Beautiful beach area, with amenities. Clean bathrooms, nice benches, lots of shaded areas with picnic tables. Easy to access, large parking lot.
After reading these reviews and having been to VB State Park in OH, Trip Advisor needs to change the title for the park people are reviewing in MI.
If you are from out of state it's $9 a day to take a car but free on bicycle. The ride from South Haven is pretty flat. The beach area is nice with restrooms nearby. We found it to be less crowded than the intown beaches.
We went to Van Buren State Park on a perfect sunny fall day. The fall colors were in full swing and the Lake was beautiful blues and greens. We took many pictures.
We stopped by the beach while we were in town and it was a nice time. We only had a few hours to explore so we may have missed out by not traveling far enough up and down the beach. We spend a lot of time at the Warren Dunes in Sawyer, MI so this one just felt small by comparison. We only saw one real large dune for climbing and it was already pretty crowded, despite it being early on a Friday morning. My kids really enjoyed climbing that dune and loved the view from the top. The beach was clean and there was plenty of parking. Definitely worth a visit if you have the Michigan DNR annual pass and don't have to pay for individual visits.
O. K., then. I'm a tourist.(but) I highly recommend this place. Plenty of parking. Large beach. Gorgeous sunsets. Excellent radio reception. What better way, than to spend Your day off? Most of You, won't be coming here, in the wintertime. That's O. K., too.
Not as scenic as Warren Dunes but was very clean and plenty of parking. Spent the rest of the day enjoying the sand and water after being disappointed at Warren Dunes. So if your not going to climb a dune, go to warren instead.
My family and I stayed here for two nights tent camping. The campsites are nice, some privacy, some shade.The walk to the beach sure felt like it was a solid mile. The dunes were cool to run down - pretty substantial in size. The beach was awfully rocky - i was surprised. Reminded me more of Lake Huron - you'll want beach shoes.Faciliites were just okay. I didn't think the bathrooms and showers were horrifying but as others say - could use updating. Playground was a bad joke. The campground host didn't even acknowledge me until I initiated - and even then it was a cursory "hi."Fellow campers varied...with a progressive group expressing some of their alternative love-making techniques very loudly at 1030 PM - didn't need that in front of my 6 and 8 year old. I called the rangers - I didn't notice any change with their blarring music for about 30 minutes before I finally fell asleep.I don't think I'll be running back - it was really, just okay.
Nice campground. The sites offer a lot of privacy that is not found in all state parks. There is a hike to the beach. You can drive, but there still is a walk. That is the only thing keeping it a five star. The beach is fantastic!
Autumn is our favorite time of the year. Every weekend during the fall, we follow the fall color down the Lake Michigan shoreline. For us, a visit to Van Buren State Park usually means the end of our fall color weekend treks. We love to hike the trails and photograph the fall color. Because there were only a few other people on the trail during our visit, we took our time and listened to the sounds of nature. Fall is the only time of the year that we have visited this State Park but I am sure it is worth a visit any time of the year.