Exploring Hanscom AFB Fam Camp: A Family-Friendly Destination in Bedford, MA
To get to this camp, you drive-through a lovely part of Concord or Lexington and feel all kind of history. As we arrive, we realized the camp is simply a little bit of space over the side of the flight line!
The gate does not look like much, but that nondescript, private-looking entrance appeals to us in our getaways.
So exciting children group, apparently there are planes, taking off and landing up until about 11 o’clock at night.
The campground is right across from the tower.
Hanscom has 73 rv sites, 10 camping sites in summer, and 32 fulll-service rv sites in the winter.
They are surrounded by historic towns Lexington and Concord, and conveniently located 15 miles west of Boston. I can see camping here while exploring Boston in the future.
From the back of the main cabin reception bathhouse, there is a trail that is very nice and well-marked.
Or, you can walk back out of the area into the residential area, and in the morning you’ll find that there is a rabbit or two in every single yard! Every one of them!
The entrance to the trail from the campground is by campsite number 21.
Outside the campground, there is a very nice sign post easily located for following the local trails.
Reservations are taken no more than 30 days prior to arrival, so you’ve got to be quick if you have specific travel dates in mind.
We are not staying long-term at any location, simply skipping across the country from spot to spot.
Sites 25 through 40 look like they’re in the shade everything under that number is out in the sun uncovered.
The south east side of the camp is the part that’s not undercover and the northwest part is under cover of trees. They’re also north east under the trees.
The blue dot is where I was taking photos of the flightline. Small jets came and went all day long.
We were told that the airport is usually silent after 11:00 p.m. We didn’t notice much activity after dark, actually.
Our site was nicely situated in a stand of trees. We loved the shade and swaying branches. The section not under trees looked hotter.
Full hookups are $40 a day, partial hookups of electricity and water only are $35 a day, and tent campsites are $20 a day with no hookups.
The website says the bath houses are seasonal, and the laundry is seasonal. Laundry was $1 a load – a very good price after seeing $2.50 a load elsewhere.
There is a really nice recreation room with a fridge that campers can use and coffee maker and games and books. I
It also looks like people are able to take delivery of their packages from Amazon here, because we saw a stack of them waiting.
There’s a standalone pump out with a wagon you can borrow it.
There also is waste hookup at many of the sites.
We saw campers there for long-term, with full doggie fences and even caged show rabbits!
It is very windy on the base, perhaps from the huge open area by the flightline.
Once you get further into the trees, I found lots of ferns with plentiful fiddle heads. And mosquitoes. And spider webs across the trail – I must have been the first walker of the day. Plenty of people were walking dogs in the evening and morning, too.
In the bath house in the section attached to the office, there are three toilets and one shower.
Very interesting, the instructions were to flush before you use the toilet, and to flush again after you use the toilet. These instructions were on mens and womens bathrooms.
One good-sized shower on each side; mens and womens, in the bath house attached to the office.
The office was closed, with a sign saying unavoidable closure.
Our second day here, I discovered that another matching building is also a bath house. It has even more, larger, even nicer toilet and shower areas.
Most importantly, we found ice cream! It’s $4 for a bowl of ice cream with bubbles on it. Conveniently located at the bath house – after shower ice cream, anyone?
Every site has a picnic table, and there is a huge fire pit under the trees in the middle of the two sections.
There’s also a basketball court. There’s not a huge amount of things for children to do. But the rec room does have games.
Everyone was very friendly and helpful.
For more information, go to https://hanscomfss.com/famcamp/
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