flat, hard-packed dirt sites with large pleasant “sitting areas” containing picnic table and fire pits. There are 6 electric/water only sites (#32/#34/#36/#38/#40/#42), some of which are only suitable for smaller rigs, whereas the rest are full hookups (50 Amp/water/sewer) that can handle any rig-size. The campground is green & tree’d providing a very natural setting throughout. Main ding is that *some* of the sites are definitely more spacious/private than others:- Pull-Through Sites – The Pull-through sites on the left-side (west) loop of the campground (#29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43) are HUGE. These cost $56/night and are some of the nicest sites in the park with lots of space and privacy. Get one of these if you can! Note/ Pull-throughs on right-side (east) loop (#56, 61, 77, 97) lack privacy and are not nearly as nice as those on west-side. I wouldn’t pay premium for these.
- Buddy/Shared Sites – There are 24 sites that share an entrance (#10/11, #18/19, #20/21, #23/24, #50/51, #66/67, #71/72, #78/79, #92/93, #95/96,# 100/101, #124/135) where 2 sites are right next to each other. These cost $49/night and are great for friends traveling together, but lack sufficient privacy if you’re not pals. These were our least-preferred sites.
- Back-In Sites – The remainder of the sites are individual back-ins ($49/night) which are generally very nice indeed providing a good mix of size & privacy. We stayed in one of these and liked it very much.
- Overflow + Other Camping – This campground also offers a large overflow (dry-camping area) where you can stay for $28/night if the main campground is full. The overflow is basically just a large, open green field just north of the main campground, but it has good solar and is nicely quiet. There is also a separate tenting area & 10 cottages for rent.
- Facilities = 5/5
Very nice facilities. Flush toilets and warm showers with separate bench to place your stuff. Facilities are somewhat dated, but were impeccably clean while we were there. Also on-site laundry machines (wash & dry) which worked great while we were there. On-site dump station & water too. - Location = 5/5
This is the PERFECT location to explore Charleston and the surrounding area. The park itself is huge with lots of green biking & hiking trails. Plus it offers a slew of activities such as playgrounds, outdoor climbing wall, pedal-boat/kayak/bicycle rentals, disc golf, fishing/crabbing, game area (giant chess, bocce ball, horseshoes), volleyball courts, and the Splash Zone waterpark. You could easily spend your whole time here just enjoying the park! In addition you are only ~8 miles from Folly Beach and ~7 miles from downtown Charleston where you will find no end of history, food and sightseeing. For those without tow cars the park even offers a round-trip shuttle service to both Charleston & Folly Beach (fee required). - Pet Friendliness = 5/5
A super spot for doggie. Lots of space in camp as well as miles of paved hiking trails around the park. Plus there is an FABULOUS (and huge) off-leash doggie park on-site where pooch can run around and enjoy both grass, beach & water. They even offer a separate fenced-in small-dog park for those who prefer that. Lots of poo bags throughout the park too. Polly loved it here!
Overall Rating = 4.75
BONUS ALERT = Camp in an awesome green/spacious park just ~7 miles from historic & vibrant Charleston, SC
Video Overview: Want to see it in living color? Watch our ~7:30 min video overview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLx8kQJxPbY
Summary: We chose this park primarily for its close proximity to Charleston, but it turned out to offer SO much more than that. The best way to describe this park is that it delivers the amenities of a full-service RV resort with the relaxed & green “feel” of County Park. It’s HUGE, covering over 643-acres and offers a SLEW activities & facilities including miles of paved hiking/biking trails, playgrounds, outdoor climbing wall, pedal-boat/kayak/bicycle rentals, disc golf, fishing/crabbing, game area (giant chess, bocce ball, horseshoes), volleyball courts, and the Splash Zone waterpark. In addition there is an AWESOME on-site off-leash doggie park (literally one of the nicest we’ve ever seen) which has large green meadows, beach and water for your dogs to play & roam. The campground itself is located just north of the main public park and has 124 sites in a green/tree’d area. Sites offer full hookups and are generally large and spacious with pleasant “sitting areas”. Main ding is that sites vary somewhat in how private they are with a few of the sites offering great privacy (especially the pull-throughs in the west-end loop) whereas others offer rather poor privacy (especially the “buddy sites” that share an entrance -> we did not like these). Overall however it’s wonderfully quiet/green here and so relaxing that you could easily spend your entire time just hanging around in camp and enjoying the park. For sightseeing the proximity to Charleston & Folly Beach couldn’t be better (less than 8 miles to each spot) and you’ll be able to enjoy everything there is to see & do in those areas without much driving at all. We were lucky enough to score almost a week at this County Park, and although it’s more $$$ than we usually pay we absolutely LOVED the stay. Great park, great town, great experience. We’d come back here in a heartbeat.
NOTE/ At the time of this review this park only accepts phone reservations (no online reservations) so make sure to call ahead for a site. The park *does* offer a large overflow/dry-camping area if the main campground is full, so you can always ask for that while they put you on the waiting list for a regular site. Also be aware that the Christmas Light Celebration here is a HUGE event (starts ~mid-Nov) and makes the park even more popular during that time. The lights are amazing & well worth seeing if you get the chance!
