Head east on I-95 and the beach week happens at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison. This is Connecticut's largest shoreline park, and the William F. Miller Campground sits behind the dunes, a short walk or a quick bike from two miles of sand. Meigs Point, at the east end, has a jetty and tide pools worth timing to low water.
The catch is the calendar. Summer weekends book 11 months out on Reserve America, with a two-night minimum on advance reservations, and the beach-adjacent sites go first. The 2026 campground season runs Friday, May 22 through noon on Monday, October 12. Book the site, then book the van. If the weekend you want is already gone, Rocky Neck State Park in Niantic is the shoreline fallback further east on I-95, though it has no RV hookups.
Settling into the Miller Campground
The Miller loops are grassy and open rather than shady pine, which means sky, wind off the water, and not much cover at midday. Fires go in a raised container only, no ground fires, so bring a firepit or rent one from the camp store. Check-in is 1 p.m. Most sites are back-in and take a rig up to about 35 feet.
If your group needs more beds or a longer build than those back-in sites hold, the RV rentals in New Haven cover the bigger rigs.
Sleeping Giant State Park
Sleeping Giant in Hamden is the day hike. The traprock ridge runs two miles, and from a distance it reads as a person lying down, which is where the name comes from. The Tower Trail, gray blaze, is an easy gravel out-and-back to a stone observation tower with New Haven and Long Island Sound laid out around it. The lot fills on good weekends. There is no public campground here, youth groups only, so hike it in daylight and drive back to Hammonasset for the night.
East Rock and West Rock
East Rock rises inside New Haven, where the Soldiers and Sailors Monument stands on the cliff edge with the harbor below. The park closes sunset to sunrise, so treat it as a daytime or early-evening stop, not a night in the van.
West Rock, across town, is the second ridge, and it has no campground either. Drive Regicide Drive up to the South Overlook and the Judges Cave boulder pile, both facing back toward the harbor and the Giant.
Longer trips from the Connecticut shore
Newport and the Rhode Island beaches are an easy run east, covered on the Rhode Island campervan page. Across the water, the Long Island beaches and North Fork are a ferry ride or a long loop through the city. For the rest of the state, Mystic through the Litchfield hills, start at the Connecticut campervan guide.
