My husband and I stayed here one night on 9/19/11. My husband who loves "roughing it" and myself (who prefers comfort) have been to the Virginia Beach area several times as we live in Virginia, but never to First Landing State park. While we have camped in the past, a few years had passed since we last camped (in the Florida Everglades) so were looking forward to seeing what Virginia Beach had to offer. We were surprised this park is practically right on a busy road (Route 60, Shore drive) so while it would be very easy to get in and out, the noise can be heard by some of the campsites close to the road. There are trees growing between the campsites and the road to help block the noise and view of road.

There are a range of prices for the campsites, depending on the size campsite you choose, and if you want water & electric. The least expensive sites are mostly along the road, so if you are looking for an easy walk to the beach, you will have to pay a few more dollars for the water & electric campsites. We choose a water and electric campsite for vehicles up to 20' because we wanted a site as close as possible to the beach and it was $36.50 ($30 for the campsite, $5 for the Transaction fee, and $1.50 for the 5% Virginia state tax). We were originally assigned Loop C, but the person checking us in said we could change our mind, as long as we drove back to tell her which loop we ended up with.

We drove around the loop twice and got out to explore some of the sites, and here are our impressions: Some of the sites are definitely better much better than others. Some of the standard sites without water & electricity are very nice, because they are located under pine trees and were private and beautiful looking. We did see a few people picking sites closer to the road, I believe because of the privacy (and there are fewer cars at night anyhow, so perhaps the noise at night is not so bad). Some of the campsites have no privacy at all, and are designed so that two neighboring campers are going to be living side by side with no barrier. A few sites are next to a dumpster, a few will be next to the bathroom, so overall, the camp sites can be hit or miss. Obviously the campsites closest to the beach get picked first, and it seemed that we saw quite a few trailers with families that had already been there several days. The park will give you a sign with your last name and days of stay to a post at the site you pick, so others know that site is taken. You cannot see the ocean from the campsites, but there are a few boardwalks that will take you to the beach.

My husband and I settled on campsite D8. It had a good amount of space we felt would be our "own" and no neighbors within view of where we planned to pitch our tent.

The beach is down a long boardwalk, and we found the beach to be very "naturey" and loved it. While at the beach, I collected two branches of attractive looking dried leaves and a seagull feather. We saw crab shells and these white crabs running around all over that if you "encouraged" them to go back into their hole, would know exactly which hole was theirs and would not just jump into the closest hole. We also saw these cute birds running around the waves, always managing to run just a inch ahead of the incoming waves back to shore though I was sure at a few points I would see one get caught in the waves. This is a refreshing change from Virginia Beach where you mostly see seagulls and people.

Back at the campsite, we built our tent by flashlight, and then built the fire. It turned out we didn't need any wood because there was still some left behind from the previous campers (thank you previous campers, whoever you are!). My husband insisted on starting the fire from scratch. After some time of effort, I discovered the leaves I collected from the beach and a lighter ended up being the perfect material to start the fire with. There was a bench at our campsite, and with the firelight provided a wonderful time eating dinner and writing in my journal. The bathroom was not far away, and I found it acceptably clean and with just a few small bugs that probably flew in when the door opened (I have seen some scary bugs in the bathroom at other campsites) and didn't notice any spiderwebs.

Overall, we thought First Landing Park was wonderful, and would definitely return!

We were looking for a place near Virginia Beach but not in the middle of the commercial district. The cabins are part of the First Landing State Park, but are separated from the campground by a major road. The cabin was very clean well equipped. Every cabin has a screened in porch, a deck with a charcoal grill and a kitchen. The accomodations were very basic, but just what we were looking for. It takes about 10 minutes to drive to the beach. Since it was off- season, we were able to find free parking on a side street within walking distance to the beach. It was nice to go to the beach, walk the boardwalk, etc and then escape to the woods.
I would recommend kids bring bikes or scooters as the roads are paved and our kids would have had fun zipping around.
The only negative was that the campground staff did not seem thrilled to be there and since it was our first time to VA we didn't have any idea where anything was and they were not too helpful.
Also, the listing says the cabin slept 6, but really there are only beds for 4 people. You have to rent cots and squeeze them in somewhere if you have more than 4 people. It worked for us, but I am glad we arrived early enough in the day to get the cot brought to our cabin (which arrived very quickly!).

The site selection process is ridiculous. You're assigned a loop, and you have to pick a spot in that loop. We were assigned the B loop and the only available site was not very shaded (a big negative with the 90+ degree heat and 3 young kids).
Our water and electric was next to the next campsite's fire ring - bad design. The bathrooms were terribly maintained - smelly and dirty. The dumpster was beyond full both days. The campsite itself has a lot of dirt and no tent pad, which led to a very muddy packup due to an overnight rain. The fire ring is dangerously close to the parking spot (we were in 20ft E/W).
I've camped all over the country for the last 12 years, and I would have to say this was the worst campground I've ever been to - by far. I guess if you don't camp too much and don't really care that this campground is very touristy (stay here to avoid the expensive VA Beach hotels), but if you're a true outdoors person - backpacking and camping - this is most definitely not for you.

Wow! What a great campground. THE best state campground I have ever been to. It is clean, with a well stocked camp store, curteous staff, next to the Chesapeake bay shore and close to Virginia Beach.

We stayed here for a week, but we could've stayed longer. Only reason we didn't is because the campground sites were sold out.

The selection process for a site is the only downside of this campground. We had reserved a site electric and water less than 20ft for our 18ft travel trailer. Initially, we were assigned the G loop where only one site was available. Our travel trailer wouldn't fit in the site because of the trees. We had to go back to get a new loop... which was kind of a no no because it was a hassle to get reassigned. We finally ended up in the B loop where a few sites were still available. All 20ft sites we saw in that loop would accomodate a small travel trailer and a few sites would've accomodated a larger trailer (I would say up to 25ft).

This campground is mostly for tent camping. Even on the larger electric sites, most campers where tents. We were among the rare travel trailers in the park when we were there.

Our loop had many trees (probably Live Oaks) and had lots of shade. This is a loop I would highly recommend in that sense. The loops that are closer to the beach or sand dune are very exposed to the scorching sun.

I would try to avoid anything right next to Shore drive (US rte 60) as it seems a bit noisy for sleeping at night, but those sites were very shaded and more secluded than the ones closer to the beach, in the B loop at least.

We are already thinking about going back next year... that's how much we liked it. But we will try to get a larger site for next year as we will be upgrading our trailer to something a bit larger.