Extra Info: Free on-site WiFi, but it was not really usable most of the time. Stable, good cell signal (2 bars Verizon LTE, 1-2 bars ATT LTE). 124 total sites, 6 sites with water/electric only whereas remaining are 50A FHU (water/electric/sewer). Sites cost $56/night (pull-throughs FHU), $49/night (back-ins FHU), $45/night (water/electric only). Overflow area (dry-camping only) costs $28/night. On-site dump station.
We loved this park (and of course, being near you).
That said, we got placed in spot 61, a pull thru – as it was the only spot the park could place us for a week. However, it was no where near as spacious and private feeling as the pull-thru sites on the other side of the park. In fact, as designed, it was pretty miserable (the ‘yard’ right on the street). But yet, we still paid the premium price (nearly $400!!! for a week… crazy!). We ended up doing a rather complicated move to turn around and pull in backwards to face the trees for some semblance of privacy, and forgoing the benefits of ‘full hook-ups’.
We loved the location, the park itself .. but the variety of site quality was really annoying.
Totally agree. The pull-throughs on the east-side (right) loop are definitely not anywhere as nice as those on the west-side (left), and like you said you still pay premium $$$ for them. I did mention that the pull-throughs on the left are the best ones, but I’ve added an extra note to the post to make that distinction clearer.
Nina
Glad you guys got together and enjoyed your stay on James Island, that park is awesome, the christmas lights are so well done too. Im a wee bit biased as we used to live there, before we cashed out and went sailing, then moved to the NC mountains. Charleston has a lot of happy memories for our family, and we are there as often as we can….at least annually for the Bridge Run. Good Luck in the boat shopping process, hope you have a similar experience with yacht brokers as Jason & Nikki did….
This park is all about the pooches! When we stayed here, the mosquitoes about carried us away. We still enjoyed ourselves. The dog park was the highlight!
Bummer about the skeeters! We had a few days of mosquitoes (our first few days), but then it cooled down and it was mostly bug-free and very pleasant. Cheers for the info that the skeeters get bad here (that’s useful to know) and totally agree this park is AWESOME for the dogs.
Nina
Watching on your travels. Looks like you’re having a good time. Love all your Campground posts. Next year we’re going to be going from Arizona to Florida up the east coast and up and back down.
Thanks, be safe…
Sounds like a great adventure! Good travels to you!
Nina
Thanks for the review. It was really well done. We will have to check out the park soon. We live in Tallahassee FL.
Check out our blog there may be some place we have been that will interest. See you down the road.
Chrisandbobduggan.com
At those prices you guys have got to be missing boondocking…
Can’t deny that we do! We’ve been lucky out East in that we’ve managed to moderate some of our higher $$$ campgrounds (like this one) with less $ stays including Elks, free overnight spots and a few generous hosts. But overall our daily camp rate has certainly increased. I’m not sure exactly where we’ll end up for the year, but it won’t be anywhere near our West coast spend.
Nina
I have been going to this park for many years either in March or October. I already have my reservation for my favorite large site. -Nancy
Nice! I can definitely see this as a spot to come back to over and over.
Nina
We love this park! Our son lives on James Island, so we go down quite often, and even if we are not camping there we take Max and Lexie over to the dog park. Don’t try and get a spot anytime around the Christmas holidays though, I have been on a wait list for about a year and a half to stop on our way to FL between Christmas and New Years since we’ll have a toad and it will be difficult parking at our sons house. FYI there is dry camping in the parking garage downtown Charleston at the visitors center. Not a bad spot for an overnight to explore downtown and enjoy the nightlife and amazing restaurant options!
Wow….a year and a half waitlist for a spot at Christmas!! Even the overflow is full? I had no idea the list was so long, but I can certainly understand the appeal. It really is a lovely park and the Christmas lights are amazing.
And cheers for the tip on the Charleston parking garage. We’ve had a few friends (in smaller rigs) use that option. I hear it’s somewhat noisy, but in a good location.
Nina
I had looked at this campground once, but thought we might have problems getting to it because of low tree branches. Did you encounter any issues on the roads to the park?
No problem with tree branches within the park. There were lots of old oak trees along Riverland Drive (the road right before the park), and although they “looked” a little scary they all seem to be trimmed to the appropriate height for trucks & bigger rigs. We had no issues at all.
Nina
Another fantastic campground review Nina. You are so through. I really appreciate it. Your reviews are the last word on where to stay for me. The park looks great even at an ouch price. If you are the only game in or near a popular town, town like Cherry Hill near DC, you can do it.
Yeah, this is one of those parks where I’m willing to pay the extra $$ for the location and full experience. I’m glad we were able to get in.
Nina
Have reserved a spot at this park for a week at the end of March. A friend is flying out to meet us and visit for a week, and this campground looked like it had lots of activities to enjoy in addition to visiting the Charleston area. Thanks for a great review. Not as excited about the “buddy spot” we have reserved, but it was the last one available for the week we needed. Hope we can make the best of it.
Yeah those Buddy sites aren’t ideal, but you’re going to LOVE the park and location! Such a great spot. Have fun!
Nina
Thank you so much for your helpful comments about this campground and your video. We first found you last year while looking at Skid Away Island State Park. Although, sadly that trip was cancelled due to the Hurricane. But we do plan to go there someday.
I am calling tomorrow to book our stay for here and I hope to get one of the sites you all recommended.
Excellent! Hope you enjoy the park as much as we have!
Nina