Book Paul Lake first, and book it before the van. The north-shore campground is about half an hour from downtown and it fills once school is out, so the reservation is the part with a deadline on it. BC Parks runs a rolling three-month window, with each new day of inventory going live at 7 a.m. Pacific on camping.bcparks.ca. Hold the site, then find a van for the dates you actually have.
What you get for the drive is a sandy beach you can swim off, a cartop boat launch under the Douglas-fir, and 7 km of trail up Gibraltar Rock, where the cliff drops straight to the water and Harper Mountain sits across the lake. Sites are unserviced, there is a sani-station on site, and part of the loop stays first-come alongside the reservable sites. Getting there is Highway 5 for 5 km north of town, then 19 km of paved Pinantan Road, per BC Parks.
Lac Le Jeune, south on the Coquihalla
When the valley sits in the mid-30s, this is where the trip goes, and it is also the fallback when Paul Lake has nothing left. The lake is at 1280 m, high enough that the nights come off the boil, with a long sandy beach, a fishing wharf, and rainbow trout that run around 1.5 kg. The Gus Johnson trail loops the shore and the Stake Lake trails next door make a bigger day of it. Take the Coquihalla exit about 37 km south of town, or come up 26 km of paved road off Highway 1, per BC Parks. The treed sites here take medium-to-large rigs, so if your group needs more beds than a van sleeps, an RV rental out of Kamloops works the same lakes.
Sun Peaks, up the Tod Mountain road
Sun Peaks is alpine, so a July night up here is cool even when the valley is not. Summer is lift-access hiking and a bike park under Tod, Sundance, and Morrisey, with a dry gravel camping loop in the village from mid-May into October, Sun Peaks says. Come winter the same lot is a ski-in overnight for self-contained rigs only, no hookups and no dump station, from late November into spring. It is Highway 5 north and then Tod Mountain Road, about 45 minutes out per Sun Peaks.
Farther out, Shuswap Lake and Wells Gray
East on Highway 1, Shuswap Lake Park is a beach week on the old Scotch Creek delta, a kilometre of sand and pebble with Copper Island a short boat trip offshore. It runs at capacity from early July to Labour Day, BC Parks notes, and it is one of the higher-fee parks on the 2026 provincial fee list. Book it well ahead rather than treating it as a night-one option.
North on Highway 5, Wells Gray is the waterfall detour if you have the van for a few extra days. Helmcken Falls drops into its canyon a short walk from the rim lot, and the Corridor campgrounds run up a park road north of Clearwater. BC Parks tells you to stop at the info centre where Highway 5 meets Wells Gray Park Road before you head in.
The Okanagan lakes
Kamloops is dry-belt country, not the wine valley. If the Okanagan beaches and vineyards are the trip, rent closer to them and start from Vernon, West Kelowna, or Penticton.
