Fort Belvoir Travel Camp

First-- the pros: This RV park is located in a beautiful area right on the Potomac River. Second-- the cons: The kids who work in the office are clueless about all things RV with no understanding of hookups, necessity of level sites or even the ability to give simple directions or information about the base. Very few sites are level in any direction (i.e. side-to-side or end-to-end) to the extent that we had to try about a half-dozen sites before we found one in which our motor home auto-leveling system could level the coach. Aside from restrooms and laundry facilities, there are no other amenities in the park or even close by. Other parks in the Washington DC area are either much cheaper- i.e. Fort Meade-- and more RV friendly. Cherry Hill, with it's military rates and weekly rates comes in at or below Fort Belvoir's rates and has fantastic facilities and amenities and also a bus stop in the campground headed straight for downtown DC!! The management and Fort Belvoir leadership have no idea of what is important to RV'ers: if they did this campground would have been better designed, better built, and more military camper friendly with respect to policies, prices, reservations and cancellations. Do yourself a favor: Drive on by and stay north of the city at either Fort Meade or Cherry Hill. This is the most expensive military campground that we have encountered in seven years of full-timing and has the poorest site design.

I drove to the campground to check it out. It is in a scenic location but when I called the MWR they confirmed $60 a night. I filled in the ICE comment card about the price being so high and I recieved the following from the outdoor rec director: "I am sorry for your disappointment in our price at the Fort Belvoir Travel Camp. This is a brand new facility and is a revenue generating business for Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation at Fort Belvoir. The price was set after we compared other local and military campgrounds. Our prices are higher than our local competitors as we offer services, amenities and location above and beyond what anyone else has to offer. When determining price for our Travel Camp we did do lots of research, site visits and comparisons with the local military, regional, state and private Campgrounds. Many of our competitors that we compared to offer basic sites with gravel, 30 AMP electric hook-up, most site are without sewer and only a few have cable and WiFi. To better explain why our price is $60.00 per night here are our amenities and site specs. Each of our sites are brand new with a view of the Potomac River. Each site is made of concrete, the length is 40 feet long and each pad is 20 feet wide and include a 10ft by 10ft concrete extension with a picnic table. For RVs larger than 40ft we have Pull thru spaces that have an additional 12ft on both ends for your one additional vehicle at no additional charge. Each site also includes: water, 50 AMP electric hook-ups, sewer, cable, WiFi, a picnic table, and a BBQ Grill fire pit. The travel camp is gated with a brand new private shower and restroom accommodations. Within the same building there is a coin operated laundry facility. We do not charge anything extra for additional persons, vehicles or services. The Fort Belvoir Travel Camp is located within Tompkins Basin along the Potomac River. Each site has a great view of the Potomac River. The location of the travel camp and our close proximity to the DC metropolitan area make us a perfect tourist/vacation destination. Fort Belvoir is a 10 minute drive to Mount Vernon and only 20 miles from downtown DC. The travel camp is located in a perfect location that offers miles of trails, two new ADA accessible fishing piers and a recreational day use park with a playground, volleyball net, picnic area and a small beach. DFMWR at Fort Belvoir also has swimming pools, golf course, field houses, gyms, Auto Shop, Arts and Craft shop, framing shop and a bowling alley to enjoy during your stay. Other amenities on post include a movie theater, PX, Home and Garden & Commissary shopping, Spa and other recreational opportunities that are comparable to the local private campgrounds and far exceeds the other local military campgrounds. We also have mass transit that will take you to the metro or into DC if you are interested in those services during your stay. We encourage you to come visit our facility at any time and take a tour with us prior to making your decision that we are too pricey. We think you will be impressed with this brand new facility and hopefully you will change your mind about the value." While these are some valid points I don't think they justify a rate that is 3 times higher than say Cheatham Annex, near Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens or Sea Mist at Virginia Beach, both with new sites and facilities. Sigh.

S.C. left this review using the Directory software: - A very nice park, but expensive. On several visits to friends staying there, only 4 to 7 sites were occupied. A brand new park and not all concrete pads are level. Sewer is towards rear of pad and electrical/water/cable are more towards the center or front of pad. Personally, not worth $60 a night for a military campground.

I visited the site without my RV. To access the site, you must go down a steep hill and make a sharp turn at the bottom of the hill. Then follow a narrow road to MWR. Pull around the back of the MWR building to register. Since I was not registering to stay, I could not drive into the campground, but did walk in and look over the site. All amenities including cable, wifi, picnic table, firepit and hot ash disposal are provided at each site. The sewer connection is towards the rear of the site and electric, water, cable, etc. are near the front of the site. The post with these connections is right next to the pad, so there may be some interference with slide-outs unless you park towards the right hand side of the pad. Then you lose the pavement for walking. Since the site is brand new, there is very little grass, and no shade. A few trees have been planted, but it will be years before they provide shade. It does not look like the staff is doing any watering, so the grass you see today may be gone tomorrow. And, yes it is $60 per night.

