The suspension bridge at Tallulah Gorge crosses a cut in the rock about a thousand feet deep. You walk the rim trail and look straight down at the river, then step onto the bridge over the drop. Helen sits in the next valleys west, cobblestone streets and Bavarian storefronts under a Blue Ridge ridgeline.
You hike the gorges in the day and at dusk you are in town. The Chattahoochee National Forest fills the miles between with trailheads and forest roads.
Fall is the rush, late September through November, when the ridges turn and Helen and Blue Ridge fill at the same time as the state-park loops. The ridge towns are where you grocery and walk at dusk, and the parks are where you sleep. In leaf season rooms, sites, and vans get scarce on the same weekends, so lock the overnight first and book the van second.
You sleep in the trees above the gorge. 52 tent, trailer, and RV sites with electric hookups book on ReserveAmerica.
Unicoi sits next to Helen. Vogel, Brasstown Bald, and Blue Ridge continue the ridgeline. Their overnights are on the Atlanta campervan page.
Amicalola Falls, the Dahlonega side of the mountains, and the Lake Lanier campgrounds are the other approach, from Cumming. The northwest corner continues toward Chattanooga.
Summer is hot and humid on the ridges too, and those hookup loops book early then as well. From here the coast, the swamp, and the metro are separate drives south, not side trips.
The Georgia coast, Tybee to the Golden Isles
Tybee Island is the beach and the lighthouse, and the city campground sits under live oaks. Skidaway Island is the marsh boardwalk, a walk over the water through the grass on the inland side of that same coast.
Jekyll Island holds Driftwood Beach and a campground on the Golden Isles, south of Savannah on the same barrier coast. Cumberland Island's wild horses are reached by ferry, and no vehicles come onto the island, so the van stays on the mainland. The coast overnight is on the Savannah campervan page.
Hurricane season is the coastal constraint. Check park and refuge alerts before you point the van at the islands. I-16 is the road east from the middle of the state.
Okefenokee, Pine Mountain, and Providence Canyon
You paddle a canoe trail on the Okefenokee, where black water mirrors cypress and Spanish moss. The trail is a channel through the swamp, and you come back to the pad in the trees. Okefenokee State Park, formerly Stephen C. Foster, sits inside that swamp and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in summer 2026. After dark it is a certified International Dark Sky Park.
52 tent, trailer, and RV sites book on ReserveAmerica, and a $5 refuge fee sits on top of the state ParkPass. The national wildlife refuge next door does not take RVs. Backcountry nights there are canoe or kayak only.
Pine Mountain holds the other overnight in this half of Georgia, at F.D. Roosevelt State Park. 115 tent, trailer, and RV sites with electric hookups book on ReserveAmerica. Use it when you are crossing the lower half of the state, not as a substitute for the swamp.
Providence Canyon shows pink, orange, red, and purple soil bands in gullies up to 150 feet deep, cut by nineteenth-century farming. There is no RV camping in the park, and Florence Marina State Park, about 9 miles away, is the nearest van overnight.
South of the swamp, the next city for a van is Jacksonville.
Stone Mountain, Allatoona, and a UGA weekend
The granite dome at Stone Mountain rises over the campground loop. You see the rock from the sites. It is the close-in overnight for a metro stay.
Kennesaw Mountain's ridge hike and Lake Allatoona sit west of the city on the Marietta page.
A UGA gameday weekend is a different trip. In fall it competes for the same vans and the same sites. That one lives in Athens.
Stay limits and vehicle length rules change from park to park. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, look at RVs for rent in Georgia.