We just returned from another great family road trip. This one was one of our favorites we’ve taken so far. Every fall we go to the beach for 3 weeks, but this year we decided to do something different during the months of September and October. We were going to take advantage of the cheap cruise prices on Disney, so we booked a Disney cruise. About a month before the trip, it was canceled so we wanted to come up with a different idea that all of us would enjoy.
We all agreed a trip through the Northeast in September sounded fun.
A lot of people plan this trip for months, even years. We had one month to get it planned and get on the road. While a couple of campgrounds weren’t available because they were completely full, for the most part the campgrounds that were important for us to stay at in a couple of states had a spot available, so that was great!
We left on a Thursday and drove to an overnight stop in Virginia at the Natural Bridge / Lexington KOA. We literally only stayed here to spend the night (we didn’t even unhook our rig from the truck) but it was a super clean KOA that was close to Natural Bridge State Park in Virginia that we would definitely come back to.
We woke up early the next morning and headed to the DC area where we stayed at Cherry Hill Park Campground in College Park, Maryland. It’s actually the closest campground to Washington DC. We had seen several great reviews about this campground from a few RV Youtubers we watch and knew this was where we wanted to stay while visiting Washington DC. Our visit in DC was quick, we knew that going in (just one night). We wanted to do an overview of DC to know what we wanted to come back to visit for a long weekend trip sometime soon. So, we unhooked the camper when we arrived at Cherry Hill Park and bought tickets for a Moonlit Tour with Signature Tours of DC. We grabbed a quick dinner at a great Italian restaurant, went on the tour and absolutely LOVED it. All 6 of us loved it. It was so neat to see DC after dark with all the lights on the monuments and it was great because it was an “on/off tour” so getting off to explore the different stops was a plus. We highly recommend this for families or even couples who are visiting DC.
We only stayed in DC one night before moving on to the next stop…New York! We couldn’t find a campground within an hour of the city, so we settled on trying to find a place to drop the camper overnight while we stayed in a hotel in the city. A couple of our kids had never been to NYC and were really looking forward to this stop, so we wanted to maximize our time there by staying close. The more we looked, the more we just couldn’t find anywhere to stay for that one night. Joe looked a little deeper online and found the cutest little spot to camp about an hour and 15 minutes from Staten Island where we could catch the ferry over to the city. It was called Driftstone on the Delaware and is located in Mt. Bethel, PA. It is the cutest, mom and pop campground that we’ve probably ever stayed at. We arrived and were expecting a not so great site due to a last minute reservation that we made, but arrived and asked if there had been any cancelations on the river side and there had, so we lucked out and got an amazing site on the water.
We arrived on Saturday night after dark, set up our campsite really quick, went to bed, and woke up early the next morning and were gone by 7am to drive to Staten Island. This drive was beautiful and so easy. We spent the day in NYC doing all the things the kids wanted to do. It was a very long day (we didn’t arrive back at the campground ’till almost 1am) but the kids loved it. Joe and I have done all the things in NYC a couple of times before, so the entire day we wanted to make sure each kid visited what was important to them in the city. We plan to go back next year for Thanksgiving with friends and will have more time to be tourists and do everything with our kids in the city.
After our stop in Pennsylvania, we traveled on to Maine where we arrived at Sandy Pines Campground in Kennebunkport. We had heard great things about this campground from a couple of friends and those Youtubers that we love to watch, so we knew this was going to be a hit and it was! Sandy Pines Campground is a great place to visit if you’re ever in the Kennebunkport/Portland Maine area. Whether you’re bringing a rig and camping, or choosing to stay in one of their cabins or yurts and glamp, there is so much that this Campground/Resort offers. Two thumbs up from our family for sure. We stayed here 2 nights and had 1 full day to explore the area.
