On this episode of Campground of the Week, Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi of RV Family Travel Atlas review Cherry Hill Park in College Park, Maryland just outside of Washington DC.
The Campground
This campground is their preferred choice for exploring the amazing city of Washington DC, and they highly recommend it as an “Urban Basecamp”, a campground that gives you easy access to a great American city.
Cherry Hill park is located within a highly urban area, so campers need to be prepared for some road noise. The tradeoff is that you are under 30 minutes from the major attractions in Washington DC. You also have access to DCs public transportation system–there is a bus stop within the campground that will take you to the Metro, and Metro cards are available for sale in the camp store. That’s about as easy as it gets!
The campground itself offers virtually every amenity you can imagine, from pools and spray grounds to a hot tube and sauna. They have a fitness room and club house with lots of great seating and a cozy fireplace for chilly or rainy days. Cherry Hill Park also has a snack bar and game room. The playgrounds are not brand new, but they are well maintained and spacious, offering plenty of room for the kids to play.
For an urban base camp, this campground offers plenty of opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors, with actual walking trails right on site. This is a large, sprawling property and if you are traveling with dogs they will love the long walks on the trails and the two dog parks.
If you want to explore Washington DC, Jeremy and Stephanie don’t think there is a better option available than Cherry Hill Park in College Park, Maryland.
Exploring Washington DC
Jeremy and Stephanie have covered Washington DC extensively on the RV Family Travel Atlas podcast, so make sure you check out these episodes and blog posts if you are planning a trip. They also wrote about visiting DC in their book, Idiot’s Guide to RV Vacations.
Their strategy is to choose a few top picks for each trip, and then fill in with additional activities if their is time. Make sure that you reserve any timed tickets well in advance of your trip. Some of the attractions that will require advanced reservations are: Washington Monument, White House Tour, Capitol Tour, Ford’s Theater, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
We like to pick a couple of monuments on the mall, a couple of Smithsonians, and perhaps an off the beaten path choice. Here are the attractions we talked about in this episode:
For more resources on planning an amazing trip to Washington, DC, check out what our friends from over at Kidtripster have to say here, here and here.
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