Cape May's Victorian houses show their gingerbread from the beach, porches and turrets facing the water. The lighthouse at the Point is a 199-step climb to the lantern, and Battery 223, the WWII gun emplacement beside it, has sunk to beach level after decades of erosion.
You can give the Point a morning, town an afternoon, and still have days left. Cape May Point State Park is day use with no camping, so the overnight is inland at Belleplain State Forest, the public night behind Cape May and the Wildwoods. Lock the campsite first, then the van, because a tent pad and a hookup pad are different rentals.
In summer you'll want electric. Water and electric at Belleplain are at the CCC campground only. Meisle and CCC stay open all year, and Belleplain State Forest closes North Shore from November 1 through March 31. If you need more sleeping space than a van, look at RVs for rent in New Jersey.
The Cape May-Lewes Ferry takes RVs, campers, and motorhomes over to Lewes when you want a Delaware day. Corson's Inlet State Park is the undeveloped dune beach up the same shore, a day without a boardwalk. Ocean City, Atlantic City, and the Wildwoods boardwalk are on that same coast.
High Point State Park and Stokes State Forest
You climb the 220-foot veterans monument on the highest ground in New Jersey, up on the Kittatinny Ridge. The Appalachian Trail is already in High Point State Park, so the walks start from the same place you sleep. The van night is Sawmill Lake, open early April through late October, and High Point State Park warns that only some sites take a small trailer.
Stokes State Forest continues the same ridge, with Sunrise Mountain as the view. Sunrise Mountain Road and the Tillman Ravine access both close December 15 through April 15, or whenever Stokes State Forest calls the road hazardous. You can still camp at Stokes when that road is shut, at the areas that stay open.
Spruce Run and Round Valley
In the Highlands, Spruce Run's campground is on the reservoir, and you walk from the van to the water. A handful of trailer pads have water and electric, no sewer, and Spruce Run Recreation Area runs that campground early April through late October.
Round Valley's campsites are in a bowl you never see from the parking lot, ringed by Cushetunk Mountain. You get there by boat or a 3 to 6 mile hike or bike on the Cushetunk Trail, and the van stays at the launch. Round Valley Recreation Area has no vehicle access to the camp, as of September 2026, and drive-in campers belong at Spruce Run.
Parvin State Park
Parvin State Park's campground lines Parvin Lake at the western edge of the Pinelands, and the loop you camp in is still the CCC's 1930s work. Sites take trailers, two vehicles per site, with a sanitary station on the grounds.
Newark, Lakewood, and across the Delaware
The Delaware Water Gap and the New York overnight are the Newark trip. The Shore from Sandy Hook to Island Beach and the Pinelands are Lakewood's. Philadelphia and the Poconos at Long Pond are the Pennsylvania overnights.
Washington Crossing State Park is a history day on the Delaware, the 1776 Christmas night crossing, not a van night. Princeton, Trenton, and Morristown are day towns, not campgrounds.