Things to do/Must See in Kennebunkport:
- Cape Pier Chowder House
- Stroll and shop around downtown Kennebunkport and Kennebunk
- Walker’s Point – the Bush family compound
- Drive along Ocean Avenue
- Visit Saint Ann’s Church
- Visit Good Rocks Beach
- Visit Kennebunk Beach
Now, on to the campground we were most excited about and discovered while searching for campgrounds online for this trip. It’s brand new (opened this year, 2021) and is beautiful! West Bay Acadia Campground is an International Dark Sky Place Campground. This is a real thing and it is amazing! They practice “Lights Out” when it is dark every night – meaning all outdoor lights must be out when the sun goes down. It’s amazing the stars that you’ll see, the critters that can be found there after dark, and it’s a great time/place to practice your nighttime photography. You can read more about the Dark Sky Campground here. This was probably our favorite campground that we were at while on our two week adventure. Every campsite has a great view of the bay, no matter which site you’re in. There isn’t a bathhouse at this time (since it’s such a new campground, I’m not sure if they’re going to put that in or not, but just FYI) and it was our first time to use our toilets in any camper that we’ve had. We normally have a use the bathhouse only policy for going to the bathroom, but we really wanted to stay at this beautiful campground, so we just tried to “plan” bathroom breaks while we were out and about and made due with the few times that we had to use the camper toilet.
While we were at West Bay Acadia, we visited all over Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. We LOVED the Schoodic Peninsula part of Acadia the best and will go back sometime to the campgrounds there inside the National Park (they even have hookups there!).
Things to do/ Must See Things in Acadia/Bar Harbor:
- Cadillac Mountain (the place where the sun hits the US first every morning)
- Park Loop Road
- Visit Schoodic Point/Peninsula
- Visit Thunder Hole
- Stroll and shop around downtown Bar Harbor
- Go Whale Watching
- Eat at The Chart Room – this was our favorite place to eat in Bar Harbor
After our 3 nights in the Acadia/Bar area, we drove all day through New Hampshire to Vermont – and let me just go ahead and say – this was my favorite and Joe’s favorite stop of the trip. It was absolutely stunning and we WILL be back to visit so we can stay longer. The campground we wanted to stay at didn’t have a campsite, so we stayed at the Mountain View Campground and it was just ok. We were only there to sleep 2 nights and had 1 full day of exploring Stowe, VT (which wasn’t enough).
Things to do/Must See in Stowe, Vermont:
- Use GypsyGuide and take a GPS tour of Stowe, VT and Route 100
- Visit the Ben & Jerry’s factory/shop.
- Visit Sage Farm and their farm store
- Visit Cold Hollow Cider Mill – you can easily spend a couple hours here, we even went twice!
Now, onto Niagara Falls. We didn’t plan alot of time at this stop, and that was a good thing. We did the Maid of the Mist and walked around the park right next to the falls, but that was pretty much it. There isn’t a ton to do on the US side and it isn’t all that pretty compared to the Canadian side. But, because of Covid, we weren’t able to cross over into Canada. The boat ride was fun and a must do if you haven’t done it before, but don’t plan alot of time on the US side of the falls. We stayed at Niagara Shores Campground and had a waterfront campsite of Lake Ontario. The campsite was pretty, but the campground as a whole was just “Eh, ok”.
Once we left the Niagara Falls area, we drove to just outside of Columbus, OH and stayed at a great KOA for the night (just to break up the 11 hour drive home from Niagara). If you’re ever in the Columbus, OH area and need somewhere to camp, we recommend the Sunbury/Columbus North KOA. There’s so much to do inside the campground for kids, they’ll never be board.
After visiting 15 states, traveling 4000+ miles, being on the road for 2 weeks, and seeing SO much together, we all ended the trip still liking eachother and ready to begin planning our next big road trip together. We love this time together and have a goal of seeing as much as we can of our country before our kids are out of high school. You only get these moments for so long, and it’s so important to us that they see the country/world and to cultivate a love for traveling, being in different environments, and coming across different types of people.
Make sure to also follow along on Instagram to see where we’re heading next. You can view our “Northeast” highlight on Instagram under my profile as well.
Have you ever traveled to the Northeast? What was your favorite stop/state?
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