Lowcountry Camping Along the South Carolina and Georgia Coast, part 1

Camping along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts allows you to experience one of the most soothing landscapes in the country more intimately. While you can visit some beautiful beaches along this stretch of the Atlantic Coast, this region offers something more and something unique. You can see pristine natural beauty, enjoy two of the most elegant cities in the U.S. (Charleston and Savannah), and explore fascinating historical sites. Visiting Gullah communities is an antidote to the all too common commercialized homogeneity of American towns.

We go here when we need the absolute peace and tranquility of the marshes or we're craving the phenomenally good food. We sometimes fit in a swim in the Atlantic, but not always.

You can spend a small fortune on a long weekend in this area. I would love to stay at one of the historic inns like The Greyfield on Cumberland Island or The Lodge on Little St. Simons. For elegance and luxury, there's nothing like The Cloister. There are more moderately priced hotels and vacation rentals, but nothing beats camping as a budget- friendly option.

I'll share six options for camping in this region. We have enjoyed them all, and each one has something different to offer. In this post I'll introduce the three Lowcountry South Carolina options we like, and I'll follow up with a post about the three in coastal Georgia.

Traveling from north to south, the first of these parks is James Island County Park, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

This well-developed county park campground is only 20 minutes from the heart of Charleston. Staying here allows easy access to all of the fascinating sites in Charleston and the beaches of Folly and Kiawah Islands.

More suburban than wilderness in feel, amenities include a water park, disc golf course, climbing wall and a really wonderful dog park. Primitive tent camping here is around $35/ night (as of March 2023) and even a full hook-up RV sites start around $60. Charleston is full of amazing restaurants. We tend to focus on seafood when we are on the coast and two of our favorites are dog-friendly Bowen's Island Restaurant and Ellis Creek Fish Camp.

The closest beaches are only 15 minutes away on Folly Island. Folly Beach has a nice beach town feel and welcomes visitors. As with any South Carolina beach visit, though, it is helpful to think about parking before you arrive. The city of Folly Beach has a nice guide to parking on their website. While South Carolina beaches are all public, parking near the beach and accessing the beach isn't always easy. Some communities even pass on state help with beach restoration to avoid providing public access to their beaches. (The Post and Courier has an interesting article about the in's and out's of South Carolina beach access.)  Leashed dogs are allowed on the beach all day  November-April. During the other months, dogs are allowed before 10 am and after 6 pm. Charleston County has a nice summary of all the pet rules for the area parks and beaches here.

We also like Kiawah Island and Beachcombers Beach Park. Kiawah is a private island with a chi chi atmosphere, but this careful control means development along the beachfront is minimal and the public access park has great amenities. Dogs are allowed on most of the beach year-round. The town publishes a great map showing where dogs are allowed and when then have to be on leash. There is even a dog washing station by the Beach Park bathrooms. There isn't any free parking here. We stopped here on our way out of town and had to pay $40 to park the camper in the beach lot. For regular vehicles, parking is $5-15 depending on the season.

A little further down the South Carolina coast, Hunting Island State Park has an amazing campground near the beach and feels as close to nature as possible in a developed campground. The tent sites here are steps from the beach. This park is about 2 hours from Charleston and 2 hours from Savannah, but groceries and restaurants can be found in the nearby town of Beaufort which is just a 30-40 minute drive. (This is "BEW-fert" South Carolina, by the way. Not "Bow-fert" North Carolina.) Campsites here cost between $55-70 dollars a night. Reservations are important--particularly for the RV sites.

This beach is famous for shark's teeth and we did find a couple on our walks. What I found more fascinating was the abundance of sea creatures I could observe at low-tide on the part of the beach reserved for nature. Starfish, sand dollars, lettered olives all living and burrowing into the sand as the water retreated. Dogs are allowed on the beach near the campground, but not where the beach is set aside for nature. Needless to say if you like birdwatching or star-gazing, this is a great park.

Our last stop in South Carolina is just inland from Bluffton and Hilton Head. Triple Oaks Trail is a great place in Ridgeland available through Hipcamp, close to I-95. The family that lives on this property built 4 campsites, two with water and electric hook-ups two without. They have a fully plumbed outhouse with a toilet and sink available for use as well. It is lovely land with moss-draped oaks. With hook-ups the sites are around $60 a night. If you have a tent or just want to boondock for your stay the sites are around $40.

From this campsite, we enjoyed seeing a quieter side of the Lowcountry. We went kayaking from a small public boat ramp nearby (Bolan Hall Boat Ramp), and spent a nice evening in Ridgeland, eating dinner at Fiddler's Seafood.

This is also a convenient location to use a base to visit Hilton Head and Bluffton. Bluffton has a revitalized old-town area that has interesting shops and restaurants. We love the seafood at Hudson's in Hilton Head, and we've enjoyed listening to music while enjoying a meal with our dogs at Fish Camp on Broad Creek.  To be completely honest, Hilton Head isn't one of my favorite places. It is pretty but the tasteful uniformity is a bit much for me. Hilton Head does have public access beaches, although parking can be challenging at some, and not all are suitable for swimming. The South Carolina tourism board has a complete list of public beaches on Hilton Head and the parking available at each one.

If you aren't traveling with dogs, a trip over to Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge would be a great way to spend a day.

Ridgeland is only about an hour from Savannah, so you could incorporate a day trip into Savannah as well, but for a Savannah visit there is another, even more convenient camping option....

When to go:

Because we are usually in our camper, we camp on the coast year-round, but if you are tent camping, I would recommend visiting in the fall (October-mid December) or spring (late February through early April). Summer will be brutally hot, muggy and full of biting insects even at night unless you can get a sea breeze. If you are tent camping and can only travel June through August, Hunting Island would still be worth it I think, but skip the other choices on this list unless you know you don't mind southern summers. Winter is more of a gamble. You may have pleasant weather anywhere along the coast, or you may be shivering through a cold snap.