Pontoons idle up the canal at Venice on the Lake on Lake Conroe's north shore, dark against the sunset, their wake slapping the bank under the gazebo. The waterfront sites face that canal, so the whole show plays out a few steps from where the rig is parked. Families who set up here for the week hardly move the motorhome at all, because 21,000 acres of lake keep the days full on their own.
Mornings start with the boat going in at the resort's ramp, the middle of the day belongs to the pool, and by evening everyone drifts back to the canal to watch the boats come home. It's a gated resort, which matters more than it sounds when the kids are on bikes and the parents are on the water.
Summer here is a hookup trip. The heat and humidity from June through September make the air conditioning the reason anyone naps in the afternoon, and Venice on the Lake runs full 30 and 50 amp hookups on its waterfront and waterview sites in Willis.
Book the waterfront site before you choose the rig. Venice on the Lake takes reservations through RoverPass, and the length of the site you get should decide between a compact Class C and a long travel trailer, so ask the resort for that length before you commit to either.
Texas Renaissance Festival weekends at Todd Mission
On fall weekends the Fields of New Market at Todd Mission turn into a 230-acre meadow of rigs under a haze of campfire smoke, while costumed crowds stream past toward the festival gate. Families who camp make a full weekend of it, a night around the fire before the gates open, both festival days inside, and the walk back to the rig after dark.
The campground is dispersed camping with no marked sites, so a rig parks anywhere in the meadow at least 10 feet from the roadways, and staying takes both a campground ticket and a festival ticket. General camping is first come, first served, and the reserved RV slots the festival sells are how you lock a spot before the weekend.
The festival runs Saturdays and Sundays from October into late November, the same stretch when the weather finally turns good on Lake Conroe. Festival weekends and lake weeks end up chasing the same rented rigs and the same resort sites along I-45, so book the slot or the site first and the rig right after.
Lake Livingston from Wolf Creek Park in Coldspring
East of Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston spreads across 90,000 acres, and on its Coldspring side the Trinity River Authority's Wolf Creek Park spreads its sites under tall loblolly pines above a quiet swim beach. The pace is slower than a resort week, mornings at the beach and long afternoons in the pine shade with the big lake showing through the trees.
Wolf Creek has 54 full-hookup sites, some with 50 amp, plus 48 with water and electric, and its RV pads are 30 and 40 foot back-ins with sewer, so reserve the pad and then rent the rig that fits it. The campground is open from early March through the end of November, and the road in runs east from Willis on Hwy 150 through Coldspring.
Lake Livingston State Park is a separate campground on the same lake. It and Huntsville State Park, where the pines stand dark over Lake Raven from the swim beach, suit a shorter rig and a two-person trip, and both are on the smaller-rig page for The Woodlands.
The Woodlands Pavilion and Town Center from a Willis or Conroe resort
On a summer show night the lawn at The Woodlands Pavilion fills with blankets under the pines, and the crowd stays out long after the sky goes dark. Concert weekends and an afternoon on Market Street are easier from a full-hookup park just north of town, where the rig stays plugged in and cool while everyone heads in for the show.
Willis RV Resort has paved sites with full 30 or 50 amp hookups and 30-foot-wide interior roads near Lake Conroe. Gleneagles RV Resort in Conroe has level concrete pads with full 30/50-amp hookups just east of I-45 at the north edge of The Woodlands. Either one makes an easy first night when you roll out late and want the lake in the morning, and summer show weekends fill these parks early.
The metro's beach week, Galveston on the Gulf, is covered on the Houston RV page. The rest of the state's RV trips, from the Frio to the coast, are on the Texas RV page.