From a pad on the Lakeshore loop at Santee State Park, the view across Lake Marion is a flooded cypress forest, black trunks standing in open water with fishing boats working slowly along its edge. Lake Marion is the largest lake in South Carolina, and together with Lake Moultrie it makes up the Santee Cooper lakes. This is inland fishing country, where a family sets a motorhome on its pad and leaves it there for the week.
Days start early, with the boat in at the ramp before breakfast and a pontoon tour out of the park marina winding up a channel into the swampy headwaters. By mid-afternoon in July everyone is back in the rig with the air running, which is why summer and early fall here are hookup weeks, and why it helps that the Santee pads sit in the shade of the trees.
Santee State Park and Lake Moultrie RV Park & Marina
Santee's two campgrounds, Cypress View and Lakeshore, share the same packed-sand pads and hot-shower restrooms, and Lakeshore is the loop that looks across at the cypress. Every site has water and electric, and South Carolina State Parks lists many sites up to 40 feet and 48 with 50-amp service, plus a dump station in the park. Lock the pad before the rig. A 40-foot site is what takes a full-size family motorhome, so book one of those for the week first and choose the rental to fit it.
Over in Cross, Lake Moultrie RV Park & Marina is built around the shoreline, with waterfront camping, two boat ramps and three docks, plus a playground and laundry that make a week with kids easier. Its sites run full hookups, with 30/50-amp pull-throughs and back-ins, and a pull-through spares a first-time motorhome driver from reversing into the pad after a long day on the water.
Charleston makes the day out from either lake: the harbor, the Battery, a walk through the old streets downtown and an early dinner, then back to the lake to sleep. Couples who would rather stay close to the peninsula, at James Island County Park, or out on the sand at Edisto Beach State Park, will find that smaller-rig trip on the Charleston campervan page.
Givhans Ferry State Park on the Edisto River
Upriver from the coast, Givhans Ferry State Park perches on a limestone bluff above the blackwater Edisto, with the River House at the top of the bank and sinkholes six to eight feet deep pocking the ground around it. It's a river weekend more than a week's base, and in summer it's a busy one.
As of October 2026, Edisto River Adventures runs tubing from May through September, with a shuttle from Riverfront Hall, and families spend whole afternoons floating the tea-dark water or paddling the same stretch by kayak. Those summer weekends fill the campground with river people, so the Santee rule holds here too: claim the site, then book the motorhome to match it.
The park lists sites 1 through 25 as full service, with water, sewer and 50/30/20-amp power on a firm limestone base. Many of those sites take a rig up to 40 feet and others stop at 30, which is the difference between a family motorhome and a shorter class.
When the trip wants salt water, Buck Hall Recreation Area puts a Forest Service campground on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Francis Marion National Forest near McClellanville, with marsh grass and passing boats right out front.