Greenbelt Park

6565 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA

Address:	6565 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA
Phone:	+1 301-344-3944
Site:	nps.gov
Rating:	4.2

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 6

Robert Wertheimer

I cant really recommend this campground for tent camping. My family stayed four nights in mid-July. Let me start with the good things: The campground is an oasis of woods in the middle of suburbia DC. It is close to 2 metro stops, though I do recommend driving to them. It is nearly impossible to not see deer when you are there. You wont find a cheaper way to stay near DC. Our 4 night stay including metro parking and travel didnt add up to staying one night in any hotel in downtown DC. And now, for the bad news: Because it is an oasis in Suburbia, there are expressways and major roads on all four sides of the park. Road noise is inevitable. You can also hear the trains, planes, and numerous low-flying (I mean..you can read the tail numbers) helicopters. One morning, there were over 9 fly-overs. When we arrived on the first night, the grass in the campsite was shin to knee-high. It was not cut until the 3rd day we were there. With the warning of chiggers and ticks posted in the bathroom, having to walk through tall grass each day just to walk around our site was not comforting. There was poison ivy growing in the site as well as in the walkway to the bathrooms. Oh, and there was 1 mens and 1 womens shower to service about 60 camp sites. Speaking of the bathrooms, the toilets and sinks seemed to be clean, but the floors and walls (including the shower) were never cleaned in the 4 days we were there. The sinks were in disrepair as were the restrooms in general. The womens shower had a hole in the wall that had insulation stuffed in it. The mens shower also had some sort of opening in the outside wall that was somewhat covered by wood but clearly wasnt water-proof or sealed in any way. If I was in an RV, I wouldnt care about most of this. Though, if I was in an RV, Id probably want water and power hookups which this campground doesnt have. I guess thats why the campground was half empty the whole time we were there (which is a plus, I guess!).

Noko Marie

Stayed Aug 3 through the 9th 2015 to visit DC and you cannot beat the price! Very close to transportation into DC but it is still a forty minute trip to actually get to the National Mall via the Metro. Also, as others have noted, walking to the nearest Metro stop and then walking all over DC and sites is pretty much out of the question. Shopping and restaurants very close by, though not exactly well supplied for what we needed [also watch Giants meat and produce; as it wasnt very fresh and some produce actually rotted before we could use it] and yet this park is a woodland setting and teeming with deer. Mosquitoes a minor problem and we found one attached tick in a week. This included us venturing off of the trails into the woods. Wood for cooking fires needed to be gleaned from the surrounding woods as neither the rangers station nor the local stores carry bundled wood. Try to stay in area D if you are tenting as the area is for large RVs and the clearings correspondingly larger. The bathrooms and showers are not great but not soul-numbingly horrible and the staff friendly. At no time did I or my daughters feel in any way unsafe as three lone women camping near the city. One encounter with a racoon who stole an entire package of cookies and apparently took it away to its den as no trace was ever found. There is a constant but distant hum of traffic and the skies remain pink with sodium glare all night but, over all, do it; you wont be sorry.

Steve Markos

I am a writer and photographer for National Park Planner and I visited Greenbelt Park in September 2016. Greenbelt Park is an outdoor recreation area that offers camping, picnicking, and hiking just outside of Washington D. C. on the northeast side of the Beltway. This is the closest campground to Washington, and it is only 30 miles from downtown Baltimore. The park is served by the Greenbelt Metro Station (Green Line), a mere two miles away. If you are visiting Washington and enjoy camping or want to save money, one night at Greenbelt is a fraction of the cost of a downtown hotel. Tent campers and RVs are welcome at the campground. I have stayed at Greenbelt three times, each time as a base for visiting Washington. In fact, just about everyone camping is a tourist visiting Washington. The campground is not a destination for locals, other than Scouts and youth groups, because there is no lake for fishing and swimming. It takes about ten minutes to get to the Greenbelt Metro Station and 45 minutes for the ride to downtown. For more photos and complete information about visiting Greenbelt Park, visit National Park Planner (npplan).

Marie Katherine

+Interesting to be camping in the middle of the city. The visual surroundings are beautiful, no visible sign that youre in anyplace but a rustic, rural campground, lots of deer, birds of all kinds, especially if in rear loop. Tree frogs, katydids, and cicadas very loud at night. --You hear city sounds along with bird calls. Lots of air traffic, helicopters especially, police sirens at night---the surrounding residential areas are not the greatest in terms of crime. There is a continuous dull roar from the Beltway. Bring insect repellant with deet and check yourself for ticks. Ive discovered one on my person in 10 years, but my sister can walk in the same places and find a dozen! +Have been coming here for a week in summer for 10 years. Cheapest place to stay in DC! Never had any problem with security, ie., weird people, theft, etc, but do lock your things up if leaving for the day. Great if you can rough it. If amenities are wanted, try the KOA. Restrooms have flushing toilets, two have warm showers, not particularly clean, but usable.

Liz Mackall

Beautiful park but ticks are a huge problem. We had a lovely campsite with reservations for several nights but we only stayed one night because the ticks were so bad. We took thorough precautions to avoid the ticks including spraying ourselves and our entire campsite, wearing shoes and socks whenever we left our rv and never once venturing into the surrounding area. Nevertheless both my husband and I found several ticks on ourselves within hours of arriving. These were tiny deer ticks which are very hard to spot until they bite. My husband unfortunately missed 2 of the ticks that landed on him. They got very inflamed and swollen and he ended up needing to go to urgent care to get antibiotics and a blood panel done for tick borne diseases. Such a shame. We have spent the last 2 years camped in federal forests and parks all over the country and this is the first time we have had any problems with ticks.

Graham Nelson

Beautiful area. Very few amenities but the low cost reflects this. Someone elses review said there are water hookups, but thats not true for all the sites that I have seen. Without electric, my son hooked up his phone to the electrical post of a camp host site. He was told that he cant do that and would be sited if caught again. Meanwhile, there is always someone hooked up to the bathroom outlet including one guy who had 4 car batteries on a mini-trailer hooked up to the outlet. Seems arbitrary and picky to me. My sons phone is going to cost them a few cents.... When we arrived at the site, after reserving one online- which you cant really see very well what the sites look like, we noticed that our site was not very good. We wanted to change sites, it took a full hour on the phone to work this "incredibly complicated" change from one site to another- very inefficient process.