The dune face comes up off the Lake Michigan beach, a wall of sand you climb in bare feet, water at your back and oak savanna waiting over the ridge. Boardwalks drop you onto the sand at the national park's beach access. Afternoon on the face, the lake is the whole view and the sand is steep and loose all the way up. You walk the waterline, then sleep in the woods a few miles inland.
Dunewood Campground sits in those trees in Beverly Shores, a drive-in loop under the canopy. Pads have no hookups of their own, water is at the stations, and there is a dump if you need it. A few pads are tent-only, so you book a drive-in site for the van. On a summer weekend the pad is the first booking and the van is the second. Recreation.gov opens Dunewood up to six months ahead, $25 a night as of September 2026, April 1 through November 1.
Next door, Indiana Dunes State Park sits at the north end of State Road 49 in Porter County, on that same beach. You swim and walk it, then come back to electric sites on 50-amp service, reserved through ReserveAmerica on the state park camping page. A campervan fits both loops. If you need more sleeping space, Chicago RV rentals run the same shore.
I-94 or the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/90) east to State Road 49 is the drive.
Grant Park, Wrigley Field, and the lakefront
Grant Park fills with stage lights against the skyline on a Lollapalooza weekend. The stages sit on the lakefront, downtown right there behind them. A Cubs night is the Wrigley marquee and the crowd spilling onto Addison after the last inning. Mornings belong to the lakefront, and the Navy Pier wheel sits over the water.
The van parks for the day and sleeps at the dunes or at Illinois Beach. A festival Saturday and a reserved beach site are the same weekend and pull on the same vans and the same pads, so you lock both.
Illinois Beach State Park in Zion
The shore in Zion is dune and swale, marsh, and black oak savanna behind the sand, the last beach-ridge coast left in Illinois. The park splits into North and South units along the lake.
Zion is the closer Illinois-side shore, and the backup if you are arriving late. Unreserved electric sites go first-come when they are open, as of September 2026, on the Illinois DNR camping page. The loop has showers, hydrants, and a dump.
The beach parks run spring through fall. Dunewood closes November 1, Illinois Beach on November 15, and Chain O'Lakes after the last October weekend. Winter closes them, the beach parks go dark, and the shore is not why you came.
Further up the Michigan shore, Harbor Country and Warren Dunes are the next lakeshore weekend, Tower Hill rising straight off the beach. That weekend is a Michigan campervan trip.
Chain O'Lakes State Park
Boats thread the channels between Grass, Marie, and Nippersink lakes and the Fox River, a freshwater maze northwest of the city. You spend the day on the water and come back to the campground loop at Spring Grove.
Summer hours run April 1 through the last weekend of October, as of September 2026, then the park closes for hunting. The entrance gates lock overnight, so you plan to be inside. I-94 to Route 173 is the road in.
Kettle Moraine and Door County are the longer Wisconsin weekend, a Wisconsin campervan trip. Starved Rock and the Illinois River canyons are a Joliet campervan trip. For the rest of the state, start from the Illinois campervan hub.