Winter Island Park

This is a great location to see Salem and to enjoy a beautiful view. The view is only afforded from the sites on the asphalt. There is a "field" of sites that is dirt and distant from the water. No sewer hook up at this location but you get a pass to dump tanks at the nearby sewage plant. Bathrooms are typical public park standard, a bit rough, though the fixtures were clean. Good ATT service. Pleasant staff.

Ok spot for a quick visit to Salem. It’s just a dirt/muddy field with a short walk to showers. Very close to neighbors. W/E at our site. About 1.5 mile walk to the downtown area and Essex street, which we did walk and it wasn’t too bad. Huge raccoon problem, so make sure you guard your food! Showers aren’t terrible but could definitely use an upgrade. Clean enough, and free. Raccoons get into the bathroom if you leave the doors open. There is a dump station just a short drive on your way out, free for Winter Island campers. The front office lady will tell you instructions. Make sure you have a long hose, it’s a little far from the curb.

We really like this park. While we've visited before, we haven't camped here before, but this offered a lot. As others have said, the great location as in proximity to Boston, only adds to the offerings. Salem has plenty to do, and easily bikeable, but honestly, I could have sat by the ocean all three days and had a great time. We stayed on a grass site, which I much prefer over the concrete lot, though having the ocean outside your window does sound nice.
I only gave four stars because of the price, but this rate seems pretty typical of Massachusetts. Also only offers electricity/water, but allows access to the dump station at the nearby Salem water works facility.

The location being on the water makes for this a great place to camp. However, in reality, it is a modified parking lot with hook ups. That's ok as long as you understand that it is with a water view. All of the spaces with a #16 as is 13-15. Just avoid 10, 10A, and anything along the large hanger. Site 10 has the entrance to the park on one side, and the sidewalk to the beach on the other. It's a traffic zone. Very weird place to have an RV site.

The staff was VERY nice and very accommodating. It is walking distance to a nice beach area and a lighthouse. Be aware that getting to this park is challenging but doable. You need to drive through downtown Salem with narrow roads and some tight turns. It is worth the effort.

I had a water view (as opposed to waterfront) site, which was essentially in the parking lot right at the entrance. Sound horrible? It wasn't due to the views, the surrounding park (old fort, beach, marina), the staff, the location, and the clean facilities. We ended up having a great stay here. I could see us coming back and staying longer to soak in more of the surrounding towns. There is a grassy area with RV parking as well, but those do not have views of the harbor.

Nothing much to add that the other reviews haven't already stated.

We booked 6 months in advance.

The spots by the water have no privacy and are very tight.

The spots in the field have a little more privacy, very tight, and no views.

We booked site 52 which I think is the best because there's a couple of trees to the passenger side which offers privacy. We actually enjoyed the site. No other site had privacy like this.

1.5 miles down into Salem. We actually walked everywhere, racking up 20 miles before the week was over.

The dump wasn't hard to get to, yes its tight, but nothing compared to the drive into Salem.

And with that, be sure to take the right streets. Not to scare you, but there was a camper there with the back rear of the RV sheared off from how narrow these roads are.

But we also saw a huge diesel pusher with a full size truck as a toad so I guess anything is possible.

Halloween in Salem was a treat, I just wish we would have done this years ago when the kids were smaller.

Lots of history in the area, and definitely worth stopping through.

VERY quiet at night!

This is a fascinating little park, which at some point in its long history added camping as an afterthought.

The sites are located willy-nilly, seemingly placed wherever someone at some point in time thought: "oh, an RV could fit here!" None of the sites have any privacy. The RV sites in the 'RV field' - 42-52 are level and ring a central dirt parking type area. Site 53 is in this area and has a bit more space than the others, but it is not level front-to-back (we noted RV making it work with blocks). These sites all had 50A & water.

RV sites 10/10A are very awkward; snuggled right between the entrance/exit roads to the day-use parking lot/boat ramp area. Sites 1-5 back up to an old Coast Gaurd building and face a pretty busy day-use parking lot. Sites 12-15D have a lovely view of the water/marina moorings from one end of your rig, but the other end backs up to the day-use parking lot. These sites are also quite snuggly and are completely asphalt pads (parking lot edges).

If we returned (we would!) we would try to snag one of sites 12-15D. If you're going to be crammed in, you might as well have cool views/boat activity viewable through your windshield. We do assume it would get noisy in the morning/throughout the day with cars coming and going, however.

Tent sites 11 and 35-41 are right next to the roadway and have zero privacy.

There is no dump station at this park. You are given an access code to use the water treatment center a bit less than a mile down the road. You cannot take a sewer buddy to the treatment center - entire rig or nothing. Also, big rigs will likely have an 'interesting' time entering the water treatment plant. We decided to forgo dumping after our stay due to the impossible turn radius for our 40'er into the entrance of the treatment plant when coming from Winter Island Park. The dump station at the water treatment facility is for use by Winter Island Park guests and city residents.

The bathrooms are usable. 2 showers per marked male/female gender and a few toilets for each. Not filthy, but not overly clean. Water has good pressure and nice temperature options. Day users also use these facilities.

There is a quaint little beach that can be used for sunbathing or wading around in. Mostly sand, but rock obstacles make their presence known.

Winter Island Park has an interesting history and a few signs around the park note various happenings in it. From local gallows to Coast Gaurd facility, it's now a well-loved local park.

There is a path linking the park to downtown Salem; about a 1.5 to the edges of city activity. You can also walk/bike to Salem Willows in less than a mile, where you'll find an old arcade, a few beach-type food stalls, and lovely views.

Getting through Salem and into the park wasn't the most fun drive we've done, but it was doable in our 40'er+towed.

this is the first time I ever felt like I was camping in the city. The sites vary from open field to waters edge overlooking the harbor. We were just passing thru and we’re able to get a field site. There is a nice beach and the Harbor views were great. Not much privacy but the campground was quiet. Try to get one of the campsites overlooking the harbor. Didn’t use any of the facilities so I can’t comment.

Reserved our site just a few days before our arrival (October 5-7) using the ReserveAmerica website. The site we selected was a back-in site against the hangar within the asphalt lot. It had a water view and we were able to watch all the boats being pulled out of the water at the boat ramp for winterization. 30A electric and water were available, with wi-fi generally unreliable over our stay.

We were able to get from campsite to downtown Salem within 10 minutes... so it was exactly what we were hoping for. The park is a stop on the trolley, so at $18/person that option is available.

The campground shares its grounds with the historic Fort Pickering, so there is some exploration that can be done close to camp. The lighthouse and beach were a popular location for some local photo shoots and one engagement during our stay.

The dump station is off-site, but not far. It is at the sewage treatment plant just down the road (on the left as you leave the park, less than a mile from the park gate). You have to pull up to the closed gate and use a box phone to call the station chief for access, then follow the signs around to the back of the facility. There is a key on a lanyard to unlock the padlock. It took me a second to figure it all out... I honestly felt like I was in one of those escape rooms for the first few moments.

While the facilities within the park were generally clean, they were seemingly primitive and doors were kept open, despite a state-wide Triple E alert following some deaths, so I tended to stay away from them.