Travel dates: June 4-9, 2018
If you’re looking into your RV-friendly campground options close to New York City, the first place you’ll hear about is Liberty Harbor, just across the river in Jersey City. After that, people mention Black Bear Campground, 60 miles north of Manhattan, and a couple of KOAs that are even farther away.
I’m not sure why Croton Point Park, in Croton-on-Hudson, doesn’t make more of the lists. It’s considerably closer and cheaper than Black Bear (35 miles away), directly on the train line, and it offers lower pricing, more spacious sites, and more amenities than Liberty Harbor. If you want to be as close to the action as you can get, Liberty Harbor is definitely your best, but if you’re willing to trade a bit of proximity for full hook-ups (Liberty Harbor only has w/e sites) and some room to spread out, Croton Point Park is a great option (and about half the price). You also don’t have to navigate Jersey City with your rig, which, having driven there with a minivan before, was a big selling point for me.
And some nice Hudson views:
Booking and Arrival
You have to call the park to make a reservation; they start taking reservations the first business day of January for the year (limited RV camping is available year round). We did this in early January, and had no problem getting a site, but the campground looked to be full while we were there (during the week in very early June), so definitely book as early as you can, even for weeknights in the shoulder season. This is a county park, so keep in mind that you’ll be talking to park employees, not RV people….we found there was some….variety in both how friendly and how helpful the park employees were, but we didn’t have any big problems. If I remember right, they were a little tricky to get in touch with to actually make the reservation.
We called while we were on the way to ask about the best route (I find New York maddeningly hard to navigate with an RV, thanks to all the parkways with low overpasses). Our phone wanted to take us on a route that was for passenger cars only; the people at the park said we should take 9 from the Tappan Zee Bridge. We did this and had no problems, although 9 does get narrow in places, is quite bumpy, and passes through quite a few tiny downtowns.
When you get to the park, you need to pull over at the office before you get to the guard booth to check in. Otherwise the guard booth guys will make you turn around and go back.
Campsites
The interior roads are gravel and fairly tight. We had a bit of trouble getting into our site initially because there were cars parked right across from it on the narrow road. But then we tried again taking better advantage of the wide grassy area next to our site (i.e. we were able to cut the corner less sharply backing in) and had no more problems.
We had site 22, which was on a corner near the playground, so that we had a huge “yard:”
As you can see, though, the sites aren’t very long (we had plenty of room for the van, but had to park sideways), and they’re fairly primitive gravel (spotty gravel) sites. There are full-hook up sites (30 amp) for $55/night and W/E sites for $5 cheaper.
We were a little disappointed when we first saw our site and how it was not very fancy at all, but once we were in it it was a really nice spot.
Our site was one of my favorites because of the big area on the side, but all of them are pretty spacious, and there’s a lot of shade spread throughout the campground. Much of the campground is filled with long term residents. There are also cabins available and tent sites (both in separate areas of the park).
Amenities and Activities:
Croton Point Park is a big county park with a lot of activities in season. There are trails, fishing, boating, a beach with swimming area (and a creepy old empty swimming pool near the campground. Fun!), and a nature center.
We didn’t have time to take advantage of many of those, but we did enjoy the playground right next to our site:
We also took some walks down the road to the cabin area for some great views of the river.
The bathhouse is okay, but dated and it plays host to many insects. We didn’t need to use it much since we had full hook-ups, though. There’s no wifi, but we had a good Verizon signal.
One thing that definitely could use some attention here is the dumpster area. There are several dumpsters that were completely overflowing the whole time we were there (and, judging from the reviews, this is pretty typical), with approximately a million stray cats running around. There are big signs reading, “Do not feed the cats,” which is sort of hilarious: as if people wandering over there and giving the cats food is the problem, rather than the fact that there’s trash all over the place for the cats to rummage through. So, yeah, step up the trash collection schedule, Croton Point, and you’ll have a much nicer campground on your hands!
Local Area
We were here to see NYC and to visit some sites in the Hudson Valley, and this served as a good central location for doing both of those things. In the immediate area, there’s ample shopping and restaurants and a few notable sites (Van Cortlandt Manor is mentioned a lot). We boarded the dogs at the Hudson Veterinary Hospital down the road in Ossining (since we were going to have a few very long days away from the trailer), and we recommend them highly.
But the main draw for us was the relative proximity of NYC and of the train into the city. The train station is right outside of the park. It’s a little under 2 miles from the actual campground, so it’d be quite a hike, but you could bike there fairly easily (if you don’t mind biking uphill at the end of the day). We drove there, though, and found plenty of daily parking still available at at little after nine in the morning. Parking is around $10/day. The train takes you either to the Harlem 125th street stop or to Grand Central Station in about 50 minutes. At non-peak times, ticket are around $10/person. We found taking the train to be very pleasant and easy, and we were very happy not to have attempted to drive!
To sum up: Croton Point Park has its flaws, but we had a great stay here, and we think it’s an underrated campground option for visiting NYC (and the Hudson Valley).
Maybe you would like to pin this?
Leave a Reply