If you want to see Washington from an RV, this is about as good as it gets. Cherry Hill Park has been family owned since 1921, and it has clearly figured out the one thing every RVer chasing the monuments needs, which is a way to park the rig and still get downtown without losing your mind in traffic or finding parking We rolled out of here a week later sold on the place and ready to book it again the next time we point Wild Blue Yonder toward the capital.
Getting In and Getting Around
We expected the drive in to be a nightmare, but it was not. Traffic was busy the way everything around DC is busy, but the roads themselves were fine and the entrance had plenty of clearance. There is even a separate pull-off area for checking in, so you are not fighting the same lane as folks returning from a day out. The staff met us friendly and helpful from the first minute.
The transportation setup is the real headline. The park runs a daily orientation at 4pm that walks you through how to get into the city, and there is a bus pickup right at the campground that runs you to the train station. We ended up driving to the station ourselves and parking for $4.95 rather than waiting on the bus, and parking is free on weekends, so you have options depending on your patience and your schedule. DC sits about thirty to forty-five minutes out by train. That is not next door, but it is roughly as close as you will find a real RV park to those attractions, and the trade is worth it.
The Site
We were in site 51, a back-in with a gravel and grass pad. Leveling was easy, which we always appreciate. The pad itself
could stand to be longer and paved, because getting our 45 foot coach and the pickup truck squared away on site was a tight fit. Spacing between neighbors is also snug with little landscaping in between, so privacy is not the draw here.
What the site lacked in elbow room it made up for in feel. We had shade on one side and open sky on the other, a picnic table plus a second metal table, and a fire pit. Cherry Hill has wooded tent sites, a group tenting area for scout troops, glamping yurts, and several cabin styles, so the place draws a real mix of campers. The cabins near the front of the property are all named after first ladies - from Mary Todd Lincoln to Letitia Tyler.
Amenities, and There Are a Lot of Them
This is where Cherry Hill flexes. The list runs long: two pools plus a kiddie pool, a splash pad, a hot tub, multiple dog parks (one big and several small), playgrounds, an on-site cafe, an arcade, a TV room, a small indoor theater-style seating area, an outdoor movie screen for movie nights, a ballroom for events, pickleball, basketball, minigolf, gaga ball, an adult outdoor fitness park, evening tractor rides around the grounds, and outdoor pavilions. The pool area was nice. The one knock is the indoor hot tub, which was packed with little kids and not a single adult the time we wandered
by. So, not very relaxing if that is what you are going for.
The laundry room was large and well stocked with machines, and the bathhouses passed looked clean and were plentiful (numerous ones scattered through the resort), though we did not need either one ourselves.
The gym is the weak spot. It looked cramped and small, with the equipment crowded too close together. It looks like they built it so they could say they have one rather than because anyone is meant to train in there. If you like to get your steps in, skip the gym and walk the park instead or hit the outdoor fitness park. Of course, those don’t work well in the rain. There is plenty of paved roadway inside the park to rack up the miles, and that became my routine all week.
A Dog Walker for Juneaux
You cannot bring a dog into the Smithsonian, up the Washington Monument, or through most of what makes DC worth the trip, and leaving a beagle alone in the camper all day doesn’t work either. Cherry Hill solves that with an in-house dog walking service, which is something we have run into at almost no other RV park anywhere. A staff walker came by on our very first day to meet Juneaux and learn her routine, and after that, any day we knew we would be gone for a long stretch, they came and took her out on walks while we were away.
The service runs spring through fall, with a morning walk and an afternoon walk, and you can add feeding or medication if your dog needs it. That meant Juneaux got her exercise and a little company while we were off standing in front of marble men and monuments all day. For anyone planning to use this place the way we did, as a home base to knock out DC one museum and monument at a time, that one service is worth more than half the pools and mini golf put together. It is the rare campground amenity that changes what your entire trip can look like.
Quiet, Clean, and Safe
For a park that stayed packed the entire week, Cherry Hill kept things calm. Our site was quiet, though on my walks I noticed some road noise reaching the sites closer to the highway. If I even hear that at all inside me camper (rare), it’s just white noise to me. I know it bothers some people. The whole place is gated and felt secure, the lighting was good without being blinding, and we never once heard anything rowdy late at night. There were a lot of groups traveling together, but it played out as friendly adults getting together rather than wild parties. And if they got wild, they weren’t loud enough for us to notice.
Cleanliness was solid without being immaculate. Grounds had hardly any litter and the landscaping was kept up, and the trash stations were plentiful and got emptied regularly. The recycling was the exception, always seeming to overflow with boxes nobody had broken down, and the dumpsters were tucked so far out of the way that despite all my walking I did not spot them until the last morning. I chalk most of that up to how busy the place runs rather than neglect.
Connectivity
Cell signal was excellent. We did not test the park Wi-Fi, but Starlink worked well for us. Depending on where you land, trees can block one side of your sky, and tighter sites might block more, but we had open sky over a good stretch of our site and had no trouble.
The Verdict
Cherry Hill Park earns a full 5 out of 5 from us. It is the rare RV park that sits close enough to a major city to be useful while still feeling like a calm, safe, well-run campground that you could just come visit for a few days and stay at the park or a great place to come back to at the end of a long day of sightseeing.
Highlights:
- Location and transportation setup for getting into DC
- An in-house dog walking service, which we have found at almost no other park
- Miles of paved interior roads that make for easy walking
- A deep amenity list for the whole family
What could be better:
- The gym
- Pads that are longer and paved
Best suited for: Anyone visiting Washington, dog owners who need to leave the rig for a day of sightseeing, and families looking for a weekend basecamp with plenty to keep everyone busy.
Would we return? Yes, absolutely. We will not hesitate to stay here again the next time we are back in the area.
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