Lake Lanier wraps around Cumming in coves and islands. From a shoreline site on the Sawnee peninsula you look at water on more than one side, with the main channel carrying boat traffic all afternoon in summer. After dark the coves go quiet.
The coves stay calm enough to swim. Islands sit out in the water and break up the far shore, so the view from a site keeps changing as boats slide behind them. Mornings start slow, and people walk down to the bank before the channel fills, then sit through the afternoon heat at the site. Summer is the crowded stretch, and the rest of the year those same sites are easier to book.
The first night is Sawnee Campground on Buford Dam Road, on the lake itself. You stay on the peninsula and spend the next day on the same water. Pads look out on the shoreline, and at night the far lights sit across a cove.
The Army Corps of Engineers runs Sawnee with Forsyth County Parks and Recreation. New windows on Recreation.gov release Thursdays at noon as of September 2026, and stays cap at 14 days in any 30-day period. Standard sites have water and 30-amp electric, with no sewer.
The posted length cap is 35 feet, which covers a typical campervan. A longer Georgia RV rental needs a different loop.
If Sawnee is booked, Old Federal Campground in Flowery Branch is the next loop on the same lake, with 50-amp electric, water, and a 39-foot cap as of September 2026, and Bolding Mill Campground, toward Gainesville, is the other overflow, with 50-amp electric and water and a 45-foot max. Camp Margaritaville RV Resort sits at Lanier Islands in Buford, still on this lake, with sewer hookups, beach access, concrete pads that run 30 to 50 feet with 30/50-amp power, and water-park tickets available.
After a morning on the water, the trail up Sawnee Mountain Preserve climbs to the Indian Seats, a rock formation on the ridge with a view across the North Georgia foothills. It is a day hike, and you sleep back at the lake.
Amicalola Falls and a Dahlonega day
Amicalola Falls comes down a wooded mountainside in Dawsonville as Georgia's tallest waterfall. A long staircase follows the cascade, and the water stays loud the whole way down. Behind the visitor center, the blue-blazed Approach Trail leaves the park and climbs through the Amicalola Creek watershed toward Springer Mountain, the southern end of the Appalachian Trail.
Late winter into spring, roughly February through April, northbound thru-hikers stage from the park. The small campground books ahead of that window, and other months it is easier. The lodge lists 18 wooded sites with water, power, a grill, and a fire ring as of September 2026. Sleep here and walk to the falls in the morning, or drive back to Lanier after the hike.
Spend a day in Dahlonega. The square is a gold-rush historic district, and the hills around it are wine country. Gold Rush Days takes over in October.
Vogel, Helen, and Blue Ridge sit farther into the Chattahoochee National Forest, and those trips belong on the Atlanta campervan page. For the rest of Georgia, use the state campervan hub.