Love the fact that the USA put a great piece of property to good use! Can't believe that the Contracting Officer did not consult an NCO to figure out how to design an RV Park. Appalled at the poor engineering design of this facility! What is the real problem - the utilities are on the wrong side of the pads. They advertise a view but if you want to see the river you need to bring an extension cord and a few extra feet of fresh water hose. I certainly understand the high prices but if you want to charge our young troops a ton of coin then you must do your engineering homework. Highly recommend that FB either re-engineer their facility or reduce the price to our young service members and retired community.

This is a BEAUTIFUL campground! Close to all DC attractions. Back in Sites on the waterfront are just gorgeous! Pull Throughs in the middle sites are spacious and the back in wooded are very nice also. Level concrete and utilities are top notch. Clean bathroom and great $1.50 laundry. I feel $50 a night is more than fair for a beautiful quality site and close to DC. Try and pay that any closer to DC. You won’t double it at least and you will also have way more of a drive. The employees are nice and try hard to please. Now....For the NOT So Good... HARD TO GET RESERVATIONS ...There is so many long term active duty and DOD living here. Active duty is mostly waiting on housing. There is on going renovating of housing there is a long wait. So they camp...DOD lives here as they don’t want to drive I95 and sit in horrid traffic most live about an hour away. So most nights they stay here and other nights their camper sit on sites unoccupied as they chose to go home. IF YOU GET A RESERVATION YOU MAY HAVE TO PLAY “CAMP SITE SHUFFLE”......You May have to move several time if you choose to stay more than a couple of days. I think the reservation program may need revamping. After staying here for 2 separate occasions this month I was required to do the “Shuffle” only to see other sites not occupied for 2 or 3 days continuously. I as well as others told there was no sites available and noted several sites empty for 2 or 3 days straight. There has got to be a better way of keeping track of reservations. NEED LARGER LAUNDRY FACILITIES.....There are 3 washers and 3 dryers. They run non stop during the day and into the late evening. There are many! Many families living here full time so you can imagine the laundry needs. Also DOD employees are doing their laundry here even if they are staying elsewhere! They come after work with their laundry and use the facilities. Way cheaper and better company than downtown! I am concerned with the opening of the MWR facilities to more Non Retired vets and caretakers MWR facilities are going to be harder to access. I hope there will be expansion in all military RECREATION facilities. Safe travels All!

We stayed at the campground in June. The cable will not be available until August or September and the WiFi has not been turned on. While there, none of the facilities were cleaned...I tried my best to clean the laundry room but they do not have towels and you will need to bring your own chair if you plan to stay with your laundry. As for the price, it is overpriced and while we were there the max number of campers did not go over 7 out of the 52 available sites… and it was a holiday weekend. As for this being a revenue campsite, I thought MWR was here to support the troops and at those prices, the troops are excluded from this campground. While we were there, it was mainly DOD civilians camping...I guess they are the only ones that can afford it. Also, if they charged a reasonable price of between 30 and 40 dollars the campground, would be more utilized and they would be making more than what 7 campers in a 52 site campground were providing. What was stated in the other comments is true, no shade and there is interference with slide-outs unless you park towards the right hand side of the pad because of the electrical station. While there the trash dump was not emptied and was overflowing while we were there. As mention earlier in the comments, the turns to get to the campground are sharp and the gates are tight for big rigs.

Wow, we are military and the price was a shock. We won't be staying here. Was this built as an extension to general's row? We have stayed at some super nice military camps in great location for far less than half that price. This is another attempt by b-crats to take advantage of the average Soldier. They are so out of touch with the average Soldier. Yes great location on the bay....but they have nothing to do with the available amenities. They were already there and a part of the post. If you are PCS'g it might be convenient since you will be paid for lodging.

We want to write a good review but can't.... we agree with most posts. It's a shame - could be very nice (and will be in 5-10 years after maturation and cost reduction). BTW: we live in the area and so leverage Pohick State Park often (and we loved Quantico's LUNGA until it was closed). This place is still learning how to operate (kids checking us in didn't have the process down). No signs or directions. Layout is not well thought out (appears designer never camped) > most impressive is the keyed entry/exit gates. Modern bathhouse poorly situated (and not clean; no TP, etc.). We were just unlucky I guess... we booked right after the place opened and it was a scorching weekend six weeks later when we setup our little RV (Rialta > not sure how bigger rigs could take the turns in the park)... with all the concrete and asphalt it was well over 100* with all the hard-scape radiating. Since they bulldozed all the trees to build the place there is NO SHADE anywhere on the place. Positives to some would be the cable and wifi, and all sites full service (but we don't take those things with us to get away and I don't hook sewer/water most of the time we go places so wasted amenities/costs to us). We were right 'by' the water but there's no paths and my girlfriend fell while trying to maneuver down some rock embankments. I so wish I could have volunteered to give guidance and help with requirements [guess that's what really bothers me... I suspect this effort was the last job a poorly performing civil servant did while relegated to retiring on a MWR tour.. surely no military member who ever did duty in the field would have created what this is]. Sounds harsh but this could have been a jewel and it should be in reach financially for our enlisted/backbone members -- it is surely too expensive for the troops. We know this will get better and folks should give it a try (in cool weather it would be fine)... but for $28 dollars one can camp at a mature, well designed, heavily wooded campground eight (8) miles south on the Potomac (Pohick)! Good luck folks.

