Walk or Trolley to the Old Orchard Beach Pier
Choose Powder Horn if you want a full family resort (heated pools, hot tubs, an eighteen-hole mini golf course, a daily activity program) with the Old Orchard Beach pier and its seven miles of sand less than a mile from your site. You can walk to the beach, or catch the summer trolley that stops right out front. Skip it if your idea of camping is a silent tent under the pines: this is a busy, programmed resort, and the sites nearest the pool complex hum with family traffic all season.
The thing to plan around at Powder Horn is the calendar, not the campsite. The resort has been family-owned since 1970, and as at most Old Orchard Beach resorts, expect holiday weekends and the peak weeks of July and August to book first, so reserve early for those windows. Traveling with a dog? The resort runs dog-friendly promotions, but call ahead for current pet rules and any site restrictions.
Getting to the Beach and Downtown
Powder Horn’s whole pitch is location, and it earns it. Downtown Old Orchard Beach, with the pier, Palace Playland, the fried-dough-and-arcade strip, and the wide flat beach, is under a mile away. You can walk it, which most families end up doing at least once a day, or ride the seasonal trolley that picks up at the resort and loops to the beach and the attractions for a small per-person fare (a little higher after 6 p.m.; the current figures are in the dated note below). The trolley is the easy answer on the days downtown parking is a nightmare, which in July is most of them.
If you would rather have sand without the boardwalk carnival, Pine Point Beach and Scarborough Beach are both a short drive north toward Scarborough and trade the pier crowds for a quieter, more classic beach day.
Booking a Site: Windows, Seasons, and Site Types
Powder Horn rewards campers who understand its reservation calendar, so here is the walkthrough. For the 2026 season, the resort opens its books in early May and takes reservations for holiday weekends and any two-plus-night stay across the season from that point. Holiday weekends carry a three-night minimum, and they are the first dates to disappear, so if your trip is anchored to the Fourth of July or Labor Day, that is the reservation to make first.
Next, pick the site type honestly. Powder Horn runs the full ladder (tent sites, water-and-electric sites, and full-hookup sites with water, sewer, and 30- or 50-amp power), plus multi-week seasonal packages for campers who want to plant a rig for the spring or fall stretch. A tent family and a big-rig full-hookup family are shopping for two different products here; decide which you are before you look at a site map, because the good sites in each category book on their own timelines.
Finally, match the season to your budget and your tolerance for crowds. The off-season and shoulder weeks are cheaper and calmer; the peak summer weeks cost the most and run at full resort intensity, pools packed and activity schedule in full swing.
The Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Labor Day weekends fill earliest and require a three-night minimum stay. If your trip is built around a holiday, treat the day reservations open as your deadline, not a suggestion. Those dates are gone within days most years.
Pools, Mini Golf, and the Daily Program
On-site, Powder Horn is built to keep a family busy without leaving the gate. There are swimming pools and hot tubs, an eighteen-hole mini golf course, a full activity program that runs through the peak season, and a camp store for the essentials. It is the classic Old Orchard Beach resort-camping formula: enough to do on the property that a rainy afternoon or a beach-tired evening never turns into boredom, and close enough to the beach that you are never choosing between the two.
#1Premium
YETI Roadie 24
Who it’s forBeach days & car camping
Why we picked itTall enough to stand a bottle of wine upright
Pros
- Light and grab-and-go for a single beach day
- Holds ice for two to three days despite the small size
- Fits behind a car seat or in a kayak hatch
Know before you buy
- Capacity is tight for more than a day or two
- Premium price for a small cooler
What a Site Costs (checked July 2026)
As of July 2026, Powder Horn lists starting nightly rates of about $111 in the off-season, $125 in the shoulder season, and $149 at peak, varying by site type. Multi-week seasonal packages are priced separately, at roughly $1,750 for a five-week spring stay on a 50-amp full-hookup site or $1,650 on a 30-amp site, with fall packages a little lower. The summer trolley to the beach runs about $1 per person during the day and $2 after 6 p.m. All of these are the operator’s own starting figures and shift year to year and by exact dates, so confirm the number for your site and stay when you book.
How Powder Horn Compares
Old Orchard Beach and neighboring Scarborough have a cluster of big family camping resorts, and it helps to know how Powder Horn sits among them. Bayley’s Camping Resort up in Scarborough is the largest of the bunch, with more than 400 sites and a splash park, but it sits about ten minutes from the sand rather than a walk away. Wild Acres, also in Old Orchard Beach, is another large, amenity-heavy family resort close to the beach. And Old Orchard Beach Campground, a separate business despite the similar name, takes RVs, park models, and cabins but has no tent sites at all.
Powder Horn’s edge in that group is the short walk-or-trolley hop to the pier combined with taking tents, water-electric, and full-hookup rigs alike. If proximity to downtown OOB and flexibility on site type matter most, it is the natural pick; if you want the biggest splash-park scene, Bayley’s wins; if you are RV-only and want full hookups with cable, the similarly named OOB Campground is worth a look.
On a hot July Saturday, do not drive downtown, or you will spend the afternoon hunting a parking space. Walk or take the trolley from the campground, spend the day on the beach and the pier, and drive nowhere. Save the car for a quieter beach run up to Pine Point or Scarborough on a weekday.
Getting There
Powder Horn is on Cascade Road in Old Orchard Beach, on the inland side of downtown. From Portland, take I-95 south to the Old Orchard Beach exit and follow the signs, about 20 minutes. From Boston, plan on roughly an hour and forty-five minutes up I-95. The resort is a well-signed turn off the main routes into town, easy for a big rig to reach.
FAQ
How far is Powder Horn from the beach?
Less than a mile to the Old Orchard Beach pier and the seven-mile beach. Most families walk it; a seasonal trolley also picks up at the resort for a small per-person fare.
Is Powder Horn the same as Old Orchard Beach Campground?
No. They are two separate campgrounds in the same town with similar-sounding names. Powder Horn takes tents through full-hookup rigs; Old Orchard Beach Campground is RV, park-model, and cabin only.
When do 2026 reservations open?
The resort opens its books in early May for holiday weekends and any two-plus-night stay across the season. Holiday weekends book first and require a three-night minimum.
Does Powder Horn have tent sites?
Yes. Along with water-and-electric and full-hookup RV sites and seasonal packages, it takes tents, one of the things that separates it from the RV-only campgrounds nearby.
What is there to do without leaving the campground?
Swimming pools, hot tubs, an eighteen-hole mini golf course, a peak-season activity program, and a camp store, plus the beach within walking distance.
Planning a wider trip? See our guide to camping near Portland, Maine for how the Old Orchard Beach resorts fit alongside the region’s other options.
