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New Post 1/18/2011 12:14 PM
  pierrot80
3 posts




Camping near the beach  
Hello everyone,

I am from Calirfornia and we plan to do a 3 month road trip all over the US, and we were wondering with my wife where are the best places in North Carolina because it is a pretty nice area.
We wanted to have some feedback and stories because we dont know much just with the websites besides regular information.

Thanks for sharing guys.

 
New Post 8/2/2011 4:55 PM
  abreu88
33 posts




Re: Camping near the beach  
hey if you have an iPhone or Android phone you can easily look it up on the Camp Finder app on ur phone. They have reviews!

Sorry never camped in NC so thats the best I can do.

Good Luck!







 
New Post 1/12/2012 11:48 AM
  TarHeelCamper
9 posts




Re: Camping near the beach  
We have lived here in North Carolina for many years. I got stationed here a long time ago, and we never wanted to leave. You can read about some of our travels in our travel blog, www.tarheelcamper.com. You should note that aside from the handful of bigger cities, large parts of North Carolina were mainly agricultural for many years, and it is easy to quickly get out in the middle of nowhere with all the rural areas across the state.

Where are you looking to go, specifically? What things interest you?

Once nice city to visit is Wilmington, NC. The KOA is nice there, although I don't know your preference on campgrounds. There is a lot to see and do around Wilmington, NC and it is a good home base to explore south eastern NC. As you go further north up the coast, it starts getting very rural and we haven't explored the area in our RV. If you are looking at the outer banks, expect to pay a premium price. We've never camped there because year round, the sites are way out of our budget regardless of any club discounts.

Charlotte, NC, is a nice place to visit, also. If you like NASCAR, the hall of fame is here, as well as over half of the garages of the race teams that you can visit, all within an hour or so of the city. There is also a quality amusement park if that is your thing. We've been happy with the Charlotte/Fort Mill KOA, if you don't mind a bit of a rustic campground.

Asheville, NC, is an interesting city with lots of artsy types there. We've stayed at both the Asheville East and West KOA campgrounds, and although we prefer the West one, the East one is closer to the city.

Cherokee is a unique place to go, and has a casino, if you like to part with your money that way. We have stayed at the Cherokee KOA numerous times, and always enjoy our times there. It's close to the entrance of the Blue Ridge Parkway as well as the Smoky Mountain National Park (that is always free). You can easily spend a week in that area and not run out of things to do, since it's a fun drive through GSMNP, over the mountain and into Gatlinburg, TN and Pigeon Forge TN. Our blogs have some of our ventures into those areas.

So, anyway, I can write a whole book on what to see and do in North Carolina, but it depends on what your interests are.
 
New Post 1/12/2012 7:01 PM
  georgito
106 posts




Re: Camping near the beach  
TarHeel: How far away is Charlotte/Fort Mill from the NASCAR area? And how far in advance should you suggest to book a reservation there? My kids have been wanting to watch the races, and I'm planning to surprise them this year with a trip to it.
 
New Post 1/13/2012 10:12 AM
  TarHeelCamper
9 posts




Re: Camping near the beach  
Let me start by saying that traffic around the Charlotte area is almost as bad as traffic around Atlanta. You'll be best served to not come into town between 7-9 AM and 4-7 PM M-F. That's the peak of rush hour traffic, and you'll really feel it in a lot of areas. All the numbers I'm giving you are based on NOT attempting this during rush hour. When there is a race going on, you will note that over 150,000 people who normally aren't around the track show up. Traffic will be backed up for a few miles in all directions around the track during race day.

The Charlotte/Fort Mill KOA is a few miles across the border into South Carolina, south of Charlotte. You can make it from there to uptown Charlotte and the Nascar hall of fame in about 15 minutes. It's about 30-35 minutes to Charlotte Motor Speedway (I77N to I-85N to Bruton Smith Blvd). Once you get near Bruton Smith Blvd, it can be another 30-60 minutes to get to the track during race day, about 2 minutes any other time of the year. If it were me, on I-85N, I would get off on I-485 Inner Loop, then take the next exit (Hwy 29 I think it is) to the speedway. There are signs, and that road is configured with the overhead lane lights to maximize race traffic so it tends to move a bit quicker.

When NASCAR was at its heights before they ticked a bunch of its fans off and lost viewers and fans (like me), you really needed to make your reservations a year in advance to find a place. I would contact Charlotte KOA now to see if they had a space. If you don't want to deal with traffic, but don't mind paying a higher premium, there is a campground near the track and Tom Johnson RV center. They may be booked up by now, but are easy walking distance from the track. I wouldn't recommend trying any other camping around the track unless you want to pay a very high fee for just dry camping.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
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