We have family at Fort Belvoir and decided to stay here rather than Andrews on our way through after vacationing the summer with our granddaughter. I didn't expect a problem getting a spot as we were here last year and there were only a handful of campers...SURPRISE...we got the last site for two nights and then had to move for the third night (and those sites were to "premium" water front - although they aren't premium - no views). I don't know the exact percentage, but there are a number of permanent party (active duty) full-time campers with obvious signs of permanent occupancy (storage, large outdoor grills, etc). If you know you are coming to the area you had best plan 90 days out in order to get a reservation...we were told by one of the full-time campers that they don't have to vacate after 90 days as long as they "renew". I told the outdoor rec personnel that the park was starting to look like a trailer park rather than a travel camp with all the clutter around the sites and was told that they couldn't do anything about it due to "upper management".

This is our first ever RV camping as a shakedown to our new camper as we live nearby. And of course as a first timer pulling a 5th wheel camper no pull through site is available at the time. But I got lucky and able to back-in properly after 20 minutes. :-0 ) . This location is beautiful, very clean and well maintained! Small campground compared to Private or Public RV Parks but I think it's a norm to all military RV campgrounds. We enjoyed our stay here, there is a fishing pier inside and outside the campground, also there is short walking trail if you like to stretch your legs. Community fire pit, laundry and bathroom is available as others have mentioned. Full size PX and Commissary is only few miles away but gas station is pricey compared to most outside gas stations. Didn't use WiFi but our Winegard antenna picked up a lot of local stations. We will definitely comeback to this place although it's a bit pricey compared to 3 other military RV campgrounds we have been into since then. The only cons I will put here is the check-in process as a first time visitor. We were not told clearly that the MWR office is away from the campground and you have to keep an eye for the very small sign on your right as soon as you come down the steep hill, then you have to turn (10 point u-turn for me) around from the parking lot to go in the campground about 600 yards away. And of course I have to make a u-turn from the entrance gate first after I found out all of these. lol Other than that, we love this place.

We stayed in a 40 ft Motorhome. Nice large stops, the access to electric and cable is at the front of the site, it should be more to the middle. Did see one of the contractors and mentioned the electrical box issue. The Travel Camp will be much nicer when the trees grow a bit more. And yes, the price of $60.00 is a bit much, but maybe the price will go down in a few years. There are cheaper places but you don't always get 50 amp and when it is 100 degrees you need all the air you can get. Now that this new camp is posted maybe more people will stay. We heard it from a fellow camper we met at Wright-Patterson. Would stay again if in the area.

We were the first big rig campers at the Belvoir Travel Camp. We arrived on 17 May for the weekend and have spent the following 3 weekends there. While we agree with the earlier comments, we remain optimistic this Travel Camp will improve. It is our understanding the campsite was in the planning stage for 13 years and, sadly, the planner was not a camper/RV'er. The current director and her staff inherited a nightmare and are working hard to make the camp a destination. They are responsive to customer inquiries/suggestions, eager to assist, and are commited to improving the camp. Yes, they have a long way to go but we remain confident they will do it. Each weekend we return, we notice improvements. Interestingly, the director does/did not have authority to establish the price (it was/is determined elsewhere by non-camp staff/bureaucrats) but, sadly, the director is faced with defending the price. Not an easy task. Be patient and give them a chance to improve. We hope the Department of the Army MWR office will take note of the high price and its negative effect on the MWR of our enlisted Service Members. On a side note, even though the pads are concrete, be prepared for leveling challenges. And, unbelievably, if you want to use the brand new fire pits, be prepared to go to the fire station to get a permit. Yes, that is wacky but again, we remain optimistic this, too, will change for the better.

Beautiful and very clean. Prices are way too high for us military folk.

The campground at Fort Belvoir was one of my best military campground experiences. I was in Site 40 for one week. It was directly above the Potomoc River and my site was level. I noticed the sloping ground conditions throughout and that some of the sites might not be easy to get level, but back in at Site 40 was perfect. As I sat on my picnic table, I couldn't help to think about George Washington at Mount Vernon, just three miles away, standing outside and admiring his view; and how similar my view is to his. When we visited the city, we used the Huntington Metro Station about 10 miles away. The Metro is so convenient and parking was only $5 at the parking garage. We also visited the National Museum of the US Army just outside the gates at Fort Belvoir. I'm retired US Army and have to say this museum was so impressive. Don't miss this free opportunity. Also, you may want to arrange a free docent to start off the day. I think those start at 10:00am and are mostly retired soldiers and officers in the local area. They are trained and certified and will make the first hour of your visit very enjoyable. We also visited the Commissary at Ft Belvoir and thought it was a nicest commissary we have ever experienced. They even had a fresh seafood case. Overall, I found this campground to be a little pricey, but it was a good overall value to see and experience our nation's Capitol.