North Beach Campground

Friendly staff and reasonable rates. The campground is also the entrance to a public park and beach, so there is a lot of traffic and no one takes note of any form of speed limit. Having the public zooming past your campsite constantly is not ideal. If booking online, don't put much trust in the site descriptions as they do not seem to be accurate in regard to length. Pets are welcome, though not allowed on the beach.

...though I honestly wasn't looking very hard and am not sure I even know what they look like.

That said, this was still a great camping experience! I even pitched a tent. In the outdoors!

While one could fable on about proximity to the trendy, vibrant Church Street / downtown of Burlington or attempt an ooh or an ahh out of describing the curving, tree lined shores of Lake Champlain just a short walk away, I think the highlight for me was when two guys pulled into the spot next to us, one with a pickup truck, the other with a pickup truck's load worth of stuff.

His wife, the guy with the stuff (but not the truck), had kicked him out. And so his buddy (you know, the one who had a truck big enough to fit this stuff) drove him out here to figure it out.

He had a tent, some pillows, a few blankets. I watched him set up as the truck guy chatted me up about our own situation, his life, and what this newly single friend of us had been through. Normal stuff. Wives, cheating, that sort of thing.

Then the guy setting up camp continues unloading his every worldly possession. A few boxes marked "dishes" or maybe "get the $&!# out", a toolbox, a garbage bag of clothes, and the grand finale: a full on chest high floor lamp.

The chatty friend, you know, the one with the truck (but apparently not a spare sofa) takes off. I go back to my family, my life.

At some point I see the guy plug in his lamp.

I wonder, what kind of a dude gets kicked out of his house and the only person he can call is another guy who isn't a friend enough to offer him a place to sleep for a night or two, but is willing to help him move into a campground.

It gets late. I go to sleep. I don't think he ever did turn that lamp on.

I absolutely love Burlington, but this is basically a parking lot. Sites are very close together, it's very loud, and there's no privacy. Worse, the campground is the way cyclists and pedestrians leave a trail system, so a bunch of non-campground guests will walk through your campsite, and bikes speed by very fast, at all hours. Needless to say, your property is not safe being unattended.

The shower was very gross, and construction vehicles were rearranging picnic tables during the day. I woke up my second night here to someone who was possibly homeless pulling on my door handle, trying to get in.

If they cut the campsites in half, routed non-guests around the campground, and had the office in view of the campsites, I'd feel a lot better. Absent that, I don't feel it's safe, nor comfortable.

I do have one really great thing to say: this place has killer, free wi-fi. Like, over 100mbps. It's best near the shower building.

When visiting Burlington, this is where you need to try to stay. It was suggested to us by friends and it did not disappoint.

Getting there is a bit tough because you have to drive through downtown Burlington and potentially pass the University of Vermont - so just a lot of people around.

The campground is basically the entrance to the beach so that is great for you (you can easily walk there) but also means everyone else going to the beach will be going past you. The first 20 or so sites (the larger full hookups) are on the road that takes people to the beach. If you are able to get in the spots that are not on that first row, it will be a lot less traffic though.

Driving back to downtown is only about 1.5-2 miles and it is great. Some free parking can be found near downtown but actually the meters were only $1.50 per hour so that was not bad.

The sites in the park were pretty good overall but the entry dropped off from the road just a little bit. Probably not a big deal for smaller rigs, but we had a little trouble getting in and out. Hookups were good. Actually have 2 sewer hookups for each site (1 on each side) so whatever works best for you.

Park was clean and kept up and maintenance was around working on things so that is nice.

Oh - GREAT free internet!!

One problem is how fast cars drive through. This is a concern obviously because our kids and ourselves walking around. It is different from normal campgrounds where people understand and respect the 5 mph signs, but the majority of cars here are coming and going from the beach or kids walking down to the beach from the high school. We just looked a few times before going into the street at all. I will be contacting the Burlington Parks Department (who runs this) to try to get speed bumps put in - so I hope that works...

Some of the sites are definitely close together. Great mix of grass and tree cover - our site was a 60 second walk to the beautiful beach. Free wifi is a huge bonus but there's definitely more foot traffic through here because of the access to the beach and rec path (which is also awesome). It's a 15 minute bike ride to the downtown/Church Street area. Restrooms are decent - didn't use the showers but they are free - but you have to use a quarter to start the timer then it's returned to you. There was quite a bit of yard work noise which was my least favorite part.

