Fall Camping with Kids at Fair Haven Beach State Park, NY

We just took our first-ever camping trip with the kids. TLDR: It was a bit of a $%^! show but totally worth it. And not only because we realized we have a real, great beach not even two hours from our house!

I’d heard lots of good things about Fair Haven Beach State Park, and we really wanted to see some wide-open water. It turned out to be a great choice. The expansive views of Lake Ontario in the park and from the campsite made us feel like we were by the ocean.

We came after the high season, but even so the little village of Fair Haven had some nice dining options, and we even got lucky with the weather. I’ll walk you through some of our experience.

Fair Haven Beach State Park

Fair Haven Beach State Park is right by the village of Fair Haven in the town of Sterling, Cayuga County.

This park has a lot going on: camping, 1500 feet of beach, a lake with kayak rentals, a bunch of picnic areas, a couple of playgrounds, a ball field, a boat launch and marina, and even a golf course. 

The entrance fee is $9 per vehicle (in 2021, collected from 4/1 until 10/31).

Since this is a New York state park, you may want to consider whether an annual Empire Pass or even a Lifetime Empire Pass would be a good purchase for you.

Campground

We were headed to the park on a late Friday afternoon to go camping. There are three campgrounds nestled into the woods, plus 30 cabins.

I’d chosen a site in the Lakeview Non-Electric Camping Area. The name didn’t overpromise: We were right above some bluffs (separated from us by a fence) with Lake Ontario stretched in front of us, which made for a spectacular sunset when we first arrived.

Then again, I wouldn’t recommend arriving as daylight is disappearing if you still have to set up your tent. Only to find that a major pole is missing. (Luckily we’d packed an extra, smaller tent. So yes, one of us did have to sleep in the car. I told you this was a bit of a $%^! show).

The minimum stay we could book was two nights, which was just as well, because it took Miki the first night to get used to sleeping in a tent. 

To appreciate what that meant, you should know that in the Lakeview camping area, there’s very little privacy between sites. At most you have a few trees between you, more often nothing at all. So our neighbors likely heard those 20 minutes of wailing at 1 AM. (She was more comfortable in the car with her dad the rest of the night, and the next night she did just fine in the tent.)

The restrooms weren’t too far away from any site and were simple but pleasantly clean. Showers were a bit farther away in the Bluff area, though.

Each site has a fire ring with a cooking grate, and I was happy with my choice to have wood delivered right to our site. For $15 plus tax, paid at check-in, someone dumped about 4 bundles’ worth right by the fire pit. The alternative would have been to drive several miles to the park entrance and load it ourselves for $5 per bundle. (Please follow the rules and don’t transport wood more than 50 miles to avoid potentially spreading invasive pests.)

For our first dinner, we had hot dogs off the grill with reheated, pre-cooked potatoes we’d brought in our cooler. For breakfast, we toasted homemade sourdough waffles over the fire and fried eggs in a cast iron pan. And of course we roasted marshmallows every night.

Overall, I felt we really got our money’s worth for the $22 we paid per night. Seeing the starlit sky overhead and falling asleep to the sound of waves lapping at the shore and trees swaying nearby reminded me why I keep coming back to camping, despite what tent-sleeping does to my back. (A good mat does help.)

Some more notes:

• There was a fair amount of poison ivy right around the campsite and on the playground we visited.
• PLEASE do yourself and everyone in line behind you a favor and fill out the camping registration paperwork at home. You can print out your confirmation and shorten everyone’s wait time a lot.

Beach

The next day we went straight to the beach. We parked right across from Sterling Lake, where we saw loads of swans and other water fowl, and spread a picnic blanket on East Beach.

The sand is clean, with small shells and some rocks. We were there outside of the main season, but in the summer 600 feet of beach are turned into a guarded swimming area. We made do with dipping our feet into the water, and we built a few sand castles.

At some point, we wandered over to a large playground and had a picnic lunch. (We love these boxes for school and picnic lunches. I think they’ll outlast me.)

After a nap back at the tent, we headed over to West Beach and had a pizza we’d bought outside the park. 

NOTE: Fat Frankie’s Pizzeria has shops in two different towns. We found that out the hard way. Luckily they were very nice about it. The pizza was pretty good, too. (Next time we may also try Colloca winery, which some other campers recommended for wood-fired pizzas and other food.)

Just in time for the sunset, we took a walk on the long jetty that juts into the lake. I admit to being a little worried by the lack of railings, but we all made it to the tip and back without falling into the water. (I’d definitely keep a good hold on younger kids. I’d even consider a life vest.)

Finally, poking a dead salmon on the beach turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip for Max.

Eating out in Fair Haven: Hardware Cafe

There was a good chance it was going to rain on our second morning (it did–the kids sat in their car seats while we dumped everything back into the trunk), and I didn’t feel like cooking for every meal, so we’d picked out the well-reviewed Hardware Cafe & General Store for breakfast. Andrew had already gotten his much-needed coffee fix there the day before.

The Hardware Cafe serves breakfast and lunch, coffee, and ice cream, plus dinner specials on the weekends.

It’s a cozy space, stuffed full of decorations and crafts for sale–which gave the kids something to look at while we waited a while for our orders. The coffee kept coming while we waited, though, and the waitresses were attentive.

Andrew and I were pretty happy with our food. The homemade hollandaise on my eggs Benedict (“Dubliner” variation) had a nice, fresh tang and the beef hash I’d ordered in place of the ham was great. Andrew also liked his biscuit and sausage gravy, though we both agreed the biscuits in our dishes were on the dry side.

I think it’s not the cafe’s fault that the kids barely ate a thing. We realized halfway through our meal that because of the pandemic our kids haven’t seen the inside of a restaurant in at least 1.5 years, so they barely know how to be civilized in a dining establishment. We’ll work on it. I tasted their chocolate muffin and stack of pancakes, and they seemed standard but fine.

Other places to visit

We drove right home after breakfast since it was raining, so this was a very short trip.

But even with all the chaos (besides the missing tent pole and wrong pizza location we also lived through the biting kid at the playground incident, the pancake syrup fiasco and the barely salvaged ice cream situation), there were real moments of joy and glimpses of peace. I’m looking forward to introducing the kids to more camping and will report back about our future adventures.

When we come back to the Fair Haven area, here are a few nearby places we hope to check out:

• Chimney Bluffs State Park
• Sodus Point Beach Park
• Sterling Nature Center
• Fort Ontario State Historic Site

Have you been to Fair Haven Beach? How was it? What would you recommend in the area? Let us know in the comments below.

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