Sea Pirate campground is located in West Creek, NJ. It is a privately owned campground with alot of things that I like in a campground:
1. Close to the beach – It's just a couple of miles from Long Beach Island
2. Clean – The store, restrooms, laundry facility, pool and all public areas were well maintained and clean.
3. Spacious – The site(s) we stayed in and all that we saw were a good size, most had grass and trees and were in good repair. All hookups functioned properly.
4. Seasonal Sites – All the seasonal sites were clean and well maintained. We didn't see any that were old and delapidated. The residents seemed to keep their sites nice and neat.
5. Activities – There is plenty of things to do at this campground including: swimming pool, fishing, crabbing, coordinated arts & crafts and regularly scheduled and well attended evening activities.
6. Moderately priced – As of 2009 the sites ranged from $32 to $45 per night which is well worth the price in my opinion.
We have stayed at this campground twice now and will definitely go back again.
The staff was friendly and professional, the owner was a very nice older woman who spent lots of time in and around the campground helping out and just enjoying herself.
They have an annual crabfest there every year and if you get the chance it is definitely worth it. Plenty of crab, food, beer and live entertainment. There is always something going on at the campground during the summer.
There are several good restaurants in the area so if you want to go out to eat you can and you don't have to drive to LBI to do so. I say this because sometimes when we go camping for a weekend we don't like to worry about cooking dinner on Friday night after we get there and get our site all setup. We went to the Grapevine II restaurant right down the road thinking it was just a pizza place but it was way more than that. It was a good quality moderatly priced italian restaurant that we really enjoyed!
If it does happen to rain while you are there it's not really a big deal. Our site(s) and most of the sites we saw were fairly level and graded well so the water drains off fairly quickly. The fact that there are so many trees around does mean that the ground itself stays a little wet for awhile so be prepared with mats and/or external rugs to get most of the dirt and mud off your shoes before you go into your tent/trailer.
The only negative experience we had while there wasn't the fault of the campground and would not prevent us from returning but you should be aware of it: Mosquitos. There were alot of them around during the summer of 2009 but that was true of the entire state of New Jersey not just Sea Pirate. So just make sure to bring extra bug spray and your favorite area clearing bug repellant (I personally like the Coleman Mosquito Deleto – pricey but keeps the average campsite pretty clear of the little annoyances!).
I highly recommend Sea Pirate to everyone I talk to. Check them out at: Sea Pirate Campground
Till Next Time…
Eric
Tags: campground, nj camping, sea pirate campground
Is there such a thing as a "New Jersey Camping Guide"?
Yes and no.
There are a couple of "guides" out there that talk about New Jersey camping areas and facilities. There is one that I think is really, really good. My only problem with them is that they don't seem to be complete to me.
They talk about camping in the northwestern part of the state, they talk about the shore regions, they talk about the pine barrens but unfortunately none of them seem to be as complete as I would like to see. It might be that the publication might be focused on one particular region and cover that region incredibly well but they might not be as familiar with the Skylands region or the Gateway region.
Here is what I would like to see in a New Jersey Camping Guide:
1. Cover each of the six major regions in the Garden state: Skyland, Gateway, Shore, Delaware, Atlantic and Southern.
2. List each and every known campground, public and private, that can be verified to exist at the time of publishing.
3. Give details of each campground to include at least:
a. Contact Info: address, phone, email, web address, etc…
b. Proximity to major attractions: beach, theme parks, cultural areas
c. Campground Map
d. Size of Sites
e. Prices for sites
f. Details of facilities: pool, playground, lake, fishing, sports, arts & crafts, etc…
g. General Info: do they charge for visitors, how many vehicles can be on site, cancellation policy, etc…
h. Calendar of Events
i. Dates of Operation
j. Some reviews of facility
4. List Major attractions for each region:
a. Theme parks
b. Beaches
c. Arts
d. Sports Arenas
e. Local Attractions
f. Anything that a tourist or local would like to visit
5. Provide details of the type of camping available in each region. Mountainous area? Sandy area? Lots of grass? Traffic congestion? etc…
6. Average temperatures in region during "normal" camping season (March to November).
I'm basically looking for a camping guide that I can turn to that will answer just about any question I have about where to go camping in New Jersey. I don't want to have to look in this guide if I want to camp down south, another one if I want to camp up north and then have to look online for average temperatures, local attractions and campground prices.
See when my family and I plan out our camping schedule for the year (usually in February) we usually sit down around the kitchen table with our calendar(s) and try to plan a trip or two per month from March to November (we would go all year round but my wife refuses to go camping when the temperature doesn't even have the chance to go above freezing!). Right now when we do this I grab the couple of guides I have, our calendars, our maps of the state and my laptop and it takes us multiple hours to do this planning. If there was a single exhaustive guide as I am suggesting it would make our lives and our planning much, much simpler.
I don't even know of any website that has all of that information in one place including mine!
Till Next Time…
Eric
Tags: new jersey camping guide, nj camping