Location: Fort Langley
Selling Feature: FVRD owned campground and rates reflect this
Price per night: $61 + GST, plus site lock fee of $25
Hookups: Full service with 30amp power
Booking and Getting There
Fort Camping is conveniently located at Brae Island Regional Park, a quaint community about an hour east of Vancouver. We booked this site back in early-January for our Canada Day weekend trip. At the time of booking, about 75% of the sites were already occupied. The site is easy to navigate with list and map view for easy reference.
For us, it involved a ferry reservation, so even though we were booked to arrive June 30th, we opted to avoid an evening setup at 9:30pm, instead, we booked ourselves on the 8am sailing going from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen ferry terminal. From there, it is an approximately 50-minute drive to Fort Camping taking Highway 17 and connecting in at Hwy 1.
A word of caution as driving through Fort Langley can be busy, with lots of pedestrian traffic on the narrow town roads, keep to the posted limit or slower and watch for wanderers. And for those who need to arrive via ferry, it is highly suggested to have a ferry reservation for your over height vehicle.
The Campground
The campground sits on Brae Island, and at times during the spring melt can be closed due to flooding risk. There are 156 sites available. The sites vary from pull-thru to back in sites, inner and outer ring, 30 and 50 amp, full-service to tenting. There are also 5 glamping sites for those more inclined to be on a bed while camping but don’t have a camper. You do have to bring your own bedding but they’re pretty neat accommodations. Most sites are open and exposed with minimal privacy. Because this is a public campground, there are limits in place during the summer months on how long people can be there for. There are some folks that set up their sites for the mid-term and get pretty comfortable there. With the location though, can you blame them?
A work of caution for the biting-bug adverse camper, Fort Camping has mosquitoes, and they can sometimes have A LOT of mosquitoes. Bring the spray and citronella lamps.
Checking In and Setting Up
The staff upon checking in were friendly and attentive. On checking in, we got a map with the best route to our site, along with a brochure of activities for the Canada Day long weekend. We had two side-by-side sites booked to be next to friends. The sites themselves are open and flat. The hookups are conveniently located along the side of the site midway down. Our 30-amp hookup had no problems as confirmed by my Camco Dogbone Circuit Analyzer with surge protection. The sites are flat and have plenty of space to back into, and they are angled for easy back-in on the one-way roads.
To secure our side-by-side sites, we paid an additional $25 plus GST lock fee. This guaranteed us our chosen locations.
Things to Do – On and Offsite
Fort Camping thrives at family-friendly camping. There is a nice playground, lots of child-friendly activities, ice cream sold on site, and they rent these cool little peddle cars that the kids greatly enjoyed, and for a pretty reasonable price too! For the Canada Day long weekend, there were extra activities planned, including a giant inflatable slide that the kids spent a good hour at two days in a row, and was no extra charge. There used to be a pool but that was filled in a few years ago. There are trails located around that are part of the regional park, these are nice easy hikes and bike rides to do with the kids. There are normally an abundance of mosquitoes here too so you’ve been duly warned.
There is a small general store with the usual RV parts/items and this is where ice cream along with other snack and drink items are sold. Nearby, the small community of Fort Langley is easy walk/bike access and gives you the feeling of having left the hustle of Vancouver and into the small towns that, well, anywhere else in BC is more known for. Fort Langley National Historic Site is also within a 10-minute bike ride. For a small fee, you can travel back in time complete with era-specific actors and walking through homes and workshops from the gold-rush and fur-trade era.
Final Words
We have returned to Fort Camping pretty much every year since we’ve had a travel trailer. This includes when we lived a mere 15-mintues away in Yorkson Creek. The family-friendly amenities and atmosphere keep us returning year after year. We are consistently happy to be here, including years like this year where there seems to be more mosquito activity. The staff are friendly and so are the other campers. The kids love exploring the Fort and going for bike rides into town for ice cream. We will likely return next year as well and look forward to the many activities and to see what they’ll offer next year.
Have you been to Fort Camping? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Have questions? Please post them and I will do my best to answer.
Adventures of the Nguyen Family 