I’m going to be attending the week long International Jugglers’ Association 2004 festival July 12-18 in Buffalo. Rather than getting a hotel room, I’m going to bring my tent and camp. The IJA site recommends camping at Niagara Falls (http://www.niagarafallslive.com/Niagara_Falls_KOA_Campground.htm) but I want to know if there are other places as well. For one thing, I don’t know how much they’re going to fill up. Apparently they’ve already booked a lot of hotels solid.
http://juggle.org/festival/
So does anyone from that area know of other good camping spots in the general area? Not too far to drive, but they have to have amenities since I ain’t going to go without a shower for a week!
It kinda depends on how far you want to drive to get to good camping. Darien Lake is about 35-40 minutes away on a good day. Allegany State Park is beautiful, one of my favorite places on Earth, but it’s about an hour and a half drive from the convention center. But again, beautiful.
Darien Lake is an amusement park, too. Traffic can be an issue. I can’t say that I have ever been camping at Niagara Falls, so I can’t say what the facilities are like.
Have fun at the Convention!
I would really prefer to be closer than that. I would like the drive to be absolutely as short as possible.
Darien lake is probably about as close as you’re going to be able to get. It’s the only place I know of in that area to camp that’s somewhat close to Buffalo. There are a few other nice camping grounds in western NY, but they’re farther than 35 minutes away.
Not to hijack or anything, but if you’re ever in western NY again and looking for some nice camping, look into Letchworth Gorge south of Rochester. It’s more than an hour from Buffalo, but it’s absolutely beautiful and well worth the trip.
A bit closer to Buffalo: Sprauge Brook Park.
Well, there’s Evangola state park with 80 campsites, and Lake Erie State Park, with 97. I used to live on that side of Lake Erie. I’ve never been camping in either of those parks, but from what I’ve seen when I’ve been there, you would probably have no problem finding a campsite.
Evangola is probably within your radius. Lake Erie is probably not, but is closer than it looks on the map since it’s close to the Thruway (and most of the roads that aren’t the Thruway are oriented toward Buffalo anyway. Oh, and Chautauqua County roads have no traffic on them unless they are under construction.)
A few other ideas:
There’s a good hostel in the Theatre District, which is a very short (and free) train ride away from the Convention Center. The Theatre District has a vibrant nightlife, too.
There’s a bunch of bed and breakfast inns in the Delaware District, Elmwood Village and Allentown, north of downtown. Again, they’re very safe, nice neighborhoods with an abundance of bars and restaurants.
If you go suburban, check out the North Campus area in Amherst, where there’s quite a few hotels. It’s a short drive to the South Campus subway station, where there’s a large, free park and ride lot.
There’s a lot of campgrounds just over the border in Canada, but they tend to be more like KOAs than the wilderness-with-amentities sities you’ll find on the US side.
Is that this one? http://www.hostelbuffalo.com/
How would you recommend I find bed & breakfasts?
That’s the one.
KOA - Kampgrounds of America. Pretty much, RV parking and cramped tent camping.
Buffalo area B&Bs - http://www.buffalocvb.org/accommodations_4.html . I know there’s more, though.
All my life when I’ve gone camping it’s been the “go backpacking off into the woods in the mountains and find a spot” style camping. No bathrooms, no people nearby, etc.
Then we moved to VA and a couple of summers ago we went camping in the “mountains” in VA (they’re hills. They call them mountains though. It’s sort of cute) and it was like you just described. Until that I had no idea such a thing existed! Camping with bathrooms? Camping where you could see and hear other people? Camping where you had a sort of grill thing, rather than building your fire on the ground? It was bizarre to me.
However, that’s exactly what I’m looking for this time, since I need the shower facilities LOL ;D
I’ll check out that B&B link–thanks!