Edisto State Park – Live Oaks Campground

For Christmas, 2022 we booked a spot at Edisto State Park Campground (If you have never been to Edisto, note that it is a small strip of beach hosting a couple rows of rental homes and some condos further down).

We came to Edisto for the first time for a portion of our honeymoon in 2014. When I found out it had a state park with a campground, I was all in! Overall, we stayed 7 nights for a total of $269! It was water/electric only – and do not drink the water here. There are two sections to this campground, one for camping right off the beach and the other about a half mile from the beach campground called the “Live Oaks Campground”. We booked the latter, as most spots I saw at the beach campground would not fit a rig of 34′ long.

The idea for this trip was to just BE: Walk the quiet beaches and trails at the campground, relax and unwind. When we arrived, although our site was listed as available for “up to 35 ft”, it was definitely NOT the spot for a 5th wheel. Christian struggled with backing into this spot, and later on in the week we noticed how many spots sat completely empty that we could have requested a move to. I learned one lesson on this trip: to speak up when you are assigned an inappropriate site for your size rig. I could have called ahead even before booking to confirm with the rangers who worked the park that it would be a good fit, or to ask for other suggestions. I could have even looked up a video walkthrough of the sites, as many campgrounds have somebody out there who has recorded their stay, sometimes even with specific sites mentioned for pros/cons.

Little did we know, a cold front was moving in… lol. Everywhere in SC dropped to about 20 degrees or below, and for the south, that’s COLD. Many people had pipes and water lines freeze over (not just in campers). We were snug in our camper with our furnace and electric fireplace, but overnight we ran out of propane to heat the furnace + our external water lines completely froze over, even with a heated hose. In fact, the heated hose is most likely what prevented the water from freezing all the way up into our water lines in the camper.

Despite the unexpected dramas of the freezing temps and tight site, we honestly did have a great time. I vote this one a 7/10 due to the sites needing to be evaluated for length accuracy. If you like to tent camp, this campground has some very nice tent sites with privacy. It also boasts decent trails for biking and walking/running and cool views of the marsh from many of the camp sites. We ate most of our meals in the camper, but we did visit a beach bar/grill a couple times called Coot’s Bar and Grill. It wasn’t something to particularly rave about, but it was one of the only options open during the holiday season. If you like just sitting on the beach and relaxing for a vacation, then Edisto Beach is a great option and a wonderful place to slow down and enjoy the view.

Have you been to Edisto? Tell us what you love about it!