We really enjoyed our three-day, two-night stay here with our dog. There was so much to do that we never even drove into town. The campground is not on the beach but is about a one minute walk from the public beach, with great swimming and kayak rentals available in season. We fell asleep listening to the waves lap the shore of Lake Champlain. The Burlington bike path goes between the campground and the beach, and is very popular with the locals. We enjoyed walking and jogging on the bike path and biking a little over a mile to the downtown area and waterfront. It was the perfect place to stay with a dog. There is a great fenced-in dog park just down the bike path, as well as a small dog-friendly beach. Just to the north there are hiking trails on Lone Rock Point. The campsites are spacious and the bathroom, though dated, is clean. Showers are free; you just need one quarter to turn it on and it spits your quarter back out. This would be an easy place to stay even without a car because you can walk into town so safely and easily. The bike path goes along the lakefront and is beautiful. For an urban campground, we were amazed to enjoy lots of nature and fresh air and cool breezes. I imagine this place could get busy during the high season and on weekends especially. We visited in early May so it was relatively quiet, aside from college kids hanging out on the beach. You do get people from the bike path cutting through the campground, so it might be wise to leave valuables in the car, but nobody stole our tent or sleeping bags! We definitely hope to come back again the next time we are in the area.

The campsites are way too close together so there is no privacy. Noise level is high since neighbors are practically in your lap.

Staff was very friendly and helpful and location on bike path great, but the overcrowding negated anything positive. They need to make the sites larger and have fewer of them.

I love nature and peace and quiet, not hearing a dozen conversations all going on at the same time.

Everything is relative. I am from the midwest, so I guess I've been spoiled. East coast camping leaves so much to be desired and North Beach is no exception. Variety of sites (primative to full hook-up). I'll speak to water/electric sites. Most of these sites are way too small! It is somewhat akin to camping at a tailgate or Nascar event. It definately feels like you are camping in a city park because you are. The bath house is decrepit and rundown. Cleaning crews manage to show up when most people want to access facility and incoveniently close it down. Water taps at site spray all over the place and ground does not absorb water. Park has curious portable campfire rings (an east coast thing?) that apparently are vacuumed up after use? Noisy? You bet. Hear the waves on the lake? Maybe if a storm is rolling in. On the bike path, convenient to the activities of dowtown Burlington, and near a beach? Definitely. Do non-campers pass through the campground? Yes. Do I have a better idea where to stay? Nope...because Vermont State parks campgrounds apparently are all primative. If you want to visit Burlington and need to camp, this is probably you best choice. If you want a great camping experience, then head (mid)west!

There are mixed reviews on this campground and I can totally see why some people hate it but I'm reviewing my experience. We got in on the big rig back in side. The 1-16 sites are the best. followed by the 106-116 sites. If I could not get 1 of these sites, I would probably not stay here again. The rest of the sites are extremely crowded, placed hap hazardly and packed.
With that said, this is an urban campground. The location is right on Lake Champlain and the bike trail and 1 mile from downtown Burlington and the Church St marketplace. You cannot beat the location for activities. Seriously, this bike trail is phenomenal. Also check out the causeway bike trail. The downtown area is really one of the nicest little downtowns I have ever seen. We stayed here 2 weeks and could not get enough of this place.

Their free wifi was the best I have ever seen clocking in at over 100mbps. That was not a typo..100. And it was good the entire time, no dead times of the day like most places.
I didn't use hotspots while I was here because of that but Verizon and ATT would have both been quite usable. Cell was just fine.

They have an onsite laundry I also didn't use. Instead, we used Clothes Quarters in Winooski and it was great (clean, good neighborhood, not busy) and avg priced.

Navigating through downtown was doable but I would suggest you take Main St, Right on Battery which then curves to North St. This right turn on Battery is turning onto a 2 driving lanes rather than the super tight 1 lanes which are throughout downtown. Big Rigs will have issues turning right onto 1 lanes here but Battery was no issue. Check out google street view for more detail.

Bathrooms were just fine during our stay and the sites were tidy, noise was not a problem.

This campground provided exactly what we were looking for. The Greenway adjacent to the campground makes an easy bike ride or nice little walk (1.5 miles) to the water front in Burlington. A restaurant is right there, or you can hike up the hill to more restaurant choices. The sites call for some minor leveling and yes, they are very close to your neighbor, but we expected that since it’s an urban campground. The full hookup sites are out in the open, but the rest are shaded. There is a big public beach just a five minute walk across the Greenway. We had a relaxing evening with dinner at a downtown pub and sunset at the waterfront overlooking Lake Champlain. I got my laundry done and we were able to take care of some business with the fairly reliable Wifi. The laundry room was basic: two washers and two dryers at $2 each. The bathhouse looked clean, but we didn’t use it. Our only complaint was the size of the speed bumps throughout - way too big for RV’s.