Laurel Creek Conservation Area puts campsites along a reservoir shoreline in Waterloo, some in the trees and some in the open, and the beach is the strip between the pads and the water. On a warm evening you swim, walk back in a towel, and cook at the van. In the morning the beach is still there if you want a slow start, or St. Jacobs if you want a market day.
The Grand River Conservation Authority operates the campground, and St. Jacobs is the morning out.
Pads come serviced or unserviced, and that is the choice you make when you reserve. One trailer or RV per site applies to both, so a second vehicle does not join the first on the same pad. Camping runs May through mid-October, and you book on the authority's camping site. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, look at RVs for rent in Kitchener.
St. Jacobs Farmers' Market
St. Jacobs Farmers' Market is indoor halls and an open-air market north of Kitchener. Mennonite families sell produce and baking from their stalls, and the outdoor market is the part you walk with a bag in each hand. The indoor buildings keep the same kind of stalls when you want to be inside. Highway 85 is the road north out of the city.
The market opens Thursdays and Saturdays year-round, plus Tuesdays in summer as the operator states it. Parking on site is free, and you leave the van in the lot while you walk the halls and the yard. Drive up from Laurel Creek and return to the reservoir without changing campgrounds. Elora Gorge is a Guelph trip.
Pinehurst Lake Conservation Area
North of Paris, Pinehurst Lake Conservation Area camps in Carolinian forest around a lake. Forested sites stay among those trees beside the water. You walk in the woods, you swim in the lake, and the van stays on the pad you reserved.
On serviced loops, trailers set up on the gravel pad. Reserve on the same Grand River Conservation Authority camping site you used at Laurel Creek. As of September 2026, County of Brant road construction brings detours to the entrance, so give yourself extra time and read the authority's notice before you go.
The Pinery at Grand Bend is a London campervan overnight. Toronto is the city east on the 401.