Baltimore is a practical place to start a van trip, because three genuinely different kinds of country sit within a half day of the harbor: the Chesapeake and its Eastern Shore, the Atlantic barrier islands, and the Blue Ridge at Shenandoah National Park. What complicates it is that the city's road network was built around a working harbor, and a campervan meets that harbor in ways a car never does.
Leaving town, tunnels and propane
Most visitors arrive through BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, which is connected to the city by MTA Light Rail, MARC train and Amtrak. That matters if your van is being collected somewhere other than a terminal, which is usually the case with campervans.
Before routing yourself through Baltimore, check the van's propane. The Maryland Transportation Authority prohibits vehicles carrying bottled propane over 10 pounds per container from both the Fort McHenry Tunnel (I-95) and the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel (I-895), and plenty of camper vans carry cylinders larger than that. The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel separately caps height at 13 feet 6 inches and width at 96 inches. The outer-harbor alternative, the I-695 Key Bridge, is under reconstruction and not carrying traffic, so the workaround that used to exist is not currently available. Ask what size tank is fitted and plan around the answer.
East to the Bay Bridge, the Shore and Assateague
Everything on the Eastern Shore is on the far side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, roughly four and a third miles of open water on US 50/301. The MDTA operates graded wind restrictions there, and they matter more in a tall van than in a car: warnings begin at sustained winds of 30 to 39 mph, when vehicles with roof-mounted racks are told to use caution, and restrictions tighten from 40 mph up until the bridge can be held entirely at 55 mph. Check conditions before you commit, particularly with a rack or awning up top.
Assateague Island is two parks, not one, and the distinction matters when you book. Assateague Island National Seashore has oceanside and bayside drive-in loops with no electric or water hook-ups anywhere, chemical toilets, and seasonal cold-water showers running roughly mid-March to mid-November. Sites open on recreation.gov six months ahead, and the Park Service says nearly all weekend reservations fill the first day they become available. Generators are permitted between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., and Bayside B Loop is a designated generator-free zone, so pick your loop according to whether you want to run one or avoid hearing one. Bring long stakes if you are pitching anything alongside the van, because the sites are sand and wind.
Assateague State Park, bordered by the national seashore to the north and south, is the alternative: 30-amp electric in the G and I loops only, no water or sewer at sites, booked through the Maryland system up to 365 days out.
Two honest warnings about the island. The Park Service says mosquitoes and other biting insects can be abundant from May through November, worst at dawn and dusk. On an exposed barrier island with the sliding door open, that is not a minor detail, and insect screens are the difference between a good night and a miserable one. And the horses are genuinely wild: NPS records visitors being kicked, bitten and knocked down every year as a direct result of getting too close. Keep food shut inside the van.
West to Skyline Drive
Shenandoah National Park is around 100 miles west, and Skyline Drive runs 105 miles along the ridge at a park-wide 35 mph limit, so budget hours rather than minutes. Tall vans should check Marys Rock Tunnel at mile 32.2, which has a maximum clearance of 12 feet 8 inches; if you will not clear it, drive the northern or southern section instead of the full road. Sections of Skyline Drive close periodically in bad weather, and most park facilities operate from around March into late November. Campgrounds are on recreation.gov with many sites reservable six months out. Big Meadows is reservation-only, Lewis Mountain is first-come first-served, and the park runs a text service (SHENCAMP to 888777) with weekend availability updates for the first-come sites. For a sense of how hard it is compared with other parks, see our national park overcrowding index.
Shorter runs from the city
- Patapsco Valley State Park, headquartered in Ellicott City about 13 miles out, has camping in the Hilton and Hollofield areas with some electric sites. Several park areas fill to capacity on busy summer weekends.
- Elk Neck State Park near North East occupies a peninsula between the Chesapeake and the Elk River, with over 250 sites and a trail out to Turkey Point Light Station.
- Janes Island State Park at Crisfield has 50 electric sites and more than 30 miles of marked water trails, on seven routes from about 1.25 to 12.5 miles.
- Catoctin Mountain Park near Thurmont offers wooded tent camping at Owens Creek.
- The C&O Canal towpath runs 184.5 miles from Washington to Cumberland and is excellent riding, but it is a poor place to sleep in a van. There are no RV hook-ups in the park, trailers are capped at 20 feet, only the Antietam Creek and Paw Paw drive-in campgrounds have adjacent parking, and sleeping in vehicles in those parking areas is not permitted.
Timing a trip
Maryland state parks release sites 365 days ahead through parkreservations.maryland.gov, with new inventory going live at 9 a.m. on days the call center is open. Expect a two-night minimum from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, and a three-night minimum spanning Friday to Sunday on holiday weekends. Summers here are humid and buggy, which is when hook-ups start to look worth the extra planning. Autumn is long and settled and is the easiest stretch for sleeping without them. Much of the region's seasonal camping shuts between late October and April, which pushes winter trips toward the year-round options at Elk Neck and Assateague's bayside loop, or further afield to national forest campgrounds open year-round.